Curriculum
Little Fishes Pre-School follows the curriculum guidelines set out in the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework
Curriculum Overview – EYFS
The statutory framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.
The three prime areas of Learning are:
- Communication and Language
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
We also support children in four specific areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive Arts and Design
This is a little bit like a curriculum in primary and secondary schools, but it’s suitable for very young children, and it’s designed to be really flexible so that our staff can follow your child’s unique needs and interests.
Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside.
A Parents EY Guide is available to download and will give you a better understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.
Key person and your child
Each child at Little Fishes will have a key person, a named member of staff responsible for a small group of children. They will help your child feel happy and safe and ensure that every child’s learning and care is tailored to meet their individual needs. It is the key person who observes your child regularly as they are playing and learning, they will pay attention to how your child learns, what they enjoy playing with and what they need more support with. These observations are kept in your child’s Learning Journey. A collection of significant steps your child takes in all areas of learning and development. This may be photographs, written observations, drawings, mark making and writing. The learning journal is available for you to read and share with your child at any time and is given to you to keep when your child leaves Little Fishes.
You will regularly have the opportunity to share details of your child’s progress both at pre-school and at home with your child’s key person. They along with our Manager will be available at drop off and pick up if you’d like a chat. We have regular ‘stay and play’ sessions where learning journals can be shared plus your child’s key person will email fortnightly updates on your child’s development including photos.
We want you to feel confident in our provision and key communication will enhance your child’s learning journey.
Settling in at Little Fishes
We understand there is a lot to take in on the first day of pre-school, for the child and parent alike and we want to make it easy and comfortable for both of you. We invite you to visit the pre-school before your child starts with us so you can both get familiar with the surroundings. We also have a separate registration visit so you don’t have to worry about paperwork on your first day. Also, our intake of children each new term is staggered to ensure we can focus on each child.
We want your child to feel calm and happy with us. To make sure that this is the case, our staff will work with you to decide how to help your child to settle into Little Fishes. View our policy on the Role of the Key Person and Settling-in
Woodland visits and Fun days out
We are lucky enough, thanks to our great relationship with Furze Platt Infant school, to have access to a woodland area via a gate at the back of the pre-school garden.
Furze Platt Senior School kindly give us permission to walk across their field to reach the Early Years area at Furze Platt Infant School where the children explore the woodland, play games and maybe even ‘go on a bear hunt’. It’s a huge adventure!
The children love their time at the woodland and it’s a fantastic opportunity for the children to talk about the transition to ‘big’ school, whether it’s this school or another.
During the summer term we organise a summer trip with parents to broaden the children’s experience. Over the past few years this has included days out to Braywick Nature reserve and a Berkshire College of Agriculture Zoo tour.
Preparing for ‘Big’ school
The move up to “big school” is exciting but can also be very unsettling and daunting for a child. We work together with each of the local primary/infant schools to ensure the transition is smooth and the children are as prepared as possible.
As well as our Woodland visits to Furze Platt Infant School, our children are usually invited to visit their new school where they can meet other children and get used to their new environment. Often new teachers will also visit the children at Little Fishes.
There are many other things at pre-school we can do to help prepare your child for primary or infant school such as;
- encouraging the children to do up and hang up their own coats
- supporting the children to recognise their names
- encouraging children to wash and dry their own hands after messy play
- using cutlery and pouring their own drinks at snack time
These simple activities help a child develop their confidence and enable the transition to ‘big’ school to be a smooth one.
