Curriculum

Our early years setting follows the curriculum as outlined in the 2024 EYFS statutory framework. The EYFS framework includes 7 areas of learning and development that are equally important and inter-connected. The prime areas are seen as particularly important for igniting curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building children’s capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. 

The 3 prime areas are:  

  • Communication and Language - Listening, Attention and Understanding - Speaking.
  • Physical Development - Gross Motor Skills - Fine Motor Skills.
  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development - Self Regulation - Managing Self - Building Relationships.

The prime areas are strengthened and applied through 4 specific areas:  

  • Literacy – Comprehension - Word Reading - Writing.  
  • Mathematics - Numbers - Numerical Patterns.  
  • Understanding the World - Past and Present - People, Culture and Communities - The Natural World. 
  • Expressive Arts and Design - Creating with Materials - Being Imaginative and Expressive. 

When I leave the 2’s room in nursery I will be able to:

When I leave the 3’s room in nursery I will be able to: 
  1. Play happily alongside my peers.
  2. Express a range of emotions.
  3. Respond to music through movement.
  4. Select and eat finger foods independently.
  5. Fit inside a tunnel/large box and move around inside.
  6. Paint with my fingers and using simple tools.
  7. Join in a nursery rhyme. 
  8. Take a nature walk around the school grounds.
  9. Use natural materials purposefully e.g. poke holes in the mud using a stick.  
  10. Dance with streamers and scarves. 
  11. Use a spoon to eat a yoghurt. 
  12. Complete an inset jigsaw.
  13. Put on my coat.
  14. Control a pencil to make a mark.
  1. Settle in and become a confident learner/make a friend.
  2. Recognise being happy and sad. 
  3. Create a range of movements to music. 
  4. Peel and chop a banana. 
  5. Move in different ways over an obstacle course. 
  6. Make something I am proud of.
  7. Use pretend talk to role-play. 
  8. Explore the natural environment at Forest School.
  9. Make a mud pie. 
  10. Handle a pair of scissors with increasing confidence e.g. for snipping. 
  11. Use a knife and fork to cut Playdough. 
  12. Complete a jigsaw puzzle with a friend. 
  13. Zip up my coat.
  14. Write part of my name.

At Oak, by ‘curriculum’ we mean: All the things that we want children to know, experience and be able to do as a result of their time in Nursery. 

We have developed our own curricular goals, for Nursery. These bespoke goals outline our aims of the EYFS curriculum at Oak for each stage in EYFS.  The goals have been designed with the particular strengths and needs of the children of our community in mind. 

In Nursery, we use Traditional Tales as a basis to explore the wider curriculum. All of our 3 year olds access a language rich curriculum founded on the TWITCH programme which provides daily complex interactions between adults and children. It supports the use of teacher/child talk through language games to develop children’s thinking and reasoning skills and gives them the language to express complicated thoughts and ideas. 

At Oak Primary we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.   

In Nursery, we support our children to be well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondence and blending in Reception through a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences including high quality stories, poems and rhymes as well as activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending.