Curriculum

We are very proud of our Cuddly Bear Curriculum. We collaborated with industry experts and experienced Early Years professionals to create an exclusive, bespoke, inclusive and engaging curriculum for our children.

The Cuddly Bear Curriculum can only be found at our nurseries and whether your child is in KSA or London they will experience the same consistent high-quality teaching and engage with the same inclusive and age-appropriate resources.

Our curriculum is reviewed and adapted annually to suit our children’s needs. All Cuddly Bear staff are trained to deliver our curriculum and are monitored and trained by the leadership team.

Literacy​

Literacy

Promoting a love of books and storytelling is at the core of our literacy curriculum. We enjoy a topic driven learning experience at Cuddly Bear which means that each month explores a different topic. These topics include Holidays, Feelings, Around the World and Save the Planet. Each week’s plan focuses on a Book of the Week that matches our nursery topic. The children will participate in four engaging, exciting and challenging carpet sessions a week. During these sessions they will have the opportunity to listen, talk about and act out the story in different ways. Children will also have the chance to extend their vocabulary, learn about story settings and characters and develop their mark making skills. Follow up activities are an integral cross curricular part of all our curriculums. Within our literacy curriculum these follow up activities give the children the independence to consolidate their knowledge and understanding of the Book of the Week.

Mathematics

Each month our Mathematics curriculum will focus on a different age-appropriate core mathematical skill/s. During carpet sessions practitioners will teach specific and focused maths skills to the children. Depending on age these sessions will take place between 2 and 4 times a week. Children will learn skills like counting, spatial awareness, properties of 2D and 3D shapes and subitising. Interactive, interesting and engaging games and activities will ensure that children will stay focused and enjoy their developing mathematics abilities. Once again cross curricular follow up activities will give the children the opportunity to practise and extend their mathematical knowledge through child focused play.

Culture

At Cuddly Bear we pride ourselves on giving our children the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of the world around them. Through our Culture Curriculum we promote the British Values of Democracy, Rule of Law, Individual Liberty and Mutual Respect and Tolerance. Each month children will learn about a variety of International Days that are celebrated around the world by learning facts, watching informative videos, tasting different foods, dancing to diverse music and looking at books and stories. Some of our International Days this year have included: World Ballet Day, World Paella Day, World Arabic Day, National Chopsticks Day, National Dentist Day and International Tiger Day.

Music

Musical Bears is our exciting and engaging music curriculum inspired by the document “Musical Development Matters in the Early Years”, created by Nicola Burke a leading early years and music consultant. Musical Bears immerses the children in a fun and creative music making experience. Our resident music and drama teacher Ellie has implemented age differentiated group music sessions that our lead by our wonderful practitioners throughout the week. During these sessions the children will develop their hearing and listening, vocalising and singing, moving and dancing and exploring and playing skills. Musical Bears gives the children the opportunity to explore instruments from around the world, learn new songs, choregraph their own dances and learn about rhythm, tempo and dynamics.

Art

Creativity is at the heart of everything we do at Cuddly Bear and our Art curriculum is at the core of that creativity. Our Art curriculum reflects our monthly nursery topics and fosters the children’s understanding and development in Expressive Arts and Design whilst also introducing them to art skills set out in the National Curriculum in England. Children will engage in a variety of artistic mediums including drawing, painting and printing, model making and sculpture and textiles and collage. During art experiences children will learn about famous artists like Matisse and Van Gogh as well as how to mirror their art techniques in their own works. Practitioners will introduce key vocabulary and enhance the children’s skills and knowledge by asking key questions and encouraging artistic discussions.

Phonics

Phonics is introduced to our children once they start in the Preschool. Our Phonics Curriculum has been developed using Letters and Sounds and Jolly Phonics as a basis. During the Autumn Term the children’s phonics journey will commence with a comprehensive understanding of Phase One phonics. Phase One Phonics helps the children develop the listening skills to distinguish between sounds in the environment around them. They will learn about rhythm, rhyme, environmental sounds, body percussion and oral segmenting and blending. Having this ability will enable children to move onto learning letter sounds (phonemes) and tricky words in the Spring and Summer Terms. Phonics activities happen daily and are fun, focussed, well-paced and engaging sessions.