Learn, Play and Make Friends

Our philosophy at the Stepping Stones Nursery School is that children are active learners in the Early Years Foundation Stage and they learn best through play. We believe each child deserves the best possible start in life, and that children who experience high-quality early years provision, achieve better outcomes and develop abilities that are needed to become lifelong learners.

We do this by – A Unique Child
We work closely with parents and carers and carry out detailed observations to ensure the needs of each child are met.

Positive Relationships
Each child has a key worker and we build positive relationships between them and other adults and children.

Enabling Environments
We provide exciting environments inside and outside to support children to have interesting experiences. We also support children to lead their own learning through child-initiated activities.

We want children to be confident and independent learners, which is why we plan exciting open-ended activities as highlighted in the Characteristics of Effective Learning.

Playing and Exploring – Engagement
We plan activities that are interesting and exciting so children are keen to engage.

Active learning
Motivation – we provide interactive activities that promote active learning.

Creating and thinking critically
Thinking – We provide activities that support children to not only think for themselves, but also give them the opportunity to problem solve.

Stepping Stones operates an equal opportunities policy and has children from many backgrounds – each child will be treated as an individual. We try to find out as much as possible from each culture and celebrate these through our curriculum, so that our children from an early age value diversity and grow up making a positive contribution to society.

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage throughout our nursery. We plan activities to meet individual children’s needs, both inside and outside each day. We focus on the three Prime Areas of Learning until they are about 24 months old.

Communication and language development
We give children opportunities to experience a rich language environment, develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves, and speak and listen in a range of situations.

Physical development
We provide opportunities for young children to be active and interactive and to develop their coordination, control, and movement. Children are also helped to understand the importance of physical activity and to make healthy choices in relation to food.

Personal, social, and emotional development
We work with children as individuals to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others, helping them to form positive relationships and develop respect for each other. We support them to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings. We also support them to understand how to behave in groups and to also have confidence in their own individual abilities.

We introduce the four Specific Areas of Learning during their time in the 2-year-old rooms and focus on them in the preschool rooms, where activities around the four following areas are planned for them each week.

Literacy development
We share a wide range of books with children, story books, factual books, rhymes, and poems. We teach phonics and encourage children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write.

• Mathematics – We provide children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and describing shapes, spaces, and measures.
• Understanding the world – We teach children to make sense of their physical world and their community giving them opportunities to explore, observe, and find out about people, places, technology, and the environment.
• Expressive arts and design – We enable children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts. They are also free to express their ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology

We work in partnership with parents, carers, and other agencies to ensure individual children’s needs and interests are being met. We share information with them daily and meet regularly with them to set children’s next steps in learning. This includes events such as parent’s evenings, book readings, and performances put on by our pre-school.