Successful education programmes anywhere depend on comprehensive planning, and the Sancastle Nursery operates systems which have been judged as "outstanding" by OFSTED inspectors.
The basis of our policy regarding education for all our children is the Early Years Foundation Stage. Staff know their children well and make recordings and observations of children's attempts and achievements. We encourage parents and other carers to add their own observations so that together we can identify children's particular interests and the next steps for learning and plan appropriate experiences. We can see from dated recordings and observations in each child's progress record that they are taking steps to achieve the Early Learning Goals. These observations also highlight any areas of development that may require extra emphasis to help the child's progress.
All staff are aware of the learning requirements and plan exciting activities to ensure all children are given the opportunity to develop in all seven areas of learning. You can see Keyworker group plans from all areas of the nursery- for the babies, the toddlers toddlers, and also the pre-school rooms. The curriculum for the oldest children is largely theme based. Two examples of recent medium term planning demonstrate how the themes of "Around the World in Eighty Days" and "Exciting Stories" were used as a basis for All our Latest News in all the seven developmental areas.
Finally, noticeboards in each room show the key group weekly plans. Each key worker plans activities relevant to their children's capabilities that are designed to enthuse and extend each child's learning. It is also really important that children are free to choose what they want to play with throughout the day. To facilitate this toys and other resources are freely available in all the rooms.