Curricular Aspirations and pedagogy

Contents

1. The aim of our Curricular Aspirations
2. What our Curricular Aspirations do
3. Teaching, tracking, teaching more
4. How leaders at FANS measure success
5. What our children experience at Nursery
6. How we teach and children learn
7. What our curricular aspirations are
8. What we assess when
9. Why we teach this way

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2-, 3- and 4-year-old ‘Curricular Aspirations’ and assessment

May 2026

Fifth  edition

The aim of our Curricular Aspirations

Play is a right, not a privilege. All play is valid.

In 2021 the government published new guidance for early years education. It's called Development Matters. FANS (Church Hill and Low Hall Nursery Schools) used this guidance to study and update what we teach, how we teach, and how we check what children have learned.

Our experienced teaching team worked on this with Sheringham Nursery School and Barnet Early Years Alliance. We all shared how we work. We took the ideas that best support the needs of the children in our schools. We made our Curricular Aspirations, and have been improving them ever since.

The layout and headings of our 5th edition were inspired by this work: Neurodiversity Affirming Early Childhood Collective (2025). The Diverse Pathway for Autistic Early Childhood Play Patterns

What our Curricular Aspirations do

• Set out what a typical child will be able to do when they leave our rooms for 2-year-olds and when they leave our schools as a 4-year-old.
• Describe the ways a non-speaking child might show their learning.
• Include the Learning Behaviours we nurture to help the children become lifelong learners.
• Say how we check what the children learn in a way that supports them.
• For example, we might make SMART plans for a child with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities). SMART means their aspirations are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

Each Curricular Aspiration is broken down into four Insights. This way we keep track of small steps.

All children learn at their own speed. Some might need more time or help. Some will learn faster than we expect. We teach every child from where they start, helping everyone make progress.

Our Curricular Aspirations aren't the only things children will do with us. But they help us, their families, and their new primary schools see how a child learns and when they learned what. Each aspiration is based on what Development Matters says 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds learn.

Teaching, tracking, teaching more

Our learning is play-based. It is child-initiated and sometimes adult-led. Our team spends all day talking to the children, making conversations to tap into their ideas. The interactions between them are high-quality. We add new words, develop critical thinking, and model social skills.

Each child has a Key Person. They keep track of every way in which a child is flourishing. They think about how well the Insight statements describe the child’s learning. They note the date a child starts doing something but needs help. Then they note when the child starts to do it alone, and then when they manage all by themselves. We put all this information together. We work out who needs more support and who needs bigger challenges. And we work together so that everyone makes progress.

Each child has a Special Book, made by their Key Person.

It collects notes, drawings, and photos showing each child's interests and learning.

Families get an email each term with updates on their child's Curricular Aspirations. They can talk about this with their Key Person. When children leave us, we send a report to their primary school. This report has their progress towards our Curricular Aspirations and notes about their interests and their learning behaviours.

How leaders at FANS measure success

We make sure all children are learning well in a few ways:

• We talk about how groups of children are doing. We check that everyone is making good progress from where they started.
• In staff meetings, we plan for individual children and for different groups.
• We work with each Key Person and help them plan for all their children.
• Our two schools form an ecosystem, which is a built-in moderator. The same approach in different settings creates different solutions, which we share.
• We use special tools like SSTEW (Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Well-Being) and ECERS (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale) to make sure our teaching and play areas are the best they can be.
• Our school governors visit us and write reports. These show us how we can get better.
• Most important, we listen to our children about what they like. We also talk to families about their experiences at our nurseries.

We put all this information in our School Development Plan, in reports for our main school leaders, and on the SEF (self-evaluation form) for Ofsted.

What our children experience at Nursery

Our pedagogy

A child-initiated, play-based curriculum with high-quality interactions from the adults who work with me. They will plan focused activities to introduce new ideas and build on my current interests.

Key person

A warm welcome from my Key Person when I start nursery to support me as I get used to separating from my family. My Key Person will become very important to me as I grow in confidence and make friends.

Our Curricular Aspirations

A continuous provision of play both inside and outside. This provision includes an adult-led snack table.

Books

Core books that represent new ideas and a variety of cultures, with rich stories that develop a love for reading. Tales Toolkit to develop my knowledge of stories.

Experiences

Core experiences such as gardening, cooking, and looking after our school pets.

Trips

Trips to local places, libraries, places of natural beauty, museums, art galleries, and places of worship and to visit people who help us.

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How we teach and children learn

Physical Development

Adults help me to try new things during my play. This helps me to stay safe but also take risks. Once I have control of my body and tools I take risks and make judgements on how to keep safe while I explore with my friends.

Through a rich play environment, my movement, large and small, is developed through challenge. The adult-guided snack table teaches me that I can make healthy choices. I explore new healthy foods with adult support. I understand why I need to wash my hands through discussions in these moments.

Personal, Social, and Emotional Development

Good relationships are the key to my future. I build a good relationship with my Key Person who supports me to feel confident in myself and make good friendships. They help me to solve problems by finding a solution. Adults model how to share and resolve conflicts.

They plan for my play from my interests and starting points, especially if I am a child with SEND. They model kindness and being gentle.

Communication and Language

Adults are genuinely interested in what I say and think, and look for non-verbal cues that I may use to communicate. They use new language and vocabulary to extend my thinking and knowledge.

They teach vocabulary through new skills and experiences.

Instead of correcting my language, staff model my talk back to me using the correct grammar so I can hear my language in the correct form. They teach me new vocabulary which is slightly beyond my current understanding. They use technical terms. They have high aspirations for me.

Literacy

Adults read new and wonderful stories to me.

We tell stories together.

