Please find below our article for this month’s Trident.

We didn’t post an article in last month’s Trident as we were still not open to children. However, the team were very busy behind the scenes making all the changes and preparations for 1st June to enable us to re-open the Pre-school to a small number of children. Even though we are not available physically for many families, we have continued to keep in touch via parentmail and have put news, suggestions and updates on our website to help support the children and families during this challenging time.

We have now been open to a very small group of children, in two ‘bubbles’ – a term that will become ever more familiar over the coming months. The bubbles operate from two separate rooms and gardens, with the same team members in each bubble. This helps us to be able to deliver fun and quality care to those children who have returned, whilst ensuring that we keep the children, their families and the team as safe as possible during this time.

Currently, we are only able to offer care to the following categories; vulnerable children, critical workers’ children and those children who are making the transition to primary school in September; in line with current Government guidance. We are hopeful that, moving forwards, we will be able to return to some sort of normality from the start of the new term in September.

For the children who have returned, they are getting used to the ‘new normal’. We continue to follow the children’s interests and, whilst we are unable to completely ‘plan in the moment’ as we did previously, with a small group we are able to offer lots of individual attention. Most recently, Robin bubble have shown an interest in construction, creating roads, talking about shapes, size language, designing and building. To extend their vocabulary we have introduced them to the word ‘architect/architecture’. Explaining the role an architect plays in creating our built environment.

Whilst in Wren bubble, the children have shown an interest in their bodies. This has evolved into drawing around their bodies and painting them, talking about healthy and non-healthy foods, the importance of physical exercise and exploring the digestive system. We have introduced the word ‘physiology’ to extend their use of language.