Key Stage -1 Curriculum
The Cambridge Early Years curriculum:
follows a holistic approach that focuses on the whole child and connects their development with the
world and people around them.
is built around four key areas of early childhood development:
- develops knowledge, understanding and skills through a spiral approach, by revisiting and engaging with topics and skills in more depth at each stage.
- helps learners to meet internationally established milestones for early development. Although children develop at different rates, the curriculum provides a structure for teaching and learning that will help you to monitor and support each child’s progress.
- supports a bilingual or multilingual approach for learners with a home language other than English, as well as those with different experiences of English.
- prepares learners to easily transition into Cambridge Primary, or the next stage in their education.
- content is split into six curriculum areas to guide you and support progress.
Communication and 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.
Creative expression
Creative expression allows children to communicate their ideas and develop their
imagination through art and design, music, dance, and drama. This important area brings
together skills and cognitive processes from across the whole curriculum.
Mathematics
At an early age, it’s important to help children recognize 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.
Physical development
Our curriculum encourages children to develop movement skills through play, helping them
to develop positive attitudes towards exercise and laying the foundations for healthy, active
lives.
Personal, social, and emotional development
This area is central to children’s lives. It underpins their wellbeing and attainment in all other
areas of their learning. This area 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.
Understanding the world
This area of the curriculum encourages children’s natural curiosity as they explore the world
around them. It lays foundations for a range of different subjects in primary education and
beyond, including science, digital literacy, computing, and humanities.