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EYFS (Preschool)
Bearbrook Pre-school is an inclusive setting within Bearbrook Combined School for children aged 2-4 years. We offer the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum which is play based learning. Our holistic approach enables us to work closely with not only our children but our families to offer children the best start to their education. We have two rooms.
Star room for children aged 2 and 3
Sparkle room for children aged 3 and 4
Our team is well qualified and experienced within early years, with many of them having been with us a long time. We work closely with the main school providing a good transition for children joining the main school.
Our Preschool have recently been recognised for creating a language rich environment enabling the children in our provision to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves. We all understand the importance of communication skills as they can have a life-long impact on a child’s development and future life chances.
Each child is assigned a keyperson who works closely with the family to ensure their individual needs are met through a nurturing approach. The settling in process for your child is recognised by us to be very important. Please see our settling in policy for more detail.
It is really important that children arrive and leave promptly at the start and end of the sessions, as it can cause disruption to the session and can impact on their learning opportunities and their wellbeing.
We use an online learning journey to build a record of your child’s development, this is then also used by the Foundation stage in the main school. In order to use this, you will need to be able to access an app or a desktop. For those without access to the internet we will ensure you are able to view by giving you access in setting or printing on a termly basis. We encourage you to upload pictures and write ups of what your child has been doing at home so we can work in partnership.
Curriculum Intent
At Bearbrook Combined School and Pre-School we want to support the development of children as individuals. Our aim is to prepare the children for the next stage of their journey whether that is transitioning between rooms in our Pre-School, getting ready to start Foundation Stage or preparing to enter Key Stage One.
We intend:
- Creating a vibrant, exciting school and Pre-school where children enjoy their education and progress in a stimulating environment. Enabling them to reach their full potential.
- Developing the whole child through a holistic approach and their creativity and diversity.
- Supporting children to grow into confident, happy, independent life-long learners who can function as successful members of the community.
- Having high expectations of behaviour and attitudes to learning so that they are ready to learn, respectful at all times and as a result feel safe.
- To ensure the school values run through the heart of all we do at Bearbrook, we aim to ‘nurture, inspire, achieve.’
- To teach directed daily phonics lessons and provide extra support where necessary.
- To work in partnership with parents and carers.
- To prepare the children for each developmental milestone ultimately working towards achieving the Early Learning Goals.
- To provide children with a balance of adult directed opportunities and uninterrupted child-initiated play to help build the best outcomes for all pupils.
- The children, parents and carers will have strong relationships with all staff/practitioners.
Curriculum Implementation
At Bearbrook Combined School and Pre-School, we use the Department for Education Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2021) and Every Child Matters (2003) to underpin our curriculum and planning. Teachers use statutory and non-statutory guidance to plan for, teach and assess each child, carefully scaffolding their experiences to promote learning and progress.
Across the Pre-School and Reception all staff observe, question and provide the children with resources needed to build on their next steps. Careful planning of in the moment, Guerrilla Curriculum, directed teaching and child-initiated provision helps build upon this.
This is intertwined carefully into the seven areas of learning:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Literacy
- Maths
- Expressive Arts and Design
- Understanding the World
Staff will ensure children develop skills and abilities in relation to the three key characteristics of effective learning which are:
- playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
- active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
- creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
These characteristics of learning underpin the seven areas of learning. Planning across Foundation Stage is typically book based and encompasses all areas of the curriculum. Children will have times where they are directed to work with an adult and times when they can independently access activities across the setting (Explore and Learn/Child Initiated). Phonics is taught daily across Pre-School and Reception.
Learning is captured in a variety of ways. Quality interactions drive the children to progress and allows them to steer their learning with thought provoking questions. Tapestry is used to collect Wow moments, we encourage families to share these moments from home as well.
Curriculum Impact
The children at Bearbrook Combined School and Pre-School experience a carefully planned and highly effective transition between pre-school, other nurseries and settings, and Foundation Stage into Year 1. Effective communication amongst all staff and practitioners allows for the foundation established to be built upon.
Our children have varied and diverse starting points, we strive for all children to make expected or above expected progress which in turn results in achieving all Early Learning Goals. Progress can be seen on Tapestry online Learning Journal, books, data and staff knowledge of every child.