William Older Playgroup,
Angmering, West Sussex
01903 771025
"To educate by providing new and exciting experiences & opportunities"
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The playgroup has been flourishing on its existing site for over thirty years. Owing to our success and growing demand, the playgroup has recently expanded the number of sessions it holds each week; there are now sessions in both the morning and afternoon five days a week.
Our current registration is for 26 children maximum per session.
We aim, THROUGH PLAY to:
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Provide a warm, caring and safe environment
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Promote a healthy life style
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Support the children’s independence
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Nurture a sense of emotional well being (their own well being, the well being of others and the well being of the setting)
To educate by providing new and exciting experiences & opportunities.
Each at the beginning of each morning session, the children are greeted at the door by a member of staff. Assisted by their parent/carer, the children place their coats and bags on their named peg in the entrance hall and register themselves by posting their photo-name badge into the post-box.
Then play, and the fun, begins!
At around 10am a “rolling” snack time starts. The children are free to come when they choose. They sit down in small groups to have milk or water to drink plus a healthy snack (fruit or vegetables which are bought in from home). Their name cards can be given as prompts (for later if the table is full) or to encourage them if they are busy and have forgotten snack.
After this, there are a few minutes of quiet when the children are encouraged to sit down and listen to a story or sing songs.
A TYPICAL SESSION - AFTERNOONS
The format of the afternoon sessions is very much the same as the morning sessions.
The key difference that the children start the session with lunch. Each child bring with them a healthy packed lunch which runs for the first 30 minutes of the session and is aimed at being a social and educational time with time spent talking to the other child and adults.
In the afternoons we also run more activities designed to prepare the children for school, including talks from visitors and outings.
Tables with a range of different activities are set out every day. These can include:
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Craft activities: sticking, glitter, painting, drawing
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Play dough
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Painting
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Cooking
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Gardening
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Musical instruments
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Computer
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Construction
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Role play
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Quiet/book corner
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Treasure baskets
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Sand/messy play
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Threading activities
Pre-school education experts promote free play and the children being able to choose what they play with and how long they spend playing before moving onto the next thing for about 80% of their time (the other 20% of their time is directed by an adult). Weather permitting, the children can choose to play indoors or outdoors so we request that children are provided with suitable clothing.
That said, we have found that our youngest children sometimes struggle to know what they would like to play with, so in our morning sessions we set out a number of different activities/toys. These can be changed if the children request different ones. Playgroup staff will sit down with the children to encourage participation and play.
Each term a number of different loose themes are planned. Special activities, outings and visits are organised around this theme. Examples of the some of the themes covered this year include:
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Australia
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Pirates
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Birds
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People who help us
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Chinese New Year
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Travel/holidays
We welcome ideas from families and love to have them participate!
Each term an event is organised. At Christmas there is a play with all the usual singing, dancing and performing! There’s an Easter Egg Hunt and in the summer term we have our Sports Day. We also participate in the village’s May Day celebrations with other local schools and playgroups.
Outings are usually organised for the older, afternoon children (subject to sufficient parental helpers). This year there have been visits to the library, the new St. Margaret’s Church and a plant nursery amongst others. We also shared a visit to the village playgroup from Zoolab (experiencing different animals including spiders, snakes and other weird and wonderful creatures).
We have also had numerous visitors to the playgroup to talk to the children. This has included the library lady, a dental nurse, a fire engine and a Police Officer.
We operate West Sussex schools term-time only (38 weeks per year).
There are two sessions each day:
8.50am to 11.50am for younger children
12 noon to 3pm for those children in their final year before starting school
Children attending the afternoon session are required to bring in a healthy packed lunch.
Children will attend sessions to suit their requirements varying from 2 to 5 per week.
Please contact our Manager for details of our fees. The session fee in September 2010 for children under 3 will be £10.
The term after the child’s third birthday, we are able to claim Government funding for up to five sessions per week (15 hours).
