At Seaward we see visual arts as a stage for all areas of the curriculum.

Our Art Curriculum is as much about object studies, manipulating clay, learning to correctly hold a pencil, mark making, painting and drawing as it is about Classical and Romantic Art, the Renaissance, Palladian Architecture, the Lascaux Caves and Da Vinci engineering inventions.

At Seaward we use the works of Mondrian and Kandinsky to explore geometry and mathematical shapes. We use Filippo Lippi to investigate perspective and spatial placement. The works of Picasso and other cubists help children look into emotions and feelings, and how they see themselves in a mirror, and what happens if they put noses on the side of a face! We often exhibit the children’s art at Seaward, and now have plans to sell the works and donate the proceeds to a children’s charity!

Self-awareness, self-respect and self-confidence stem from a deep-seated intrapersonal understanding.

A child has to develop an active sense of self, who she is and where she comes from. Additionally all children learn to understand how they fit in to the variety of social groupings they encounter on a daily basis. To do this they need to grasp interpersonal relationships – understand the ability to empathise and sympathise, understand how they and their actions are perceived by other people.

Our activities will always incorporate elements of reflection, mindfulness and interpretation and help children in this process. At the same time we are always conscious of helping children understand how they may be perceived differently by others, and how developing an insight and understanding into another person’s perspective will help them build relationships of trust. Seaward Circle Time is often planned out as an exercise in mindfulness and exploring feelings.

Through books, puppets and daily narratives we gently expose children to a broad range of emotions including anger, grief and loss and the appropriate ways of handling them.

Music and the Performing Arts are the cornerstone of our curriculum. We have a music library that spans from Gregorian chants through Vivaldi to Gershwin. We dance Samba, Tango and Mbira, listen to Cab Calloway, McCoy Tyner and, of course, a wide range of nursery rhymes.

Music lends itself extremely well to mathematics (rhythms, beats, speeds, durations), emotional awareness (major and minor keys, happy and sad music), and to creative expression.

Music is also central to story telling. Operas, musicals, childrens songs all have a dramatic narrative and provide a wealth of information for children to explore. Disney is wonderful for children. But so are Mozart, Rossini, Stravinsky and Wagner. There are amazing stories to be discovered, and children are just as receptive to Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) as they are to Disney’s Cinderella or Snow White.

We also use performance to build self-confidence. Children are given opportunities to perform individually and in groups, in front of each other, other children in the nursery, and we have regular performances for parents.

We believe that our life is a discovery and a deep-seated desire to understand and improve. We ask “why?” as soon we understand that something is, and because it is, we want to know “why?” Why is the sky blue instead of green? Why can’t we fly? Here we are engaging the child as scientist, naturalist and philosopher.

The Science and Discovery part of our curriculum helps children develop problem solving skills that encompass all areas of learning. We use an age appropriate scientific method to help children design experiments to test theories and hypothesis. We might tell the children that Newton’s third law of motion is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words every time something pushes on something, something happens. What do you think happens if you push on this toy car? What do you think happens if you push against a wall – does this building move?

The Science and Discovery Lab is a safe place to do messy and smelly experiments. We can build volcanoes and rivers. We can make a model village and work out how many houses will fit in a street. We can work to understand the lifecycle of a butterfly. And please don’t forget Chemistry. Children love mixing elements, using heat as a catalyst and eating yummy biscuits.

Literacy encompasses the ability to read and to write – two skills that are critical to the future success of all children in school. From the day children join us, no matter what age they are, we begin to share our love of books with them in hope that our pupils will grow to be school children, teenagers and adults who are able to read and write competently and will have a love and appreciation of the joys of literature and the prowess of being able to write well.

We talk to the babies and toddlers using simple language and frequent eye contact. We sing and introduce finger rhymes. We share books and make reading times special experiences that children will begin to treasure. In addition we introduce children to the tools of early mark making – pens, pencils, crayons and chalks and encourage them to experiment freely.

Story Time for older children is as special as that for our younger children – interesting and fun, with opportunities to talk about the text, ask questions, and act out stories. Stories and books are often the starting point for exciting projects that spill over into art and performing art, and even outings and trips.

Writing and mark making areas are created in all of the learning areas so that our children can enjoy using a wide range of interesting writing tools in their play. Children are encouraged to write letters in sand, to paint and to draw as they begin to be interested in letters and sounds. This leads to our teachers encouraging children to copy words, starting with their own names. Staff will scribe for the children, record their thoughts and descriptions both by hand and on computers, and the children will often copy the written text.