Our Learning Programme

During their time at Bright Little Stars each child will begin to build an understanding and knowledge of Science and Outdoor Exploration. As science is a key part of a child’s entire educational journey, we believe in getting children off to a flying start and the outdoor environment is an area in which we encourage the children to feel and be free.

Science is introduced indirectly and holistically, incorporated in activities within the typical nursery day both in-and outdoors. The activities that we provide promote a greater understanding of the world through a ‘hands on’ approach. We do this with investigations into the behaviour of objects, conducting experiments, exploring and discovering and lastly presenting findings.

Some examples of the skills children learn during science are prediction, observation, critical thinking, making decisions, discussion and problem solving, as well as self-regulation, boundary setting and mindfulness whilst exploring outdoors .

We use outdoor exploration to educate children about the importance of life, living, nurturing, and caring. Children are actively involved in growing, foraging, loose part play, and risk-taking outdoors, this includes using parts of the Forest School curriculum.

Through our Forest School sessions, the children have the freedom, time, and space to learn and be more independent. We encourage them to develop their relationship with the outdoor, natural world.  Forest School is a way to help children to understand how to respect nature and encourages them to open their curiosity about the world.

Our children thrive off the opportunity to learn outdoors. Each week they look forward to engaging in a range of activities planned by the qualified Forest School teacher. These include: Natural Art, Animal House construction, Leaf Sashing, Meeting a Tree, climbing logs, observing minibeasts, using binoculars to watch the squirrels and birds in the trees, and lots more.

Forest School is a fantastic way of extending the children’s awe and wonder of the world through the natural environment.

Our pre-school children have this to say about Forest School:

“I like playing at forest school. I play lifting the teddies up the tree and down the tree.”

“We make things like snails and birds. There was a real snail race but nobody won!”

“I like playing with binoculars and I like the yoyo’s.”

By utilising children’s natural curiosity of living things and the outdoors educators are able to tailor the learning to the children’s interests with ease through activities involving: colours, light and shadows, sound, forces and magnets, fossils, floating and sinking, electricity, weather, liquids and solids. We use activities such as ‘my body’, ‘a plant’s life’ and learning about where the food we eat comes from to support children’s understanding of themselves, their friends, plants and animals.

It is our goal that children understand at an early age to nurture and care for something living and to be proud of doing so.

Shared culture is communicated through daily life events, such as familiar music, foods and the ways we dress. We believe that young children of every culture need to develop a secure and positive sense of their own identity and a positive sense of pride in their family origins as well as respecting and celebrating their differences.

At Bright Little Stars the teaching of Culture and Geography go hand in hand and fit within our holistic learning approach. Each area ties into another and culture is determined as:

• What we know: Where we come from, where a frog lives or how to use a computer
• What we do not yet know: Where our friends come from, a frogs life cycle or how to catch a fish
• What we want to be: A Teacher, a Lawyer, an Astronaut or a Ballerina

There are many ways that cultural differences are taught to young children. By working with hands on materials, stories and through carefully planned activities and a purposeful environment, children develop sensitivity towards:

• Themselves
• Other people
• The environment.

We believe that young children of every culture need to develop a secure and positive sense of their own identity and a positive sense of pride in their family origins as well as respecting and celebrating their differences.  By promoting a varied knowledge and understanding of the world through geography we encourage children to investigate the physical and human features of their immediate surroundings and the wider world.

Some examples of the skills children learn are a sense of self, a knowledge of others, observation, questioning, problem-solving, making decisions, predictions, discussion and critical thinking.

Activities involve making and reading simple maps and identifying land and water, looking at similarities and differences of homes, countries and climates, noticing and recording the weather and taking part in local outings to learn about their surroundings.

Children learn on a daily basis to understand themselves, their friends and their environment.

Animations and Coding are the unique elements of our ICT development, making the Bright Little Stars Learning Programme current and progressive; children are surrounded by ever evolving technology and naturally this becomes a fascination very early on.

Children are introduced to animation using Stop Motion technology. Children create their own stories frame by frame, how to design, organise and stage their own film using resources, (often created by themselves) and also star in their own productions.

Early Coding is experienced by using wooden robots that teach children the basics of computer programming through adventure and hands on play.

Our Bright Little Stars On-line Resource Finder App offers opportunities in all areas of learning and appeals to the natural direct learning style of children, while building children’s confidence when using touch screen technology.

Children’s basic need for information and the development of communication skills are key to their success in life.  We provide opportunities for playing, socialising and learning through the use of ICT. These activities are not solitary or restricted activities therefore children are learning many skills other than just the operation of equipment.  Children’s learning is extended by viewing real life demonstrations, images and footage using the touch screen computers and taking images of real-life objects to investigate and share with peers.

