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Learning at nursery involves every early years setting following an early years curriculum to help ensure your child reaches the right milestones for their age. This will vary according to whether you live in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
At nursery your child will learn early literacy and maths skills. They will learn to socialise with their peers, to concentrate and be encouraged to develop their speaking and listening skills.
Learning independence and routine
They will learn to follow the routine and structure of the nursery with set meal times and snack times and indoor and outdoor activities.
Children at nursery are also encouraged to be independent and learn to zip up their coat and put on their shoes for when they start school.
Some nurseries follow different approaches such as Montessori where children are given freedom to learn at their own pace and all learning is child directed. Forest school is another approach, where children are allowed to explore and learn in a natural environment.
Learning through play
Young children learn about the world through play, and play whether it is structured or free play, should be the dominant activity in a nursery environment.
As Friedrich Froebel, founder of the German kindergarten and a pioneer of early childhood education, said “play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in the child’s soul”.
Play fosters children’s imagination and creativity and helps them to develop their physical, emotional and social skills as well as improving their language and communication.
Early years practitioners are trained to help your child learn through play. Some early years staff like to offer children a combination of structured play with free play. Activities may include playing in the sandpit, listening to stories, painting, drawing, building with construction blocks and making things with play dough, doing jigsaws and puzzles as well as singing songs.
Learning through free play
Some nurseries offer children open ended natural resources to play with such as sand, water and dirt, which can be used in a mulitude of ways as that triggers creativity. Toys such as cars and dinosaurs will direct the play more as they are not so open ended.
Learning through structured play
Nursery practitioners will also lead some play such as outdoor games like tag or making a lego tower. They may show children how to catch a ball in a game of catch.
Act of play ‘more important than outcome’
Stuart Brown, a psychiatrist, who wrote the book Play, refers to play as voluntary, saying: “It’s pleasurable, it offers a sense of engagement, it takes you out of time. And the act itself is more important than the outcome.”
The nursery group, Bright Horizons, believes that “when children are deprived of opportunities for play, their development can be significantly impaired”.
Play also promotes risk-taking and gives children that valuable sense of control as they make their own decisions and learn consequences.
England – EYFS
In England, all children up to the age of five at an early years setting follow the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage). The EYFS is designed to ensure children learn and develop and are healthy and safe. The emphasis is on holistic play. Each child’s progress is tested by observation from an early years practitioner or health visitor at the age of two, three and five.
These are the seven areas of learning:
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
Scotland – Curriculum of Excellence
In Scotland, nurseries follow the Curriculum of Excellence for children from the age of three to 18 years.
The Curriculum for Excellence was created by the Scottish Government, Learning and Teaching Scotland, Scottish Qualifications Authority and HM Inspectorate of Education to make sure the developmental needs of pre-school children are met. The emphasis is on learning through quality play.
There are eight areas of the curriculum:
- Health and Wellbeing
- Language and Literacy
- Mathematics and Numeracy
- Expressive Arts
- Religious and Moral Education
- Science
- Social Studies
- Technology
Wales – Curriculum for Wales
Nurseries in Wales follow the new Curriculum for Wales (introduced in September 2022) alongside the existing Welsh Foundation Phase Framework. The new curriculum gives guidance on learning for children in Wales aged 3 -16
The statutory areas of learning in the Foundation Phase are:
- Personal and Social Development, Well-being and Cultural Diversity
- Language, Literacy and Communication Skills
- Mathematical Development
- Welsh Language Development
- Knowledge and Understanding of the World
- Physical Development
- Creative Development
Under the new Curriculum for Wales, practitioners do not have a set timetable of activities they must provide. Instead they focus on meaningful learning and nurseries can be innovative in play and learning resources, with play always at the heart of early years learning.
Practitioners are encouraged to create multi-sensory learning environments that are rich in opportunities for problem-solving and communication, and encourage physical movement.
The five developmental pathways of the new Curriculum for Wales in the early years are:
- Belonging
- Communication
- Exploration
- Physical development
- Wellbeing
Northern Ireland – Curricular Guidance for Pre-School Education
In Northern Ireland, all nurseries have to adhere to the Curricular Guidance for Pre-School Education. This states the range of learning opportunities which children of this age should have through play and other experiences.
The six areas of learning are:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development and Movement
- Language Development
- Early Mathematical Experiences
- The Arts
- The World Around Us
If you are worried about leaving your child at nursery for the first time, you may find our advice and five-step guide on how to settle your child into nursery useful.
