Our Environment
We are incredibly proud of our classroom - Indoor and out!
We are constantly looking at what we offer and seeing how we can make sure each area of the environment reflects what our children need. We believe to get the best out of the space we have to bring in the best experts you can have for child centered classrooms - the children themselves!! Our children know the classroom is theirs, their pictures hang on the walls, the resources are chosen carefully with them in mind and they have the power to use them as they wish to reach their full potential.
We have several areas within the classroom that are 'keepers', these are areas which we know the children will need and want as staples of their play. These are areas such as a reading area, the construction centre and craft. There are other areas in which the children have complete control. These are called our 'choose areas'. Here the children can ask for and choose from a range of toys or themes in which they want to explore. This way it keeps the environment fresh and definitely allows the child to follow their own interests - which is key to us and drives our planning and assessments.
Nursery Base Classroom
Here the Nursery class have group time with their key workers. This may look like singing, listening and attention games, Maths activities and a lot of engaging story time. This is a lovely calm space that really helps the children to see our classroom as a 'home from home'.
Reception Base Classroom
Here the Reception children have their teacher led time for things such as Literacy, Phonics and Maths. We also have our morning meeting here so we can all see what exciting adventures that day will bring.
As the children prepare for that big step into year one, we take small steps through the year to help with this transition. Whether this is swapping more carpet time for tables, or giving children individual pencil cases with their first set of stationary to look after.
Construction Centre
We have a huge space for construction because we know how many different skills children work on when they are building and we wanted to enhance this as much as we could. We decided to combine our Construction Centre with small world also. Not only does this help reduce duplicate toys but the children love the freedom of being able to work together to carry out an elaborate plan for the small world creatures.
Reading Area
Our learning environment spreads across three classrooms and in each one there are endless reading opportunities for the children. Each room has a 'snug', (pictured left) these have lots of comfy seating, a range of high quality texts and reading buddies. The adults will introduce story baskets with toys linked to traditional tales and loved stories as well!
Home Area
Our home corner contains a well stocked kitchen, dining area, resources for babies, cleaning and dressing as well as a connecting role play arch.
This is a firm favorite for a reason! The children love becoming someone different and role playing making tea, washing the babies clothes or nipping to the shops for a pint of milk! The learning opportunities here are endless and we never know which direction it is going to go.
Music Area
We rotate our instruments a lot to keep it fresh and exciting for the children and we like to represent music from different cultures and countries as well.
Our children always have teacher led music sessions in addition to the time we spend singing and dancing in the classroom. We know how important singing is for confidence, speech sounds and vocabulary.
A happy child is a child who sings!
Writing area
Our Writing area is very hands on and it changes a lot depending on the interests f the children. One day we might be writing letters to the giant at the top of the beanstalk and then the next its jotting down a recipe that we've tried during snack time.
We are confident that our approach to writing enables children to leave us confident in their own ability to write with care and purpose.
Sensory areas
Here we have our paint, sand, water and dough areas. Each of these is given enough space for several children to access them as we know for many children the sensory areas of the classroom are a real go-to!
We want every child to know they have access to the time and resources to create whatever they can think of, using whatever medium they choose.
