Next term’s awe and wonder moment will be going to see the Gaia exhibition at Wells Cathedral. The Nursery, Reception and Year 1 classes will travel together to Wells, by coach on Wednesday 9th November, more details will follow after half term.
As a staff, we spend time looking at the important role of the adult in the early years to ensure we are all unified in our approach and working together to support the children as a team. All of us have different strengths and we work unitedly to provide the best experience for our young charges. Our role is to scaffold children’s next stages of learning, to be facilitators. Our environments are always child centred, supportive, and engaging but one that children can access independently for themselves. Nursery life is different to home – with many children to look after, practitioners focus on supporting children to become independent – putting on their own shoes and socks, finding the hook to hang up your own coat, recognising your name on your drawer so you can put your own bag away, all are important skills in becoming independent – growing self-esteem, organisational skills and resilience.
To help children manage these tasks, practitioners break them down into smaller steps to make them less daunting. Children at first, manage the last steps, so the illusion is created that the whole task has been completed independently – next time a further step for the child is added and so on so eventually the whole task is completed by the child. Practitioners know to create a sense of fun and sparkle into mundane jobs and are quick to add magic through a game or distraction to encourage children to stay on task. We use the well-known ‘Magic Coat Trick’ in Nursery which makes putting on your coat and easier job. Sometimes we all need a bit of magic!