Our vision: Nurturing Excellence to create happy, curious, life-long learners.
In the early years of your child’s life, play is crucial to their development and learning. Playing and talking are the means through which young children learn about themselves and the world around them. At Seaton Sluice First School, we believe every child is an inquisitive explorer, and our role is to nurture their curiosity.
Through well-planned play and structured activities (such as Little Wandle Phonics) which take place indoors and outside, your child will be encouraged to learn and develop the skills they will need to grow physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially. The Early Years curriculum will help to prepare your child for later learning. Within a safe environment, we plan to teach your child effectively, and promote your child’s all round development through the provision of a story-based curriculum, which captivates their attention; sparks their imagination and supports their cognitive growth. Through this approach, we nurture creativity, independence, and a lifelong love for reading and learning inclusive to all.
What is our curriculum at Seaton Sluice First School?
The curriculum is everything we want our children to experience and learn whilst they are with us at Seaton Sluice First School. Learning includes new words, new skills and new knowledge. Experiences include, trips out of school in our local environment and further afield, times when we invite people in, like musicians or story tellers. We also have exciting nature experiences in early years like hatching eggs and caterpillars.
How do young children learn?
We have lots of evidence about how young children learn. Here are some of the key points:
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Language: chatting, playing and reading with children every day helps them learn lots of new words. Language is the foundation of children’s thinking. Children who are good communicators at five are most likely to be successful learners throughout their time in school. Our practitioners understand the importance of high-quality interactions in supporting children's development. We use positive, sensitive, and responsive language that promotes children's communication, listening and concentration skills.
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Relationships: Our Early Years team consists of highly skilled practitioners who have a strong understanding of child development and the best approaches to learning. We provide continuous professional development to ensure our practitioners remain up to date with the latest initiatives and resources. It is very important for children to feel safe and secure. Children become more independent when they have strong and loving relationships to fall back on. They also become better at bouncing back when they find something hard, or get upset.
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Partners: Our aim is to work in partnership with you: together, we can give your child the best start to life. Parent involvement is crucial. We learn a great deal about each child from their parents and thoroughly enjoy Stay and Play sessions throughout the year. Our communication platform, Class Dojo allows us to regularly share your child’s learning and offer opportunities for parents to share special moments of family life to create a picture of the whole child. Parental support and a high-quality home learning environment make a huge difference to children.
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Stimulating environment: Our learning environment is designed to be calm and engaging, encouraging children's natural curiosity. Resources and equipment are organised to ensure children can access them independently, and reflect children's interests and needs. UNDER EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS
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Learning and development: Children learn a great deal of our curriculum through play and activities they choose. They also learn through our careful selection of ‘key books, poems, rhymes and songs’.
We offer a high quality broad and balanced curriculum, which has four main elements.
Expectations and Routines: We have high expectations of our children at Seaton Sluice First School as we believe children thrive in environments with clear routines. They are the building blocks to promoting independence, emotional regulation and a positive classroom culture. This foundation enhances children’s immediate well-being and also prepares them for future academic and personal success.
Experiential (play) Learning: Children need uninterrupted time to play through hands on experiences, exploration and discovery. It involves children actively engaging with their environment, materials and social interactions to make sense of the world around them. Our staff will often get involved, in a sensitive way, to help the children to learn whilst they are playing. They will think about the important knowledge children need and how they can learn this whilst they are playing.
Deliberate (enhanced) Learning: Adults plan and guide the children’s play, this deliberate learning complements our experiential learning by providing structured opportunities for children to acquire new skills, knowledge and understanding. This learning is based around our key books and love of reading.