Pre-school room

Sunflowers

Getting ready for school without rushing it: phonics through songs and games, forest-school mornings and lots of choosing for themselves.

Ages

3 to 5 years

Ratio

1 adult to 8 children

Places

Up to 24 children a day

A child's hand stacking wooden blocks on a table

About the room

Sunflowers is our biggest room and it's built for curious three and four-year-olds. There's a reading den, a woodwork bench with real tools (and a grown-up), a writing table and a garden with a mud kitchen and vegetable beds.

In the year before school we do short, playful sessions on letters, sounds and numbers, practise putting on coats and opening lunchboxes, and visit the local primary schools with the children who are going there.

A day in the room

Pre-schoolers help plan their own day, but it always includes time outdoors and a bit of quiet.

7:30am

Arrive, breakfast and free choice until 9am.

9:00am

Group time: news, the calendar and the day's plan, made together.

9:30am

Forest school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, garden and projects on the other days.

11:45am

Lunch, served family style, with children taking turns to lay the tables.

Afternoon

Phonics games, stories, building and baking, tea at 3:30pm and garden time.

What to pack

  • Wellies and a waterproof all-in-one for forest school

  • A full set of spare clothes

  • A named water bottle

  • A book bag if they want to borrow a book

  • A warm hat and gloves from October

Label everything, especially wellies. Every pair looks the same at 5pm.

Book a visit

Come and see us

The best way to choose a nursery is to visit one.

Look round with your little one, meet the room leaders and ask anything you like. Visits take about 45 minutes, any weekday.

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