Curriculum Intent | QPM website

Our curriculum intent...

'The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement is being formed. At no other age has the child greater need of intelligent help, and any obstacle that impedes his creative work will lessen the chance he has of achieving perfection.' Maria Montessori - The Absorbent Mind

Birth to three years:

In this period from birth to 3 years old, Montessori education concentrates in the development of speaking, coordinated movement and independence, which gives the child confidence, and allows them to discover their own potential and their place within a community.

Baby room intent (birth to two years):

By the time our babies reach the age of two, they have learnt how to form attachments to familiar adults through our key worker system, which helps them to feel safe and secure. By giving opportunities for small grouped activities our babies develop an awareness of turn-taking and sharing. This encourages them to want to interact and play alongside others, giving them the starting blocks needed to form friendships. We give ample opportunities for our babies to develop their independence and choice making through free play.

Meal times encourage our babies to be independent with finger foods, developing their hand/eye coordination, and to learn how to feed themselves with a spoon. When nearing two, we further encourage self-help skills by encouraging our babies to find their own shoes and coats at outdoor time, and support them in putting them on and taking them off.

Within the baby room we have some big milestones, especially with their physical development; from sitting independently, crawling, pulling themselves to standing, to walking unsupported. We develop these stages by firstly sitting them supported then reducing this support over time. Our room's layout is designed to give our babies countless opportunities to pull themselves up and cruise, resulting in them being independent walkers.

By the age of two, we would expect our babies to be able to express their wants and needs through single words and/or gestures. They will also be able to understand and follow simple instructions and be developing 2-3 word sentences.

Conservatory room intent (two to three years):

At the age of two to three our children are full of emotions and we encourage them to express themselves in a safe and comforting environment. Our room offers a balance of early Montessori work time activities and free play, catering for the rapid changes in abilities of our age group, focusing on giving our children the key skills needed for them to grow from dependent toddlers to independent three-year-olds. We encourage our children to join in with activities and games to promote positive peer interactions. We aim to build their confidence so that they are keen to make their own decisions and can celebrate and value similarities and differences in the group and their wider world. Our children are given ample opportunities through books to acquire an ever expanding vocabulary and therefore becoming enthusiastic communicators. Our conservatory routine is structured but flexible to offer opportunities for children to learn to follow instructions based on their individual understanding.

Our children are keen movers and, with regular daily outside time and music and movement activities, they are able to learn lots of new essential skills. We encourage independence in self care and support children through their toilet training journey to become established in this area. Open access to pencils and paper allows the children to become confident mark-makers who constantly build on their fine manipulative skills.

By completing the statutory 27 month check assessment with parents, we ensure that each child's individual needs are discussed and recorded, with any necessary support given for their future development.

Three to four years:

The Montessori classroom curriculum for children from three to four years old is divided into four working areas:

Practical Life: These are activities that aim to the care of the person, of others and of the physical environment they live in. These activities can include tasks that are familiar to the child such as: using tweezers, pouring, washing, polishing, setting the table, etc. They also include activities of 'grace and courtesy', such as how to greet a person, how to hold a conversation, how to wipe your own nose, etc. Through these and other activities, children achieve coordination and control of movement and exploration of their surroundings. Children learn to complete a task from beginning to end, they develop their will, self-discipline, the capacity of concentration and self-confidence.
Sensorial: Children at this age learn through senses more than through their intellect. The sensorial materials are tools for children to refine each of their senses. Each material isolates a specific quality: smell, size, weight, texture, colour, etc. In this preschool age, when children are "bombarded" with sensorial information, these materials allow them to find order and meaning to the world, raising their capacity of perception, favouring observation and a sense of admiration for everything that surrounds them.
Language: When the child enters an environment at age three, they enrich the language that they had already acquired. They are capable of using it intelligently with precision and beauty, slowly realising its properties. They learn to write, starting with their senses (hearing and touching), and as a natural consequence they learn to read. As an extension of language activities, children learn about geography, history, science, art and music. These areas help the child to know their surroundings and to realise the place they occupy in this world. They teach them respect and love for their environment, and they create a sense of solidarity with all humanity and their habitat.
Mathematics: These materials help the child to learn and understand mathematical concepts when working with concrete materials that lead them intuitively to abstract concepts. They offer them sensorial impressions of the numbers and set the foundations for algebra and geometry.

