Cygnets Curriculum
Our goals
At Cygnets Day Nurseries, we understand that your child is with us during some of their most formative years. We strive to embed values which will equip children with the knowledge and skills to be ready for their next stage of learning as healthy, confident and kind individuals.
We use Development Matters as guidance to implement a highly effective curriculum.
How we implement this
Our curriculum the EYFS seven areas of learning through our four main aspirations.
1. Growing in the world around us
Climate change has highlighted the importance of environmental awareness and issues related to the challenge of sustainability. While your child is at Cygnets, they will have the opportunity to participate in activities which encourage the understanding of the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling. This includes creatively transforming household waste into works of art, donating to clothes banks, and learning ways to converse energy.
Your child will also get to explore life cycles first hand, growing their own caterpillars, studying the metamorphosis process, and then carefully releasing the newly formed butterflies into the wild.
At Cygnets, we have an amazing garden area with each room having areas to plant and grow, not only flowers but fruits and vegetables. We even have our very own vegetable allotment in which the children can plant, care for and monitor the growth of their planted seeds. This offers many learning opportunities, including the opportunity to measure and compare, introducing mathematical language and concepts.
It is very important to the nursery to promote kindness and respect to all creatures great and small. We learn about the challenges that endangered species face and ways in which we can care for and look after our planet.
2. Cooking
Through this area of the curriculum, we hope to equip the future generations with the knowledge of the importance of a varied and balanced diet with a healthy attitude and relationship with food.
Through a variety of cooking activities, your child will learn how to stir, sprinkle, mix, knead and chop. Your child will also explore concepts such as hot, cold, liquids and solids. We regularly have food tasting opportunities, talking about textures, tastes and smells. Incorporated into this aspiration are activities that highlight the importance of physical activity, teeth brushing and hand washing.
Your child will have the opportunity to engage in physical play outside for large amounts of the day. Your child will experience the opportunity to grow their own vegetables from scratch then use them as ingredients to make a dish, having followed a recipe.
3. Read to succeed
In an increasingly technologically developing age, we aim to instill a love of books and the written word with children still excited anticipating what will happen on the next page.
Your child will have the opportunity to participate in song, music, and story time on a daily basis, all as part of our inclusive, language-rich environment.
Many types of book are available for your child here at Cygnets, including fiction, non-fiction, rhyming, tactile, phonics and sound books.
We offer a book borrowing station to all of our parents as we understand that parents are their child’s first educator and most enduring educators. The nursery constantly offers the opportunity to explore stories on a deeper level, including acting them out, using props and exploring them through sensory experiences. We encourage curiosity through enthusiastic questioning and exploration. This instills the motivation to fact-find, learn, question and find out more.
4. Creative movement
This is is what we choose to call this area as a nursery, as it incorporates a broad range of activities.
Through this area of the curriculum, our main focus is to instill confidence, self-belief and an ability to not only embrace one’s own uniqueness but value and respect that of others too. Your child will have many opportunities during their time at Cygnets to engage in exciting sensory and art experiences, selecting their own subject and media.
At Cygnets, we value the process of expressing feelings whilst creating art, over the final product. Your child will learn about various art techniques, colour mixing methods and will have the chance to create 2D and 3D art pieces with the opportunity to explore pattern, texture and symmetry.
At Cygnets Day Nurseries, we celebrate a variety of festivals and celebrations. Through this we study various forms of music and dance related to a variety of cultures and religions. We talk with the children how music makes us feel. We also encourage the children to express themselves freely and talk through their emotions through activities, stories and games. We strive to equip children with emotional, literacy skills and the ability to self-regulate when needed.
Cultural capital
Through our well-sequenced, broad ambitious and flexible curriculum, we ensure that all seven learning areas of the EYFS are covered. We respect and value children’s old interests and incorporate these into our curriculum as much as possible. We provide exciting, engaging, age appropriate activities which promote awe and wonder. Alongside this, our curriculum is enriched with trips to forest school, outings in the local community and visits to the library.
We have a variety of sports coaches that come into the nursery, teaching the children fun and engaging ways to practise their gross motor skills.
There is also the opportunity for your child to participate in weekly French lessons.
The impact of our curriculum
When children leave Cygnets for their next stage of learning, we aim for them to be healthy, caring, respectful and motivated learners. Children with emotional literacy skills, with the confidence to not only embrace their own uniqueness, but to value and respect that of others too.