Children develop amazingly during their early years, and a child’s experiences before starting school have a major impact on their future life chances.

We aim to provide a safe, stimulating environment to promote your child’s learning and development, with an emphasis on learning through play.  By doing this we help every child to soar to their full potential with tailored care, support and encouragement, and ensure they are completely ready for the rigours of primary school in terms of independence and self-reliance. We aim for children to be learning outside as much as possible in all weathers. Parents/carers are fully informed about their child’s progress through Tapestry, our online learning platform as well as informal daily interaction with our team and regular parents evenings. We regularly take trips outside of pre-school to learn about our community, whether on our nature explorer days, a trip to Richmond homes, a visit to a local bee keeper, discovery walks around the village, or even a bus ride to the library. 

Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets early years standards to ensure that children learn and develop well, and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

Children effectively learn by displaying the following characteristics which we encourage through all of our activities:

The following prime areas of learning are very important in igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving:
• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development

These then lead to the following specific areas of learning:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design

More information regarding the statutory guidelines of the EYFS document can be found from the following links:

• • “Parents Guide to EYFS”
  • “What-to-expect-in-the-EYFS”
  • “What-to-Expect-When“
  • “EYFS_statutory_framework“
  • “Our guide to outdoor play”
  • “Preventing toothdecay“

Broad timetable (subject to change depending on our learning emphasis that day or week)

Registration – the children are marked present as they come into Pre-school; in the Owls room they are encouraged to find their name then write it; in the Ducks and Swans room, we focus on familiarising the little ones with their name, talking about the starting sound, building to name recognition.

Our session starts with child-initiated learning where the children can choose the room and activity that they are interested in. When all the children are present, we separate into 2 groups- Swans and ducks are our younger children who are mainly 2 years; and the Owls  are developmentally at 3 years and above. They then have an adult input time aimed at the level the children are working at. The children are introduced to new vocabulary from the focus story. We then talk about the activities which the children can choose from that session and give them suggestions for their independent learning.

Independent learning – the children then choose from the continuous provision and are encouraged to participate in an adult-led activity – during the summer months the whole session may take place outdoors (we have two garden areas, and a large recreation field). We also have free flow play throughout our premises. Our activities are planned to cover all the areas in the EYFS curriculum and there are always fine motor (funky fingers) activities to improve their physical development in preparation for recording numbers, writing and mark making. One adult works on the led activity while the other adults in the room facilitate the children’s independent learning using questioning and encouragement to enhance play and move the children’s learning on.

Squiggle – while we prepare for snack the children all come together for Squiggle which is dancing aimed at strengthening arms and fingers in preparation for recording numbers, writing and mark making.

Snack – during the independent learning period the children will be offered a snack, which is always healthy and nutritious and there is always a choice, so that all tastes can be accommodated. The children have snack together and are encouraged to chat with staff and their peers. A drink of milk or water is provided. The children help to serve their drinks and to choose their snack, which promotes self-help skills.  If your child has a special dietary requirement or food allergy, please make sure you give full details on our snack time form when enrolling your child and provide an alternative if our snack does not meet your child’s needs. Please see our timetable of snacks and a list with associated allergens. We are delighted that we continue to receive the top grade (5) for food hygiene from the Food Standards Agency.

Lunch – the children can either bring a packed lunch from home or have one of our home-made lunches which are prepared on site. Our meals are healthy and nutritious and follow government guidelines and recommendations. The menu is always available in the entrance porch and can also be seen here.

Story time – we aim to tell the children at least 3 stories a day and to hear all children tell a story of their choice (which can just be describing the pictures, or for some children, actually starting to read). Individual reading – the child’s key worker will share the book with them and comment on what has been worked on. That same book will come home with them so that parents can share it too. 

Adult-led activity – the children have the opportunity  for a small group activity, based upon the  book of the week and their needs. These activities will incorporate concepts such as letter, number or shape recognition games, music and counting rhymes, physical activities with PE equipment and creative work. The activities are planned using assessment gained during observation and achievement during led activities so that we can build on prior learning.

Phonics – the children will split into ability groups and cover letters and sounds activities mainly focusing on phase 1 phonics with the introduction of phase 2 phonics for those children who can confidently complete all of phase 1. Some of our rising 5 children will be able to read by the time they start school.

Getting offsite – we aim to encourage our children to be good citizens and feel part of our village by walking to local parks, going on a litter pick (Children spot the litter and adults bag it) then we recycle anything that we are able to. We also add our poppies to the remembrance day tribute. We have explorer days where we focus on learning through nature and notice the changes around us. These days give our children many opportunities to learn about the world outside our pre-school. We have also visited local establishments, when these fit in with our topic work, and have links with Richmond Village, Willaston, which we visit every half-term and interact with the elderly residents.

Transition to school

We have excellent links with all the local primary schools to ensure that our children make smooth transitions to the next stage of their learning journey. This is vital given that a parent’s first choice of primary school cannot be guaranteed, as school places are allocated by Cheshire East based on strict admissions criteria.

Children will transfer to various schools in the local area, such as Weston, Shavington, Wistaston Church Lane, St Anne’s, Millfields, Highfields, Peartree and Stapeley Broad Lane to name but a few. 

Visits are made by most reception teachers to see the children at pre-school during the Summer term, and all relevant information about each child’s learning and progress is shared to facilitate continuous development.