The Pre-school Department

The Pre-school Department (3 – 5 Years)

“Teachers from feeder schools comment that children who have attended the nursery and started in Reception class have an excellent range of skills, abilities and attitudes that gives them a firm foundation for future learning.” (Ofsted, 2017)

Our Pre-school Department was built in the summer of 2017 and opened in September ready for the introduction of the Government Funded 30 Hours Free Education Entitlement. It has been meticulously planned with ‘school-readiness’ at the heart of everything we do. Highly-qualified and experienced Pre-school Practitioners provide a more structured education through a variety of child-initiated, adult-initiated and adult-led experiences as well as a balance of more structured learning opportunities.

Our Nursery Owner’s experience of teaching Early Years impacts greatly on our Pre-school Department. As well as planning exciting activities based on the children’s own interests to motivate and inspire them during the learning process, the staff also plan and deliver daily phonics sessions from the Letters and Sounds Phonics Programme that is taught in most schools to give the children an excellent start to their Primary Education.

Children’s early reading skills are also supported through regular shared-reading sessions and children take home a library book and home-reader, from our reading scheme, when they are ready. They also have access to equipment, such as Numicon, to support early mathematical development and their own computer to develop important ICT skills.

The Pre-school Department has defined areas of learning and activities are changed throughout the day depending on children’s interests, requests and learning adventures. Children are regularly involved in musical activities, mark-making and writing activities as well as arts and crafts and opportunities to investigate, discover and experiment with their ideas. They are encouraged to make independent choices and develop their critical thinking.

They have their own cloakroom area ensuring that they have continuous access to their belongings, giving them important skills such as putting their coats and wellies on and hanging them back onto their own pegs independently. They also have free access to their toilets and are supported in learning important personal hygiene routines and independence skills, such as washing their hands after they have used the toilet and before every snack and mealtime. At mealtimes and snack-times, the children are provided with self-serve opportunities to promote physical development and independence skills.

We are proud to offer the same quality as a school nursery would but with smaller class sizes in a flexible way to suit your working hours.

Please see our section on Free Entitlement Funding for more information on accessing your 15 or 30 government funded hours within our Pre-school Department.