Pre-School 

We currently have two Pre-School rooms for the over 3's. Both are very similar to one another with the same activities and resources. However, the expectation in the milestones the children are achieving are slightly different between the 2 rooms in that a just turned 3 year old is not going to be at the same development stage as a four, or almost 5 year old. Yet in some nurseries the different development levels are all in one room because of their age, where as with us, the children can be in a different room depending on their development levels, which means the adults caring for the children can plan for a small group and can give more time to encourage the children to achieve their milestones at a more focused level, than trying to plan specific activities for a wider range of development levels.  

Pre-School room one is for our younger 3 year olds who are transitioning from the toddler room to getting ready for school. There is a big difference in child development during the final year as children get ready for school. Some children move at a slower pace, some transition really quickly. Therefore, we believe that by offering the children a room where they can develop in their own time, and in a smaller group, the children will experience a smoother transition as they get prepared for their next journey in life. 

As your child moves closer to leaving the nursery for School, we will move them through to our second Pre-School room where we start preparing the children on what to expect in reception. This will include encouraging the children to sit down in group time for longer periods, ensuring your child had good pencil control, is able to use a pair of scissors, and is independent in toileting, dressing and recognising the letters in their name. We don't expect a child to be able to write their name by the time they leave us, but we do encourage it. 

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A message from Pre-School

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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