Our Curriculum
Our curriculum is driven through the principles of the EYFS. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a play-based curriculum. It is mandatory for all schools and early years providers in Ofsted-registered settings attended by young children from birth to the end of the academic year in which the child has their fifth birthday.
We use the EYFS as a framework when caring for your child and supporting their learning and development. We provide activities and assess your child based on seven areas of learning (three prime areas and four specific areas).
The prime areas are fundamental in a child’s life, and they must be achieved to efficiently develop the four specific areas. At Kattz Kidz we want to give the children in our setting the freedom, ability, and encouragement to learn across all seven areas of learning:
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Communication and Language |
Prime Area of Learning |
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Personal Social and Emotional Development |
Prime Area of Learning |
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Physical |
Prime Area of Learning |
|
Literacy |
Specific Area of Learning |
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Mathematics |
Specific Area of Learning |
|
Understanding the World |
Specific Area of Learning |
|
Expressive Arts and Design |
Specific Area of Learning |
At Kattz Kidz our planning is pro-active and flexible. By spending time with our children, we can draw on their knowledge and interests to extend and develop their learning. We understand all children will develop at their own pace and we take the relevant time to develop each child.
Our methods to develop a child’s learning are through the implementation of a wide range of experiences, all set within a stimulating, thought provoking, fun, challenging environment.
These experiences are a balance of child-initiated and adult-led and are guided by our practitioners who spend time with the children developing their skills and knowledge.
Practitioners implement and guide children’s learning through communication and modelling language, questioning, showing, explaining, demonstrating, and encouraging. They will provide a narrative, as well as facilitating and setting challenges for all.
Our environment will give children the space, freedom, and resources to learn. Our youngest children will firstly develop a strong foundation in the Prime Areas of Learning. With a solid foundation built in the Prime areas of learning the children are then able to develop and extend their existing knowledge, learning new and more complex skills and knowledge within the Specific Areas of Learning.
Literacy and language are key in a child’s early years. At Kattz Kidz we encourage communication and language and develop and extend vocabulary as children learn. Literacy knowledge and skills are also of key importance in a child’s early years and are encouraged from the offset.
We understand our individual children learn in different ways and at different rates and we will guide, develop, and support their learning using the characteristics of learning most appropriate to them.
We will provide the opportunity and learning experiences across a wealth of subjects, ensuring British Fundamental Values and Culture Capital is at the heart of our learning. We will challenge and enrich children’s learning by introducing new experiences as and when appropriate to their development, challenging both their strengths and weaknesses, building on interests and provoking curiosity and enthusiasm for other subjects. We form good relationships with all our families and children and use their interests and knowledge to support and inspire learning.
As practitioners we are passionate in supporting all children to achieve their full and unique potential by being the best version of themselves, they can be. By allowing children to think, share and communicate feelings we can support worries and concerns they may have, and we believe happy children learn. Emotional regulation refers to the process of generating and maintaining an emotion, as well as the ability to regulate their own emotions. Here at Kattz Kidz we believe that the emotional and mental wellbeing of the children is paramount. We encourage the children to express their feelings and emotions throughout the day through activities and discussion using the colour monster as a base for this.
We use lots of natural resources and loose parts in our play to encourage the children to truly explore their activities and experience the awe and wonder of the world around them.
Loose parts play is a type of play that supports problem solving, invention, creative thinking, imaginative play, and divergent thinking. And it’s exactly what you think loose parts play might be- loose parts! They are materials in which you can move, build, redesign, line up and invent what you want with them! The main principle is this: loose parts are materials that have no specific set of instructions and no right or wrong way of using them. A loose parts learning environment helps children build a knowledge of how things are before they are complete. For example: how does my house stand up? How is it possible that a bridge can expand as far as over an entire river or bay? Or how are patterns made? These are all questions that promote problem solving, prompting children to think outside the box!