Pre-School
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In our Pre-School rooms, our typical day to day routine includes breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and then tea. During the day the children have many opportunities to play and explore independently, indoors and outdoors, as well as get involved with adult-led activities. In the these rooms we focus on all areas of the children’s development from the EYFS, from encouraging them to make new friendships and relationships to supporting their fine motor skills to begin writing letters of their names. There is always plenty of activities on offer for the children; from sensory play, like coloured water and syringes, play dough to sculpt our favourite story characters (the Gruffalo is always a group favourite), shaving foam to make different marks and shapes with our fingers, to junk modelling with boxes and bottle lids that we have recycled and making our own puppets to do a puppet show with in the story corner. For the older children of the, we have lots of talks about ‘big school’ and preparing the children for the upcoming transition. As well as the older pre-schoolers, we also have the younger ones who need plenty of reassurance and comfort while settling in, as for some of them it is their first time going to a setting, and providing settling sessions throughout the time before they start nursery where they are able to get to know their new environment with the comfort of their parents who are invited to stay for the first settle. When children first start into the room, they are assigned a key worker to support them along every step of their journey, from the settling in sessions to guiding them through any home adjustments, including new siblings, family breakups or moving house, all of which can effect a child differently. Therefore, it is important for the key worker to maintain a good level of communication with the families to ensure the transitions happen as smoothly as possible and the child’s well-being is always top priority. All staff have access to the online learning journals for each child, which enables them to share photos of the child’s day with their parents and any new developmental milestones can be tracked here.
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