Resources and activities include: interactive LCD computer screens, digital recorders and cameras, activity centres, musical keyboards, robots and remote controlled devices, cash registers and interactive books. Children have access to ‘learning tablets’ that provide activities in all areas of the curriculum. The essence of ICT is that it is a combination of communication, information and technology.

Why we encourage ICT?

• Children are often motivated by using ICT
• ICT creates and extends both play and learning opportunities
• ICT can be the medium for child-initiated, peer guided and adult-led activities
• Children will be familiar with using technology when they start school and this aids their transition.

Creativity comes naturally to children, therefore, it is necessary for children to be given the time to imagine, explore and experiment with ideas, materials and activities whilst learning about thoughts and feelings during the process.

In Expressive Art and Design, at Bright Little Stars, children are inspired to have vision and to self-express with the aim of forging rich memories of childhood moments and for children to grow to become confident individuals. Children are supported to be creative by encouraging attitudes of curiosity and questioning and are also taught skills and techniques. Children notice everything and closely observe the most ordinary things that adults often take for granted. By building on children’s interests we lead them to create amazing inventions or make marks on paper that represent for them an experience or something they have seen.

Children choose and use materials and resources in an open-ended way, they make choices and have confidence in their own ideas. Retaining childhood confidence in their ideas and skills can easily be lost if others ‘take over’ and try to suggest what the child is making, thinking or doing. At Bright Little Stars practitioners express an interest in the process a child has gone through by asking open questions such as ‘Can you tell me about it? That looks interesting’. This may be all that is required to help a child hold on to their remarkable creativity.

Our holistic Learning Programme approach includes, sensory experiences, music, dance, interactive story-telling and cold cooking, all of which encourage children’s creativity and imagination as they discover the world of colour, sound, texture, shape and form around them.

As Under 5’s are enthused by imaginative play our role play areas are regularly transformed into every day environments. These include café’s, hospitals, construction sites and beauty salons to stimulate the children’s imagination to the full and encourage interaction with other peers. Being Imaginative is a key developmental skill which will enable children to grasp abstract ideas in later learning.

At Bright Little Stars Nursery, we are committed to equipping parents with the knowledge and ideas to support their child’s learning at home as we recognise their important role, being their child’s first and most enduring educator, is crucial in underpinning learning.  We are therefore committed to developing our parent partnership in such a way that all children have the advantage of being able to reinforce this learning outside the nursery.  We aim to give parents the skills they need to ensure that their children do not miss out on any possible learning opportunities.

The key to successful Home Learning is using ordinary occurrences for purposeful learning. Using the knowledge and experience our Head of Teaching, Qualified Teachers and other Early Years Professionals we have put together suggestions of day-to-day activities in each area of learning and how they can be used to support children’s progress (these can be found on our secure Parent Area of the Bright Little Stars website.)

• How we support Home Learning

  Bright Little Stars parents with children in the Supernova room are informed, by email, on a weekly basis of what learning took place in the previous week and what is to come in the week ahead. This enables parents to become involved in that learning, for example, encouraging their child to bring in an item beginning with that week’s sound and sharing it with their friends during group activities.

  By accessing the Home Learning Tab in the Parent Area, parents have a wealth of ideas to help them further their child’s learning. This includes guidance and resources on teaching phonics and letter formation, maths and number formation. It details opportunities in daily life that provide learning across all seven areas of the EYFS.

  We also provide Workshops in ‘Teach Your Child Phonics and Home Learning’, led by our Head of Teaching, which introduce parents to some of the resources used by Bright Little Stars. This gives an overview of the Bright Little Stars Learning Programme.

  Parental involvement has a profound, positive effect on a child’s learning, both at home and in nursery leading into school.  With the aforementioned provision, we are enabling our parents to further support their child and give them the best possible preparation for ‘Big School’.

  An example:  A trip to the shops can include –

  Literacy – ‘write’ a shopping list before you go (this can be mark making to begin with)

  Communication and Language – asking questions such as “What shall we buy?”

  Maths – counting items into the shopping basket and recognising coins

  Physical Development – a discussion on healthy eating and food choices

  Personal, Social & Emotional Development – encouraging your child to ask shop personnel where a certain product can be found.

At Bright Little Stars Nursery we offer an exciting range of club activities that play an important part in helping children to develop learning and practical life skills. We employ external agencies, teachers or qualified professionals who add quality towards the development of all our children. In addition, we regularly visit local facilities such as shops, museums, libraries, fire stations, dentists, parks and farms when possible.

We believe all our children should have the same learning opportunities so we are pleased to incorporate club activities as part of our curriculum. They are included in our fees so there is no extra charge to you.

We have a number of different activities, listed below, that we offer as well as special classes for babies. These classes are subject to change at our discretion and may vary at each nursery setting. Some are weather-permitting and/or available during the term-time only. Sometimes, we may rotate the clubs throughout the year to give the children variety and a well-rounded approach.