Mission Statement

Houghton and Wyton Pre-school believe that children learn best through play.  We, as practitioners, appreciate the learning which takes place when children are able to follow their own ideas and are supported by an adult who can enable their learning by respecting, understanding and allowing children empowerment over their environment.  We celebrate a child’s uniqueness and encourage respect and social interaction.

Our vision for future development is to continue to offer a good quality provision to the community which is open and inclusive to all, supporting children’s individual needs and allowing freedom of choice and growth within a safe and happy environment.

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The Aims of Houghton and Wyton Pre-school

  • To provide high quality care and education for Pre-school children
  • To work in partnership with parents to help children learn and develop
  • To help the children learn thorough play and discovery to become more confident and to develop their independence
  • To offer children and their parents a service that promotes equality and values diversity

Our Aims for Parents:

We are a community-based setting that is a member of the ‘Pre-school Learning Alliance’. All our children’s parents are regarded as members who have full participation rights.

These include a right to be:

  • Valued and respectedaims1
  • Kept informed
  • Consulted
  • Involved and included at all levels

Our Aims for Children: 

We aim to ensure that each child:

  • Is in a safe and stimulating environment
  • Is given generous care and attention; because of our ratio of qualified staff to children, as well as volunteer parent helpers;
  • Has the chance to join with other children and adults to play, work, and learn together;
  • Has a personal key person to ensure that each child makes satisfying progress;
  • Is in a setting that sees parents as partners in helping each child to learn and develop;
  • Is in a setting in which parents help to maintain the services that it offers.

Child Development

Our provision follows the EYFS (The Early Learning Foundation Stage). This new framework has replaced the ‘Birth to Three Matters’ and curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage. It ensures that children are safe and well looked after and, most importantly, having fun.

The EYFS is based on four principal themes:

  • A Unique Child
  • Positive Relationships
  • Enabling Environments
  • Learning and Development

It covers two key areas – welfare and the development of children.

We follow the guidance and adhere to the standards to ensure that children thrive and are safe whilst they play in our pre-school.

The guidance divides children’s learning and development into Characteristics of Effective Learning, three prime areas and four specific areas:

Characteristics of Effective Learning

  • Playing and Exploring – Engagement
  • Active Learning – Motivation
  • Creative & Thinking Critically – Thinking

Prime Areas

  • Personal, social and emotional development
  • Communication & language
  • Physical

Specific Areas

  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Understanding the World
  • Expressive Arts & Design

For each area the guidance sets milestones from birth to five years old. From these milestones we can work out where a child is and then plan activities to help children develop for the next steps. It also helps us to identify if a child needs extra support. The guidance supports a child until the end of reception year.

The guidance also sets out stepping stones for each area of learning which describe the stages through which children are likely to pass as they move towards achievement of the goal. These stages overlap each other as children may develop more strongly in one area, whilst needing support in another.

We spend time observing each child and playing with them, and from this we plan what we do next. We create activities that will help children develop in a fun way and also support them in gaining confidence whilst developing a new skill.