Little Willows Toddler Room

Our Staff

Our Toddler Room is led by caring, qualified and experienced practitioners who understand that between the ages of two and three years there are major changes in development. Toddlers are developing an understanding of themselves as individuals, beginning to use language in social contexts and for thinking and have the physical ability to move independently with increasing control.

A member of staff, designated as your Toddler’s Key Person, will get to know you and your child. A close relationship between the key person and you ensures that your child’s individual needs are met, and their personal, social and emotional development and wellbeing is supported.

Our Routines

We ensure that we develop routines consistent with those that you have at home. We discuss with you your child’s personal care routines including toilet training, feeding and sleeping to ensure that we understand and respect your preferences and to provide as much continuity of care as possible.

Our Toddler Room

Our Toddler room is a warm and friendly space where your child can feel safe and secure and can play and have fun. There are spaces for Toddlers to sleep, spaces for quiet play as well as for more active play.

We ensure that the environment is rich in resources that invite experimentation as two-year olds are keen to ‘do it myself’. Children begin to form early friendships and develop social skills with support from the Key Person. Sharing, however, is a new concept and so we ensure that there are sufficient resources for everyone as well as equipment such as toddle boxes or a sand tray that we can use to encourage co-operation.

Our Play Activities

We give Toddlers the opportunity to use all their developing skills as they explore different activities and experiences including;

• Heuristic Materials – These are collections of everyday objects made of natural materials chosen to offer stimulus to different senses. They support your toddler’s tactile exploration and investigation of materials which are open ended. Your Toddler can manipulate objects in many ways; collecting, arranging, posting, transporting, stacking, knocking down, filling and pouring. These actions strengthen fine motor skills and give children opportunity to explore ‘schema’ or patterns of thinking.
• Physical play – The play of two-year olds is very active and physical, and this is essential for development of their brains and bodies. They love to use gross motor skills to jump, sweep, push, throw, fill, lift, carry, dance and run.
• Creative activities – provide lots of opportunities for investigation and exploration and to discover all about the world around them. Your Toddler can experience different textures as they play with malleable materials such as playdough, clay and gloop; made of cornflour and water. Children enjoy painting, water and sand play, as well as sticking collages or making models with cereal boxes and other recycled materials.
• Block Play – provides the opportunity for your toddler to practice and develop their gross and fine motor movements as well as enabling them to play imaginatively as they create miniature environments with blocks and small world figures.
• Role Play – allows your Toddler to act out things they experience in their own lives; they often play at being Mummy and Daddy.
• Music, songs and rhymes – We talk and sing with children, encouraging them to join in action rhymes when they are ready. We listen to and often make music together. Having fun whilst supporting important communication and language learning.
• Stories and books – We share cosy times snuggling up with picture and story books. Sometimes we also use puppets to bring a story to life.

Learning and Development

The activities that we plan and provide are designed to support the prime areas of learning;

• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal Social and Emotional development

and to introduce the specific areas of learning.

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding of the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

Activities also provide opportunities for children to engage with the characteristics of effective learning. These are the things that make children good at learning including actively learning through play and exploration and thinking critically and creatively about the things that they experience. These characteristics provide a good foundation to lifelong learning.

Our Planning and Assessment

We differentiate the activities that we plan so that we tailor it to meet your child’s individual needs and take account of their age and stage of development. This means that children who are gifted and those who have special needs, those who are the younger or older children in a group are all supported and enabled to make good progress in their learning. We make regular assessments of your child’s learning, development and progress including a progress check at two years old required by the EYFS.

Communicating with you

We will share information about the activities and experiences your child has at nursery with you regularly on ‘Famly’ and in informal conversations and in parents’ evenings. We will discuss how your child is progressing with you regularly.

You will be confident and have peace of mind knowing that your child is happy and actively engaged in our Toddler room.

Willow Tree Pre School

Our Staff

Our Pre-School Room is led by caring, qualified and experienced practitioners who have a good knowledge of child development and how young children learn as well as a thorough understanding of the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and teaching young children.

