Social skills
Making relationships - The ability to interact with people is fundamental. Children at our setting learn to share, take turns, develop friendships and engage in co-operative play. The age groups often mix, so that older children can learn awareness of others by getting involved in looking after some of the younger ones, and becoming an active part of our community. Our focus on imaginative role play helps them develop key skills such as empathy and teamwork.
Positive behaviour - Our children learn to follow routines, share, solve conflicts, be polite and play effectively with others. Furthermore, through discussions with adults they begin to understand why it is important to behave well. This allows them to be self-regulating, aware of others and confident in a range of environments.
Physical skills
Fine motor skills - All children will develop a tripod grip and have the ability to form some recognisable letters. A range of opportunities, inside and outside, supports the children’s positive disposition towards (and consequently ability in) writing.
Gross motor skills - Children will become confident at moving in a range of ways around the different challenges in our exciting garden, learning how to take risks and play games. Confidence with movement is important in developing the body and brain in ways that are essential for academic and social skills. Being able to control their movements will allow them to sit still.
Communication skills
Listening and attention – We have high expectations of what the children can achieve if they are interested and motivated by an activity. This helps the children to develop excellent attention at our setting, being able to sit, concentrate and listen effectively. Children also develop concentration through free choice activities that they find intrinsically motivating. A focus on enjoying books further develops the skills of effective listening.
Speaking
Specific communication activities focus on developing the children’s ability to understand and construct grammatically correct sentences through a process of modelling and child improvement. Our use of high quality open ended questioning gives children the chance to verbalise their own ideas, further developing language skills; while the high staff : child ratios allow for regular high quality interactions.
Creativity
This is an area we really focus on developing in the children. Children are encouraged to come up with their own ideas, both through open ended questioning and a wide range of opportunities for imaginative role play both inside and out. There are also many areas for artistic activities, specialist teachers provide varied experiences and the children begin to problem solve.
Awareness of the world around them
Our thematic learning allows for a wide range of experiences to be linked to an overall theme. This helps children to make connections between different areas of learning. The garden also allows the children to experience nature and provides space for many types of experiential learning.
Books
A love of reading and an awareness of how to understand books is both one of life’s pleasures and critical for success throughout school and beyond. The older children have access to our library, where staff are always available for quiet reading with them. During group sessions, we act out books to have fun and develop empathy with the characters. This helps develop inferential understanding.
Phonics
Due to an enjoyment of reading, the older children are motivated to want to read; so will have great fun learning how to rhyme, discriminate sounds and repeat patterns. Children then choose to begin to learn their key sounds with Diana (formerly a Borough Leading Teacher for Phonics). In the longer term, the extremely positive attitude to learning engendered in these activities allows them to learn their key sounds rapidly. Maths – Mathematical awareness is developed through a range of imaginative play activities (many of them outside). Children will count to 20, recognise the numerals and begin number problems, while they learn about shape through art and construction. With this fun approach the children achieve very well, without the need for ‘direct’ teaching, as Ofsted noted (May 2015) “Children’s progress is maths is developing well … as adults provide activities to promote number in play outdoors.”
Self-care
Mealtimes are a social occasion where children serve themselves and are responsible for clearing away etc. They learn to be polite, sit patiently and converse. Regular activities encourage the children to become aware of healthy eating, while games in the large garden encourage them to be fit; so they develop awareness of healthy lifestyles.
Independence
Children need to be able to operate independently of their parents. Our Key Person system supports them in forming secure attachments with other people, while our small friendly environment helps children to feel settled and become confident. Meaningful praise further supports children in enjoying their achievements and growing in confidence.
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