“The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn.” - Maria Montessori, Early Education Theorist

Subject Leader: Andrew Burkinshaw

At Christ Church, we believe that children learn best through inviting and meaningful play based experiences that are specifically designed to meet the children’s needs whilst also embracing their current interests. Within our early years classrooms, children will experience both adult led activities with a specific learning intention in mind and child initiated play where they can create their own experiences using the broad range of resources available to them. We see the outdoor area as its own separate learning space where children can explore nature or play on a larger scale. 

We like to work closely with parents to create a partnership that enables a flow of conversation ensuring we capture an understanding of your child’s personal needs and interests. Staff will also meet regularly with the school Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) to ensure early identification of any additional needs takes place and these needs are successfully catered for. 

The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is broken down into seven areas of learning. These are: 

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

We use the Government's Development Matters Guidance (2021) to guide our learning experiences. Please see this helpful parent guide. 

Using the Development Matters document as a guide we have created an early years curriculum which is ambitious and ensures progression throughout the academic year in all subjects. Each half term, progression documents will be sent to parents, so they can follow along with the progression of their child’s learning as well as support their child’s learning at home.