Our Curriculum
At Orion Little Stars, we believe that an early learning curriculum must be dynamic and responsive to the unique and changing needs of each child. This ensures that every opportunity for growth and development is met and celebrated. We hold high aspirations for all our children, and we are committed to sharing this vision with our parents and carers through their child’s nursery day.
Our approach is deeply rooted in the principles of Intent, Implementation, and Impact, a framework that guides our educational journey and allows us to clearly articulate the quality of education your child will receive.
Our Curriculum Intent: What We Want Your Child to Know
The intent of our curriculum at Orion Little Stars defines precisely what we expect children to learn and achieve by various points in their early years. It is not just about choosing engaging themes; it is about the specific knowledge, skills, and understanding we aim for your child to acquire.
Clear Learning Goals: We have carefully designed our curriculum to outline the core concepts and abilities your child will develop. This includes foundational literacy and numeracy skills, social and emotional understanding, physical development, and creative expression.
Purposeful Themes: Our chosen themes are carefully selected to provide a rich context for learning, supporting our specific learning intentions. For example, a theme on "Our Community" might intend for children to understand different roles people play, develop empathy, and learn basic directional language.
Logical Progression: We ensure a logical connection and progression in what children learn. Concepts build upon each other, ensuring that what is learned in one project or term provides a strong foundation for future learning.
Our Curriculum Implementation: How We Bring Learning to Life
Implementation is all about how we turn our intentions into reality in the classroom. It is the art and science of teaching, ensuring that our strategies effectively support the building of diverse skills and deep understanding.
Engaging Teaching Strategies: Our dedicated practitioners employ a variety of teaching strategies tailored to early years development. These include play-based learning, hands-on exploration, structured activities, and collaborative projects. We understand that different areas of the curriculum may benefit from different approaches, and through a mix or child and adult led approaches, we can achieve this.
Core Pedagogical Principles: We consistently apply widely applicable and useful principles such as clear explanation, effective modelling, thoughtful scaffolding to support new learning, and ample opportunities for practice. This ensures that children are actively engaged and supported in mastering new concepts.
Focus on Meaningful Activities: Every activity and interaction in our nursery is designed with a clear learning outcome in mind. We avoid 'activities that just look attractive' and instead focus on experiences that lead to genuine retention of the "nuts and bolts" of early learning, ensuring your child gains a solid educational foundation through a highly engaging environment
Our Curriculum Impact: How We Know Your Child is Flourishing
The impact of our curriculum is measured by whether children have truly learned what we intended to teach them. It is about knowing if our efforts are resulting in meaningful development for your child, and what we do if a child needs additional support.
Ongoing Assessment and Observation: We continuously observe and assess children's learning through their engagement in early learning projects and activities. This is not about formal tests or spreadsheets, but about our educators' deep understanding of each child's individual progress.
Responsive Support: Crucially, we identify when a child has not grasped a concept or needs further support. Our practitioners are skilled at adapting their approach, providing targeted interventions, and finding new ways to help children overcome challenges.
Evidence of Learning: We look for genuine evidence of learning, such as a child's ability to independently recall concepts weeks or months after they were first introduced, their growing fluency in a skill, or their increasing mastery of a particular area. We provide regular opportunities for 'retrieval practice' through play and activities, allowing both children and educators to see incremental improvement.
At Orion Little Stars, we are dedicated to clearly demonstrating what your child is supposed to learn, how we go about teaching these things, and how we know whether your child has truly learned what was taught. It is this simple, yet profoundly effective, approach that underpins our commitment to your child's bright future.