Curriculum

Covid-19 Pandemic

There is wide agreement that the infection rate for Coronavirus is much lower outdoors than inside and this has really helped us to keep our children safe. At Guildford Nursery School we have a well-established tradition of outdoor learning and always encourage children to go outside, whatever the weather.

Open Air Nursery Schools

Open Air Nursery Schools are not a new idea and were set up around a hundred years ago to improve the lives of city children who did not have enough access to fresh air, sunlight and exercise. Their aim was to prevent illness in a time when children were often dying young from preventable diseases.

Children did all of their learning outside. Pioneers such as Susan Isaacs and the McMillan sisters set up Nurseries where children had safe but challenging places to play with lots of opportunity for free play. Children ate all their meals outside and even had a daily nap in the open air! This ethos still influences our approach at Guildford Nursery School today, a 100 years later.

Why is outdoor learning so important?

At Guildford Nursery School children have long uninterrupted periods of time when they can play both inside and out. The Department for Health recommends that young children are active for a minimum of three hours each day. Children are generally more active when outside.

Being physically active:

• Promotes positive well-being
• Develops the muscles needed for writing
• Stimulates the eye muscles needed to follow text during reading
• Helps children to learn how to play with others; to form friendships by cooperating, negotiating and trying out their own and other’s ideas
• Improves the function of heart, lungs and blood circulation which in turn promotes good health
• Stimulates children to communicate both non-verbally and verbally; children are far more likely to talk outside than inside
• Gives children the opportunity to understand concepts with their whole bodies in a more abstract way, such as many of the ideas we use in Maths, like weight and size
• Brings the brain to just the right state for taking in and processing new experiences
• Creates learning and memory

Being still and sitting still are very complex and advanced skills which young children are not ready for until they are 6 or 7 years old. Being able to keep your body still requires well developed balance and finely controlled muscles. Both of these are gained from moving rather than practising stillness. Children who find it difficult to sit still for developmentally appropriate amounts of time need to move more.

Engaging with nature:

• Better use of all the senses to notice and comment on details in the natural world.
• Use of the imagination and creativity to make up games which are open ended by using what is naturally available to them, not being dependent on toys or screens. Children are more likely to demonstrate higher level learning when engaging with nature in this way.
• Research shows that there is a greater use of language and spontaneous learning opportunities and experiences.
• Children engaging with nature are often still, reflective, observant and co-operative.
• Children learn to make use of what is already there with the ideas being all their own. This is both empowering and leads to better mental health. They learn to be respectful of their environment.
• Engaging with nature involves children making their own choices, allowing them freedom with guidance.

What do we provide outdoors?

• Plentiful space so that children can move freely without obstruction.
• A variety of different surfaces for children to move on. Different surfaces and levels make different demands on a child’s muscles and posture.
• Opportunities for children to go up and down so children can learn about gravity.
• Large vertical and horizontal surfaces for children to work on in an energetic, whole-bodied way, such as painting on a large expanse of wall or floor.
• Places and materials for digging and filling, providing physical workouts for lungs, circulation, bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons.
• Lots of things to lift, carry and transport. Outdoors children are able to work on a larger scale which makes greater demands on their physical activity and development.
• Wheeled vehicles: playing with them involves pushing and pulling with legs, arms, back and shoulders. Children have to use both sides of their body alternately which helps develop both sides of their brains, necessary for hand-eye co-ordination, reading and writing. Moving fast and turning corners develops children’s posture and balance.
• Dance, music, rhymes and games: these support physical development, social and emotional development as well as communication.
• Calm places so that children can rest and recover. Children go from high levels of energy to sudden exhaustion, calm and rest are essential for their well-being and health.

What do the adults do outside?

• Join in, model active play and dress appropriately for physical activity. Noticing and commenting when we are cold and discovering how we can warm up, or how we have become hot from moving around.
• Encourage, support and engage children in physical activity through action and verbal and non-verbal communication. Communicating about physical activity, using movement vocabulary, asking questions, and responding to children’s answers and ideas.
• Allow children to play with mud and sticks, and to get dirty.
• At Forest School specifically qualified practitioners teach children how to use tools and to light fires.
• Allow children to climb trees and to build dens.
• Grow fruit and vegetables with the children and either use them in recipes or sell them on, using the proceeds to purchase further seeds and bulbs, beginning the process again.
• Encourage children to look closely at mini-beasts, flowers, and plants, treating them with respect; understanding and witnessing first-hand the life cycle of plants and animals.

It’s important that we know how your child is progressing, and that we share that progress with you.

We begin by talking to, listening to and interacting with your child. This gives us a point from which all future assessments can be made.

Our assessments are carried out without interrupting the way your child works and plays. Mostly observational, we look for ways in which your child has progressed, as well as areas in which we think they may need more help.

When looking at a child’s progress, we always remember that every child is different and that learning progression in the early stages of development varies hugely from one child to the next. So all our assessments are based purely on what we think is best for your child.

We keep you up-to-date on your child’s progress at regular intervals, and we can answer any questions you have at any time. When it’s time for your child to leave us and start primary school, we share our assessment with the new school to help them with their own learning preparation.

Below are some examples of Letters to the Children:

Erin Letter Ivy Blue Letter Ritanya Letter