Here at Montessori Moments we blend The Early Years Foundation Stage with elements of the Montessori approach, enabling us to create a unique curriculum for a child’s learning and development. Needless to say, parents play an important role in this too, see below!
EYFS CURRICULUM
The new EYFS curriculum sets out seven areas of learning and development, which we work to achieve, through the Montessori methods.
Prime Areas
These are the building blocks to form the foundations of your child’s future, learning to ignite their curiosity and enthusiasm for learning.
Specific Areas
The four Specific Areas above are strengthened and applied in:
The Parent Partnership
We are proud of our strong relationships and communication with parents, often referred to as The Parent Partnership. Despite the fantastic experiences we offer our children, we are wise, and humble enough, to appreciate the role of parents in a positive nursery experience. By sharing information about your child’s activities and preferences at home, we can far more easily create an environment in which your child thrives. We have an open-door policy and encourage open dialogue around both compliments and concerns. When people say they feel like they’re dealing with family it really confirms what we are trying to achieve.
The Montessori Approach
Aspects of the Montessori Approach we follow are child led play, promoting independence, and listening to the voice of the child, which can also be found in the EYFS
The Montessori Areas of Learning
Children are active learners and play is the vehicle of their learning. In play children try out ideas, experiment, express themselves, create social bonds and develop emotional confidence and resilience.
Our Typical Day
To reiterate, we follow the Early Years Curriculum which is the EYFS (Early Years foundation stage). This is a guide for us to use as a tool to assess each child’s development and to promote their learning which will equip them with the skills needed for school readiness. We also incorporate some of the Montessori elements where we encourage a calm and caring environment alongside promoting independence. Kindness is important to us.
At Montessori Moments we recognise that each child is unique and as well as the above we also promote the curiosity approach which is very child led, following their ideas and extending their interests towards what they need to learn. We are huge advocates of the outdoors and take advantage of our amazing location. Children spend lots of our time outside in our private garden as well as visiting the flower garden and the main park. Much time is spent outside, investigating and experimenting, experiencing the seasons and nature, searching for bugs and insets with magnifying glasses!
Each practitioner/Key person observes and analyses what a child needs to learn, then provides opportunities through activities and play to enable new and meaningful learning outcomes. Such activities include music sessions, yoga, cookery lessons, visiting the library and the wider community.