Our Early Years Curriculum: Rationale, Design and Progression
We have developed our Early Years curriculum to be ambitious, progressive, inclusive and meaningful. Rooted in our Christian vision and values, we want every child to feel known, valued and empowered to flourish academically, socially, emotionally and spiritually. The curriculum reflects our school values of Collaboration, Ambition, Respect, Positivity, Integrity, Empowerment and supports children to become confident learners who contribute positively to their community. Our curriculum is designed to provide children with the knowledge, vocabulary and skills they need for the next stage of their educational journey. Through carefully sequenced learning and meaningful experiences, children build strong foundations for future learning and develop the confidence, independence and resilience to flourish throughout their time at St Mary’s and beyond.
Our starting point was to consider what we want children to know, understand and be able to do. We also considered their interests, experiences, backgrounds and individual starting points. This has enabled us to create a curriculum that begins with children’s familiar world and gradually broadens their knowledge and understanding.
A curriculum built around high-quality texts
The curriculum is organised around carefully selected, high-quality texts. Each text provides a meaningful starting point for learning and is linked to an enquiry question from science, history, geography or another area of the curriculum. This helps children connect knowledge across different areas rather than experiencing learning as a series of isolated activities.
For example, children explore how a seed becomes a plant through The Tiny Seed, how gardens have changed over time through Grandpa’s Garden, and how people contribute to their community through texts such as Doctor Maisy and The Jolly Postman.
The texts have been chosen to support language development, stimulate curiosity, reflect children’s experiences and introduce them to people, places and ideas beyond their immediate world.
Declarative and procedural knowledge
The curriculum is structured around both declarative and procedural knowledge. Declarative knowledge defines what pupils are expected to know and remember, including key facts, concepts and information, while procedural knowledge defines what pupils are expected to be able to do, including the skills, methods and processes they apply with increasing fluency and independence.
Procedural knowledge is expressed through clear “I can” statements. This makes the intended learning accessible, observable and assessable. Knowledge and skills are deliberately revisited in increasingly challenging contexts so that children can remember more, make connections and apply their learning.
This approach ensures that activities are chosen because they support specific learning rather than being based solely on a theme. It also helps practitioners understand the purpose of each learning experience and the knowledge or skill they are looking for.
Communication, language and vocabulary
Communication and Language is at the heart of our curriculum.
Children progressively learn to listen carefully, take turns, ask and answer questions, make predictions, explain their thinking, give reasons and retell events. As a school with a strong focus on oracy and pupil voice, we provide regular opportunities for children to talk, listen, explain, question, perform and share their ideas with others. We believe that language is fundamental to learning and enables children to think more deeply, develop confidence and build positive relationships.
In addition, vocabulary is explicitly identified, taught and revisited through stories, discussions, objects, photographs, practical experiences and play. Children encounter new words repeatedly and are supported to use them in different contexts. Adults model and extend language and introduce sentence stems where these help children organise and communicate their thoughts.
Communication and Language learning is closely connected to writing. Children are given regular opportunities to discuss and orally rehearse their ideas before recording them.
Progression in writing
In Nursery, the emphasis is on purposeful mark-making, drawing, hearing sounds in words, giving meaning to marks and developing the physical skills required for writing. Children learn that drawings and writing can communicate messages, represent ideas and tell stories in sequence.
In Reception, children build on these foundations by planning through talk and drawing, applying their phonic knowledge, composing sentences and rereading their writing to check and improve it.
Writing has a genuine purpose and audience. Children create labels, lists, signs, instructions, maps, messages, posters, reports, cards and letters. This helps them understand that writing can be used to communicate information, share ideas, tell stories and record experiences.
High-quality interactions
High-quality adult interactions are central to the implementation of the curriculum. Practitioners observe children carefully, respond sensitively to their interests and join their play at appropriate moments.
Adults use modelling, commentary, questioning, repetition and sustained shared thinking to extend language and deepen understanding. They introduce vocabulary naturally within meaningful contexts and give children sufficient time to listen, process information and respond.
Practitioners adapt their interactions according to each child’s developmental stage, communication profile and level of understanding. This might involve simplifying language, repeating or rephrasing an idea, providing a visual prompt, modelling an action or extending a child’s sentence. These interactions enable adults to respond to children’s learning in the moment while maintaining a clear understanding of the intended curriculum outcomes.
An inclusive and ambitious curriculum
Our curriculum is ambitious for all children, including children with SEND. We maintain the intended learning wherever possible while adapting how children access, participate in and demonstrate their understanding.
Adaptations are based on individual needs and may include:
- visual timetables, now-and-next boards and objects of reference;
- pictures or other communication support;
- pre-teaching and frequently revisiting key vocabulary;
- reduced or simplified spoken language;
- additional processing and response time;
- repeated modelling and practical demonstration;
- sensory resources and movement breaks;
- learning divided into smaller, achievable steps;
- individual or small-group teaching;
- adapted resources or physical access arrangements; and
- opportunities to revisit learning in familiar contexts.
Children may demonstrate their knowledge and skills in different ways. This may be through spoken language, gesture, signing, pictures, practical actions, role-play, mark-making or appropriate assistive communication. Assessment does not depend on every child responding through the same method.
Staff work closely with families, the SENCO and relevant external professionals to identify barriers, agree suitable strategies and review their effectiveness. Individual plans and targets complement the curriculum rather than replacing it. Adaptations remove barriers without unnecessarily reducing ambition, enabling children to participate meaningfully, develop independence and make progress from their individual starting points.
