Dragonflies & Grasshoppers 3 and 4 years
These rooms are always buzzing with energy as the children prepare for their journey to “big school”. We have 2 large, spacious rooms, with space for 40 children which enable lots of opportunity to explore and learn. Children can be found accessing the wide range of natural resources and loose parts around the room. They could be painting the next Picasso, reading or creating incredible structures!
A typical day involves the children working together to create, discover and experiment with risk taking throughout the rooms. Both rooms are equipped with large and small construction which enables the children to build, create, balance and risk take whilst been overseen by the members of staff but never overshadowed. The children are encouraged to take great care of the real life resources found across the room and especially with the home corner. There is often a small group making tea with a full china tea set and creating soups with tools and real vegetables!
During the term before the children start school staff provide and promote opportunities for the children to start to develop the skills they will be using at school in order to facilitate a smooth transition. For example, getting dressed, fastening shoes and coat, toileting themselves. Ofsted have recognised that our staff work closely with feeder schools to plan for a smooth and enjoyable transition, to ensure your child feels confident when flying the Sunshine nest. There are usually a few tears shed by staff and parents when the children say goodbye at our graduation ceremony!
Key Person & Learning
Your child’s Key Person will spend time getting to know you and your child and will work closely with you throughout your child’s preschool journey. They will observe their play and plan opportunities to extend their learning based on their interests. Their progress and development will be shared with you through their Tapestry online learning journeys and our parent consultations.
Please feel free speak to your child’s Key Person as often as you wish about what your child has been doing, what they have enjoyed, what they can do more of at home.
We follow the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) which is how the Government and early years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5.
This is a very important stage as it helps your child get ready for school as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes. From when your child is born up until the age of 5, their early years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and support their development, care and learning needs.
In preschool we focus on 7 areas of learning and development:
- Personal, Social and Emotional
- Communication and language
- Physical Development
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World.
- Expressive Arts and Design
Your child's belongings
Your child will be given a peg with their name and photo on it so that they can hang their coats up and also a box/tray to keep their creations in. These labels help the children to access these independently.
We will provide you with a mat to take home and personalize or decorate for your child. The mat is for your child to sit on at circle time and story time.
We try to discourage children from bringing in their own toys. It makes sharing harder and sometimes they get mislaid or broken, however if your child has a special comforter toy they are more than welcome to bring that in.
We do encourage the children to discuss their home life and experiences. This can be encouraged by photographs and maybe artifacts found or purchased on trips.
Please provide your child with the following items:
- Appropriate footwear
- Appropriate clothing (we get messy in this room, so not best clothes!)
- Suitable coat (we go out to play in all weathers)
- Sun cream (unless you have given us permission to use the brand that the nursery supplies)
- Hat, gloves and wellies for winter
- Spare clothes
Food & Drink
Lunchtime: 12.00pm & 12.15pm – Please either sign up for a nursery hot lunch or provide a cold packed lunch.
Teatime: 5.00pm – If you would like your child to have tea with us please provide a cold packed tea.
Snacks: – Healthy snacks will be provided during the morning and afternoon alongside milk and water.
The children are provided with an individual water bottle, labelled with their photo and name, which they have free access to.
Please remember to put an ice pack in your child’s lunch box every day to keep the food fit for consumption.
