Our Curriculum
At Lingfield Nursery School, we believe that nature is the best classroom. Our unique outdoor-led curriculum is designed to nurture curious, confident, and resilient learners through daily experiences in the natural world. Rooted in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), our approach encourages children to explore, discover, and grow — rain or shine.
🌱 Learning Through Nature
Children thrive when they are given the time, space, and freedom to play, investigate, and take the lead in their own learning. At Lingfield, the outdoors is not a break from learning — it is the learning environment.
✨ A Love of Learning That Lasts a Lifetime
Our outdoor curriculum at Lingfield Nursery School is more than just fresh air and muddy boots — it's the foundation for a lifetime of curiosity, wellbeing, and connection with the natural world.
🌿 Seven Areas of Learning (EYFS) with an Outdoor Focus
At Lingfield Nursery School, we bring the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to life through hands-on, outdoor experiences. Whether it’s collecting the eggs, exploring changing seasons, or jumping in puddles, each of the seven areas of learning is fully supported — and enhanced — by our natural environment.
🤝 1. Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)
The outdoors encourages children to:
• Build strong friendships through shared play and teamwork
• Develop independence and resilience by trying new challenges
• Care for animals, plants, and each other with kindness and empathy
• Learn to manage emotions and solve problems naturally in open-ended play
🗣️ 2. Communication and Language
In nature, children are surrounded by rich opportunities to:
• Learn new vocabulary related to the farm, animals, weather, and seasons
• Develop listening and speaking skills through storytelling in the woods or chats on a nature walk
• Ask and answer questions about what they see and experience
• Express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas in imaginative outdoor play
🏃 3. Physical Development
Natural play builds strength, balance, and coordination:
• Climbing logs, balancing on beams, and running across uneven ground
• Digging, pouring, lifting and carrying in the garden or mud kitchen
• Using tools safely — from trowels and watering cans to brushes and brooms
• Building fine motor skills through handling natural objects like sticks, stones, and leaves
🔤 4. Literacy
Literacy comes to life outdoors through:
• Storytime in the outdoors
• Mark-making in mud, sand, chalk, or with sticks in soil
• Labelling areas of the garden or animal enclosures
🔢 5. Mathematics
The outdoor environment offers countless real-life maths experiences:
• Counting eggs, plants, or animals
• Measuring sunflower heights
• Sorting natural materials by size, shape, or colour
• Learning about space and quantity through building or digging
🌏 6. Understanding the World
Children develop knowledge and respect for the world around them by:
• Observing the life cycles of plants and animals
• Noticing seasonal changes and weather patterns
• Learning how to care for living things
🖌️ 7. Expressive Arts and Design
Nature fuels imagination and creativity:
• Creating art with leaves, petals, sticks, and mud
• Building dens, bug hotels or obstacle courses from natural materials
• Making music with sticks,
💬 Partnership with Parents
We believe parents are children’s first educators. We work closely with families to ensure every child’s needs are met, celebrating their achievements and sharing the wonders they experience each day.
🧤 Prepared for the Elements
We go outside every day — in all weathers. With wellies, waterproofs, and cosy layers, children learn to embrace the elements and develop true resilience, independence, and awe for the world around them.
🔍 How We Support and Assess Learning
Our experienced practitioners carefully observe children’s play and progress, using these insights to guide next steps and support individual development. We document learning through snapshot observations and photos which are added to the children’s journey portfolios— always focusing on the joy of discovery.