The Pre-School Rooms, Sunflowers & Blossom

In our pre-school room we are beginning the process of getting the children ready for their next learning adventure of school.

Great care is taken when planning the children’s activities. Both free time and structured activities are planned to develop opportunities through play and learning, inside and out. Staff follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and plan exciting yet challenging activities for the children. Again a lot of focus is placed upon learning through play, although there are more structured activities to accompany the free time.

We aim to develop their physical, intellectual and emotional skills, concentrating on language and mathematical thinking, imagination and creativity. This is done through reading, singing, counting and rhyming games, listening and responding to examples of communication, listening to and making music, role-play and acting out stories, dancing, painting and drawing.

We take into consideration our children’s faith and backgrounds, and celebrate the different festivals throughout the year. We do this by letting the children explore the different spiritual and multi-cultural experiences. For example for Australia Day we all had a turn at playing the didgeridoo and tried to throw a boomerang, for Chinese New Year we all painted red envelopes to symbolise good luck for the coming year.

Ofsted write:

Older children freely count and accurately count during play. Their maths skills are further enhanced during everyday routines such as setting the table for tea. Staff ask children ‘how many plates’ they need and ‘how many more’ so that children develop their awareness of addition.

Children’s literacy skills are further enhanced as they concentrate on a book of the week, enabling them to become familiar with the story line. Older children recognise their name cards and use these on the indoor and outside self-registration boards to show where they are playing.

Staff are highly skilled in supporting and extending children’s communication and language skills. Staff working with older children ask challenging questions and give children time to express their views.

OFSTED INSPECTION APRIL 2013