This area is for children who are 3-4yrs.  The Pioneers room is large and open plan with areas set up as cosy ‘communication friendly’ spaces.   It has its own kitchen, small quiet room for group work and a large outside area.  Children in their pre-school year use both the inside and outside enabling environments to promote independent choices for learning as well as join in adult-led focussed activities in both large and small groups. 

The planning aims at ensuring that by the end of the year, each child is ready for school. During their last year with us, the Pioneer children build close links with Knights Templar Community Church School.   The Reception teachers also visit the children in their Nursery environment. This all helps to make the transition into school as smooth as possible.

Our Pioneers room is a large spacious area, set out into different learning zones, which create great spaces for communicating and independent choice and learning.  There is an open plan kitchen, which is a wonderful area for the children to be involved in cooking activities. The outdoor provision is set out in different learning areas.  These include loose parts and block building, mud kitchen, sand, physical space to challenge your skills- including a climbing wall and an undercover learning space. There is access to the school field and wildlife area, which is great for running, bug hunting and investigating.

The structure of the day is mainly free-flow, where children have the opportunity to learn through play activities of their choice.  Alongside this, we have adult led carpet times and small group focus activity times to support key areas of development.

‘Children are born ready, able and eager to learn, they actively reach out to interact with other people and in the world around them. Development is not an automatic process however, it depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact in positive relationships and enabling environments’.

Each child has a key person who will support and track your child’s progress and then work alongside you to decide on the next steps of support that your child needs to progress in their development.

Throughout their time at nursery, our ethos is to support and embed the ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’ (CofEL)

• Playing and exploring – ENGAGEMENT
• Active learning – MOTIVATION
• Creating and thinking critically – THINKING

These skills support children to become an ‘independent learner’ and help to prepare our children to be ‘School ready’.  So what does it mean for a child to be ‘ready for school’?

• Confidence in themselves
  • Belief in themselves
  • Keen to explore and try things out
  • Able to express themselves and say what they want or how they’re feeling
  • Independent in looking after themselves i.e. dressing, coats, toileting, washing hands, eating, putting on shoes, blowing their nose, etc
• Being happy with different people
  • Able to separate sensibly from parent or carer 
  • Able to talk to people of different ages
  • Able to share with other children – taking turns, share toys.
  • Knows when to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’
• Showing a love of learning
  • Keen to ask questions, notices things, has a conversation about something they’re interested in
  • Introduced to lots of new words, enjoys trying new words and confidently asks about new words
  • Enjoys books and fairy tales
  • Joins in with nursery rhymes and songs
  • Enjoys counting and noticing the difference in things e.g. length, weight, amount
• Physical confidence
  • Happy to run around and move in different ways eg steps, jump, balance bikes, hopping
  • Strong in core – able to sit up, kneel up, pull their chest up, etc
  • Happy to play with different apparatus such as a large ball, a hoop.
  • Strong and dextrous fingers

Gemma Cody is our Early Years Lead and the Reception teacher at Knights Templar Community Church School.   She also oversees the nursery curriculum (EYFS).

During the summer term, the Pre-School children visit the school for various activities to get used to the environment and staff team and this helps make the transition process as seamless and supportive as possible.

Child care Funding

There are now a range of options of funding available, these include.

• 30 hours for eligible families 9 months to 4 years.
• 15hrs for 2 yr olds for families receiving support.
• 15hrs funding for all children age 3-4yrs
• Tax free Childcare
• Universal Credit Childcare
• Study Support.

For further information please visit the 'Best Start In Life' website: www.beststartinlife.gov.uk