Our curriculum is based on the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage framework.

Development in the prime areas of learning is the foundation for ongoing success. In our baby and toddler rooms, the focus is on communication and language skills, personal, social, and emotional development, and physical development. Progress in all these areas underpins other specific areas of learning, from maths and literacy to understanding the world around us and encouraging self-expression through art and crafts.

Learning through play pedagogy is based on both research and theory. The theorist Jean Piaget gave the world valuable insights into the cognitive development of children. He identified what we as adults might just refer to as ‘play’ as a systematic process of learning that has identifiable stages from birth to adulthood. Seahorse Nurseries supports development through play, providing an environment full of stimuli, a social setting with other children, high-quality adult interactions, and careful tracking of a child’s development to plan for their next stage of learning.

Through thematic learning – we have a different theme each term which is a focus for learning across all our subject areas – our aim is to expand a child’s knowledge of the world around them.

Each classroom is responsible for its own weekly planning which gives opportunities to meet every child’s needs and follow their individual interests.

As part of the curriculum, we have several educational programmes taught by specialist teachers to support early brain development and give opportunities to develop important skills. These include Forest School, tennis coaching, The Seahorse Club (bespoke maths and literacy curriculum for over-3s), music sessions, French and sensory classes, cooking, science, yoga and mindfulness and Makaton (symbol and sign language). Every term, we have an Oral Health Week to teach children the importance of looking after their teeth.

We want to get to know and understand your child, so your Key Person and all the team make regular observations. From these, we build up a picture of your child’s progress and needs and can plan activities to support their personal learning journey at Seahorse Nursery.

Many of our observations are written into their Learning Journal, which you are welcome to see at any time. We encourage you to contribute with home notes that we can incorporate into this journal so that we have synergy between home and nursery. We regularly share your child’s next steps so we can work together to support them.

The Seahorse Club will give your child the best educational start in life. It is a small group session for children of a similar age and educational stage that takes place at a set time each week.

We follow a tailor-made curriculum developed over the last 20 years. Each activity uses resources uniquely designed for our Seahorse Club to improve numeracy and literacy skills. 1:1 attention is given to ensure each child understands how to use equipment and resources including sandpaper letters, plastic alphabet, pink boxes, mathematical rods, 3D shapes, counting and dice games.