Little Elms Pre-School and Nursery, creating life-long learners.
About Us
Your Child is in Great Hands
We are naturally curious about the world around us. By allowing our children to explore, we encourage them to be life-long learners and to take responsibility for their own learning.
Instead of satisfying requirements and ticking off boxes, the children are given a central role in deciding how they will spend their time. It enables the children to become more aware of their personal interests, strengths and weaknesses. It can also teach them about how they learn best (auditory, visual, kinesthetic).
Exploring the world is a natural activity and when children trust themselves they develop confidence and a more positive self image.
We follow the child's lead
At Little Elms Pre-School we follow the ‘in the moment planning’. We choose not to do forward ‘planning’ or focus activities based on the practitioners ideas in our setting. We have focus children not focus activities. We capture the interest of the children in the present moment and follow their lead.
Young children have a natural desire to learn, explore and question. Our beautiful environment enables child-initiated play which captures the moment of engagement.
We have created an environment that stimulates curiosity and enables each child to engage in activities without being directed by an adult. Every area is equipped with all of the necessary provision that allows the children to learn or practice a new skill. Our toys and resources are displayed on low shelving that is easily visible and accessible to the children.
We work in this way because ...
“Young children are experiencing and learning in the here and now, not storing up their questions until tomorrow or next week. It is in that moment of curiosity, puzzlement, effort or interest – the ‘teachable moment’ – that the skilful adult makes a difference.
By using this cycle on a moment-by moment basis, the adult will be always alert to individual children (observation), always thinking about what it tells us about the child’s thinking (assessment), and always ready to respond by using appropriate strategies at the right moment to support children’s well-being and learning (planning for the next moment).” From National Standards document Learning, Playing and Interacting P.22 - 23.
We work this way because high-level involvement occurs in child-initiated activity. When children show high levels of involvement, that is when there is progress and development occurring – when the brain is at its most active. High level involvement occurs most often when children are able to pursue their own interests in an enabling environment supported by skilled educators. Planning in the moment helps to make this possible.
