Curriculum Intent:

At St Swithun’s we believe that children’s early learning experiences deeply affect their future development. We understand that building secure and nurturing relationships with children and their families at this early stage is essential to enable us to maximise learning opportunities for each and every child in our setting.

• We follow a combination of Development Matters and Birth to 5 Matters Curriculum Guidance for The Early Years Foundation Stage, and in doing so have tailored our curriculum to suit the needs of our children.
• We are fully committed to taking the time to get to know our children and provide a rich curriculum that supports learning, consolidates and deepens knowledge and ensures that children achieve their next steps:
• We promote a real love of reading through story time and both our indoor and outdoor provision is enhanced to reflect current learning and children’s interests showing a deep understanding of the way in which our children learn.
• We aim to equip our children with a sense of self and self-belief by promoting independence, confidence and resilience to enable them to achieve their potential.
• We offer our children rich learning experiences and our ultimate goal is to prepare our children with the knowledge and skills needed for the next stage of their learning journey in KS1 and have a life-long love of learning.
• Our ultimate goal is to prepare our children with the knowledge and skills needed for the next stage of their learning journey in Key Stage 1 and beyond.

Speech and Language 

Here at St-Swithun's we work alongside Speech and Language Therapists to support children's speech and language needs. We use a speech and language screener to identify early speech and language needs and provide additional speech and language interventions that develop area’s specific individual needs. To support our more complex speech and language needs we use a Makaton programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to enable children to communicate. You can learn more about Makaton here https://www.makaton.org/aboutMakaton/