Teaching, provision and assessment
The curriculum includes a balance of whole-class teaching, guided learning, independent and continuous provision. Outdoor learning forms an important part of our provision. Children benefit from regular opportunities to explore, investigate and apply their learning beyond the classroom through our outdoor environment and Forest School experiences. These opportunities support physical development, communication, independence, resilience and curiosity.
Adult-guided activities introduce and develop new knowledge and skills. Indoor and outdoor provision then enables children to revisit, practise and apply their learning through purposeful play and exploration.
The academy’s agreed skills framework is used alongside the weekly procedural knowledge to support assessment. The academy skills provide consistent and progressive assessment points, while the weekly procedural statements show how children apply these broader skills through a particular text, topic or experience.
For example, an academy skill related to explaining ideas could be observed when a child explains why a plant grows successfully in a particular environment or describes how a community helper supports others.
Practitioners gather assessment information through whole-class teaching, guided activities, conversations, child-initiated play and independent provision. Assessment therefore reflects what children can understand and apply in meaningful contexts rather than their performance in isolated tasks.
Staff consider whether children can demonstrate the procedural knowledge with support, independently and across different situations. This information is used to identify starting points, monitor progress and determine whether children require further modelling, additional practice, an adaptation or greater challenge. It creates a clear connection between curriculum intent, classroom implementation and assessment.
A curriculum Rooted in Our Community
Our curriculum reflects the distinctive context of St Mary’s and the wider community it serves. We recognise the importance of helping children understand themselves, their community and the wider world.
Strong partnerships with families enrich children’s learning and help us create authentic experiences that build on children’s interests and prior knowledge. Visitors, educational visits, community links and enrichment opportunities provide meaningful contexts for learning and help children see the relevance of what they are learning while creating memorable learning experiences.
We value the expertise and experiences that families bring to our curriculum. For example, during our transport topic, families have supported learning by providing first-hand experiences (helicopter landing on the school field and combine harvester in the car park) that bring children’s learning to life and enable them to connect classroom learning with real people, occupations and technology.
Children are also encouraged to develop an understanding of the natural world and where food comes from. Through learning about plants, animals, seasonal change, food production and the local environment, children build on familiar experiences while developing a deeper understanding of the world around them.
Awe, Wonder, Imagination and Memorable Experiences
Alongside these strong local connections, we wanted the curriculum to retain the imagination, wonder and magic that are so important in early childhood.
Memorable experiences, visitors, educational visits, community projects and enrichment opportunities are carefully planned to enhance learning and create lasting memories. These experiences provide meaningful contexts for children to apply their knowledge, develop vocabulary and strengthen their understanding of the world around them. We want children to experience a sense of awe and wonder as they explore, discover and make connections in their learning, inspiring curiosity, imagination and a lifelong love of learning.
For example, our annual visit to Wonderland is an integral part of the planned curriculum. Children encounter familiar story settings and different types of homes, including Snow White’s cottage, the Three Little Pigs’ houses and the old woman’s red-boot home.
The visit provides a shared experience that children revisit through discussion, storytelling, investigation, play and writing. It inspires curiosity and imagination while enabling children to apply and deepen their learning in meaningful contexts.
The two-year cycle
The curriculum operates on a carefully mapped two-year cycle. Texts, topics and key experiences are selected so that children do not repeat the same core stories when they move from Nursery into Reception.
Important knowledge, vocabulary, skills and concepts are deliberately revisited, but through different texts, contexts and increased levels of challenge. This provides continuity and progression without unnecessary repetition.
In Nursery, children may explore a concept through talk, sensory experiences, practical actions, drawing and mark-making. In Reception, they encounter the concept again at greater depth, use more precise vocabulary and apply their understanding through increasingly independent speaking, reading and writing.
Continuity with Key Stage 1
Early Years staff meet regularly with Key Stage 1 colleagues to review curriculum content, core stories, vocabulary and key concepts across the phases. This helps us avoid unnecessary duplication while identifying the knowledge and language that should be deliberately revisited, strengthened and extended.
Our discussions about progression are not limited to selecting different stories or introducing more complex vocabulary. We consider how children’s understanding of important concepts becomes deeper, broader and more precise over time. When a concept is revisited, it is placed within a new context and taught with increased challenge.
This collaborative approach gives Key Stage 1 staff a clear understanding of the foundations established in Nursery and Reception. It also helps Early Years staff understand how children’s learning will be developed during the next stage of their education. This creates a coherent learning journey in which texts, vocabulary, knowledge, concepts and skills are carefully selected and sequenced.
The close alignment between Early Years and Key Stage 1 supports a seamless transition for children. Staff work collaboratively to ensure that important knowledge, vocabulary, learning behaviours and expectations continue to build progressively as children move through the school. This reflects our whole-school commitment to providing a coherent curriculum journey from Nursery to Year 6.
Summary
Overall, we have developed a curriculum that begins with children’s experiences and progressively widens their understanding of the world. Rooted in our Christian vision and values, it reflects the distinctive context of St Mary’s, values strong partnerships with families and provides memorable experiences that inspire awe and wonder, curiosity, imagination and a lifelong love of learning.
High-quality interactions and carefully considered adaptations ensure that every child, including those with SEND, can access and participate in the curriculum. The foundational skills framework, weekly procedural knowledge and ongoing practitioner observations enable us to assess learning meaningfully and respond to individual needs.
The curriculum establishes clear progression in knowledge, vocabulary, communication and writing from Nursery through Reception and into Key Stage 1. It is locally relevant, inclusive and developmentally appropriate, while remaining ambitious for every child.
