Complete Early Years curriculum, Nursery to UKG

We recognise that a child is not raw material to be moulded, but a living thing already growing. Our role is not that of a potter, but of a gardener: we provide the soil, light and water for a seed to sprout.

Children are naturally inquisitive, and in the early years that inquisitiveness is at its freest. A four-year-old observes, questions and tinkers without being asked to. The foundation years are where the habits of exploration, and the confidence to make mistakes, are formed for life.

Our Early Years curriculum is a complete, integrated curriculum for Nursery to UKG, covering literacy, numeracy, EVS, physical education and social and emotional learning. The approach follows the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage (ages 3 to 8).

The curriculum brings together what we have learnt from good practice around the world and what our national framework asks for:

• Reggio Emilia inspired, alongside the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage and Multiple Intelligences. We see children as capable meaning-makers and researchers, and we take from Reggio the permission for deep inquiry, many modes of expression and the environment as a teacher, while adding the clear rhythms and prepared activities that teachers in our context need.
• NCF aligned. We honour the developmental domains and the play-based pedagogy of the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage.
• Multiple Intelligences. Children express understanding through words, drawing, building, movement and drama. For teachers this works as a lens for noticing how each child approaches a task, never as a way of labelling children.
• Integrated learning. Experiences are whole, so maths, science, language and more merge naturally.
• Rooted in local context. Learning is anchored in the child's own surroundings, using familiar materials and experiences to bridge home and school.

A curriculum that starts from what children notice is the way children of this age already work, and it is where inquiry comes most easily. The pressure to show parents that a four-year-old can write neatly arrives early. A curriculum built on sensory learning and play builds the foundational skills for lifelong learning alongside the handwriting.

It is integrated because young children do not experience the world in subject silos. A three-year-old watering a plant is noticing that when she waters the same pot twice, water comes out of the bottom, perhaps noticing that the leaves droop, and finding words for what she sees. A single morning touches numeracy, language, the natural world and how to share, and each of these strengthens the others.

Our five integrated themes follow these natural categories of childhood experience:

The National Education Policy's foundational stage asks for exactly this kind of play-based, activity-based and inquiry-based learning.

Because the curriculum is custom, the co-design is the work. From there it settles into a fortnightly rhythm.

Play-based does not mean plan-free. We give teachers clear scaffolding:

A group of children builds a world with blocks, negotiating roles and ideas as it grows. Nearby, a teacher joins a pretend shop, asking questions and adding materials to extend the children's thinking. Later the whole group gathers for a rhythm game with actions and songs that introduce patterns and turn-taking.

Assessment is guided by the Chetan Balwadi system of developmental assessment. It captures learning in context without interrupting it, and builds a structured picture of each child's journey.

• Developmental focus. Growth is captured across interconnected domains: physical, cognitive, language, socio-emotional and moral, recognising that each child's pathway is their own.
• Observation-based. Teachers observe children during play, routines and guided activities, so learning is documented as it happens.
• Evidence-based documentation. Photos, portfolios, anecdotal notes and work samples.
• Checklists aligned to the NCF. Observations are mapped to developmental continuums using structured checklists, for example an informal oral conversation to see how a child's language and comprehension are growing.
• Teacher reflection and planning. What teachers observe shapes what they plan next: the environment, the materials, the prompts and the grouping adapt to each child's emerging strengths and needs.
• The Holistic Progress Card. The documentation culminates in a formal Holistic Progress Card, giving families credible evidence of foundational literacy and numeracy.
• Emotional safety. Removing the pressure of formal testing protects a child's curiosity and well-being.

A curriculum is only as strong as the teacher who brings it to life, so the teacher resources and support are as much a part of the curriculum as the books.

The engagement is scoped for each school. It comes in two parts: the curriculum, teacher resources, teacher support and school-wide materials together as one engagement, and the student workbooks for each child.

It pairs naturally with the Integrated Learning Studio, the foundation-years lab. If both are taken, the lesson plans are written into the studio's zones, so the space and the curriculum are one thing. A Garden Learning Lab gives the I Care theme a living home: children coordinate watering, share tools and see for themselves that plants die without water. Schools that want the same approach to continue into Grades 1 to 5 carry on with the Anubhooti textbooks, and schools that want all of it together take it as part of Learn2Learn.

Weight and wonder, age 4 to 5

It was mid-morning in a class of four- and five-year-olds. The teacher held up a bamboo stick in one hand and a stone in the other and asked which one was heavier. Most children said the stick, because it looked bigger, and one was not sure: "Can I hold it and see?" Everyone held both, and everyone was surprised to feel that the stone was heavier. The teacher brought out a balance scale, and the room went quiet as the beam tipped. Then the questions tumbled out: can we try a shell, what about two sticks? For the next twenty minutes children fetched pencils, bottles full and empty, bags, clay and cloth to test, some drew their predictions, and one child lined the tested objects up from lightest to heaviest without being asked. The teacher did not correct; she noticed, and she noted.

From story to symbol, age 5 to 6

A class of five-year-olds was planting Rajma seeds, one to each of the twenty cells in a nursery tray. Some children counted aloud as they went, one kept losing count and went back to tap each planted cell, and a few began counting rows instead: that's five, and five more is ten. When the teacher asked how many seeds they had planted, some counted again from one, some said four rows of five make twenty, and one wanted to check by counting the empty seed packets; all of these were honoured.

Some feedback from teachers we work with: