WHAT WE OFFER
OUTDOOR SESSIONS
Outdoor sessions are available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
We are lucky to have access to a number of areas of beautiful outdoor space locally. The ancient woodland of Shining Cliff is just down the road, and we are privileged to have an agreement with The Grith Pioneers, who own and protect this magical place, to use the woods for our sessions three days a week. These sessions connect children back to nature, inspiring them to build resilience, confidence, independence and self-motivation- the skills they need for life.
In line with our ethos, we follow the children’s lead, and run with their ideas, just as we do in the hall. We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum by exploring and developing learning opportunities inspired by the natural outdoor environment. We teach children to use tools in a purposeful way with appropriate supervision and health and safety measures. Sometimes we may build a fire to cook on and prepare our snacks, with the children's assistance.
We love being in the woods for full days because of the resilience our children develop. They build the strength to not only keep trying but also the skills to support each other to succeed. The weather can bring some challenges, it isn't always sunny, however, a rainy day is a wonderful resource and brings us wonderful puddles!
HALL BASED SESSIONS
Our hall sessions are available 5 days a week.
Our calm, bright and comfy looking room is adorned with natural, authentic real-world resources. Eye catching, open ended arrangements of these resources provide opportunities to spark the children's natural curiosity.
Our hall is alive with active, engaged little people, all digging in and finding what we’ve got available for them. Our continuous provision allows children’s creative spirits and imagination to light up the room. There are areas for playdough, craft and junk modelling, painting, large mark making and music exploration. There are always lots of opportunities for sensory play and a full range of art and craft supplies that can be moved and used however they wish.
We have an ‘all weather’ outdoor area so children can freely flow outside with their friends for fresh air and creative play. Our children love our outdoor area, with its mud kitchen, large loose parts, pots and pans, crates and tarpaulins for creating whatever comes in to their imagination. Even on our hall days we like to get out and about and explore the local area and can often be found at our local park.
We also follow our Forest School ethos in the hall and children are taught to use tools during our woodwork sessions, we sometimes cook snack on the fire in the garden and children help us to cut and prepare snack, all with appropriate support.
KEEPING IN TOUCH
When your child starts at Wildlings we create an online learning journal for them using software called Famly. This is used to securely hold information about your child and family, produce daily registers and manage information. As parents ourselves, we know how important it is to still feel connected to your child even when you are away from them. Our team use Famly to record photos, videos and general observations about your child's learning and development for you to see.
The photos we send home will give you an insight into your child's experiences with us by seeing what play they have been engaged in and can be used to encourage your child to talk about their time with us and what they have been up to. We also encourage families to upload photos and observations about your home life or holidays as it helps us work in partnership to build a deeper understanding of our wonderful Wildlings.
BUILDING BONDS AND FORGING SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIPS
At Wildlings, we truly value the importance of developing personal bonds and connections between each child and the adults who care for them. We purposefully keep our numbers of children low and have high staff to child ratios so that each member of our team of experienced and highly trained staff can effectively forge connections with all children. In this way all staff members get to know and support the learning of all the children we share our days with. This creates a positive, supportive, and nurturing environment in which children know that they can turn to any adult for help, support, encouragement, and companionship.
We want everyone- children, staff, and families, to know that we are all part of the same family working together to provide the best start to your child’s education so that we can discover, explore and learn together. With your input we get to know where the children's strengths, interests and skills lie and look for the teachable moments in order to provide what each child needs at that time to move their learning forward.
Although all staff create observations about all children, each child will be assigned a key person when they start at Wildlings. This person will monitor the observations for your child on Famly, complete a 2-year check for your child if they join us between their 2nd and 3rd birthdays, and will highlight to the rest of the team where a child may need support or point out any interests or strengths so that the whole team can build on, and provide challenge, for each individual.