Welcome to Saplings
Saplings is our 2 Year Old preschool. It is currently split into morning and afternoon sessions of 3 hours. Mrs Smith is the Nursery Nurse, who leads in Saplings, and she is supported by Mrs Tonge and Mrs Foulds.
Our children learn through play in a safe and fun environment.
We are an ECAT (Every Child a Talker) school with a strong focus on language development as this is so important to the children’s learning and progress.
Our children’s needs and interests guide our curriculum and inform our planning for a range of activities that they will enjoy and learn from. We like to be outside in all weathers and have lots of exciting adventures, exploring using all our senses.
We follow the Little Wandle Phonics Foundations programme. There are three parts to Foundations: Foundations for Phonics, Foundations for a Love of Reading and Foundations for Language.
Foundations for Phonics provides our children with access to a range of phonological and phonemic awareness games. These help tune them into sounds, ready for phonics in Reception.
Foundations for a Love of Reading offers children opportunities to engage with a rage of high quality picture books. Parents are encouraged to share books and stories at home as research shows that children who regularly engage with and listen to stories go on to become better readers than those who don’t have early book and reading experiences.
Back-and-forth interactions have been shown to be one of the best ways to develop children’s language. We use Foundations for Language in conjunction with our ECAT programme to focus on our communication and interactions with children.
Staff in Saplings are committed to building positive relationships with all of our children and ensure engagement is sensitive to the children’s learning style and needs. We observe and note the high-quality interactions with our children and share our achievements with parents on Seesaw and though learning stories.
We are grateful for all of our parental support. Parents are encouraged to share information from home in daily dialogue at hand over times and through Seesaw. We recognise that parent partnership has a huge impact on children’s achievement. We work alongside parents to support toilet training.
As your child grows, we work closely with parents and nursery staff to ensure their smooth transition into Oak class.
Further information on Little Wandle Phonics programme and supporting early reading can be found in the English and Phonics section of the website.
School drop off and pick up
Entrance: Nightingales gate
Drop off: 8:35am
Pick up: 11:35am
Nightingales gate will open at 8.30, 11.35 (Saplings only), 12.10 (Saplings only) and 3.05
Staff will open classroom doors to receive children at 8.35am and let them out at 3.10pm
Parents of children in Saplings are asked to enter school with their child through the Nightingales gate and walk on the right hand side towards the Saplings building. Parents are asked to wait in the outside area until staff open the classroom doors. At the end of the session, parents are asked to come through the Nightingales gate and wait in the same area for a staff member to open the doors
What do I do if I have another child in another year group?
Take your child to Saplings first.
If your elder child is in KS2, they can walk round to their classroom on their own, going through school site where staff will be present to help them or guide them if they are unsure. If your elder child is in KS1, you can make your way to the other entrance after dropping your child at saplings first
Rhyme Challenge
Saplings Curriculum overview - Summer 24
Parents Learning Journey - Summer 24
Saplings Curriculum overview - Spring 24
Parents Learning Journey - Spring 24
Saplings Curriculum overview - Autumn 23
Parents Learning Journey - Autumn 23
Bedtime Reading Tips for Toddlers