Our highly qualified team will talk and role-play with the children throughout their play to aid their development.
Within the Joey room, we have a range of early educational resources to cater to every child's needs. The messy play area includes the sand pit and tuff trays, as well as a designated area for arts and crafts where the children first start to stimulate their creative side with various paints, mark-making tools and fun extras. The carpet area is used for circle/story time and acts as a quiet area where the children can unwind and relax, at times with soothing music.
We first welcome children from 18 months - 2 years of age, focusing on the 3 prime areas of learning:
The development of children's spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. We thrive on having a language-rich environment, with the interactions and conversations between child and practitioner a key part of our day. This is done by providing comments on what the children are doing and interested in, as well as modelling and introducing new vocabulary.
It's through all of our senses that we make links between what we see, feel and hear. Exploring the world through their senses can help children understand "cause and effect" and develop their emotional awareness. We explore this with activities such as making play dough, or via the tuff tray with water, sand and mud.
Our Kangaroo Room is catered for our 3-4-year-old pre-schoolers. From here, the children will start to gain independence with their every-day activities from putting on their coats to brushing their teeth, with a view of getting them ready for 'big' school. We have a large, structured space designed specifically for this age range with guided areas consisting of a home corner/role play area, construction area, carpet area, garden area, small world, messy play and arts & crafts.
We focus on building upon the prime areas of learning and development, supplemented with four additional areas:
We take our children for daily walks and trips, often to local parks and amenities, allowing them to get a better understanding of the world around us. Teaching the children core British values whilst celebrating and appreciating different faiths, cultures and backgrounds throughout the year also plays a major role in this.
Circle times happen daily in a quiet, calm area where the practitioners will read the children stories, explaining its meaning and relevance in a wider context. This also allows the children to share their thoughts and feelings with the practitioners, building upon those communication and language skills. We will often have a 'book of the week' where we focus on a particular theme.
Encompasses a wide breadth of creative areas, such as:
Maths is used for counting and quantities, but it is important to use numbers 'in context'; using numbers in real-life situations, e.g. for measurements, putting things in order and understanding values. It is through a variety of frequent opportunities that children increase their knowledge and are able to build a mastery of mathematics. We start to expose the children to specific maths and puzzle games once they have developed their counting and understanding of numerical patterns.