Curriculum

At Roots Federation, our nursery curriculum is thoughtfully designed to strike a careful balance between structured, intentional adult led teaching and rich opportunities for child initiated discovery. This dual approach underpins holistic development, supports school readiness, and nurtures confident, curious lifelong learners.

Our curriculum sets out our intent of what we want children to know and what needs to be learned.
We use a range of pedagogical approaches to match the community in which we serve which ensures the curriculum implementation. This is the interface between the science of learning and the craft of teaching.
We measure our impact through termly assessment and review windows, asking ‘How do we know it has worked?’

Federation Wide Agreed Implementation

Implementation will be derived from our phase overviews and Tier 1 vocabulary progression, ensuring alignment with our educational philosophy and assessment milestones whilst ensuring compliance with our statutory requirements.
These will serve as the core non negotiables around which each school's approach will be developed.

Progressive Curriculum Approach

Delivery models must reflect the progressive sequencing of knowledge and skills as outlined in our federation’s room overviews.
Curriculum must demonstrate a clear developmental drive ensuring children build on prior knowledge meaningfully.

Balanced Pedagogical Approaches

There must be a clear blend of child led and adult led learning.
Each setting is encouraged to identify how best to implement this balance, ensuring engagement and developmental appropriateness.

Vocabulary Progression

There must be mapped vocabulary progression:
- Tier 1 (everyday, conversational language, environmental and functional) will be agreed upon across the federation.

Assessment Milestones

We will collaboratively use the federation wide assessment milestones aligned with our curriculum expectations and developmental progression.

School Based Implementation

School Led Delivery Models

The how of curriculum delivery, whether thematic, inquiry based, or integrated, this will be determined by Head of School supported by the school improvement leads.
This supports context specific strategies while maintaining federation coherence.
Enrichment activities will be school based.

Vocabulary Progression

Tier 2 (high utility academic vocabulary) and Tier 3 (subject specific, technical vocabulary) will be at the discretion of individual schools, allowing responsiveness to local interests and projects.
Tier 2 vocabulary is carefully planned and explicitly taught through the use of core texts and Nursery Rhymes. These high utility words are mapped progressively across all rooms, ensuring a coherent sequence of vocabulary development as children move through the setting