Intent

What do we want your child to learn?

Our intent is for all children to reach their individual development milestones.  Where possible, meet and exceed those milestones set-out as the average for their age.  Each child will be at a different development stage, which won't necessarily correspond with their age.  Our intent for each child is built upon knowing the child, tracking progress and outcomes, and identifying their next steps.

Our long-term curriculum intent is developed through considering what our broad and balanced curriculum covers.  We plan a diverse range of intentions through topics, themes and subjects to cover all of the development elements for your child from 0 to 5 years old.  We consider cultural diversity, language diversity, gender diversity and physical diversity.  Our annual plan of themes and topics shows how we cover all of these throughout the year.  We are always adding more and varying these year-on-year.  We take the lead from our families to guide and develop what the children learn.

For example, our learning intent for World Book Day each year is to enable children to show us that they can express their thoughts and views about stories, characters and plots.  

Our medium and short-term curriculum intent is driven by both child-led interests and next steps planning.  Weekly plans are aligned to the development elements and next steps.  

For example, our learning intentions for maths is for all children to sing familiar songs and rhymes using counting forward and backwards in number sequences - Five Little Speckled Frogs, Five Little Ducks, 5,4,3,2,1,0 Blast Off!

Our in-the-moment-planning takes shape around each child for example, if a child is interested in farm animals or dinosaurs, we can make up counting songs using those objects and count using those objects.

Implement 

What are our teaching and learning activities to support your child to learn?

Each development element that underpins each intent needs to be implemented through the activities that we plan for.  These activities are spread across our focused learning hours, rehearsing and practising, and teaching others.

Focused learning hours have specific learning intentions for each child or group of children.  These will be hands-on, play, group-time, singing and movement activities with a clear focus.  

For example, counting stones into a bucket, sorting out stones and shells into groups based on colours and shapes, creating a pattern using stones and shells, and sequencing them in height order.

Rehearsing and practicing learning is when each child explores independently, initiates play with others and puts what they have learnt into practice.  The learning environment is set-up with activities for the children to consolidate their learning.

For example, a child has access to stones, shells and logs and is sorting them to find the biggest one to hide their dinosaur.

Teaching others is another fundamental skill in demonstrating that a child has a secure understanding of what they have learnt.  Showing and teaching others (adults and children) is a fun way to share learning.  

For example, a child is telling another child which stone they need to hide their small dinosaur and explaining why it is the best one (because they have the big dinosaur and they need the biggest stone!).

Impact 

What has your child learned?

We monitor learning and progress against the learning intent and through the activities that enable each child to demonstrate their understanding.  We can report the outcomes and milestones that each child has reached.

Next Steps

From monitoring learning, we can plan for and design our environment for each child to achieve their next steps.

Dated: 12 September 2024 Review date: December 2025