A place to learn, a place to play, a place to grow…

Our Pedagogy - A vision for our children:

 At Caldecote Day Nursery, we aspire to provide an environment that is an extension of home, not a watered-down version of school. We aim to support children to learn, grow and play, building upon the learning foundations that have been created by each child’s first teacher, their parent /carers. Using the methods and ethos of The Curiosity Approach, we seek to create an inclusive, child-led environment, where staff plan in the moment, based on the children’s interests, building upon their knowledge and skills so they are ready for school and beyond.  

Our Intent – What we want for our children:

To learn through play, whilst becoming independent, adept, life-long learners who are expressive and able to communicate their needs, thoughts and feelings in a variety of ways. Explore and engage in fun and inspirational play-based activities, encouraged to be confident in themselves and with others while being curious in approaches to challenges. Be broad-minded individuals who foster positive social, emotional and cultural values, celebrate successes, grow to their maximum potential and be unique personalities.

Our Implementation – How we achieve our intent:

 Our rich, balanced, and creative curriculum where children actively learn through play experiences. As well our own ambitious Caldecote Curriculum, we also draw on the Development Matters document as support and guidance on how to achieve best practice. The Characteristics of Effective Learning, underpin the children’s learning and development across the seven areas. We endeavour to give the children the Cultural Capital they need for future success. Fundamental British Values are at the heart of our curriculum and everything we do as we understand that the children’s development within these areas is the key to promoting values in the long term. We follow The Curiosity Approach, as we believe that real life, natural and recycled materials can provide endless opportunities to be creative, to explore and be curious. Using authentic resources, which reflect diversity and are free from discrimination and stereotyping, we offer opportunities for children to play, unrestricted. Our calm and neutral atmosphere supports our children’s wellbeing and the loose parts and culturally diverse resources on offer, promote deep learning, enjoyment and enable children to flourish. We focus on nurturing children and celebrating individuality. Our practitioners use careful observations to follow the child’s lead. In The Moment Planning allows us to capture the moment a child is highly engaged and inspired, allowing practitioners to build and extend on learning which is appropriate to the unique child and experience - a teachable moment.  We recognise that language and communication are vital in all areas of a child’s development. We welcome children from culturally diverse backgrounds and many of our children are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language (EAL). We support children’s development by providing a rich language environment, where conversations, Makaton, singing and sharing stories become a regular part of the children’s day. Using Warwickshire’s Time to Talk initiative we can carefully monitor and support children who find communication a challenge to ensure that they meet their potential and have the best outcomes possible. We value parental contributions to their child’s learning, regularly sharing information, celebrating successes and monitoring progress; taking action to provide support as necessary. Working with outside agencies to continually update SEND support and provide relevant speech and language, physical development and social interaction schemes when required.

Our Impact – How this benefits our children:

From their different starting points, all children make good progress emotionally, creatively, socially and physically. Knowledge, understanding and skills are embedded to support children through their learning journey. Our curriculum and its implementation, ensures that children make good progress, their individual identity is valued and they are aspiring to be the best that they can. We believe that every child is unique and they all have a potential to achieve. Our curriculum and ethos ensures that the needs of individual children including EAL, SEND, Disadvantaged, Pupil Premium and small groups of children can be met within the environment of high quality first teaching supported by targeted interventions where appropriate. In this way it can be seen to be impacting in a very positive way on children's outcomes.