The Rock Group
Our children are divided into two groups – Rocks and Pebbles. The Rock Group are the children who will start school in the following September.We believe that children are all unique and develop at their own pace.
Some of our children are ready to learn their letters and numbers and begin writing. Others are not. Therefore each child is planned for individually by the child’s key person; we aim to unlock each child’s potential by the time they leave us and go out to their new Big School, wherever that might be. Reading and writing is not a race and children’s future learning can be damaged if it is rushed at this stage. Activities where those small hand muscles are used, like in the picture above, are excellent ways to develop early writing and mark making. The majority of our children do leave us with an excellent early writing and phonic knowledge, but those who are not quite ready are very often the ones who overtake the early starters later on.To unlock this potential, our Rock Group have some special activities:
- Library Books - by borrowing a carefully chosen selection of books, the children can develop early reading skills at home in the comfort of an armchair with mum or dad.
- Letter Pots. This is not compulsory and the emphasis is on fun and play. We give you some letters and numbers to play with phonically at home.
- Maths sessions – simple counting and number recognition on a daily basis ·
- “Snacktivity” Time – a time once a day for the key people to work with each small group of children on an area that interests them
- Rock Group Story Sessions and Music Sessions once a day
- A Physical Activity Session once a day in the more advanced Shiny Playground and also regular Keep Fit sessions. Our older children get specialist coaching in football and tennis once a year.
- Our Buddy System where children going to Burwash and Stonegate Primaries are given a Big Buddy who will be in Year 6 when they start. We arrange lots of activities together before September.
Our children typically go to Stonegate, Burwash, Ticehurst and Wadhurst Primary Schools, Bricklehurst Manor, Marlborough House and Sacred Heart, Wadhurst. We encourage regular visits from the teachers at our feeder schools.
Pebbles
Our youngest children are our Pebbles.We believe that the greatest lesson a Pebble will learn is how to have fun away from the safety of mummy and daddy.Our Pebbles are often the most inquisitive so for them we offer:
- A Pebbles welcome session every morning where the younger children say hello to each other and the adults use sign language and pictures to help the children who are not quite ready to speak yet.
- A special Pebbles Story time once a day with lots to keep them interested. Pebbles do not like sitting still! Story Sacks, Action Books, Puppets... The picture (left) shows our Pebbles listening to a familiar story from the Story Sack with props. Straw, wood, bricks, pigs, can you guess the story?
- Song time – action songs and musical instruments just for the Pebbles
- Playtime in the garden without the biggest children once a day in the Summer
- Lots of exciting Dress Up days and Special Events – such as Suz’s Snakes and Balloon Mornings·
- Cooking once a week
- Daily Imagination Trays – fun things to explore such as coloured rice, sand, spaghetti, shaving foam. Also water play and gardening in our lovely safe and secure garden area.
- Our Dedicated New Child Co-ordinator who oversees the settling in of every new child and works with the key person to make sure the first few weeks are as easy as possible
Stonegate Pre school
Village Hall, Forge Fields, Cottenden Road, Stonegate, East Sussex, TN5 7ED
Telephone: 01580 200960 (Mornings),
manager@stonegatepreschool.org
Charity Number: 1022263
