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The Nursery and Pre-School Age Groups
Please click on the following age groups to learn more about how we care for our children at Glenhurst:
Children from 3 months to 11 months old
Babies grow immensely quickly between the ages of 3 months and 11 months. In this time they are weaned on to pureed and then solid foods, and learn how to crawl and then toddle. They start off with noises which may sound like babble to us but these are their first sounds of communication. Our Nursery team believe in Makaton baby signing, which is used to sign everyday items and activities such as water, milk, juice, various foods, story, sleep and wash hands, as well as being used in nursery rhymes. Makaton is used by signing and saying the words out loud, and it has been proven to enhance speech development in young babies. In our Nursery, babies are given warmth, gentle handling and expert care by our highly qualified Nursery Leaders and Assistants.
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Children from 8 months to 20 months old
Babies are very active at this age, learning to walk and then run, climb, and manipulate toys and other objects. They benefit from regular music and song times, messy play and plenty of outdoor play. The children are given carefully planned activities to promote their five senses: See, Hear, Touch, Smell and Taste, activities to increase their fine and gross motor skills, and other activities which incorporate the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.
Our Nursery team believe in having a close partnership with parents, in particular with regards to receiving information on individual routines, nap times, meal times, comfort items and favourite songs. A communication form is completed and given to parents daily with information such as nappy changes, sleep times, food and drink, carer's names and any other additional information about baby's day. Parents can feel safe in the knowledge that their little one will develop into a happy toddler in our "home from home" Nursery.
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Children from 16 months to 26 months old
Children at this age need to feel safe and secure, in a warm, nurturing environment. We provide a team of qualified staff to care for your children and help them to become independent learners. Praise is given freely to children, ensuring that they develop confidence and self-esteem, and understand when they have done well. The Nursery team provide good, consistent role models for the children, to ensure that they learn right from wrong and develop into kind, polite and caring individuals.
Children show immense curiosity about the world around them at this stage. They need time and space to experiment with new skills and to explore their environment, whilst our team of qualified staff ensure that they do so in safety. Children are learning social skills, and enjoy being with and talking to familiar, trusted adults and children. They are encouraged to do tasks and activities for themselves, knowing that an adult is close by and ready to help and support them if necessary.
We aim to give our children the challenges they need but with security, the opportunity to build a wide variety of skills without slowing their enthusiasm to learn, and above all to enable them to develop confidence, social skills and relationships with others.
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Children from 22 months to 36 months old
Children at this stage are active learners and need space and time to explore their environment and experiment, especially with natural materials such as sand, water, dough and bubbles. They need to express their feelings through singing, dancing, painting, drawing and role play. They need to be encouraged to develop their language and expression through listening and telling stories, poems and rhymes, talking with adults and playing word games.
The Nursery team ensure that our children have daily opportunities to stretch their imaginations and increase their vocabulary by learning about plants, creatures and machines, naming parts and talking about how things work and why things happen. Children learn to recognise their written name and begin to learn the sounds of letters and experiment with writing and tracing and forming letters from dough or in sand. The Jolly Phonics scheme is used to teach sounds and letters in the Nursery. The children learn the language of mathematics by counting, sorting, measuring and talking about shapes and sizes.
They extend their knowledge and understanding of the world through tasting and cooking different foods, meeting visitors such as policemen and firemen or the local librarian. There are frequent opportunities to take part in new experiences such as planting seeds, going on mini-beast hunts or taking part in special celebrations throughout the year. By manipulating small construction pieces, using tools, climbing, jumping, dancing and pedalling bikes the children become more agile, co-ordinated and self-controlled. The Nursery team plan new learning goals for each child to ensure that whatever their level of development, they are being challenged and prepared for the next stage.
The Nursery team provide a continuous assessment of each child using the Early Years Foundation Stage Development Folder. The Nursery children are encouraged to develop at their own particular pace with all the support that is required. There is a structured and carefully planned approach to the daily activities which helps children feel secure. However our routines are flexible to accommodate celebrations, visits such as from storytellers or the Fire Brigade and other exciting events.
A Home Link Book is given to each child and sent home to parents on a weekly basis. This is a two-way communication book which gives parents an insight to small observations made by their child's carer and in which parents can send messages to Nursery if they wish. Parents are encouraged to come into Nursery as often as necessary to speak to their child's Key Worker about progress or any problems.
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The Pre-School from 3 years old
Glenhurst Pre-School covers all aspects required by the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, which includes the period from when a child starts in Nursery until the end of their Reception year. From the four areas of a child's early development, the Learning and Development section covers:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication, Language and Literacy
- Problem solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
- Knowledge and Understanding of the World
- Physical Development
- Creative Development
Full details of these six areas of learning can be found on our Pre-School EYFSC page.
Pre-School age children still need familiar adults and routines, but are growing in confidence to try new experiences, foods and games. They become more confident when role playing familiar scenarios such as The Shop, Post Office, Doctors or Hairdressers. They still need time for free choice and role play and plenty of physical activity and outdoor play.
Academically, they are continually expanding their vocabulary and general knowledge. They learn all their letter sounds through daily practice with the Jolly Phonics activities, and are provided with Jolly Phonics letters to take home to practice. Activities are planned to increase their pencil control, such as tracing, dot to dot and forming letters in dough, sand or on white boards, and they are given opportunities to practice emergent writing through real tasks and role play.
On selected afternoons the children either use the interactive white board or have a lesson on individual laptops which provide another stimulating variation to their learning of phonics and number. We aim for children to know all their sounds, write their name forming some or most letters correctly and to begin to recognise familiar words by the end of this year. As their mathematical abilities develop we expect children to be counting beyond 10, recognising written numerals and learning to shape them correctly. They learn to match with one to one correspondence, naming shapes correctly and sorting objects according to given criteria.
Class music lessons take place each week, though singing and rhymes take place every day. Each child is given individual learning targets to match their stage of development and ability. These will ensure that every child is challenged to move on to the next level of learning when they are ready and that no child is held back.
We assign each child a Key Worker who monitors and assesses the child's individual learning goals. Your child's Key Worker is there to guarantee continuity and stability and is responsible for keeping you informed about your child's progress and to be there to help with any problems.
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