They model reading and writing to me.

They teach me new vocabulary.

They teach me the sounds of letters, how to break words into sounds and how to blend them back together.

They support me to make marks and talk about their meaning, which over time develops into controlled drawings and letters that represent sounds and writing.

Mathematics

Adults teach me to problem solve in a variety of situations so that I can do things independently. They use the language ‘problem’ and ‘solution’. They model mathematical language to me as I play, and teach me mathematical skills and vocabulary.

We solve problems together through shared sustained thinking.

The environment offers rich experiences in number, shape, space and measuring which allow me to solve mathematical problems, initially with support and then independently. Cooking, snack time and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities give me opportunities to use my mathematical skills as I count and measure.

Understanding the World

Adults inspire me with wonderful objects, language and stories. We visit new places. We investigate how things work together, and through this play I am taught scientific language. I can explore freely for long periods.

Adults extend my knowledge by noticing what I love and am interested in and then planning new experiences to challenge me.

I visit places of worship, museums, galleries and libraries, and meet people who help me to understand the world beyond my own home.

I celebrate my culture and family and the cultures and families of my friends. I take care of animals, watch them grow, and learn how to be gentle.

Expressive Arts and Design

I can explore a range of materials through my play. I am taught new techniques.

My creativity is valued and encouraged: I can try new things, get messy and make mistakes which I learn from.

I experience great joy and wonder through creating in a variety of ways. I get to experience working alongside an artist, hear music and experience theatre and art to inspire me. Adults connect the visits that I go on with my creative responses to help me embed the new vocabulary and ideas. Storytelling is at the core of my learning experience. Adults choose books which help me explore new worlds, people and concepts.

What  our curricular aspirations are

 for 2-3-year-olds:

I have some favourite stories.

I enjoy the company of other children.

I can manage my body on low-level climbing equipment.

I explore construction kits.

for 3-4-year-olds:

I can share my stories with others.

I can negotiate with my friends to resolve issues, bouncing back from challenging situations.

I can use big climbing equipment confidently while managing risks independently and safely.

I can make a model out of self-selected resources.

I can write two or more letters from my name.

I can follow a recipe.

I can make a family tree, talking about my family.

I can create music, dances, or songs independently.

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What we assess when

At the age of two and a half...

At two and a half, my Key Person will write the statutory two-year-old '6 weeks after entry' check in the Prime Areas.

My Headteacher looks at this.
Then we show my family.
They add what they think.

If there are concerns about my development, my Key Person talks to the SENDco about them. She will work with my family to put further support in place for me. Sometimes she shares this information with my health visitor and other experts such as speech and language therapists and educational psychologists.

After the first six weeks in the three-year-old group...

At six weeks my Key Person will complete an on-entry assessment.

My family sees this. If there are concerns about my settling or language, my Key Person talks to the SENDco. She will work with my family to put in support if I need it.

Once a term for both groups in the Special Books and Curricular Aspirations booklet...

A collection of my drawings.

A Tales Toolkit story (three-year-olds only).

Two observations a month of things that interest me and that I'm very engaged in, with photographs to show my process. One could reflect a child-initiated play situation, the other a Curricular Aspiration. This is recorded on an observation sticker.

My Key Person will assess which stage I am at on each Curricular Aspiration. This information will help the team plan for my next steps. The team also record it on a spreadsheet so that the leaders of my school know how different groups are progressing.

My family get to see my progress. The school leaders send them an email that shows which stage I am at for each Curricular Aspiration.

As I leave nursery to go to primary school...

My Key Person writes down what I think about my special book and my achievement in the Curricular Aspirations booklet.

They also record what my family thinks about my learning and progress in my time at nursery.

This nursery school passes this on to my primary school so they can plan for my transition.

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Why we teach this way

Pedagogy relates to the “how”, or practice of educating. It refers to:

It concerns the “how” of adult and child interaction, whilst recognising that how children learn and develop at this stage is not just subject to what is intended to be taught, but that it is also of particular importance how it is facilitated. Research has shown these interactions and experiences are one of the most significant factors explaining the effects of care and early education on children’s learning and development.

Certain pedagogical practices can better stimulate children’s development:

1. Firstly, research suggests that the quality of interactions between adults and children plays a highly important role in stimulating early learning. In high-quality interactions, adults are genuinely interested in what the child is doing; adults are listening, are extending children's thoughts and knowledge (i.e. scaffolding), and implement sustained shared thinking methods where children co-construct meanings and interpretations of reality together with supportive adults. In settings where sustained shared thinking was enacted more frequently, children have been noted to make greater developmental progress. Scaffolding-focused learning environments, where the practitioner only attempts to help the child with tasks that are just beyond the child’s current capability, demonstrated greater overall positive effects on children’s development compared to children placed in more teacher-directed and child-centred environments.
2. Secondly, play-based learning is found to be a highly effective method in enhancing children’s socio-emotional and academic development. Play has found to contribute most to a child’s development when it is regarded as meaningful, i.e. has the explicit purpose for a child to learn something such as a puzzle or constructional materials. Research indicates that unguided free play is often less effective in stimulating early learning as compared to guided free play.
3. Different research findings suggest that, thirdly, pedagogy should neither be too staff-directed or staff-focused with a high share of staff-initiated activities, nor too child-centred where children decide on the activities. While studies on staff-directed approaches have revealed some advantages such as better letter and reading achievement, this approach negatively affects children's motivation to learn.

Read the research

‘Pedagogy in early childhood education and care (ECEC): an international comparative study of approaches and policies’ July 2015 Stephanie Wall, consultant, Ineke Litjens, OECD Miho Taguma, OECD, Published by the Department of Education

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