The move follows a successful pilot of the 'Bright Beginnings' curriculum in some of its nurseries in England.
The revised EYFS, which comes into force in September, and Ofsted, have put more emphasis on nurseries designing their own curricula.
Bright Horizons said that its curriculum is aligned to the revised EYFS prime and specific areas of learning and development, as well as adhering to the statutory safeguarding and welfare requirements.
Thirty-one nurseries took part in the pilot, launched last October. The curriculum will be expanded to the rest of the group's settings in England by September.
Bright Horizons said its curriculum ‘is designed to acknowledge the individual voice and needs of each child to promote confidence, wellbeing and a genuine love for learning.’
The group said the new curriculum is ‘based on extensive pedagogical theory and research' and 'focuses on the significance of the adult role as educators. The new curriculum acknowledges the development of concepts such as critical thinking and problem solving, in addition to developing skills such as mindfulness and caring for self and others.’
The ‘Bright Beginnings’ curriculum covers five areas of learning:
- Feelings and friendships
- Sharing thoughts and ideas
- Technical and life skills
- Thinking creatively
- Exploring and learning about my world
Bright Horizons said these skills and competencies help prepare children to become confident, secure, and proficient individuals, prepared for the next stage in their learning, whether they are moving rooms within the nursery, or making the transition to primary school.
Curriculum content
The curriculum features ‘loose parts’, encouraging children to play freely with everyday items, while being supervised at all times, to enable them to develop creativity, solve problems and make connections in their learning.
Children are also provided with opportunities to engage in sensory experiences through art by using big paint brushes, paint rollers and floor brooms or mops on a large canvas. This type of activity is essential to develop the muscles in a child’s shoulders, elbows, wrists and hands, in preparation for writing, Bright Horizons said.
Caroline Wright, director of early childhood at Bright Horizons, who led on designing the curriculum in collaboration with colleagues, said, ‘As teachers and educators, we must be highly skilled and knowledgeable, critically effective and current in our thinking. Our approach encourages our practitioners to see things from a child’s perspective, so that they can adapt activities to make them exciting for every child.
‘Feedback during the pilot programme was very encouraging from parents, children and our nursery practitioners and I’m grateful to all the nurseries who enthusiastically participated. We’re looking forward to Bright Beginnings being introduced across all our settings in England.’
Practitioners will be trained to use the new curriculum in advance of its rollout at their setting, with the training delivered by Bright Horizons’ early childhood team.
Training includes an introductory face-to-face session with a member of the team and the nursery manager or deputy nursery manager. This is followed by a longer session designed to set out the curriculum in more depth, illustrating how it aligns with the EYFS statutory framework and what it looks like in practice in nursery settings.
Loma Ansah, deputy nursery manager at the Bright Horizons Highgate Day Nursery and Pre-school in London, which took part in the pilot, said, ‘Focusing on the children’s interests has always been at the heart of everything we do, and the new curriculum has taken that on to new levels, having an impressive impact on the way the children learn.
'They are more engaged as they lead their own learning, which makes it easy for the staff to support them because the children are so happy.’
Bright Horizons said it has similar plans for a Birth to Three curriculum for Scotland, which complements the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence for children from three years old.