A member of staff, designated as your child’s Key Person, will get to know you and your child. A close relationship between the key person and you ensures that your child’s individual needs are met, and their personal, social and emotional wellbeing is supported.

Our Routines

We ensure that we develop routines consistent with those that you have at home. We discuss with you your child’s personal care routines including toileting, feeding and sleeping to ensure that we understand and respect your preferences and to provide as much continuity of care as possible.

Our Pre-School Room

Our Pre-School room is a welcoming and friendly place where your child can feel safe and secure as they explore our inspiring environment which is rich in opportunities for active learning and equipped with resources that motivate your child to investigate and explore. We structure the pre-school environments in a very particular way to allow children to become engrossed in their activities and to work collaboratively in small groups. Our environments are places where children can feel energised, stimulated, relaxed, comfortable and keen to learn.

Our Curriculum

We offer a curriculum which ensures that children are given meaningful, interesting, practical play experiences that are going to allow them to become confident competent learners, who enjoy learning because it is fun. We combine child-initiated activities with direct teaching and adult led activities. We give children the opportunity to learn in a cross curricula way through play as they explore different activities and experiences including;

• Investigation and Exploration – We provide resources to encourage your child to investigate and explore the world around them. We include opportunities to explore exciting things from nature and science to how things work and superheroes! Activities are designed to engage your child’s curiosity and develop their knowledge and understanding.
• Physical play – Children’s play is very active and physical, which is essential for development of their brains, heart, lungs, bones and bodies. It improves their movement and co-ordination and contributes to keeping a healthy body weight. Exercise improves their mood and self-esteem and helps them to learn. We ensure that they have lots of opportunities for physical play indoors and outdoors.
• Creative activities – provide lots of opportunities for creativity, investigation and exploration using sand, water, paint, playdough, clay as well as sticking collages or making models with cereal boxes and other recycled materials. Children can explore the mathematics of shape and pattern and add mathematical language to their vocabulary. They can discover properties of materials in the world around them and learn to use tools such as pencils, paintbrushes and rolling pins independently.
• Mark Making – Resources for mark making including pencils, crayons, paper and notebooks are available in most areas of the nursery to allow children to include writing in their play – such as writing a shopping list in the role play area. There are also specific areas for mark making equipped with additional resources such as rulers and rubbers, calendars and forms to encourage children to begin to make marks, patterns, pictures and eventually number and letters.
• Role Play – allows your child to recreate experiences and explore different roles. It encourages co-operation and creatively, supports communication, language and literacy skills and increases understanding of the world.
• Construction area – small and large blocks together with small world people, vehicles and animals allow children to create imaginary worlds and tell stories as well as developing their physical capabilities. Children can work collaboratively to solve problems.
• Music, songs and rhymes – We sing with children, listen to and make music together. We encourage children to listen carefully to different sounds in the environment, made by instruments and in rhymes. We explore rhythm and beat and have fun whilst supporting important communication and language learning.
• Stories and books – We share cosy times snuggling up with picture and story books. Sometimes we also use puppets to bring a story to life. Children listen, concentrate and enjoy joining in with stories and rhymes. They look at books independently retelling favourite stories from pictures and beginning to recognise written words. They learn how books work and how to respect them.
• ICT – We support children in exploring technology. We help them to develop skills to use equipment such as remote-control toys, torches, and a range of ICT equipment.
• Letters and Sounds – We use the ‘Letters and Sounds’ phonics programme which is designed to teach children how the alphabet works for reading and spelling. The activities we use from Phase One of the programme concentrate on developing children’s speaking and listening skills, phonological awareness and oral blending and segmenting. We use these activities as part of our curriculum in order to link language with children’s physical and practical experiences. These activities pave the way for children to make a good start in reading and writing.
• Key Group Time – We have ‘small group times’ twice a day were each key group spends time with their Key Person focusing on a particular aspect of learning and development.

Learning and Development

The activities that we plan and provide are designed to support all areas of learning;

• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal Social and Emotional development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding of the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

We want children to be successful and effective in their learning. When we plan activities for children we, therefore, consider the different ways in which children learn and the characteristics that make them good at learning including actively learning through play and exploration and thinking critically and creatively about the things that they experience. These characteristics of effective learning provide a good foundation for learning throughout their lives.

