Pre-School
The pre-school room is a busy and vibrant environment for children aged between 2 1/2 – 5 years. The room has a maximum number of up to 28 children per session. We adopt a free play approach and throughout the sessions children can choose what they would like to do, exploring both the indoors and outdoors.
In the classroom
In the classroom, we provide a wide range of activities: there are lots of creative activities, exploratory and messy play opportunities, construction activities, storytelling, number games, and lots of opportunities to practise mark-making and pre-writing skills. We have an upstairs reading area where children can snuggle up and enjoy a book independently or with a small group of peers. We support children’s imaginative play by providing a variety of different role play opportunities including home corners, shops, doctors, and hairdressers to name a few. Small group learning opportunities take place to allow differentiation between the different age groups. Circle time, song and story sessions take place every day. We sing songs about the day of the week; we count together to work out what the date is and learn about the 4 seasons. For example, when it is autumn time, we learn about why the leaves fall off the trees and how hedgehogs prepare for hibernation. We go outside every session whatever the weather to play in the school playground or go out and about on walks; trips and visits.
Key people
Key people will plan activities which will support children’s next steps, these activities are planned in accordance with the Early Years Foundation Stage and the seven areas of learning which are; Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Physical Development, Mathematical Development, Literacy, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. Children are actively encouraged to participate in adult-led activities, and these are differentiated to suit the varied stages of development of the children we care for. We separate the children into groups – our youngest children’s group is called ‘Caterpillar group’ and our eldest ‘Butterfly group’. Providing these small groups allows us to individualise activities that are tailored to specific ages and abilities. Morning and afternoon snacks are available with a rolling snack system, this means that children can choose when to have their snack within a 30 minute window and proves to be less disruptive to their playtime.
In the final year before children are due to transition to school key people will be supporting children to be school ready. You can find out more information about this by following the link below;
Children are also able to start having their lunch in the school hall which further supports their transition.
Pre-School Teachers & Staff
Sarah-Beth Lewis-Porter
Pre-school Room - Key Person
Barbara Pickering
Pre-school Room - Key Person
Freya McMullan
Pre-school Room - Key Person
Deborah Connolly
Director, Deputy Manager, Pre-school Supervisor, SENCO & Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
