We encourage and support children to go to the toilet by themselves, wipe their own bottom and most importantly to ask for help if needed. 

Click the link to see some well set out information for children and adults regarding toileting from ERIC the children’s bowel and bladder charity.

Dressing is an important and sometimes complex life skill that needs lots of practice. Once mastered each individual skill from fastening buttons to pulling on socks gives your child a sense of achievement.

We encourage children to have a go before we step in to support, modelling and offering guidance to help them accomplish independence.

Activity ideas:

• Encourage your children to get dressed and undressed by themselves - do this when you aren’t in a rush to go anywhere!

• Have a race to get shoes and coats on, ask Alexa or put a timer on your phone to see if they can do it in a minute or time them.

• Show your child their new uniform and let them try it on themselves including the PE kit

Click the link to see ideas and activities to support getting dressed- https://www.nhsggc.org.uk/kids/life-skills/self-care/dressing-myself/

Click the link to see uniform advice from BBC Bitesize.

A child's sense of self is their understanding of who they are, including their physical traits, emotions, and place in the world. It's an important part of a child's social and emotional development.

Part of our safeguarding duty of care is to let children understand that they have a right to say ‘stop’ if someone does something they don’t like. We teach them the to do this calmly and directly.

We are also taught to be aware and recognise their own emotions as well as how to regulate themselves, this is often done through the use of stories and puppets.

Click the link for a really good document on Self-esteem from Young Minds.

Click the link to see the NSPCC’s booklet ‘PANTS’, a great project to help parents have age appropriate discussions with children about keeping themselves safe.  

Parents keep their children safe by actively supervising them, teaching age-appropriate safety rules, creating a secure home environment, and educating them about potential dangers.

Children keep themselves safe by following the rules imposed by parents and other adults, being aware of their surroundings, and knowing when to ask for help from a trusted adult.

We have rules and boundaries in place at preschool, whether in setting or out. Children practice safe road crossing with staff who also teach skills for walking on the paths and roads safely.

We make children aware of risks in the environment, most dangers do not need to be avoided, just managed appropriately.

We practice fire drills regularly, discuss what to do in case of an emergency teach them to know the preschool address.

Click the link to see the NSPCC’s booklet ‘PANTS’, a great project to help parents have age appropriate discussions with children about keeping themselves safe.

Click the link to see more information about crossing the road https://youtu.be/zvlNPviGUxA?si=seRKSdYxak6PSGZc

To feel comfortable to approach an adult for help and to respond appropriately when an adult says ‘no’.

Here are five steps you can take to help your child talk to adults more confidently:

1. Practice speaking among peers

Start small. If your child isn’t able to comfortably talk with peers, it’s likely they won’t feel comfortable talking to adults.

2. Practice responding to questions

When your child is comfortable speaking freely with peers, have them practice responding to simple questions that adults ask.

3. Practice initiating contact

Once your child is comfortable answering questions when asked, have them practice starting conversations with adults, this can start by simply saying ‘hello’.

4. Practice sustaining conversations

Whether your child starts the conversation or not, teach them tips and tricks for keeping a conversation going e.g. to ask questions back.

5. Practice what you preach

If you want your child to interact well with adults, then demonstrate how to do that. Your child picks up many of their social cues from you, so set a good example in how you talk with other adults.

Encourage your child to be independent at the table. Perhaps they can help lay it with you, learning where the knives, forks, spoons go? Support them to hold their cutlery properly and eat independently, learning to cut their food themselves. At school it will be helpful for them to be able to eat their lunch or snack without help while seated at a table.

At preschool we encourage all children to be as independent as possible that’s one reason why we ask you to use easy open pots, lunch bags and drinks bottles so that your children are able to have a go. This doesn’t mean we don’t help them, it just means we support them to help themselves.

Here’s a link to more information about ways to support good table manners at home: https://www.polishedmanners.co.uk/how-do-you-teach-your-children-table-manners/

Our focus at preschool is on each child and adults’ wellbeing, this encompasses both their physical wellbeing and mental health.

Please click the link for the BBC’s Tiny Happy People page of wellbeing activities.

Please also see our Early Help page for more information.

Exploring books and text with children is a fun and important way to help them develop a love of reading and language skills. 

We want every child to be able to enjoy books, know how to look through them and handle them with care, and listen when someone reads to them.

Try looking at different types of books, print and environmental literacy. This could be factual, fiction, poems, newspapers, menus, road signs and maps, all are a great way to introduce children information and stories.

Don’t forget to bring your green book bags in each week so that children can choose a new phonics books.

Click the link to see this great article about helping your child to read.

Click the link to see a short video on phonics and how to pronounce letters sounds.

Learning to write involves many skills. For a child to write effectively they need to develop the skills of hand-eye coordination, letter and sound recognition and to be able to hold a pencil properly. Above all else, they need to develop their gross motor skills before being able to fine tune their fine motor muscles.

At preschool children are taught letter and sound recognition as well as the correct formation of letters. Learning to recognise and write their own names are often the first step.

Click the link to see PACEY’s Mark Making page.

Maths helps children develop crucial life skills like problem solving, logistical reasoning, critical thinking and spatial awareness, allowing them to understand and navigate the world around them. You can teach children maths by playing games, using everyday object and making it fun.

We teach your child to count and recognise numbers, we also explore shape and pattern, measure, how to make comparisons, making and interpreting graphs and charts, sorting, matching and much more.

Click the link to see Oxford Owl’s page on maths.

Being able to listen and concentrate and process information is intrinsic to all children’s learning. Listening to instructions, developing language and learning to communicate effectively are all important skills which we focus on. Without good listening skills children struggle to process and retain information.

We have daily group activities, both large, small and 1:1 where we develop these skills through stories, games, fine motor activities, scissor skills, cookery and much more.

Try playing games such as Simon Says, Snakes and Ladders or Connect Four to develop children’s listening and attention skills.

A great way to develop many skills from following instructions to maths and science, as well as promoting discussion and understanding is cooking. It’s an all round activity that has the bonus of (hopefully!) something good to eat at the end of it.

We have a number of simple recipes on our Early Help page under the Healthy Eating button or click the link for some great BBC Food recipes.

Click the link to find more listening games from BBChttps://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/zm72kmn

An important part of your child making friends is knowing how to introduce themselves and ask the names of others, it also means being able to join others play or offer to share what they are playing with.

When learning to engage with others it is important for your child to able to listen respectfully to others while taking turns to talk and to learn to engage in conversation and ask questions. Being polite and have awareness and consideration of others and to listen to and follow simple instructions.

Click the link for useful information from BBC Bitesize.