Montessori room intent (three to four years):

By the end of their time in the Montessori room, our intent is for each child to have reached their full potential and excelled. We want them to have a love of learning and be enthusiastic about the next stage of their journey (big school). Specifically, in each area of learning, our children will:

Communication and language:

All children will be exposed to a language rich environment which will build up their vocabulary and communication skills so they are confident talkers. They will be able to listen and sit still at appropriate times, such as circle time, and they will understand and follow instructions. They will confidently ask questions and answer open-ended questions, showing a high level of understanding. They will love singing and be able to sing through to completion a variety of different rhymes and songs.

Personal, social and emotional development:

All children will be independent and confident learners. They will make their own choices and follow their own interests. The will be kind, polite and respectful towards their peers and adults, and know the skills they need to make friends. All children will be toilet trained as far as can be depending on each child's stage of development. They will have excellent self-help skills and be able to use the toilet without help, feed themselves using a knife and fork, and put on and take off their own shoes and coat, doing up their own buttons and zips. The children are resilient and confident when making a mistake, knowing it is all part of their learning. All children will understand about how to keep themselves healthy, through exercise and healthy eating.

Physical development:

All children will be confident with both large and fine motor skills. They will have developed good core strength and stamina and be well coordinated, having an awareness of personal space. Due to the input of large motor activities, children will be confident writers, holding a pencil using a tripod/pincer grasp, and attempting to write some of the letters in their name (either on paper or in the sand tray, depending on their age/stage of development). They will push themselves and test out their own abilities, understanding how to keep themselves safe at the same time.

Literacy:

All children will develop a love of reading stories and poems that will continue through life. they will be interested and engaged throughout a variety of different types of story, and will make up their own stories and rhymes. They will be excited to learn phonic sounds and begin to segment and blend different sounds together to form words. They will be able to continue a simple rhyming string and match pairs of rhyming words. The children will be confident at emergent writing and will be enthusiastic about learning how to form letters, both in the sand and using mark-making tools.

Mathematics:

All children will enjoys mathematical activities and be keen to 'have a go'. They will have a clear understanding of numbers from 1 to 5 (and further depending on their age/stage of development). They will be able to subitise 1, 2, and 3 and count quantities, knowing that the final number they count is the total quantity (cardinal principle). They will be able to count consistently to 10 (and some beyond) and understand that anything can be counted (jumps during exercises for example). All children will be able to talk about 2D shapes, using their mathematical names, understanding the properties (how many corner, edges, etc.), and noticing shapes in their environment. They will be aware of 3D shapes and some of their properties. All children will be able to use and understand positional language, especially, 'in, on, under', with most children also understanding and using 'next to, behind, in front of'. All children will be able to complete a simple sequence, such as 'red, green, red, green', or sequencing an event,and wil notice and talk about patterns in their environment. they will be able to make comparisons between objects, noticing size, weight, etc.

Understanding the world:

All children will be confident members of the nursery and their wider community. They will have knowledge of their local community and the area in which they live. They will be able to talk about 'people who help us' and, through discussion and conversation, be able to talk about, for example, what they would like to do for a job when they grow up. All children will be accepting of each other, will not discriminate, and will show care and concern for all living things. They will celebrate differences and be confident within themselves. All children will be keen explorers and talk about what they have observed. They will have experienced awe and wonder, and be excited to learn about their world.

Expressive arts and design:

All children will have had experiences of art in all its forms; from dancing and singing, to musical instruments, to painting and drawing, to construction. They will have a love of singing and be able to remember and sing through entire songs using a nice singing voice. They will be able to keep to a rhythm using body percussion, copying rhythmic patterns and making up their own simple patterns. All children will be able to develop a scenario/story in role play and act out things that are familiar to them. They will be able to draw a simple picture, such as a self-portrait, and talk about what they have created. They will show creativity in all areas of self-expression, such as when building in the construction area, role playing, dough, painting, junk-modelling, etc.