Early Years (PYP)

Positive Relationships

Throughout their time at kindergarten and school, all children need to be nurtured if they are to meet their full potential. This means that they need to receive the right care, encouragement and support to develop as healthy, confident, content young people.

Of course, nurture does include the practical aspects of supporting children to get dressed correctly, drink water regularly, eat at appropriate times, have support with personal hygiene, but a complete nurturing approach goes much further than this and is centred on building positive relationships with pupils.

A Nurturing Approach

At Brookes Moscow Early Years , staff are committed to building positive relationships with pupils, and responding sensitively to their feelings, ideas and behaviours. We take a nurturing approach where positive relationships are built according to six nurture principles as we consider what children need in order to achieve success.

Six Nurture Principles

Children's learning is understood developmentally.

The classroom offers a safe base.

Nurture is important for the development of wellbeing.

Language is understood as a vital means of communication.

All behaviour is communication.

Transitions are significant in the lives of children.

Learning Through Play

Learning in the Early Years (Pre-Nursery to Reception) for the most part involves educational play which is intelligently designed to meet the key curriculum objectives. Teachers facilitate learning by carefully observing, questioning and prompting children and generally minimise ‘teacher-talk time’ addressing whole class groups.

Enabling Environments

Early Years classrooms are exciting, ‘enabling environments’ with a range of activities for children to choose from. For example, every class has a role-play area which links to the topic that the class is learning about; this might be modelled on a farm, a zoo, a post office, a police station or a travel agency… the possibilities are endless. Role-play areas are a powerful catalyst to imaginative play, nurturing communication and collaboration skills, vocabulary and mathematical development. Budding ‘shoppers’ and ‘shopkeepers’ practise their counting, ‘police officers’ listen to people’s descriptions of lost or stolen possessions and ‘travel agents’ and ‘travellers’ discuss holiday destinations, book flights and choose hotels. This is great fun and, when facilitated skillfully by professional teachers, results in powerful learning!

Focused Activities

More formal, teacher-led activities also occur during the course of the day, such as teaching letter sounds, phonics, counting or adding, but these are generally conducted in small groups for age-appropriate periods of time, rather than as whole-class ‘lessons’.

Outdoor Learning

Outdoor learning is absolutely central to our approach to preschool education. We are fortunate to have a fully-equipped Early Years outdoor learning area specifically tailored to our curriculum. Weather permitting, it’s our aim for Early Years children to spend around 30% of their learning time outside, enjoying being in the open air!

Developing Inquiry

As children move up into Year 1 and Year 2, they further develop approaches to learning, blending collaborative and project-based learning with educational play and traditional teaching. Inquiry forms an important part of the learning process, exploring key concepts which thread through the subjects of the curriculum.

Early Years PYP (Pre-Nursery - Reception)

Our Preschool classes (Pre-nursery, Nursery & Reception) use the internationally respected Primary Years programme (PYP) curriculum for children aged birth – five years. We respect and value how the Programme prioritises the bedrock of early childhood development – growth in communication skills, healthy physical development and personal, social and emotional development – and we strongly believe that if a child is progressing in these areas and feels safe and happy in school then they will make excellent overall progress.

The Three Prime Areas

Children develop listening skills and increase their ability to maintain attention. They build understanding and verbal communication skills.

Children develop gross and fine motor skills. They learn how to keep themselves clean and healthy.

Children learn to build positive relationships, self-confidence and self-awareness. They Learn how to manage their feelings and behaviour.

The Four Specific Areas

Preschool teachers also lay the foundations for success in reading, writing and mathematics using a blend of intelligently designed educational play activities and focused individual and group sessions that nurture specific skills. The emphasis on literacy and numeracy increases somewhat in Nursery and quite distinctly in Reception as children near transition to Year 1.

Children build phonetic awareness and begin to develop reading and writing skills.

Number sense is developed, and an understanding of shape, space and measure.

Children learn about people and communities, the world and technology.

Learners explore and use a variety of media and materials, and develop creativity and imagination.

Early Years PYP (Year 1 - Year 2)

The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) Year 1 curriculum focuses on developing students' knowledge, skills, and understanding through transdisciplinary units of inquiry, fostering a love for learning and encouraging inquiry-based approaches. In Year 2, the curriculum builds upon the foundations established in Year 1, deepening students' conceptual understanding and critical thinking abilities while nurturing their social, emotional, and academic growth through engaging interdisciplinary learning experiences.

The IB Learner Profile

The IB Learner Profile represents a holistic approach to education, cultivating internationally-minded individuals who embody a wide range of desirable qualities and skills necessary for personal growth and global citizenship.

Inquirers

Knowledgeable

Thinkers

Communicators

Principled

Open-minded

Caring

Risk-takers

Balanced

Reflective

The Curriculum

The curriculum is organised under the following subject headings: Mathematics, English (phonics, reading, writing, spelling), Science, Social Studies, Technology Lessons, Music, Russian Language, Mandarin / French, Physical and Health Education, Library

Key Concepts

Transdisciplinary learning in Year 1 & 2 conveys learning that links across subjects, and helps children make connections and develop understandings about the world around them. Pupils in Year 1 & 2 learn to appreciate knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills and personal attributes as a connected whole. They can reflect on what their learning really means, and they take meaningful action in their community and beyond. Transdisciplinary learning is planned through a focus on Key Concepts.

The Learning Community

The way we treat each other as individuals, and the way that we collaborate as a learning community are important elements of how we implement our curriculum, and are threaded throughout the formal and informal curriculum, school practices and policy.

All members of the school community share a commitment to:

Living peacefully together

Prioritising people and their relationships

Sharing responsibility for learning, health and wellbeing