Activities
Our extensive curriculum is structured around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework, which provides detailed guidance around the seven key areas of learning and development. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected, however three of these are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. These three prime areas are:
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Communication and language;
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Physical development;
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Personal, social and emotional development;
The three prime areas are then strengthened and applied through a further four specific areas, these are:
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Literacy;
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Mathematics;
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Understanding the world;
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Expressive arts and design.
All our activities will look to encourage our children in one or more of these areas.
Indoor Activities
We are situated in the Woodcote Village Hall in the heart of the community.
Our main area is located in the Pavillion room of the village hall overlooking the village green, which offers a light, bright and relaxed environment for playful and creative learning.
An area of the village green immediately outside the Pre-school room is fenced off for our own use, allowing the children to easily choose between inside or outside play.
On a daily basis the room will be split into different areas to encourage different aspects of the EYFS framework, for example we will have a:
- Maths area
- Role play area for imaginative play
- Construction area
- Small world area
- Creation area for creative learning
- Investigation area
- Games area
- Book corner and matt area where we read stories and enjoy music sessions
We also have some adult led activities throughout the day, as well as more quiet relaxed activities.
In addition we have access to a second room within the village hall, allowing us to separate the children into smaller groups, where appropriate, for more focused age specific learning.
For example several times a week the pre-school children called our Owls group will go into our second room to do preparation for school sessions, this will include phonics and writing practice and more practical preparation such as practicing changing into their PE kit.
Healthy Meals
Woodcote Pre-school has a reputation for the delicious nutritious freshly prepared meals we offer our children each day. We have a large kitchen facility with a dedicated cook and lunchtime supervisor who prepares all our meals for our children on a daily basis. In addition to a nutritious lunch our cook also prepares a healthy morning and afternoon snack, which the children all eat together to encourage and practice good mealtime behaviour.
Our kitchen facility also enables the children to enjoy cooking and baking on a weekly basis, helping us to promote an awareness of the importance of good nutrition and demonstrating how much fun cooking can be!
Click on a thumbnail to see a larger version or to scroll through the images.
Click on a thumbnail to see a larger version or to scroll through the images.
Outdoor Activities
An area of the village green immediately outside the Pre-school room is fenced off for our own use, allowing the children to easily free-flow indoors and outdoors choosing what activities they would like to do.
We have a variety of outside equipment that we set up on a daily basis including climbing frames, tunnels, footballs and water tables to ensure the outside area is always different and interesting for the children.
The village playground is adjacent to the pre-school and the children regularly make use of this well-equipped area, as well as been taken on walks to explore the surrounding area.
These may be focused on listening walks or exploring nature or when the weather turns really cold, making snowmen and having fun on the village green itself!
We also make frequent trips to our local garden centre, post office, and local library where we attend their very popular Rhyme Time session.
An important part of our curriculum involves regular trips to our allotment situated at the far side of the village green. We encourage our children to learn how the food we eat grows, what is needed to look after the fruit and vegetables and, where pests and weather permit an adequate harvest, to see what can be done with the produce we grow. The fruit and vegetables are picked and then eaten by the children during snack-time, lunchtime or cooking activities.
“Children enjoy a wide variety of opportunities to explore their local community and learn about the world around them well”. – Ofsted Report 2019.
Celebration & Community Activities
In addition to our daily activities we hold various celebration throughout the year where we invite family and friends of the children to the Pre-school, these include:
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Mothers Day (homemade cake and tea) and Fathers Day (homemade pork pie made by the children and coffee);
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Easter Parade (including a Easter bonnet competition)
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Halloween Parade;
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Christmas Play;
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Sports day
Towards the end of the school term we organise a whole school trip for all the children to have a fun day out with their pre-school friends and their families. We hire a coach for anyone wishing to come along, which makes it a really fun and much anticipated trip out. Previous trips have included Four Kingdoms, Cotswold Wildlife Park and Beale Park.
On the last day of the summer and Christmas terms we hold an end of school year and Christmas party – in previous years this has included bouncy castles, a visit from Jester Giggles and of course a visit from the man himself, Father Christmas.
We also participate in various community events including a Thanks Giving and Christmas service at St Leonards Church and a Remembrance service held at the local war memorial. These will often include children from the local primary school and other local pre-schools.
If you would like more information on the EYFS statutory framework within Woodcote Pre-school please follow the attached link to our Prospectus.
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A Typical Day in the Life of ...
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8.30 am |
Early drop off |
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9am |
School Opens |
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9.20am |
Registration – all the children sit on the mat and we talk about who is here, the weather, what day of the week it is and what we are going to do that day. |
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9.30am |
Snack time |
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9.45am |
Free play, focused learning and some adult lead activities – different activities are set out each day to give the children different topics to explore. We also tailor activities to key events that are happening in the calender, for example at Chinese New Year we set up a Chinese Shop for the children to explore the food of Asia. We will include some focused learning activities where we bring small groups of children together to play specific games, for example matching colours or counting games. |
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11.10am |
PE or dancing– the children are encouraged to join in with fun games either in our outside space, or on rainy days we have a room big enough for us to accommodate indoor games. |
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11.40am |
Story and rhyme time – the children will sit on the mat to enjoy stories and singing. |
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12 noon |
Morning session ends. Lunchtime |
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1pm |
End of extended morning session. Afternoon session begins. |
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1.10pm |
Free Play – as above |
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2.40pm |
Afternoon snack time |
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3pm |
End of afternoon session for 15/30 hour funded children |
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3.30pm |
School closes |
