Facilities
We use the church hall for our Pre-School sessions, however no one but the staff have access to the building during our open times and gates are locked with a private padlock as parents leave in the morning and opened again at collection time.
Inside:
We have two rooms in use at the pre-school, one for the Caterpillar room which is used for 16 months -2 1/2 year olds and has a quiet sleeping area. The Butterfly room is used for 2 1/2 -5 year olds (or until they leave for school). Both rooms are set up daily with different toys and activities planned by the rooms staff members. We have a large storage cupboard and an outside storage room which are full of a large variety or toys, games and equipment for the children. We plan each day in advance to make sure we are giving the children access to a wide variety of toys and so they do not always have the same things out. We include the children in the planning and welcome ideas from them about what they would like to do/play with. Each room also has a self selection trolley which has a selection of individual toy boxes on for the children to choose from daily. We have story corners set up daily and a large range of books that the children always enjoy looking through, both with friends and staff. On the walls in both rooms you can find any relevant information regarding the pre-school as well as lovely displays of your child’s artwork throughout each term.
Within our planning we aim to include all 7 areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) these include:
- Personal, social and emotional development
- Communication and Language development
- Physical development
- Understanding the world
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Expressive arts and design
(We monitor your child’s learning and development progress in these areas in their Learning Journals.)
Outside:
We use the main car park for outside play during session hours, as previously mentioned the gates are locked and there is no access into the area by either cars or people. We have a large range of outdoor toys including bikes, trikes and scooters as well as an outdoors self selection trolley with hoops, balls, stilts, skittles, large outdoor puzzles etc. We have outside sand and water play and in the hotter months where we tend to spend more time outside the children love to have a picnic at snack time. We have different toys and activities available for all weather conditions such as rain collecting activities and songs as well as bug hunting and nature trails.
We also have a small garden which is to the side of the building which we open in the warmer months, this includes a large slide, stepping tyres, a giant caterpillar tunnel and a sand pit, as well as some sensory equipment around the garden. This is only for a small group of children at a time.
Toilets:
We have the use of the large disabled toilet at the back of the building for the children. The older children are encouraged to go independently while the younger ones are more supervised. We have a small toilet seat that sits on the toilet should a child require one as well as 2 potties.
For children who are still in nappies we have changing facilities and your child’s key worker will usually be the one to change the nappy. We do ask that children are at least starting to toilet train before they enter the older room and this should be discussed with your child’s key worker.
As part of our staying healthy policy we always encourage the children to wash their hands with soap and warm water after they have been to the toilet and before snack time. Please could you work with your child at home to continue this as it is very important that simple hygiene is learnt from an early age.
Kitchen:
We do have a kitchen on the premises, this is primarily used to prepare fruit for snack time and occasionally we use it to prepare extra food for different occasions such as cooking different foods for Black History Month or pancake day etc.
Parking:
There is plenty of parking in the car park at the pre-school. During drop off and collection while you are in the car park please ensure you hold your child’s hand.
Disabled Access:
There is easy access to the building.
Security:
The pre-school is surrounded by a large fence and a gate into the carpark. The gate is locked with a private padlock after the parents have left and is not opened until collection time. Should you need to collect your child earlier this should be arranged with the staff and you will be able to phone when you are outside and will be let in. No one but the staff have access to the building during session hours.
We have a fire drill process which we practice with the children should a fire happen on the premises. We also have several procedures in place in case of most incidents, these can all be found in our policies and procedures folder in the setting, which is available on request.
Location:
We are located on Routh Lane, which is off of the Meadway.
Address: St Michael’s Pre School, Routh Lane, Reading, Berkshire RG30 4JX