Cultural Capital in Early Years

The children at Aspinal benefit greatly from a culturally enriched environment. In addition to cultural activities such as arts and crafts and specialist music and PE, we also offer a unique curriculum for the children. To ensure we give each child the best start in life and to support them to reach their full potential, our curriculum creates awe and wonder of the world around them which in turn broadens their horizons by extending and challenging them and creating experiences of which they wouldn’t otherwise encounter.

Parental Workshops

Throughout the year parents are invited into school to observe practitioners modelling different skills including reading. They then have the opportunity to practice these skills and read the books available in our classroom with the children.  

Stay and Play

Throughout the year we hold several stay and play sessions, which all parents are encouraged to attend. These vary in objectives, some upskill our parents such as reading, phonics and Seesaw.

Wellcomm

Staff use wellcomm to quickly identify areas of concern in language, communication, and interaction development in order to ensure early targeted intervention.

Time to Talk – the development of vocabulary

In all of our Early Years settings, we promote Time to Talk, where children have the opportunity to develop their communication and language skills. They are able to be exposed to new vocabulary, to learn how forward and backwards conversations work, to form full sentences and to discuss a particular topic. This language is then reinforced.

Emergency services

Throughout the year we look to embed the emergency services into a topic in a way that teaches the children how each service keeps us safe, respect for the officers and who to call in an emergency as well as supporting the children to know how to keep themselves safe in different scenarios.

Easter Bonnet parade

Every year the children make exquisite Easter bonnets at home with their parents, which they then proudly wear on a parade around the local area. This draws together the community as shop owners, families and local residents gather to watch the procession and follow us to the nearby church for an Easter service.

Oral Hygeine

School staff have been trained to promote good dental practice, support children and families and raise awareness about the importance of daily oral hygiene and have been provided with resources to ensure this is put into practice!

Trips and Experiences

Throughout the year, trips and experiences are planned into the curriculum to help the children broaden their knowledge by exposing them to things they wouldn’t encounter. These experiences enhance the children’s cultural awareness and develop their understanding of values and beliefs as well as challenging preconceived perceptions. Moreover, by seeing for themselves, the real life examples of what they have been learning, the children gain a deeper understanding of the topic, which increases their motivation to learn and retain the information. We focus heavily on our local environment, with trips and walks around the local community and partnership with services in the local area.

Opportunity to perform

Each child is given the opportunity to perform in our Nativity performances. They rehearse, make and wear costumes and props, learn lines and sing songs together in front of audiences. In addition to this, songs are chosen and performed at the Easter Bonnet Parade and Spring Morning. 

British Values

Throughout the year different cultural festivals and special events are planned in and the children spend a day exploring the culture and the festival. British Values are woven in to our broad and balanced Early Years curriculum.