Pre-school (Red and Yellow Room)

Stepping Stones manages two Pre-school rooms, one here at our main site which we call the Red room and one next door at Bracken Leas which we call the Yellow Room.  Our two Pre-school rooms work very closely together and are both run by two very experienced Room Leaders.

Our Red Room Leader, Emma Cartmell and Sam Humphries our Yellow Room Leader both have many years’ experience working in Early Years.  Together they run both our Pre-school rooms within the Early Years Statutory Framework and they along with their team strive to provide an environment that offers Pre-school children excitement knowledge, independence, and community spirit to allow them to develop to their fullest.

All our Pre-school staff are qualified Level 3 and above with both rooms having a qualified teacher.

The children will continue to learn through play in their preschool year, they will start to develop more self-awareness and confidence, establish friendships, and will begin to understand rules and boundaries. They will also develop self-regulation skills within their behaviour.

We offer the children lots of opportunities to discover new things and learn more about the world and their surroundings.  Our children enjoy our Forest School activities which develop a self-confidence and team spirit to develop lifelong skills and the muddier the better.  To give the children further opportunities and knowledge we have weekly STEM sessions delivered by an external company which allows the children to become excited about their learning and independent thinkers and doers.

Pre-school is about getting your child ready for school. They will learn to become more independent, being able to talk in groups and one to one discussion about things they have been doing, and will be ready to leave us and move on for their next new adventure at Primary School.

 

Funding for 3-4 Year Olds

All 3 to 4-year-olds in England can get 570 hours of free early education or childcare per year. This is usually taken as 15 hours each week for 38 weeks of the year (term time).  There is also now an additional 15 hours funding available for working parents. The additional 15 hours of free childcare is available for families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone-parent family), and each parent earns the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the national minimum or living wage, and earns less than £100,000 a year.  If your family fall into this category please let the office know so you can receive further details on how to apply for your 30 hour code.

You can start claiming free childcare after your child turns 3. The date you can claim will depend on when their birthday is.

Child's birthday	When you can claim
January to 31 March	the beginning of term on or after 1 April
1 April to 31 August	the beginning of term on or after 1 September
1 September to 31 December	the beginning of term on or after 1 January