Pre-School at Charlestown Day Nursery

The pre-school room provides a sound learning curriculum which covers all areas of learning through Early Years Foundation stage.  These are mathematics, language, literacy and communication, knowledge & understanding of the world around us, personal, social & emotional, physical development and creative development.

The planned activities are monitored and the children’s progress is observed and recorded to enable the staff to ensure each child’s individual progress is developed.

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When coming into the pre-school rooms, your child will have visits to settle him/her into the routine of the new room.  Once settled, your child will undertake a wide variety of activities and tasks to develop the skills required when starting school.  

• Mathematics.

The children are given the opportunity to widen their mathematical skills through a variety of sorting, matching, number work, counting, sequencing and adding on and taking away.  They will also have a concept of capacity and volume using sand and water play.  

• Language, Literacy and Communication.

As the child’s confidence grows, they will begin to form letters underneath words on their own.

Soon they will be writing confidently underneath and will be recognising some letters.

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Children will be given the opportunity to develop pencil control through mark-making areas, creative activities and general activities through play.  Language is on-going development encouraged throughout all aspects of play.

Children will have a vast array of books to explore and read using memory recall and from what they see in pictures.  The children are always given the opportunity to develop language skills during individual and group discussions about topics as tasks being carried out.  We have regular flash card activities at circle time, where children can recognise their name or their friend’s name, or familiar letters.  We encourage the learning of the letters and sounds through song, rhyme, stories, puzzles and flash cards.

• Knowledge & Understanding of the World Around Us.

The children are learning about their environment constantly and enjoy talking about past experiences and the world around them.  At nursery the children take part in science activities exploring different experiments which affect the way we live such as: growing activities etc.  We incorporate different festivals and cultures into our curriculum and plan topics linked to the world around us e.g. mini beasts – animals such as spiders, bees, worms and where they live etc.

The children learn basic concepts of information technology by becoming familiar with keyboards, discs and how to control the mouse by clicking.

The children have a wide variety of educational software to choose from and are able to play freely on the computer exploring different software.

• Personal, Social & Emotional.

The children are encouraged to develop good personal, social and emotional skills throughout their day at nursery.  Children are encouraged to play together, make new friends, be caring to their peers and share toys, taking turns.  The children’s personal hygiene skills are also encouraged through toilet training and table manners etc

• Creative

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The children are given the opportunity to take part in different art and craft activities each day i.e. play dough, collage, painting etc.  They are encouraged to create individual end products and learn how to hold and use tools correctly to create their pictures and models.  The children also expand their imagination and creative skills.

• Physical Development.

We have a variety of toys to develop the children’s physical skills, from bikes and scooters to see-saws and climbing frames.  We also have an excellent selection of soft foam equipment i.e. ball pools, etc.

The children take part in outdoor play at least once a day (weather permitting).  We have lots of music and movement opportunities as well as regular dance and drama activities which encourages self expression and confidence building.  The children are given the opportunity of taking part in our dance class.