Welcome to Melrose Pre-school
Our intent, our overarching goals
A Melrose Preschool child is a confident, independent learner, that feels ‘ready to take on the world’.
A Melrose Preschool child:
- can make friends
- communicates effectively
- is fascinated and motivated to learn
They feel safe, secure, loved and part of our ‘Melrose’ family.
We believe that by offering every child this solid EYFS foundation, we are supporting children to become lifelong learners, excited by the possibilities ahead of them.
Curriculum Implementation
We are passionate that all children reach their full, unique potential alongside their peers. Our aim is to equip every unique child with their own ‘essential toolkit’, so that whenever they leave us, they are ready for their next stage of education, confident to ‘take on the world’.
We make our children feel safe and secure enabling a positive and confident attitude to learning. We see our pre-school as an extension of your family and want to give children a welcoming, caring, nurturing environment in which to grow and learn. We see every child as an individual and underpin the fundamental British Values into all aspects of our play.
We understand that every child is unique and we support children to make progress from their individual starting points, so that by the time they leave us they are able to make friends, communicate effectively and are ready to continue to enjoy their learning.
Our staff pride themselves on knowing their key children- their interests, their family and their community. They understand the ways in which they learn best and what your child needs to do to help them achieve their next stages of development. We build on their existing knowledge and interests and develop their experiences of the world around them. There is a strong emphasis on speech and language and want our children to learn in a vocabulary- rich environment. We understand the importance of developing early language in younger years and acknowledge the benefits of this as children progress into adulthood. As a setting, we are committed to raising outcomes for every child and support the government’s pledge to half the attainment gap in communication and reading that currently exists nationally at the end of the Reception Year.
Our ambitious curriculum is central to ensuring that by the time children leave us for reception; they will have had the necessary exposure, experiences and support ready for their next stage of education.
Each educational programme offers children the opportunity to experience the world around them in a way that is interesting to the unique child. Please see below for further information on what this looks like.
We also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. These specific areas are:
Literacy
We are passionate about fostering a love of books with our children. By the time children leave us, all of our children will be ready to become confident readers and writers.
We do this by our enjoyment of reading and including the children in the story telling by using books where the children can join in all the parts they know and we often use the stories within our play so the children can extend the stories. Children are given access to a wide range of carefully considered reading materials including books, poems, newspapers and magazines we use media with different languages so the children can explore written materials to ignite their interest. We encourage our children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write.
Mathematics
Children are given opportunities to develop and improve their number skills. This includes counting, understanding and use of numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems. We also include shapes, spaces and measure.
By the time children leave us, our children will be confident mathematicians.
We do this by using numbers in all activities we do, we count the children as a group at each registration, we often cook and measure ingredients, there are number prompts around the room that are visible to start conversations on numbers, we use weight, size and number language within all activities
Understanding the world
Children learn to make sense of the world and communities in which we live, and those beyond. This is achieved by giving them opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment
By the time children leave us, our children will be confident explorers and investigators because we offer various opportunities to explore with the tools they may need to do it.
Outside we have bug magnifying glasses, bug catches we have shovels for the children to dig in the mud to explore the natural world and then we use technology to follow up their finding by watching short clips on how the worm or the spiders build their homes to give them a further understanding of the animals they have found.
We plant our own potatoes and vegetables and when they are ready to be harvested we use them within our snack so the children have an in depth understanding of where their food comes from this includes the process of making our own butter and regularly giving the children the opportunity to cook and take their bits home with them so they are able to talk to their family about the process.
Expressive arts and design
Children are encouraged to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology.
By the time children leave us, our children will be confident actors, artists and musicians.
We do this by encouraging their play and imagination by providing them with the equipment and tools they need. Our home corner has themes that are changed regularly with all the tools to ignite their minds, staff will observe but the children use this are to explore and build on role play using their own experiences, their favourite themes are hairdressers, doctors and farm shops where they have real fruit and vegetables, scales paper bags tills and money this will often be extended to another area of the setting where they will make dinner for their friends. These opportunities are offered both inside and outside.
Our teaching approach across all areas of the curriculum is flexible; dependent upon the child’s age and current stage of development. We largely follow a child centred approach, and follow the interest of the child.
Staff plan according to the children interests and needs to help them to build their learning over time. We have more recently incorporated an ‘in the moment approach’. This aids us in ‘tuning into’ your child and maintaining learning momentum.
Throughout our setting, children can choose how and where they learn. We provide them with practical yet playful support. Staff create environments conductive to conversations and present them with challenges to extend their thinking. Children have the opportunity to learn through whole room activities, small circle time sessions and from one to one support.
Our staff work closely with outside education and healthcare professionals if children need additional support to progress.
Our learning environments, both inside and outside are also adapted regularly to meet the different and developing needs of the children in our care.
We aim to ensure that these areas are always stimulating and exciting and that, importantly, they are accessible to all children, regardless of where they are on their learning journey. We use resources to help foster a sense of independence and self-confidence. Our staff know when to observe, co-play and extend children’s learning. There is a strong emphasis on parent partnerships and we offer ongoing support and advice. We work with parents, suggesting home learning opportunities and welcome parental and child input to build on their child’s learning experiences.
We observe children through play and use these as accurate assessments of their progress through the EYFS. These provide us with information for future planning; we learn more about their interests and are able to set individual children’s next steps for progressive learning. They enable us, to track individual progress and well as progress within COHORTS of children. We also use these to help assess the quality of our provision and help identify areas for improvement.
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What parents say about us
I honestly cannot thank you girls enough for everything that you do for the kids. Everyday there is something new for them to learn and explore. My eldest is always coming home and has to sing the new songs he’s learnt and to tell me about all of his friends and what they’ve been doing together. I wouldn’t want my children to go anywhere else and I know that they are in the best of hands. Thank you all so much!
- Jo Hammett
Leah has loved coming everyday, even on weekends she has wanted to come, the staff are polite and friendly and always have a smile, not only have they looked after Leah during Nursery hours but have also supported through extra stuff as well. Leah is always coming out singing songs and telling me what she has done, I know she is going to miss everyone when she leaves but she is leaving with some happy memories, thank you all so much for looking after Leah and everything you have taught her xx
- Kim Hunt
I put my son in preschool when he turned two, and as difficult as it was, all the staff at Melrose made the transition as smooth as possible and reassured me by phone regularly whenever needed. When the pandemic hit, they brought over some activity sheets and materials to keep kids creating and us parents sane! The ladies at the preschool are all amazing, dedicated gems and my son loves them all; their constant support and great sense of humour has always put me at ease and know with confidence my son is in good hands. We will miss you ladies, thank you so much for all you do and help bring my son up!
Lumina Hart
Your pre-school has a wonderful, enveloping atmosphere. Children feel loved and cared for and are happy in their learning. Practitioners clearly enjoy being with the children and work well as a team.