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The Curriculum
A Step Ahead
aims to provide a safe, secure, happy and stimulating environment
for pre-school children, where they will be helped and encouraged to
develop and learn through a variety and appropriate range of play
and learning activities, by caring and professionally trained staff.
A Step Ahead is
registered by Ofsted early years directorate and with the Dfee for
the ‘free entitlement’ grant through the LEA (local education
authority) to ensure that the national standards are adhered to.
Within a
planned programme we take care to provide activities, which we use,
equipment appropriate to the age and stage development of the
children, to stimulate their interests, encourage investigation
skills and enable children to practise existing skills, to extend
and acquire new skills.
There
are six areas covered by the early learning goals and educational
programmes, they are:
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Personal, Social and Emotional Development; |
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Communication,
Language and Literacy; |
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Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy; |
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Knowledge and Understanding of the World; |
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Physical
Development; |
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Creative Development. |
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None of these areas of Learning and Development can be delivered in
isolation from the others. They are equally important and depend on
each other to support a rounded approach to child development. All
the areas must be delivered through planned, purposeful play, with a
balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities.
Personal,
Social and Emotional Development

Educational programme
Children
must be provided with experiences and support which will help them
to develop a positive sense of themselves and of others; respect for
others; social skills; and a positive disposition to learn.
Providers must ensure support for children’s emotional well-being to
help them to know themselves and what they can do.
Early learning goals
By
the end of the EYFS, children should:
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Continue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn.
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Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak
in a familiar group.
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Maintain attention, concentrate, and sit quietly when
appropriate.
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Respond to significant experiences, showing a range of
feelings when appropriate.
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Have a developing awareness of their own needs, views and
feelings, and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings
of others.
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Have a developing respect for their, own cultures and
beliefs and those of other people.
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Form good relationships with adults and peers.
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Work as part of a group or class, taking turns and sharing
fairly, understanding that there needs to be agreed values
and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including
adults and children, to work together harmoniously.
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Understand what is right, what is wrong and why.
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Consider the consequences of their words and actions for
themselves and others.
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Dress and undress independently and manage their, own
personal hygiene.
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Select and use activities and resources independently.
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Understand that people have different needs, views, cultures
and beliefs and that needs to be treated with respect.
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Understand that they can expect others to treat their needs,
views, cultures and beliefs with respect
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Communication, Language and Literacy

Educational programme
Children’s learning and competence in communicating, speaking and
listening, being read to and beginning to read and write must be
supported and extended. They must be provided with opportunity and
encouragement to use their skills in a range of situations and for a
range of purposes, and be supported in developing the confidence and
disposition to do so.
Early
learning goals
By the end of the EYFS, children should:
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Interact with others, negotiating plans and activities and
taking turns in conversation.
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Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language,
and readily turn to it in their play and learning.
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Sustain
attentive listening, responding to what they have heard with
relevant comments, questions or actions.
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Listen with enjoyment, and respond to stories, songs and
other music, rhymes and poems and make up their own stories,
songs, rhymes and poems.
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Extend their vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds
of new words.
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Speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control and
show awareness of the listener.
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Use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences.
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Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas,
feelings and events.
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Hear and say sounds in words in the order in which they
occur.
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Link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of
the alphabet.
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Use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and
make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words.
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Explore and experiment with sounds, words and texts.
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Retell narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on
language patterns of stories.
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Read a range of familiar and common words and simple
sentences independently.
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Know that print carries meaning and, in English, is read
from left to right and top to bottom.
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Show
an understanding of the elements of stories, such as main
character, sequence of events and openings, and how
information can be found in non-fiction texts to answer
questions about where, who, why and how.
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Attempt writing for different purposes, using features of
different forms such as lists, stories and instructions.
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Write their own names and other things such as labels and
captions, and begin to form simple sentences, sometimes
using punctuation.
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Use a pencil and hold it effectively to form recognisable
letters, most of which are correctly formed.
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Problem
Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy

Educational programme
Children
must be supported in developing their understanding of Problem
Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy in a broad range of contexts in
which they can explore, enjoy, learn, practise and talk about their
developing understanding. They must be provided with opportunities
to practise and extend their skills in these areas and to gain
confidence and competence in their use.
Early learning goals
By
the end of the EYFS, children should:
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Say and use number names in order in familiar contexts.
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Count reliably up to ten everyday objects.
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Recognise numerals 1 to 9.
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Use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve
practical problems.
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In practical activities and discussion, begin to use the
vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting.
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Use language such as ‘more’ or ‘less’ to compare two
numbers.
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Find one more or one less than a number from one to ten.
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Begin to relate addition to combining two groups of
objects and subtraction to ‘taking away’.
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Use language such as ‘greater’, ‘smaller’, ‘heavier’ or
‘lighter’ to compare quantities.
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Talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns.
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Use
language such as ‘circle’ or ‘bigger’ to describe the shape
and size of solids and flat shapes.
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Use everyday words to describe position.
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Knowledge and Understanding of the World

Educational programme
Children
must be supported in developing the knowledge, skills and
understanding that help them to make sense of the world. Their
learning must be supported through offering opportunities for them
to use a range of tools safely; encounter creatures, people, plants
and objects in their natural environments and in real-life
situations; undertake practical ‘experiments’ ;and work with a range
of materials.
Early
learning goals
By the end of the EYFS, children should:
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Investigate objects and materials by using all of their
senses as appropriate.
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Find out about, and identify, some features of living
things, objects and events they observe.
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Look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and
change.
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Ask questions about why things happen and how things work.
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Build and construct with a wide range of objects, selecting
appropriate resources and adapting
their work where necessary.
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Select the tools and techniques they need to shape, assemble
and join materials they are using.
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Find out about and identify the uses of everyday technology
and use information and communication technology and
programmable toys to support their learning.
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Find out about past and present events in their own lives,
and in those of their families and other people they know.
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Observe, find out about and identify features in the place
they live and the natural world.
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Find out about their environment, and talk about those
features they like and dislike.
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· Begin
to know about their, own cultures and beliefs and those of
other people.
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Physical Development

Educational programme
The physical development of babies and young children must be
encouraged through the provision of opportunities for them to be
active and interactive and to improve their skills of coordination,
control, manipulation and movement. They must be supported in using
all of their senses to learn about the world around them and to make
connections between new information and what they already know. They
must be supported in developing an understanding of the importance
of physical activity and making healthy choices in relation to food.
Early
learning goals
By the end of the EYFS, children should:
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Move with confidence, imagination and in safety.
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Move with control and coordination.
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Travel around, under, over and through balancing and
climbing equipment.
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Show awareness of space, of themselves and of others.
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Recognise the importance of keeping healthy, and those
things which contribute to this.
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Recognise the changes that happen to their bodies when they
are active.
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Use a range of small and large equipment.
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Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials
safely and with increasing control.
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Creative Development

Educational programme
Children’s creativity must be extended by the provision of support
for their curiosity, exploration and play. They must be provided
with opportunities to explore and share their thoughts, ideas and
feelings, for example, through a variety of art, music, movement,
dance, imaginative and role-play activities, mathematics, and design
and technology.
Early learning goals
By the end of the EYFS, children should:
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Respond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell,
touch and feel.
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Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings
by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools,
imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making,
and a variety of songs and musical instruments.
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Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or
three dimensions.
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Recognise and explore how sounds can be changed, sing simple
songs from memory, recognise repeated sounds and sound
patterns and match movements to music.
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Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance,
imaginative and role-play and stories.
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