Baby room
Our baby room has been carefully configured with the babies’ needs in mind. The environment is very calm and familiar so that babies feel confident and eager to learn. Babies start crawling and walking; explore sounds, textures and feelings; dance and play instruments; and learn to eat new food and cook very healthy meals! We have 9 babies daily, who are looked after by 3 qualified key workers, with whom the babies build very strong relationships. Babies have a daily report to inform parents what they ate and how much, how long they slept for, and at what time they had their nappy changed.
“Children love attending Hargrave Park School – Under Three Provision. Children enter school with smiles on their faces and even the new little babes, settle to activities quickly.”
Ofsted 2023
Toddler room
Our toddler room is where the children start becoming more independent – putting coats and shoes on, washing hands, and starting potty-training. With this in mind, we offer children a wide range of activities: sand, water, mud kitchen, painting, drawing, building blocks, planting and preparing healthy meals. This is the time when children start playing with each other and making friends.
“Parents are extremely happy with the school and say their children thrive.”
Ofsted 2023
Our key worker system
The key worker is the first point of contact for parents, and the person who will build a special relationship with each child. They are responsible for doing the observations and assessments and they have meetings regularly to talk about the children’s development. We have parent consultation meetings at two points across the year. We use an online journal – Tapestry- shared by key workers and parents, where they can upload photographs and videos of important events, making comments. Practitioners will also make suggestions of activities to do at home. It is very important that parents comment and upload photographs so that key workers can plan activities more effectively. Key workers plan focus activities weekly for each child, and they scaffold children’s learning with language and by engaging in open-ended play.
For more information, click on the link below:
Our Under Three’s Curriculum
Our curriculum for the under threes has been designed to incorporate children’s interests and their natural curiosity in the world around them. Each week adults plan for their key children, incorporating ways to develop learning based on each child’s interests. This learning is supported by access to areas of continuous provision within the environment such as sand, water and home corner role play as we know children benefit from play in these areas with familiar adults. This is enhanced with our under three’s curriculum map which can be found below. In this you will see that each half term we explore and learn about the current season and how this affects the world around us. We enjoy collecting autumn leaves, exploring ice and looking for new plants emerge in spring. The children are supported to represent their findings in creative activities and link these experiences to stories read.