Fledglings
Old Basing Village Hall
When our children are in their final year before starting infant school, they become Fledglings. Heather, our deputy manager and a qualified teacher, leads the Fledglings team.
Our Fledglings are our pre-schoolers. Children become Fledglings for their final year of nursery school. Our Fledglings group is our largest grouping and we absolutely love seeing Fledglings on their journey to 'school readiness' during their final few terms with us.
For Fledglings, the nursery school routine is simple - allowing them as much independence in their learning as possible.. Each day children come in and hand up their coats and bags before swapping wellington boots for slippers, popping their water bottle on the trolley and washing their hands. It is then the opportunity for free-play as children explore their dedicated space. Fledglings access the early years foundation stage curriculum through predominantly child-initiated play and move freely between zones.
Engagement is key and our practitioners spend time watching children play before interacting - considering how learning could be broadened or enhanced and what opportunities there might be expand imaginative play in order to support children in their development of mathematics, literacy or knowledge and understanding of the world for example. If noise levels rise or children begin to run around, our team take a step back and question what tweaks need to be made to the environment in order to improve interest levels.
As in our younger age groups, we take snapshots of learning within our Fledglings group. These snapshots enable us to work much closely with individual children (alongside the wider group), to home in on their individual interests and learning and development goals and to fully support children on moving their learning forwards 'in the moment'. It is often as part of a snapshot that you will see our children transforming the home corner into something new like a florist or a doctors surgery, tuff trays morph into different learning provocations in order for our team to encourage and introduce new vocabulary or provide children with the opportunity to refine or develop a skill or to reinforce learning in a new context.
Whenever possible, Fledglings choose to play outside in the nursery garden or playground area. Our wonderful natural garden mimics the indoor learning zones and also offers children the opportunity to make mud pies, snuggle up in the shade with a book or to climb trees and build. Our den building area extends beyond the garden and our team use this woodland space to construct shelters for themselves.
Fledglings enjoy a range of enrichment opportunities throughout their week and we ensure that free-flow, child-initiated learning is high on the agenda,