Curriculum & Activities

A Head Start in Learning and Development

At The Barnes Village Nursery, we support children’s growth by building on their unique abilities and interests. Using our Observe, Watch, and Listen (OWL) approach, we carefully tailor activities to nurture every child’s full potential while they play, explore, and most importantly have fun.

It's Never 'Just' Play

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It's Never 'Just' Play *

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, which focuses on seven key areas of development:

  • Physical Development: Gross and fine motor skills, healthy habits, and active play.

  • Personal, Social, and Emotional Development: Building confidence, forming relationships, and fostering independence. Encouraging self regulation and establishing trust.

  • Communication and Language: Expanding vocabulary, storytelling, and group discussions.

  • Literacy: Promote a love of reading both fact and fictional books. Mark-making skills using a variety of materials, recognising letters, words, rhymes and sounds.

  • Mathematics: Exploring numbers, shapes, patterns, and measurements through hands-on learning and experiments.

  • Understanding the World: Learning about nature, community, and cultural diversity.

  • Expressive Arts and Design: Creative expression through painting, music, dance, and role play.

Our aim is to ignite a lifelong love of learning, encouraging children to grow into curious, confident, and independent thinkers.

At The Barnes Village Nursery, we ensure every child’s early years are filled with happiness, growth, and security. Want to learn more?

Download the [ Parents’ Guide to the EYFS ].

Our Activities

We believe children learn best when they’re having fun. Our enriched environments combine structured and free-play activities to foster creativity, problem-solving, and exploration. This balance builds resilience, independence, and an endless sense of joy in learning.

Our engaging curriculum includes:

  • Daily Activities: Sensory Play, Mark Making, Crafts, Music, Role Play, Storytelling, and Outdoor Play and Exploration.

  • Weekly Activities: Cooking (hands-on culinary fun that introduces basic math and science concepts); Music (structured music time where children learn about rhythm, melody, pitch, and instrumentation); Spanish (introducing new sounds and language structure and culture to enhance the development of each brain’s language centre); Ball Skills (where the childrens’ fine and gross motor skills are developed along with their attention paying skills); Outdoor Learning (our take on ‘mini forest school’ where the classroom is moved outside and the children spend an entire morning in the natural world soaking up experiences from the outdoor space on our doorstep).

  • Painting

  • Crafts

  • Music

  • Drama

  • Storytelling

  • Baking

  • Outdoor Adventures

  • Playground fun

  • Science

  • Literacy

  • Mathematics

  • Sports

  • Seasonal fun