Grass Roots Early Years Provision

Core Experiences for children in our setting:

What we want the children to achieve, what the practitioners need to do and how the environment can help.

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Life Skills

These simple skills can be embedded into daily routines in the nursery such as cleaning, tidying and preparing food. These skills enable the children to build respect for their environment and will give them a sense of responsibility, which in turn develops self respect and confidence. Practitioners can support children by building opportunities to learn and develop these skills during daily routines and activities. Using effective teaching techniques practitioners can support children to solve everyday problems and learn how to navigate these challenges. 

 

Developing Communication 

Speech, language and communication skills are crucial to young children's overall development. Being able to speak clearly and process speech sounds, to understand others, to express ideas and interact with others are fundamental building blocks for a child's development. Communication is learnt through interactions with others and requires the practitioner to model effective listening techniques and timely responses. Verbal and non-verbal communication are equally important. Non-verbal communication includes gesture, eye-contact and expression and is a very powerful part of conversation.  

 

Health and Oral Health 

Children attending our setting will have access to fresh water and nutritionally balanced meals. In order for children to make the right food choices when not at nursery, we need to educate them about the food they eat and how to keep themselves healthy and well. Children will also visit our nursery allotment to see where their food comes from and how foods are grown. 

 

Physical Development

Physical activities promotes healthy growth and development. It helps build a healthier body composition, stronger bones and muscles and it also improves the child’s cardiovascular fitness. Physical activities help in the development of better motor skills and in concentration and thinking skills. Physical activities should be integrated into our curriculum to create a foundation of movement and activity which will be carried with them throughout the rest of their lives. Children who have higher levels of physical activity during their childhood are likely to be more active even after they mature. This is important for better health and well-being.

 

Building Resilience 

All children need to have the opportunity to build resilience by being supported and nurtured during moments of adversity and having the opportunity to explore the issues and problem solve for themselves. The relationship between the child and the adult is essential for the resilience to be built effectively. Adults should support the children to feel safe to explore their emotions and to identify and regulate them. Adults should model their own resilience, showing empathy and actively listening to the children. 

 

Self Regulation

Self-regulation is the ability to understand and manage your behaviour and your reactions to feelings and things happening around you. Young children learn this by observing the adults around them and how they respond and react to adversity. We can use strategies within the setting to calm the children’s minds and bodies. Teaching self regulation can promote kindness and conflict resolution. 

 

Keeping Safe 

It is important that children are able to manage risk to themselves and others around them. Sometimes accidents that occur in the home could have been avoided, by teaching children how they can keep themselves safe and manage risks during daily routines such as crossing the road, not touching a hot toaster, etc. we can support children’s knowledge about how to keep themselves safe. Giving children varied experiences and opportunities during their time with us at nursery, allows them to build their knowledge and skills in this area. 

 

Being Independent 

In order to support children to become independent we must ensure that we are mindful of our interactions with them, how we role model and the support we offer them in this process. By giving children the opportunity to make their own choices and respecting their decisions it enables them to have confidence in their abilities. 

 

Our Community 

The curriculum should value the diversity of children’s lived experiences where ‘being, belonging and becoming’ are interconnected. Staff will plan for what children need but also the needs of the community too. This may involve participating in local events and collaborating with local schools. We want our ethos to be shared throughout the community. We will also be involving our parents within nursery experiences and offering opportunities that support our community. 

 

British Values

British Values underpins what it is to be a citizen in a modern and diverse Britain. They allow us to create environments free from discrimination, intolerance and hate. They help us to challenge prejudice and stereotyping, whilst strengthening relationships within the community. All of these behaviours need to be role modelled to our children and families through empathetic practice. 

 

Our Environment

It is important that the younger generation are aware of their environment and how we can protect and care for it. Children can care for our local environment through initiatives in nursery and the community and we can teach them about the wider impact of our daily habits, such as single use plastic. Through their learning about the environment children build empathy and learn knowledge such as the seasons and pollution.

 

Recycle, Repurpose and Reuse

As part of our nursery ethos we believe it is important to learn from a young age that things can be reused or repurposed. This encourages children to use their imagination and build creativity. We encourage the children and our wider nursery community to recycle anything that can’t be reused or repurposed where possible.