Baby room: Little Saplings (ages 3-18 months)

The Seedlings baby room is a dedicated space for our youngest Tiddlywinks members. We provide a range of stimulating activities to allow babies to thrive at the start of their early year’s journey, when connections are still forming in their brains.

As the children grow, we encourage them to express their wants, needs and emotions. We support children to build their confidence in a safe, secure and familiar environment. We love seeing children develop from needing an adult to support their needs, such as bottle feeding and nappy changing, through to developing their independence and playing alongside others as their friendships blossom.

All our provision and activities focus on ensuring that children are happy, healthy and thriving. The types of activity available include large-scale floor painting, sandpits and water play to develop gross motor skills, and lots of sensory activities and messy play so children can learn through experience and use their senses to explore the world around them. We provide lots of story time and music activities to develop children’s babbling and first word formation, laying the foundations for effective communication and language. Children in our baby room know what books are and become excited when reading together.

Babies have access to their own outdoor area, where they enjoy exploring a range of activities and natural resources to stimulate their senses and curiosity.

Toddler room: Little Acorns (ages 18 months to 3 years)

In our busy and fun-filled toddler room, every day is a hive of activity for your little ones as they progress on their EYFS learning journey. We follow children’s interests closely to provide a range of activities that capture their imagination and provide the awe and wonder that bring learning to life. This includes visits from outside agencies such as Purple Pig Farm, emergency services and members of our local community, such as hairdressers and local farmers with their tractors.

Our forest school approach means that toddlers are outside for most of the day, and even sleep outside in fair weather. The children love being outdoors where they explore, climb and play with natural resources and materials. These activities promote creativity and stimulate children’s natural curiosity about the world around them, laying the foundation for science and promoting a love of learning through play.

We continue to offer activities to develop gross motor skills, as well as lots of sensory activities, messy play and natural resources. We build upon the foundation of skills and knowledge gained in the baby room, providing opportunities for small group work to encourage sharing, communication and language. We help children to develop their first words, and identify colours and shapes.

Lots of children show readiness to start toilet training in our toddler room, and we support parents in developing these skills. With our support on a daily basis, most children become confident in their toileting. Children enjoy oral health activities, exploring the smell of toothpaste and the feel of bristles, helping to build confidence for brushing teeth at home. The children love ‘stretch and grow’ activities and enjoy being outside taking part in everyday activities that promote health and well-being.

Pre-school room: Mighty Oaks (ages 3-5 years)

Mighty Oaks is our forest school retreat for pre-school children, where we bring learning to life in the great outdoors. Here, children develop their confidence and resilience by taking measured risks, such as exploring, climbing and balancing, in a supportive environment.

Being outside allows children to play with natural resources. Our forest schools approach develops children’s understanding of the world around them, and parents love the idea of their children being outside all day.

The child’s voice is at the heart of what we do, from asking children to share ideas to involving them in planning. This gives children ownership of their learning and enables us to check their knowledge and shape learning accordingly. Children love bringing in stories from home and sharing these with their friends, and we have a home learning observation board where children can share what they have done. This helps to develop their confidence, independence, communication and language.

The provision in our pre-school includes a water area where children enjoy learning about sinking, floating, tipping and pouring, malleable objects for children to explore a range of textures and materials, a fantastic pirate ship to develop children’s physical skills and to feed their imagination, and a small world area for children to learn about the world around them. We also have a vegetable patch, where children enjoy growing their own food, and a fire pit where we toast marshmallows.

Some of the special occasions pre-school children enjoy include our nativity play at the local church, our Easter show, harvest festival and our summer graduation. It is important for our children to learn about the community around them and understand where they live. This helps us promote British values and supports personal, social and emotional development (PSED), in line with the EYFS curriculum. We celebrate events that are important to individual children from different faiths and cultures, as well as community events.

Children visit the local market to buy produce and make artwork for local shops to display. Community links are also important in our partnerships with local services, such as the library, health visitors and schools, ensuring that children are thriving and achieving on their learning journey before they move on to primary school.