We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, the British framework for Early Years Education that sets standards for children’s learning, development, and care from birth to 5 years of age.
At Nün Academy, we know that children are born ready, able and eager to learn. They actively reach out to interact with other people and to engage with the world around them. Development depends on each child having authentic opportunities to learn and engage in positive relationships and stimulating environments.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework supports our integrated approach to early learning and care. It gives professionals and guardians a set of common principles and dispositions to deliver quality early education experiences to all children.
Our Standards
When children play, explore and create, they learn and develop across all areas and become effective and motivated learners. There are four strands of learning and development that shape educational programs in early years settings. At Nün, we include two additional areas, Islamic and Arabic Social Studies, to ensure we meet the needs of our children and families.
These four strands of learning and development are important and inter-connected. They are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.
These strands:
Develop quickly in response to relationships and experiences.
Support learning in all other areas.
Provide meaningful contexts for learning.
Continue to be fundamental throughout the EYFS.
Early Years Arabic Language
At Nün Academy, one of our primary goals is to develop children who are capable of speaking and communicating in Arabic. To equip children with a wide range of Arabic vocabulary, we integrate language acquisition into all parts of our daily schedule. We believe that our classrooms function as “third teachers” and strive to create learning spaces that are welcoming, authentic and aesthetically pleasing. Culturally representative of our community and embracing nature, they are filled with purposeful materials and encourage children to understand, listen and speak Arabic organically.
Curriculum Highlights:
Inquiry projects – 4-6 week units where children are engaged in investigations of new intriguing topics.
Repeated Reading – reading the same story multiple times to help children develop comprehension skills and aid in the acquisition of new vocabulary words.
Higher Order Thinking Skills -storytelling sessions that include questions derived from higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Finally, our base group teachers are Arabic speakers, which allows the children to spend the majority of their day engaged in Arabic conversation with them. Students have ample opportunities to listen to and engage in conversation in Arabic.
Early Years Integrated Learning
Integrated learning encourages students to see the interconnectedness and interrelationships between the curriculum areas. Rather than focusing on learning in isolated curriculum areas, an integrated program allows students to develop new skills as they study topics relevant to them. When children play, they experience a range of opportunities to explore, imagine, investigate and engage in purposeful and meaningful experiences. Through play-based experiences, children make sense of their world as they engage with others and their environment.
More benefits of integrated learning:
Integrated programs provide opportunities for experience-based learning.
Students can use their prior experiences to construct learning.
A range of shared experiences provides scaffolds for learning, giving every child in the class knowledge to base their understanding on.
Because integrated units are child-centred, they provide opportunities for cross-cultural sharing.
Children display competence authentically rather than relying on a written or oral test.
Early Years Specialist Classes
Art
Art in Early Years is about play and discovery. We place a strong emphasis on a growth mindset rather than perfectionism, and our primary focus is on exploration, experimenting and critical thinking. At Nün Academy, art links strongly to scientific discovery. Our students explore new materials, ideas and feelings, asking critical questions:
How will this tempera paint change or react?
Why does this happen?
I wonder what would happen if…?
In Art class, students can take risks, daydream, turn old ideas into new ones, make critical observations, generate ideas, and make connections.
We introduce students to famous artists, well-known works, and art around the world, so students can explore art at a deeper level. Topics include artists such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O’Keefe and many more. Students also study art from around the world such as the Caves of Lascaux and Altamira, Japanese Suminagashi and Mexican Huichol art.
Music
We provide an eclectic and active music curriculum for our students in the Early Years Program. Folk songs, rhymes, traditional games and dances form an integral part of their music experience.
Each Early Years music lesson includes a variety of creative activities to introduce and reinforce basic music skills. In addition, many music activities support classroom objectives such as identifying numbers, recognising colours, reinforcing the alphabet, etc.
Music objectives fall into five conceptual areas...
We provide an eclectic and active
Students approach objectives through a variety of experiences:
Moving
Exploring locomotor and non-locomotor responses in metered and non-metered settings incorporating dramatic play.
Speaking
Using voice rhythmically or freely to explore vocal expression.
Singing
Matching pitch independently and within a group.
Listening
Developing aural recognition.
Playing
Exploring the body as an instrument as well as pitched and unpitched instruments.
Notating
Demonstrating an understanding of the visual representatives of rhythm, melody and form.
Physical Education
Physical Education in the early years is about developing coordination, control, strength, agility and balance.As they develop sound fundamental movement skills, children can engage successfully in play and more structured games as they move through life, (e.g., running, hoping, throwing and catching, hopscotch, dancing, how to move, roll, jump)
Our early years physical activity programs focus on introducing children to organised sports, developing physical and social skills, building confidence, and getting everyone to have a go. Our emphasis is on the fun of playing, being active and trying hard rather than on winning and losing.
