Key to all of our practices is the knowledge that every child is unique and we always factor their interests and voices into our planned and spontaneous activities in all of the rooms.
Also important to us is building relationships with parents and carers to ensure the best possible care for each individual child. We communicate by verbal handovers, written daily dairies, progress reports, ‘All about me’ documents, parent’s evenings and our online Tapestry app, amongst other things.
Caterpillar room
In our Caterpillar room we care for children from the age of 3 months to 2 years. The staff that work within the room are very experienced in working with babies and know that every child is unique and so following their individual needs and routines is highly important.
We have a spacious room with soft furnishings giving the children a homely and secure environment to explore and discover. We provide a range of sensory resources and the children have continuous access to exciting and stimulating natural objects such as treasure baskets.
The daily dairies in this room are more detailed than other rooms. As well as being used to share how their child’s day has been at nursery and what experiences they have engaged in, we also record sleeps, nappy changes and food / bottle intake.
Butterfly room
In our Butterfly room we care for children from 2-3 years. We know that children of this age need lots of space to move around and develop their physical skills, and so have recently moved rooms, giving the children a more spacious environment to grow and develop freely.
We offer a wide range of resources and activities to support the children’s development of fine/gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Children are encouraged to express their own personal interests and personalities as they learn through play.
Pre-school unit
We have 2 pre-school rooms joined together to make a unit which cares for children from 3-4 years. The unit has free-flow access to the outdoor area and so the children can choose whether they play indoors or out, giving them the freedom to explore, learn and thrive in our care.
We know that children learn at different rates and so when planning and delivering focus activities, such as letters and sounds, we split into groups so that the children can gain the most from the activity, based on their own development stages.
Outdoors
Who doesn't have happy memories of playing outside?
Our children certainly will have, because here at Pear Tree we know how valuable outdoor play is. We see our outdoor play areas as extensions of our indoor learning environments. As well as giving our children the opportunity to develop their physical skills on our climbing apparatus or ride-on toys, they can dig for treasure in our large sit-in sand pit, explore the natural environment in our newly renovated garden and planting area, make mud pies in our mud kitchen or just let their imaginations run wild.
We also love to go for walks round our local community, whether it's for a picnic at the park, or to see the ducks & geese, or to the shops our children love to get out and about.
To ensure they have the best experiences in all weathers, our children wear rainproof suits and wellies to splash in puddles, hats and gloves to build snowmen, or sun hats and cream when the sun comes out to play.
We have installed a new canopy in our play area, which includes a separate sheltered area for our under 2's, meaning even our youngest children can play safely outside.
