The pre school rooms cater for the needs of children from the age of 3 years to approximately 5 years or until they reach school age.
As the Pre School room is led by Qualified Early Years Teachers, Ofsted guidelines state there is a minimum ratio of 1 adult to 13 children aged over 3 years however at Charley’s Angels we continue to maintain the higher ratio of 1 adult to 8 children to ensure best practice and enable greater free flow for the children across the 3 rooms.
Pre School children ‘Find their Name’ and Self Register by pegging their photo/name card to a washing line. Each child has their own named Peg and Drawer. The pre school rooms are full of busy energy along with educational, stimulating, yet fun activities for the children to investigate and explore whilst satisfying their growing need to learn about the world. The children are exposed to all the areas of learning and development within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) through a variety of continuous provision, and free play in an enabling environment with loose parts and authentic resources.
The nursery day revolves around each individual child’s interests through careful observation, assessment and “planning in the moment” within a fun and caring environment with the emphasis on learning through play. Through a variety of play, games, music and movement, songs, action rhymes, stories, and group discussions the children enjoy learning. The children are introduced to a wide range of familiar and new skills and experiences through which they can practice, explore, investigate, and learn. The thoughtfully planned environment ensures children are stimulated into wanting to learn thus becoming well prepared for their individual next stages.
Children do not need to be potty trained to attend pre school; we have nappy changing facilities as well as child sized toilets to facilitate this. Parents are required to provide nappies and baby wipes for children who are not yet potty/toilet trained.
As in the Under 3’s, all children are assigned a Key Person who will be responsible for the majority of your child’s daily needs. This helps your child form and retain bonds as they move through the setting.
As in the Toddler Room, pre school have all the same resources on a larger scale. Children enjoy sand, messy and wet play, and an open access painting easel in their dedicated preschool messy room. Open access mark making, and creative resources and a dedicated playdough station are available in the dining room. In the main preschool playroom, we have a role play area with authentic role play items, readily available with lots of fabric and pegs for den making. A cosy book corner with lots of books, story baskets with props, puppets, and musical instruments. As in Toddler Room there are lots of open ended resources including planks, cable drums, bricks, small world animals, trains, and cars. In preschool there are much more loose parts in all areas of provision as well as books and writing materials so children can learn through play and follow through their ideas.