Educare for Early Years’ Preschool Room
What we offer in our Preschool Room is a curriculum for children under statutory school age, it challenges and encourages them to develop into motivated learners and thinkers. We provide a structured day to prepare children for School and to increase their concentration and listening skills progressively. Our childcare practitioners put a strong emphasis on the development of self-confidence, development of individual personalities and most of all the development of independence.
Our Facilities
The cleanliness of our baby rooms is apparent throughout, as is our commitment to resourcing them with an abundance of toys, equipment and educational materials.
Our Preschool Room is light and inviting with its own en-suite toilet facilities, the children have access to mark making, construction, a cosy reading area, maths discovery table and ‘funky fingers’ activities. The Preschool children also use the Toddler Room and Art Studio for their creative / role-play times and our indoor physical play space ‘Playclub’ for activities such as circle games. The Preschool access our outdoor play area, they go out regardless of the weather and are encouraged to pick appropriate clothing for the weather that day.
Your Child’s Development
At Educare, we believe that confidence is one of the most important qualities a child can have when going to School. We use a variety of strategies to build a child’s confidence; with the hope it will help them make friends at school, ask the teacher for help, be able to ask to go to the toilet and select what they would like in the canteen at lunch etc. We also do PE lessons in the summer term to help practice dressing and undressing and we have a reading scheme so the children can develop a reading routine at home. Computer activities, cooking, planting, singing and making dens are but a few of the daily activities that our Preschool children discover. Sports activities on offer enable the children to challenge themselves physically while having fun. We also follow The Curiosity Approach, which is a modern day approach to Early Childhood. For more information on the Curiosity Approach see our inspiration tab on our webpage.
Although not a statutory requirement we start to teach phonics as part of the Preschool day, we follow the Letters and Sounds programme as this is what is taught in most of our feeder Primary Schools and provides a solid foundation for phonics at School. We look at Phase 1, which involves lots of listening skills and the ability to break down and analyse the sounds they hear. We at Educare feel these sessions give them the best start ready for formal reading and writing in Reception.
We have an optional Preschool uniform that can be purchased, this helps the children get used to wearing uniform ready for School but also helps our Preschool children feel ‘grown-up’ encouraging them to model good behaviour and manners to the younger children. At Educare, we are keen to ensure all of our Preschool children get off to a flying start at Primary School. As part of this, we work closely in partnership with Schools and invite teachers into the nursery to meet their future pupils.
Mealtimes become more independent with the help of our ‘dinner time monitor’ ‘special helpers’ and ‘line leaders’ the children wash their hands, set the table, serve their own food, help their friends and clear away their plates all in preparation for the School canteen. This usually takes a lot of practice at first but you will see how amazingly capable the children become in a very short time.
Just like in the younger rooms children in our Preschool are assigned a key worker to track their progress within the EYFS and Letters and Sounds, a full report is sent to their School and their original paper Learning Journey is sent home with you to keep as lovely memento of their time at Educare.