Our Vision, Values and Ethos

As part of St Michael’s Church, we believe in offering our families exceptional care and education in a Christian environment.

Our Curriculum

Our overall aim is for our children to be Happy, Engaged and Motivated Learners, that make progress in their own unique way, at their own pace and in their own time.

We know children don’t learn in a linear line, timescale, a neatly formed structure or following a set plan. Every child is different, unique with differing interests, learning styles and experiences; we take this individuality into account for each child. What this means in practice is that our children are always at the heart of our curriculum.  

Because what and how our children learn is unique to them, we believe in and implement a child-led approach to learning, offering an abundance of uninterrupted play so that children have the opportunity to become deeply engaged.

We see our role as Early Years Educators to motivate, challenge, be responsive and available, encourage, model and support our children on their individual journeys considering the 7 areas of learning.

We encourage children to be curious, and creative, and we believe in encouraging children to set their own goals, take risks and learn to solve problems independently.

We understand and value the importance of an embedded key person approach, an enabling environment, exciting daily invitations to play both inside and outside, allowing an array of individual learning experiences and intentions. We believe in positive partnerships with parents, offering all children a rich language environment and providing opportunities for our children to explore the wider world around them.

Assessment plays an important part of our practice. We are assessing our children every day using our knowledge of child development, as well as the development matters document for guidance (in particular the observation checkpoints.) This ensures that our children are being appropriately challenged and continue to make progress. Once a month we will add at least one written observation to each child’s learning journey on Famly. This observation will support both us and Parents/Carers in supporting and planning for children’s possible next steps in their learning. In addition to this we carry out a baseline assessment 4-6 weeks after a child joins us taking into account parents/carers views, individual assessment reviews with our curriculum lead, a 2-year progress check when a child turns approximately 30 months old and a transition to school document when its’s time for a child to move on to primary school.

If a child is not making progress, we may then involve our nursery SENDCo if deemed appropriate and put a plan in place in conjunction with the parents/carers.

We believe the impact of our approach to the curriculum, ensures that our children are happy, engaged and motivated learners that make good progress from their starting points.

By monitoring each child’s individual progress, and planning to meet each child’s unique needs and next steps, we are supporting all of our children to reach their full potential during their time with us and are ready for the next stage in their development.