Our Planning and Assessment

We differentiate our planning of activities so that we tailor it to meet your child’s individual needs and take account of their age and stage of development. This means that children who are gifted and those who have special needs, those who are the younger or older children in a group are all supported and enabled to make good progress in their learning. We make regular assessments of your child’s learning, development and progress.

Communicating with you

We share information about the activities and experiences your child has at nursery together with information about the progress they are making in their learning and development both face to face and through our ‘Famly’ App.

School Readiness

In order to support children to make the transition to the next phase of their education with enthusiasm and confidence we take an holistic view of school readiness. We develop children’s confidence and self-esteem, their social skills and independence, their self-care skills such as toileting and using cutlery, their communication skills, curiosity and their ability to learn.

You will have peace of mind knowing that your child is enjoying nursery and being well supported to make good progress in their learning and development. You will feel confident that when the time comes your child will be ready for school.

Our Gardens

We have two separate secure outdoor play spaces at Willows Nursery one located at Little Willows for the babies and toddlers and one at Willow Tree for the pre-school children. The outdoor environment is a very important part of our early year’s environment as it offers significantly different opportunities for play and exploration from those we provide indoors.

The Special Nature of Outdoors

We know that outdoors is a special place for young children. It allows them to have real contact with the elements, seasons and the natural world. It offers them more freedom to be active, interactive, noisy and messy and to use all their senses. They can work on a large scale and use their whole bodies to do activities such as running, rolling, climbing, digging or building.

 Learning and Development

Many young children prefer to be outdoors and find it easier to engage when opportunities for learning are offered outdoors. We value the outdoors and understand the potential it has for your child’s well-being and development. We ensure that we make the best use of what the outdoors has to offer and to effectively support learning.

Planning and Assessment

We make observations and assessments and plan for children’s learning outdoors just as we do indoors.

Communicating with you

We will share your child’s learning outdoors with you through photographs and observations on the Famly app and in discussions with you.

Little Willows Outdoors

Space for Babies and Toddlers

Our garden benefits from being in a private location which isn’t overlooked were children can experience the changing seasons and the natural environment and have plenty of time to play and explore. It is only for the use of our babies and toddlers.

It is partly laid to grass and part AstroTurf. The real grass allows the children to experience the natural environment; long grass and short grass and insects and minibeasts that live in it. The AstroTurf is a nice for babies and toddlers to sit and crawl on.

Play Activities

We have a wonderful large sandpit full of equipment which the children can get into to dig and fill and empty buckets. There is a den which we use for imaginative play and a large blackboard for mark making.

The most popular equipment is the physical area with balancing beams and a small slide. Children also like to ride the bikes around the paths.

Links with Carrington School

We also benefit from being on the school site and use their forest school to make dens, find minibeasts and plants and enjoy the natural environment.

Walks and Outings

We often take the children for walks around the village, there are allotments nearby where the children can see chickens and pigs. We also take children to the park to enjoy the swings and slides or just the large green area.

Willow Tree Outdoors

Our Garden

We are fortunate to have direct access to secure outdoor play space from Willow Tree which means that children can use the garden at all times. Our outdoor play area has a variety of surfaces including AstroTurf, tarmac and bark chippings which facilitate different play activities.

Play Activities

We have a large climbing frame and wheeled toys for physical play. There is a mud kitchen for making mud pies and mixing potions, a water area for pouring and splashing.

The children like to plant bulbs and sow seeds to grow flowers and vegetables in our growing area. We have a wildlife garden where we go on minibeast hunts to find insects and spiders and look at butterflies, bees and birds.

We have two covered areas in which we can provide further opportunities to enhance our outdoor play including equipment for mark making and for imaginative play.

Walks and Outings

We make full use of the local area. We regularly go for walks to the park and sometimes take a picnic with us as well as paints, pens and pencils with paper to draw our surroundings. We have a 6-seater kiddibus so children who can’t walk very far can come along. The outdoor environment provides challenge and helps children to learn how to be safe and to be aware of others. We talk to children about road safety and staying safe near water.