Your curriculum

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Setting Up A Nursery
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Your curriculum

Developing the curriculum for your early years setting is a crucial task that requires careful planning, research and evaluation. A curriculum is a framework that guides the learning experiences of children and supports their development across different domains. A curriculum should be based on the following principles and should be:

Child-centred and responsive to the needs, interests and abilities of each child

Relevant to and meet the needs of the communities and families that attend your setting

Flexible and adaptable, allowing for individualization, differentiation and modification according to the context and circumstances

Holistic and integrated, covering all areas of learning and development

Inclusive and respectful of diversity, promoting equality and equity among all children and families

Collaborative and participatory, involving the input and feedback of children, families, educators and other stakeholders

Your curriculum also needs to have regard for your nations statutory requirements (EYFS in England and NMS in Wales).

To develop a curriculum for your early years setting, you need to follow these steps:

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Be clear

Be clear about your vision, mission and goals for your setting and what you want your curriculum to deliver for the children. What are the values and beliefs that underpin your practice? What are the outcomes you want to achieve for your children and families?

Conduct a needs assessment

Conduct a needs assessment to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for your setting and your curriculum. What are the characteristics of your children, families and community? What are the resources and challenges you face? What are the gaps and areas for improvement in your current practice?

Review

Review the relevant standards, guidelines and frameworks that inform your curriculum. What are the expectations and requirements of your local authority, regulatory body or accreditation agency? What are the best practices and evidence-based approaches in early childhood education?

Design your curriculum

Design your curriculum content, structure and delivery. What are the key concepts, skills and attitudes you want to teach? How will you organize them into themes, topics or units? How will you sequence them across time? How will you present them to the children using various methods, materials and media?

Having defined your curriculum, you then need to consider how you will implement it in your setting. Think about how you will communicate with and share the curriculum with the children, staff, families and other stakeholders and how you will plan, prepare and execute your daily activities. It is important to consider how you will monitor and assess the children’s learning progress against the outcomes you defined in your curriculum.

You will also need to evaluate you your curriculum effectiveness. How will you measure the impact of your curriculum on the children’s learning against the outcomes you defined? How will you collect, analyse and interpret data from various sources? How will you use the results to inform your future practice?

External resources

England

Development Matters – Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage.
Help for early years providers: Curriculum planning (education.gov.uk)
Best start in life: a research review for early years – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Wales

PACEY resources

Spotlight on… Curriculum for Wales. Focusing on the key principles and ethos of the new non-maintained curriculum to support you in developing your practice.

Exclusive member only resources

Development Matters – free training for members a mini-series exploring the Seven Key Features of Effective Practice as outlined in Development Matters relevant for those working in England. Developed in association with Dr Julian Grenier, who led on the revision of Development Matters for the DfE.
PACEY webinar: Ofsted: Early years curriculum and pedagogy. Hear from Phil Minns and Wendy Ratcliff from Ofsted examining the role of curriculum and pedagogy.
Resource hub topic: EYFS in England and curriculum for Wales. Explore resources designed to support you implement your curriculum
Focus on the curriculum for Wales a series of courses on CEY smart that are designed to help you to understand and apply the principles of the curriculum for funded non-maintained nursery settings. They each explore an aspect of the curriculum, and how this can be applied in your setting, featuring real life examples from a range of practitioners.