Play helps young children to learn and develop through doing and talking, which research has shown to be the means by which young children learn to think. We use the Early Years Foundation Stage to plan and provide a range of play activities which help children to make progress in each of the areas of leaning and development. In some of these activities the children decide how they will use the activity, and in others, an adult will take the lead in helping the children to take part in the activity.
Children have the opportunity daily to participate in outdoor play, and with your consent we take short walks to visit the library etc., and have visitors such as the Fire brigade and Police.
Areas of Learning and development
There are six areas of learning and development within the Early Years Foundation Stage, which are:-
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Communication, Language and Literacy
Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Physical Development
Creative Development
Assessment
We assess how the children are learning and developing by observing them frequently, we use this information along with photographs to document their progress. We believe that parents / carers know their children best and we ask them to contribute to assessment by sharing information about what their children like to do at home and how they as parents are supporting their development.
Learning Journals
We recognise that parents are a child’s first educator, and we believe you should be centrally involved in your child’s learning experiences and development. Through our Learning Journals we are able to make your child’s learning visible, so that you are able to understand what they are doing, and are able to contribute to and support their learning.
We use the Journal to record our observations and planning for your child. We encourage parents to read it regularly and contribute your own experiences of your child’s learning and development. We know that you want the very best for your child and we will work in partnership with you to achieve this.
Your child will experience many activities at Pre-school which will go unseen by yourself; however we hope this Journal will give you a wonderful insight into your child’s time here.
The Journal will be given to you and your child as a memento of their time with us, when they leave the Pre-school.