At Birchfield we endeavor to deliver the highest quality early years experience. Children learn within a fully inclusive, challenging and stimulating environment. This supports high quality play experiences and high levels of involvement and engagement. This is enhanced further through our curriculum offer. The curriculum at Birchfield is formed around the 'Learning Challenge Curriculum' approach. This allows children opportunity to be curious, ponder and wonder as well as affording opportunity to develop in all areas of learning. This is reviewed half termly to ensure that children are accessing all areas equally. This then informs future planning.
A love of literature and reading lies at the heart of everything we do. We support children on their journey as readers through high-quality early language and literacy experiences. Children take part in multiple Dialogic Book Talk sessions each week, where stories are explored in depth through rich discussion, vocabulary development and opportunities to share ideas. Staff use Blank Level questioning to extend children's language, comprehension and thinking skills, supporting them to understand and talk about texts at an increasingly complex level. Alongside this, children engage in pre-phonics teaching through the Super Sounds programme, which develops essential listening, attention, communication and sound discrimination skills through Phase One of Letters and Sounds. These experiences provide the foundations for successful phonics learning in Reception. Through a rich literacy environment and engaging activities, children build strong foundations for reading, communication and a lifelong love of books.
A love of maths and mathematical enquiry is fostered through the 'Early Maths fluency' approach. Children are involved in number songs and rhymes from the start of their time here and then move onto exploring number through the 'number of the week'.