Little Pippins Preschool & Wrap around care

 

The session

"Little pippins preschool are absolutely amazing. Their staff are all so friendly and kind, not to mention hardworking. The preschool has such a welcoming environment and my children have absolutely thrived whilst being there. I couldn’t have asked for a better setting to send my children to, they always came out with a huge smile on their faces and couldn’t wait to tell me about their day. The frequent updates on the learning journey gave me a real insight to how much fun they have there, and all the amazing activities on offer." C Brown 2022

 The Apple Room is for funded or non funded children aged  2-4 year old children, open everyday 8.00am-6pm  Morning sessions 8am-1pm and Afternoon sessions 1pm-6pm or school day 9am-4pm with full day options 9-5 or 8-6 pm. 

The Pre-School organises its sessions so that the children can choose from—and work at—a range of activities both adult led and child led and, in doing so, build up their ability to select and work through a task to  its completion.  The children are also helped and encouraged to take  part in adult-led group activities such as letters and sounds, rhyming words listening to sounds and matching with objects, music and movement activities, singing plus much more.  These introduce them to new experiences and help them to gain new skills, as well as helping them to learn to work with others and build on the skills they already have.
 
Outdoor activities contribute to children’s health, their physical development and their knowledge of the world around them. The children have the opportunity daily through free-flow –and are encouraged– to take part in outdoor child–chosen and adult led activities, as well as those provided indoors. 
 

The first days


We want your child to feel happy and safe with us. To make sure that this is the case, the staff will work with you to decide on how to help your child to settle into the setting. The setting has a policy about helping children to settle into the setting:  a copy is enclosed in this prospectus and available on this website to download.

On arrival at the Pre-School the parent/carer are saying goodbye on the door before entering the room and then self-register, The  staff will teach the children to find their own pegs and self register, this is done by placing their name accompanied by their picture on to a wall chart.  For children who are about to leave to attend school the name tag will not be accompanied by a picture to help them with recognition. 


Parents are asked to purchase or provide a book bag for correspondence- this is given to you if you paid your £5 registration fee.  Art work and Home diaries.  These are to be placed in the Book Bag box and then the parent should accompany the child to the lunchbox trolley to place their bottle of water.  Once this has been completed the parent is again encouraged to say goodbye to their child and leave them to settle (this may seem harsh, but we have experienced that a child settles more quickly when the parent is not around). Breakfast is served between 8am-9am for the children who are arriving early and the children have a choice between cereal and toast to choose from.


Once all the children have arrived the Formal register will be taken by a member of staff  all children are gathered on the carpet and wait to answer their name we use sign-a-long within the setting so all say good morning to each other and count how many children are in that day. We also sing a hello song every morning to greet the children using sign. We have a star of the day each session where we go down the register and children take it in turns to select toys for the carpet and help out with things throughout the session. Once this is complete the children engage within the free flow child initiated play indoors and outdoors and adult initiated learning.  All activities are mirrored indoors and out.  After an hour and half our snack bar will open for the children to help themselves to snack and after wash up their bowls and cups to develop their independence. At the same time small groups of children will take part in adult led activities, such as letters and sounds, shapes, colours, numbers, activities around our themes and the weather board this is done both indoors and outdoors. We also have focus times when we focus on certain activities to improve children speech, maths skills or self care skills.

At the end of the session all the children will be gathered back together, this is when the whole group take part in singing, story time or circle games.  Once the main doors are open the children will be called one at a time to meet the parent/carer at the door.  and singing a goodbye to end the session using sign.
 

"I can not fault the staff at all at little pippins. They have allowed my daughter to flourish and grow and the support they have provided has been absolutely second to none. All the staff are amazing and show so much love to the children within the nursery. They truly do care about the children that are in their care. Little pippins have been amazing and I cannot thank them enough." L Stratton 2022

 

 Activities

 

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.  Our setting uses the  guidance related to 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 learning and development. In some of these activities
children decide how they will use the activity and, in others, an adult takes the lead in helping the children to take part in the activity. In

all activities information from the  guidance to the Early Years Foundation Stage has been used to decide what equipment to provide and how to provide it. Our Pre-School session consists of free-flow play between the indoor and outdoor areas.  Children get to experience a range of activities throughout the day, these include: role play, physical play (climbing frame, scooters), creative, mark making, maths, book corner, quiet time, small world etc. the children can move freely between the indoors and outdoors where activities are set to challenge and extend their knowledge as well as them engaging in their own child initiated play.

We offer a wide range of creative and messy activities such as painting, cooking, and gluing, as well as having a open mark making area indoors and chalks and note pads for outdoors.  This is then followed by an adult lead activity for example letters and sound and focus adult led activity planned around the EYFS, a snack and a story. in these sessions the children will get the chance
to learn and develop on their skills with singing dancing numbers, colours shapes and sounds around them. The sessions are well thought out and each week themes and topics are discussed to teach and learn about with the children.  The themes come from child interests and ideas.  If the children have a favourite item this may be the theme.

Themes, curricula and the Early Learning Goal’s are displayed on the notice board for each half term, along with lots of other information which you may be interested in, this included the signs for the week and topic we will be looking at for you to bring in objects to put on our interest table and for the children to talk about in circle time at the end of the session.  Children will not bring activities home from every session; some work will be displayed on our notice boards whilst other work may be an observation learning journey. All children are encouraged but not forced to take part in activities.

 

 

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