Dear Reader,
After attending a professional discussion on ‘the curriculum through the eyes of the child, we have discovered many ways in which the world has changed and how this is affecting children’s learning; technology has taken the world by storm the last twenty years, and the way children learn has had to follow along.
What is a curriculum: a curriculum is a ‘subjects comprising a course of study’ definition from oxford dictionary. But what does this mean for early years?
Early years curriculum must follow the seven areas of learning set out by the EYFS (early years foundation stage). Ensuring all children have clear goals set for them and making them achievable by the end of the foundation stage.
The EYFS gives us the seven areas of learning to guide activities we present to children. However, children need specific engagement and a well thought out curriculum to fully take advantage of the activities and resources we intend for the children to learn from.
Children are naturally curious and are little detectives! Our role is to engage and create activities with the children’s interests in mind. How can we do this? Well…
- Creating an enabling environment: Children will engage better with a well thought out room layout which is purposed for learning. An example of this would be having all the furniture at children’s level so every resource is easily accessible for them.
- Purposeful planning: Creating activities and set ups inspired from the idea of getting children engaged in self-learning.
- Understanding of the individual/cohort of children: Having a good understanding of the children in the setting is particularly important because not every child has been exposed to the same experiences and learning opportunities, having knowledge of this allows us to plan a curriculum for the child.
- STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics): We give children time in the year to explore STEAM, creating masterpieces and exploring the new world of technology and science to help their general development and understanding of the world.
The MTO Goal
Here at MTO we stive to help children achieve their full potential through a well-planned curriculum and giving the best possible opportunities and experiences to learn from. We understand the importance of each child’s learning, so we have implemented a curriculum that fits all the children’s needs, because we care, we communicate the best we can with our parents ensuring we gain the best possible understanding of each child as to incorporate their interests in our curriculum.