Curriculum

We follow a curriculum that is integrated with Cambridge principles and is modified to meet the specific needs of our children. We believe Abbeys Nursery School provides the correct balance of play and learning for children in their most formative early years, as all too soon the structured formal education process is upon them when they start primary school.

We have a full range of play equipment to stimulate and educate children through play, allowing the children the opportunity to play both indoors and outdoors. Children are learning all the time, and for them, playing is learning. It could be sharing with others, deciding how to play in the home corner, or being creative on the sticking table. Before learning to read and write, it is important to love stories and read books, to recognize shapes, and to hold pencils, brushes, and other tools. Learning songs and rhymes and listening to music all add to their learning. We have lots of board games where they match colours and shapes, take turns, and talk non-stop!

 

They explore, investigate, discover, create, practice, rehearse, repeat, and consolidate their developing knowledge, skills, understanding, and attitudes.

Many of these aspects of learning are brought together effectively through playing and talking. By the time your child goes to school, he or she should be speaking well, know colours and shapes, numbers up to ten, be able to sit quietly and listen to stories, recognise his/her name, be able to go to the toilet and dress himself or herself without help, and be confident about playing with other children. Above all, we have a lot of fun as a group so that your child isn’t afraid to take the next step to school. We are confident that the children who leave us have had as good a start as we can give them.

Children will be able to participate in focused activities led by qualified teachers and teaching assistants, covering the following learning areas relevant for their age group:

• Communication and language

• Physical development

• Personal, social and emotional development

• Literacy

• Mathematics

• Understanding the world

• Expressive arts and design