Coin Street Nursery Curriculum and Assessment Policy

coin street nursery outdoor play

Our policy stems from our Core Principles:

Read our Core Principles here

  • All children are entitled to high quality teaching and learning.
  • Each child is unique and children learn and develop at different rates.
  • Every child has the capacity to learn and develop with the right support. Every child can thrive.
  • Children learn best when they are happy and engaged.
  • Meeting children’s identified needs and interests helps them to learn and develop in all aspects of learning and development.
  • Different aspects of learning require different approaches.
  • We collaborate with each other and parents to ensure that children enjoy their learning and are ready for school.

Coin Street Nursery Curriculum and Assessment Policy

Download our Nursery Curriculum and Assessment Policy

We offer a broad and balanced curriculum, which has four elements:

  1. Teaching learning based on children’s interests
  2. A regular cycle of learning
  3. Core experiences
  4. Our curricular goals for children
coin street nursery curricular goals sew a stitch coin street nursery curricular goals painting coin street nursery curricular goals woodwork

Our approach to learning:

  • Most of our learning is play based, taking place both inside and outside
  • Our starting point is the interests and needs of the child
  • There is a balance between adult-initiated and child-initiated activities
  • Collaboration with parents to get a rounded understanding of the child, their interests and strengths
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Our Curricular Goals

We have 8 curricular goals that are ambitious. These goals cover all the things we would like the children to know and be able to do. These goals are adaptable. We provide individualised learning and support to ensure that every child can access the curriculum and make progress.

We are an inclusive nursery; all children will participate in the same curriculum and every child will make progress from their starting point. Some children will move more quickly than others, and for those children we will deepen their learning, rather than introducing new skills.

coin street nursery curricular goals outdoor play

What are our Curricular Goals?

  • Settle in | Settle in and become a confident learner
  • Follow | Follow a recipe to bake a bread roll
  • Make | Make a model at the woodwork table
  • Ride | Ride a balance bike
  • Create | Create your own dance to a piece of music
  • Sew | Sew a running stitch
  • Make up | Make up your own story
  • Write | Write the first two letters of your name

Planning and assessment

When children start nursery, we focus on the prime areas of learning and development:

  • Communication and language
  • Personal, social and emotional development
  • Physical development

Home visit

Every child is offered a home visit or a virtual visit via Zoom. We use this to share and exchange information with the parents, to ensure a smooth transition into nursery, and to learn more about the child’s interests to feed into the planning.

Assessment and tracking

  • 10-day assessment – key person and parents meet to discuss how the child has settled and to set ‘next steps’ if appropriate once the child has been in nursery for 10 days.
  • 2 year old check – a statutory check that shares a picture of the child’s development.
  • Special book – a book containing the child’s ‘wow’ moments and significant pieces of their learning.
  • Focus meetings – 3 times a year the child will be a ‘focus child’ where observations will be made by all practitioners and gathered together to form a picture of learning and development. The key person and parents meet, for this to be shared.
  • Transition report – when the child is getting ready to move onto school, the key person will write a report that summarizes the child’s achievements in the prime areas.
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Why Coin Street Nursery?

Coin Street’s 75-place nursery provides high quality, affordable early learning for children from 3 months - 5 years.