Kindergarten Curriculum
The kindergarten curriculum is planned across the areas of learning and experience and is based on the children's interests and learning needs, encompassing the EYFS learning outcomes and supporting children in achieving as much as they can. The main areas of learning and experience, in which to provide opportunities for children to develop, are:
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication, Language and Literacy
• Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy
• Knowledge and Understanding of the World
• Physical Development
• Creative Development
Kindergarten curriculum is provided through:
• A well-planned and carefully organized classroom and outdoor environment
• Clear explanation of tasks to children by the staff
• Well-maintained and carefully stored resources to encourage children to make choices, to use materials in a flexible and imaginative way, and to clear them away when they have completed their task
• Effective systems for planning, assessing and recording children's progress
• A clear statement of aims which are shared by all those involved in the children's education
• Attention to individual children's learning needs
• Regular monitoring and evaluating of the curriculum provision being offered to children
• Attention to the processes of children's learning, e.g. by encouraging them to observe, question and investigate
• Specialist teachers in Music, French and Dance
Communication, Language and Literacy
Communication, Language and Literacy is about:
• Listening
• Talking
• Reading
• Writing
• Expression
• Communication
• Reasoning
• Stories
• Poetry....
By the end of the foundation stage, most children will be able to:
• enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language, and readily turn to it in their play and learning;
• explore and experiment with sounds, words, and texts;
• listen with enjoyment and respond to stories, songs and other music, rhymes, and poems, and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes, and poems;
• use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences;
• use talk to organize, sequence, and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings, and events;
• sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have heard by relevant comments, questions, or actions;
• interact with others, negotiating plans and activities and taking turns in conversation;
• extend their vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds of new words;
• retell narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on the language patterns of stories;
• speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control and show awareness of the listener, for example by their
• use of greetings, 'please', and 'thank you';
• hear and say initial and final sounds in words, and short vowel sounds within words;
• link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet;
• read a range of familiar and common words and simple sentences independently;
• know that print carries meaning and, in English, is read from left to right and top to bottom;
• 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.
Creative Development
This area is about:
• Representation
• Interpretation
• Awareness of colour and design
• Experimenting
• Creating
• Selecting.....
By the end of the foundation stage, most children will be able to:
• explore color, texture, shape, form, and space in two and three dimensions;
• recognize and explore how sounds can be changed, sing simple songs from memory, recognise repeated sounds
• and sound patterns, and match movements to music;
• respond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, touch, and feel;
• use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, imaginative and role play, and stories;
• 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.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
This area covers:
• Observing
• Asking questions
• Hypothesizing
• Testing
• Analyzing
• Communicating
• Predicting
• Designing
• Investigating
• Movement
• Forces
• Energy
• Ourselves
• Properties of materials
• Living things........
By the end of the foundation stage, most children will be able to:
• investigate objects and materials by using all of their senses as appropriate;
• find out about, and identify some features of, living things, objects, and events they observe;
• look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change;
• ask questions about why things happen and how things work;
• build and construct with a wide range of objects, selecting appropriate resources, and adapting their work where
• necessary;
• select the tools and techniques they need to shape, assemble, and join the materials they are using;
• find out about and identify the uses of everyday technology, and use information and communications
• technology and programmable toys to support their learning;
• find out about past and present events in their own lives, and in those of their families and other people they
• know;
• observe, find out about, and identify features in the place they live and the natural world;
• begin to know about their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people;
• find out about their environment, and talk about those features they like and dislike.
Mathematical Development
This area is about:
• Counting
• Sorting
• Conservation
• 1:1 Correspondence
• Sequencing
• Measurement
• Comparing
• Ordering
• Symmetry
• Weighing
• Problem solving
• Pattern
• Geometry
• Matching
• Classifying
• Shape.....
By the end of the foundation stage, most children will be able to:
• say and use number names in order in familiar contexts;
• count reliably up to 10 everyday objects;
• recognize numerals 1 to 9;
• use language such as 'more' or 'less', 'greater' or 'smaller', 'heavier' or 'lighter', to compare two numbers or
• quantities;
• in practical activities and discussion begin to use the vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting;
• find one more or less than a number from 1 to 10;
• begin to relate addition to combining two groups of objects, and subtraction to 'taking away';
• talk about, recognize, and recreate simple patterns;
• use language such as 'circle' or 'bigger' to describe the shape and size of solids and flat shapes;
• use everyday words to describe position;
• use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Personal, Social and Emotional Development is about :
• Acting independently and as part of a group
• Assertiveness
• Learning to share
• Expressing feelings and needs and becoming aware of the feelings and needs of others
• Making sense of the world and the agreed values and codes of behaviour in society
• Learning how to be healthy
• Forming good relationships with peers and adults
Spiritual and Moral Development is about:
• Meaning of Life
• Awe and wonder
• Cultural awareness
• Religious experiences
• Faiths and festivals
• Awareness and respect of self and others
• Justice
• Fairness
• Valuing individuals and their groups
By the end of the foundation stage, most children will:
• continue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn; be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas, and
• speak in a familiar group;
• maintain attention, concentrate, and sit quietly when appropriate;
• have a developing awareness of their own needs, views, and feelings and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings of others;
• have a developing respect for their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people;
• respond to significant experiences, showing a range of feelings when appropriate;
• form good relationships with adults and peers;
• work as part of a group or class, taking turns and sharing fairly, understanding that there need to be agreed values and codes of behavior for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously
• understand what is right, what is wrong, and why;
• dress and undress independently and manage their own personal hygiene;
• select and use activities and resources independently;
• consider the consequences of their words and actions for themselves and others;
• understand that people have different needs, views, cultures and beliefs, which need to be treated with respect;
• understand that they can expect others to treat their needs, views, cultures and beliefs with respect
Physical Development
This area deals with:
• Co-ordination
• Agility
• Balance
• Body awareness
• Spatial awareness
• Manipulation.....
By the end of the foundation stage, most children will be able to:
• move with confidence, imagination, and in safety;
• move with control and co-ordination;
• show awareness of space, of themselves, and of others;
• recognize the importance of keeping healthy and those things which contribute to this;
• recognize the changes that happen to their bodies when they are active;
• use a range of small and large equipment;
• travel around, under, over, and through balancing and climbing equipment;
• handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing control.