Learning

Our Learning

Curriculum

During their time at Pewsham Preschool we will provide opportunities for children to explore, learn and develop across all seven areas of learning as set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. Our guide to these seven areas of learning can be viewed and downloaded here.

What we want for our children

We have high expectations of all the children in our setting and with this in mind we aim for all our children to develop throughout their time here with the aim of becoming:

Curious Life Long Learners

To explore
To be imaginative
To be creative thinkers
To test their ideas
To ask questions and share their ideas
To be able to focus on a chosen task

Courageous & Confident

To have a positive self-image and believe in themselves
To be willing to have a go and keep trying when it goes wrong
To be resilient
To be able to express themselves, their wants and their opinion
To be independent

Caring

To understand their own emotions
To understand that their actions can affect other people
To appreciate and respect the thoughts and feelings of others
To build relationships and make friends
To share and take turns
To be able to manage conflict
To be interested in other people’s lives and understand that everyone is different
To be healthy and safe

How we will teach and support our children

Continuous Provision

We believe children learn best through play.
Children are able to independently access a large range of toys and open-ended resources that have been chosen to ensure children have access to development within all seven areas of learning, such as malleable, creative, construction, reading, mark making, imaginative play, critical thinking and problem solving.
Our child friendly bathrooms allow children independence in toileting and handwashing.
In addition, our outside resources also enable children the freedom to move and to challenge themselves and develop gross motor skills, balance and co-ordination in a safe space.
Free flow play allows children to become absorbed in their learning, helping to make connections for future learning and allows children who learn best outside to be given the opportunity to do so.

Children’s Interests

Practitioners tune into children’s interests and learning preferences and additional resources are added to capture their attention and allow deeper learning.
We liaise with parents regularly to find out what their children's interests are and how they feel they learn best.

Adult Led Activities

Small group circle times to encourage discussion and build friendships - the activity is based on the current individual group and are based around the needs or interests of those children.
Short large group activities such as song time or story time encourage children to listen and take part.
Adult led activities based on a current topic or child interests are available throughout the day which children can choose to take part in.

Focused Interventions

More specialised interventions are used for children who have been identified as needing additional help in a certain area.
IEP's are written by the child's keyperson along with input from our SENCO and parents to allow all staff to support every child.
Strong partnerships with parents and outside agencies ensure we all work together to provide the best support and outcome for all children.

Adult Interactions

Calm and friendly practitioners provide children with a safe, secure environment for children to explore.
Practitioners sensitively scaffold children’s play and provide enriched opportunities to extend their learning.
Practitioners observe what children can do and reflect on what we can do to move them forward.

Education Programmes

BLAST (Boosting Language Auditory Skills and Talking) - works on underpinning skills for language, communication and literacy, turn taking, discrimination, listening and attention and social communication.
Letters and Sounds Phase 1 - to help children listen to and tune into sounds around them and help lay the foundation for later phonic work.
Fundamental Movement Skills - to help children develop early fundamental movement skills to help them move confidently - such as running, jumping and balancing - and join in with future physical activities.

Additional support relevant to cohort 2023/2024

This year, due to a younger cohort, we have found many children are less independent in their self-care needs and their ability to form friendships with peers, this includes difficulties with their language development, turn-taking and sharing skills.

A greater focus will therefore be placed on PSED, especially engaging children in activities to support their independence, forming relationships, sharing and turn-taking. Daily circle time activities will focus on activities to support the children with additional ‘Social Skills’ groups, focussing extra support on those children who need it.

Early identification is important for us to provide the additional support each child may require to be a confident communicator. We are aware that a higher number of children are struggling with the speech and language development. We will continue to monitor children as soon as they start preschool and quickly implement strategies to support any child who displays any difficulty, working alongside parents to support their child. If a referral to speech and language is required for further support, we will gather the information and complete the referral as soon as possible to enable children to have the best opportunity.

Two members of staff have recently attended ‘A Total Communication’ training and have cascaded their knowledge with the rest of the team, this is now been implemented across the setting.

By providing early interventions we hope to narrow the gap between any children who may display any difficulties.

Rainbow Rules

At Preschool we help children to learn about respect for themselves, others and the environment and develop independence by using our simple rainbow rules. Please share these at home with your child to enhance their learning.

--- Red Rule ---

We are kind and we help each other

--- Yellow Rule ---

We share and take turns

--- Pink Rule ---

We look after the books and toys

--- Green Rule ---

We walk inside to keep everyone safe

--- Purple Rule ---

We look and listen to help us understand

--- Orange Rule ---

We explore and ask questions

--- Blue Rule ---

We try, try, try until we can, can, can!

Tapestry

At Preschool we use Tapestry to create an online journal of the children's activities. Each child's keyperson will create regular journal entries with information on what they've been up to, including photos and videos.

Parents are able to login and access their child's information securely and can make comments against the journal entries and even create their own.

It is a fantastic tool and gifts parents with a unique insight and input into their child's activities while they are at Preschool.