Curriculam
The Cambridge Early Years curriculum offers a holistic approach that focuses on the whole child and connects their development with the world and people around them.
The curriculum provides a comprehensive set of learning statements that gives a structure for teaching and learning in three stages: PRE CHAMPS (for ages 3-4), JUNIOR CHAMPS (for ages 4-5) and SENIOR CHAMPS (for ages 5-6).
The learning statements reflect well-established developmental milestones for children’s learning from ages 3 to 6. Milestones can never be an accurate indicator of what every child can do. Each child has their own developmental pathway which is shaped by many factors, including their home background and experiences. A child’s current level of knowledge, understanding and skills always needs to be considered when planning their next steps.
The Cambridge Early Years Curriculum is a planning tool and the learning statements within it are designed to promote progression in learning from PRE CHAMPS to SENIOR CHAMPS and onwards into primary education. It enables development of knowledge, understanding and skills through a spiral approach: by revisiting and engaging with topics and skills at deeper levels and in different contexts across the stages.
The curriculum content is split into six subject areas:
Communication, language & literacy
Speaking, listening, reading and writing are crucial to children’s early development. Showing children the importance of language through fun activities and encouraging them to engage with a wide range of texts helps to ignite a lifelong curiosity for learning.
While the Cambridge Early Years curriculum is designed for teaching and learning in English, celebrating the home language(s) of learners is also very important.
Stages | |
PRE CHAMPS | Listen and respond appropriately in everyday situations, although not necessarily immediately. |
JUNIOR CHAMPS | Listen to and take into account what others have to say |
SENIOR CHAMPS | Listen and respond appropriately to familiar and less familiar adults and peers. |
Creative expression
Creative expression allows children to communicate their ideas and develop their imagination through art and design, music, dance and drama. This important curriculum area brings together skills and cognitive processes from across the whole curriculum. The art and design learning statements below illustrate progression across the three stages.
Stages | |
PRE CHAMPS | Explore visual and tactile qualities in the natural and made world, for example, help to make a ‘feely wall’ with surfaces that have different textures (e.g. rough, smooth, soft). |
JUNIOR CHAMPS | Respond to natural, made and imaginary worlds through play and by making art and design, for example, visit a forest and then collaborate to paint or construct their own miniature forest. |
SENIOR CHAMPS | Gather, record and respond to experiences and visual information from natural and made sources, for example, make a collection of textures from outside surfaces using plasticine impressions and printing. |
Mathematics
At an early age, it’s important to help children recognise how mathematics impacts everyday life. Through games and activities, we can introduce children to mathematical language, thinking and concepts that they will need when they start their primary education. The learning statements from shape, space and measure below illustrate progression across the three stages.
Stages | |
PRE CHAMPS | Recognise and talk about patterns in the environment. |
JUNIOR CHAMPS | Copy and create simple repeating patterns of repeating units (e.g. [red, blue]; [red, blue yellow]; [red, blue, blue]; [red, blue, blue, yellow]) and say what would come next in the pattern. |
SENIOR CHAMPS | Use familiar language to describe sequences of items, including identifying errors in patterns of colour, shape or size, for example, 'It goes square, circle, triangle, square, circle, circle … the last one is wrong, it should be a triangle.'. |
Personal, social & emotional development
This area underpins children’s wellbeing and attainment in all other areas of their learning. It helps them to develop social learning and friendships, regulate their emotional responses and respond to the needs of others, and develop self-esteem and confidence. The learning statements below illustrate progression across the three stages.
Stages | |
PRE CHAMPS | Reflect on their activities and experiences, saying what they liked and disliked. |
JUNIOR CHAMPS | Reflect on their activities and experiences, saying why they like some activities more than others, and talking about their achievements and challenges. |
SENIOR CHAMPS | Join in with group discussion and debate about their activities and experiences, contributing relevant ideas and offering some explanation for their thinking. |
Physical development
Our curriculum encourages children to develop movement skills through play, promoting positive attitudes towards exercise and laying the foundations for healthy, active lives. The learning statements below illustrate progression across the three stages.
Stages | |
PRE CHAMPS | Respond appropriately to movement instructions, including in imaginative contents, for example, ‘Stomp like an elephant.’, ‘Leap from rock to rock.’, ‘Twist to see if the pirate is chasing you.’. |
JUNIOR CHAMPS | Follow basic rules and sequences of simple movement instructions, including instructions containing simple directional language, for example, ‘Stretch up.’, ‘Crouch down.’. |
SENIOR CHAMPS | Follow movement instructions and basic rules, including instructions that include left and right, for example ‘Jump left.’, ‘Side-step right.’. |
Understanding the world
Children’s natural curiosity must be encouraged, so that they are equipped to reflect, question, explore and interact, and guided in their understanding of the world. This area of the curriculum lays foundations for a range of different subjects in primary education and beyond, including science, digital literacy, history, geography and religious education. The learning statements from scientific thinking below illustrate progression across the stages.
Stages | |
PRE CHAMPS | Follow instructions to grow plants from seeds and talk about their observations as the plants grow. |
JUNIOR CHAMPS | Grow and care for different plants, knowing that they need light and water to survive. |
SENIOR CHAMPS | Grow and care for different plants, exploring what makes a difference to how well a plant grows (e.g. not giving too much water, some plants only grow well in the sunniest spots in the garden). |