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Early Years

At Acorn International School, our Early Years programme provides a stimulating, welcoming and international environment where children are encouraged to grow with curiosity, confidence and creativity.

We also aim to support students in developing a value system by which to guide their own lives, as thoughtful, respectful, active members of their class and the world around them.

Located in Rome, Acorn offers an international bilingual pathway for early childhood education, combining academic foundations, emotional development and meaningful hands-on experiences within an engaging learning environment tailored to each child’s needs.

Our educational model adopts a Reggio Inspired Approach, valuing exploration, collaboration and inquiry-based learning as essential elements of early childhood education. Through carefully designed learning spaces, sensory experiences, natural environments and bilingual immersion, children develop communication, independence, creativity and critical thinking skills from their earliest years.

The Early Years Foundation stage covers a child’s education from the age of 24 months to 5 years. Classes are divided into:

Nursery from 24 months


KEY OBJECTIVES:
Socialisation, separating from care-giver, fine & gross motor development, English through songs and flashcards, Italian through instructions and stories, music & movement, art, indoor and outdoor play.

3 – 4 Years


KEY OBJECTIVES:
Socialisation and sharing, gaining independence, fine motor skill development and manipulation, English immersion through stories, instructions, flashcards and games, pre-writing & reading skills, pre-numeracy skills.

4 – 5 Years


KEY OBJECTIVES:
Learning classroom rules, introduction to phonics, reading and writing readiness, number quantity and recognition, supervised play, explore, develop, imagine & investigate the world around me.

The Early Years learning focuses on 7 areas, divided between prime and specific areas of learning.

Prime areas

The prime areas of learning are:

This involves giving pupils opportunities to speak and listen in a range of situations and to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves.

Listening and attention
Pupils listen attentively in a range of situations. They listen to stories, accurately anticipating key events and respond to what they hear with relevant comments, questions or actions. They give their attention to what others say and respond appropriately, while engaged in another activity.

Understanding
Pupils follow instructions involving several ideas or actions. They answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events.

Speaking
Pupils express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs. They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future. They develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events.

This involves providing opportunities for pupils to be active and interactive, and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Pupils must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.

Moving and handling
Pupils show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing.

Health and self-care
Pupils know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. They manage their ownbasic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently.

This involves helping pupils to:

  • develop a positive sense of themselves and others
  • form positive relationships and develop respect for others
  • develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings
  • understand appropriate behaviour in groups
  • have confidence in their own abilities

Self-confidence and self-awareness
Pupils are confident to try new activities, and say why they like some activities more than others. They are confident to speak in a familiar group, will talk about their ideas, and will choose the resources they need for their chosen activities. They say when they do or don’t need help.

Managing feelings and behaviour
Pupils talk about how they and others show feelings, talk about their own and others’ behaviour, and its consequences, and know that some behaviour is unacceptable. They work as part of a group or class, and understand and follow the rules. They adjust their behaviour to different situations, and take changes of routine in their stride.

Making relationships
Pupils play co-operatively, taking turns with others. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organize their activity. They show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings, and form positive relationships with adults and other children.

Specific areas

The specific areas of learning are:

This involves encouraging pupils to read and write, both through listening to others reading, and being encouraged to begin to read and write themselves. Pupils must be given access to a wide range of reading materials for example books, poems, and other written materials to ignite their interest.

Reading
Pupils read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately. They also read some common irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.

Writing
Pupils use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.

This involves providing pupils with opportunities to:

  • Practice and improve their skills in counting numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems
  • Describe shapes, spaces, and measures

Numbers
Pupils count reliably with numbers from 1 to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number. Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract 2 single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer. They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.

Shape, space and measures
Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems. They recognize, create and describe patterns. They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.

This involves guiding pupils to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.

People and communities
Pupils talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. They know that other children don’t always enjoy the same things, and are sensitive to this. They know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions.

The world
Pupils know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another.
They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.

Technology
Pupils recognize that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and schools. They select and use technology for particular purposes. This involves supporting pupils to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. It involves providing pupils with opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role play, and design and technology.

Exploring and using media and materials: pupils sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them. They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.

Being imaginative
Pupils use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes. They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role-play and stories