Young children learn by:

• relating to adults and other children
• exploring and finding out how things work
• being physically active
• adults listening to them, talking with them and taking their interests seriously
• playing and having fun
• being given an interesting, stimulating and safe environment to investigate
• being given time and encouragement to explore and be active

Good quality education for young children builds on the skills, knowledge and understanding that the children already have by the time they start in nursery or playgroup.

Play

Play is vital to children's learning. Through play children learn to communicate, negotiate, enjoy the company of others, practise new skills, be creative, explore, reflect on ideas, solve problems and develop a sense of humour and fun.

Outdoor Play

Outdoor play is an essential part of the early years curriculum.  Good outdoor provision does more than support children's physical development.  It gives them opportunities to explore and investigate and get involved in a wide range of activities and play to help their learning.

Partnership with Parents and Carers

A genuine partnership with parents and carers in under fives settings is a fundamental part of good practice. This partnership is at its best when each partner respects and values the other's knowledge, expertise and experiences, contributing these for the benefit of the child.

Special Educational Needs

Different types of provision may have children with special educational needs and work with parents to ensure the children can participate fully in all areas of the curriculum.

Children with English as an Additional Language

Many children under five who speak another language are in the early stages of learning English when they begin at nursery, school or playgroup. A good nursery,school or playgroup provides bilingual children with a wide range of practical activities, such as cooking and dressing up, which give them lots of opportunities to talk, listen and learn English as they play. It is also very important that children  are  encouraged  to speak their home language as this has been shown to help their learning.

What Children will be Learning

The 'early years curriculum' is divided into different areas of learning. However, children do not learn in these separate areas and most learning activities provided for them will incorporate many areas of learning. Here is information about these areas of learning.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Personal, social  and  emotional development is the foundation of learning for young children. It is about helping children to develop a sense of themselves and  a sense of belonging in a variety of settings. This knowledge provides the personal security and awareness to enable children to form healthy, stimulating, relationships with others. It is also about feeling confident in expressing feelings of joy and wonder.

This area of development helps children to develop awareness of and respect for other people, cultures, languages and beliefs. It helps them to see themselves as part of a range of different groups: the family, under fives setting, with friends and with adults. It also helps them to develop confidence and independence.

Language Development

Language development is about both learning to talk and learning through talk. For a small number of children signing rather than talk will be the main way to communicate.

Children develop language and communication skills by being given lots of opportunities to express themselves, talk about what interests them, and voice their needs and wishes. They will have opportunities to talk about present, past and future events, describe imaginary ideas and possibilities, and, as they get older, discuss more abstract ideas. A good play environment with interesting things to do, plenty to talk about and adults and other children to talk with will help all children to develop their language skills. Talk is the basis on which children develop the skills they will need to become readers and writers later on.

Literacy Development

Reading.

Learning to read is a complex process which involves a wide range of knowledge, skills and understanding. To help them to learn to read children need plenty of opportunities to have books read to them, talk about books and look at books by themselves, with friends and with adults.

Writing

Learning to read and learning to write are closely linked. As children learn about print and learn that print carries a message they usually become interested in writing and want to write for themselves. With lots of opportunities to make marks and experiment with writing in their own ways and to watch adults writing children begin to make letter-like shapes and form letters.

Mathematical Development

Mathematical development isn’t just about knowing about numbers and what can be done with them. It is also about shape and space, quantities and measures, patterns and developing a sense of logic. Mathematics is used in all aspects of life, to solve problems and to communicate thoughts and ideas.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

This relates to children’s knowledge and understanding of the natural world and the environment, their developing sense of history and knowledge about places. It includes children’s use of computers and other technology. Above all, this area of learning for young children is about the processing of learning; exploring and investigating and solving problems.

Physical Development

Physical development is a vital part of the early years curriculum. From the earliest stages of development children use physical movements to explore, express their feelings and make sense of the world.. Movement and action play an important part in developing children’s thinking.

Creative Development

This area of development includes imaginative play; dressing up; art; music and dance. Creativity includes joy, wonder and a sense of total involvement. Being creative and wanting to draw, paint and listen to, create and move to music is an important part of life. It involves use of all of the senses and includes developing an understanding about what is pleasing and beautiful.