CURRICULUM
Child Development
Child Development Curriculum Intent
Child Development students gain a fundamental appreciation of how early childhood experiences and relationships lay the foundations for future interactions and outcomes. They understand the process of holistic development, discovering the sequence in which children gain specific concepts and skills. This will enable them to deliver appropriate strategies to ensure that children thrive. Students explore the roles, responsibilities and opportunities of careers connected to early years development.Â
Key Strands
Development of children 0-5 years
Students explore developmental milestones to enable a comprehensive understanding of the skills and concepts that are achieved from birth to 5 years. They are introduced to the range of factors and transitions that affect holistic development and develop their understanding of ways to support children in achieving their potential.
Throughout the course students develop their understanding of the roles and responsibilities of working in early years settings including the importance of maintaining confidentiality, promoting equality and diversity and being a reflective practitioner. They consider the individual needs of children including age-related, medical and developmental and explore the importance of the necessity for fairness and inclusive practice.
Working with young children
Research
Students develop their independent research skills to enable understanding of a range of childcare issues. They learn to collect, select and record information from a range of sources ensuring that these are appropriately acknowledged.
Students explain how a range of factors, events and activities influence a child holistically, with an increasing awareness of how all areas are interrelated.
Explanation
Year 10
Holistic development
The course starts with a focus on holistic development and involves students acquiring knowledge of the expected norms across all areas of development: physical, intellectual, language, emotional and social.
Skills -
Students are working on:
Understanding the chronological sequence of developmental norms.
Describing how holistic development can be supported.
Factors that influence a child’s development
Students will understand the concept of the nature v nurture debate in relation to the child’s behaviour and the extent to which nature or nurture is responsible for an individual’s development and behaviour. They will discover the range of biological and environmental factors that impact holistic development including poverty, abuse, and inherited conditions. Students learn about the range of transitions that children may experience such as starting a new care setting or birth of a new sibling and understand the ways that they may react to these transitions. Ways to support children through these transitions are then investigated.
Skills
Students are working on:
Describing how biological and environmental factors impact on holistic development, gaining knowledge of how all areas of development are interlinked.
Describing how children are affected by and can be supported through transitions.
Care routines, play and activities to support the child’s independence, health. Safety and well-being
Students will understand that every child is unique but their basic needs are the same. They will understand that by meeting the child’s needs, the child will achieve their full potential. Students discover how the basic care routines such as getting dressed, mealtimes, sleep and wash routines promote health, independence, safety and well-being. They will investigate the types of play including creative, physical and imaginative and how they can support holistic development. Skills
Students are working on:
Describing the routines of mealtime personal hygiene and outdoor play.
Explaining how everyday routines support holistic development
Explaining how the routines contribute to holistic development.
Early years provision
Students will develop their understanding of the types of early years provision including statutory, private and voluntary. They will know they range of settings across the different sectors. They will understand the role of settings in promoting development and supporting parents. Skills
Students are working on:
Describing the range of settings in early years provision
Legislation, policies and procedures in the early years
Students will learn about Ofsted and the role it plays in early years settings. They will develop their understanding of legislation such as the Equality Act and Health and Safety at Work Act and how it impacts on practice. They will learn about procedures that are carried out to maintain health and safety. They will understand the terms diversity, equality and inclusion and understand how staff can ensure that all children have equal access to education. Procedures to maintain confidentiality and how to safeguard children are also explored. Skills
Students are working on:
Identifying legislation that impacts on early years provision and explaining how it influences the day to day practice of settings
Expectations of the early years practitioner
Students will understand the expectations with regards to appearance, behaviour, time keeping, and attitude when working in early years settings. Skills
Students are working on:
Explaining the importance of appearance, punctuality and other essential expectations.
Roles and responsibilities within early years
Students will understand the general roles and responsibilities of early years workers including the manager, key person and teaching assistant. They will have an awareness of their main responsibilities such as keeping children safe, supporting healthy development, and promoting holistic development. They will explore partnership working and understand how this can support the child, early years practitioner and the family. They will also discover the specialist roles such as the SENDCO and DSL.
Skills
Students are working on:
Describing the main responsibilities of a range of early years workers.
The importance of observations in childcare
Students will understand how observations are used in early years settings, the different methods, used and the components of recording observations. They will understand the terms connected to accurate recording of observations and the benefits of observation and sharing observations with others. Skills
Students are working on:
Describing the types of observations and explaining when one type would be more appropriate than another.
Planning in early years childcare
Students will learn about the child-centred approach to planning and the importance of planning to meet the child’s needs. They will understand each stage of the planning cycle and how it contributes to formative and summative assessment. Skills
Students are working on:
Explaining the planning cycle and how it contributes to meeting individual needs.
Year 11
Early years provision
Students will develop their understanding of the types of early years provision including statutory, private and voluntary. They will know they range of settings across the different sectors. They will understand the role of settings in promoting development and supporting parents.
Skills -
Students are working on:
Describing the range of settings in early years provision.
Legislation, policies and procedures in the early years
Students will learn about Ofsted and the role it plays in early years settings. They will develop their understanding of legislation such as the Equality Act and Health and Safety at Work Act and how it impacts on practice. They will learn about procedures that are carried out to maintain health and safety. They will understand the terms diversity, equality and inclusion and understand how staff can ensure that all children have equal access to education. Procedures to maintain confidentiality and how to safeguard children are also explored.
Skills
Students are working on:
Identifying legislation that impacts on early years provision and explaining how it influences the day to day practice of settings.
Expectations of the early years practitioner
Students will understand the expectations with regards to appearance, behaviour, time keeping, and attitude when working in early years settings.
Skills
Students are working on:
Explaining the importance of appearance, punctuality and other essential expectations
Roles and responsibilities within early years
Students will understand the general roles and responsibilities of early years workers including the manager, key person and teaching assistant. They will have an awareness of their main responsibilities such as keeping children safe, supporting healthy development, and promoting holistic development. They will explore partnership working and understand how this can support the child, early years practitioner and the family. They will also discover the specialist roles such as the SENDCO and DSL.
Skills
Students are working on:
Describing the main responsibilities of a range of early years workers.
Unit 1 Coursework tasks
Students will then complete the relevant tasks for Unit 1 and practice past exam papers in preparation for the external exam.
Skills
Students are working on:
Consolidating their knowledge of both units to successfully sit the external examination.
