Our Approach To Child Development
At Wisbech Day Nursery, we believe children learn “all day, every day” and we have a strong ethos of learning through play and purposeful play. This is underpinned by our “moment by moment” planning for our under 2’s where the team observe children and respond in the here and now to support children’s learning through the things they are naturally interested in and inspired to try.
At Wisbech Day Nursery our primary purpose is for children to feel happy, safe and secure at our Nursery. Part of our mission statement is “To help our children develop into happy, confident, young people and give them the best foundation for lifelong learning.”
We feel our approach focuses on children being happy and enjoying their time at nursery and preschool. We have a developed our approach to child development which captures the interest of each child or group of children in the present moment. Young children have a natural desire to learn, explore and question. We offer an environment that enables child-initiated play in order to capture the moment of engagement. Opportunities to seize the moment when a child shows interest in an activity which can be built upon needs to be recognised.
How we plan for your child’s learning
The Early Years Foundation Stage states: “Practitioners must consider the individual needs, interests and stage of development for each child in their care and MUST use this information to plan challenging and enjoyable experience for each child in all areas of learning and development.” This statement fits perfectly with our way of planning and teaching. We will treat each child as an individual, working alongside Parents to plan and educate your children to allow them to achieve their best.
We plan using the “in the moment” model. This model allows child-initiated learning through play, capturing the interests of the children through personalised learning. Your child’s key persons will take into consideration your children’s interests to create meaningful educational experiences through providing an enabling environment, using quality interactions and ‘teachable moments’.
Teachable moments are about recognising that young children often learn in a more informal and creative way. Within this style of teaching, we are looking for opportunities to allow learning to take place through child-initiated play alongside providing challenge and open-ended questioning when needed.
How do we do this?
We will provide an environment and opportunities that stimulate curiosity and challenge thinking. We will observe and listen closely to the children’s play. We will work alongside our families to create environments that will spark the children’s interest. We work on a “focus child” system, where every week, your child’s playroom will select 2 – 4 (depending on playroom) for ‘focus children’ from the children on role. These children will be observed, assessed and planned for to meet their needs. Each child is a ‘focus child’ each half term, for 2 – 3 days (depending on attendance pattern).
To ensure we gage parents’ views, when it is your child’s focus observation, we ask parents to share any exciting news, special things happening at home, holidays etc. in addition to typical daily communication. Your child’s keyperson will then record all observations and photos/videos and upload to Tapestry for parents to view and comment upon. From these observations we offer parents the opportunity to have a meeting with your child’s keyperson, to share feedback on the observation, and share ideas of how together we will be able to provide a richer learning environment with many opportunities that will continue to support your child’s learning and development.