Vision and Values
To ensure that every child receives the highest quality pre-school care and education by providing an engaging and fun learning environment where children can play, discover, and embrace new challenges together.
Our Core Values
- Kindness – being friendly, courteous, and considerate of others
- Integrity – being honest, open, and accountable
- Inclusion – feeling welcome, promoting a culture of diversity, equality, and fairness
- Wellbeing – feeling safe and secure, living healthy and active lives
- Community – Engaging and working together to make a positive difference.
Our Staff
We only recruit staff who have an Early Years Qualification, Teaching Qualification, or those currently pursuing an Early Years Apprenticeship, ensuring high-quality support for your child’s development. Our experienced team of practitioners have been recruited because they are passionate about caring for and educating children.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
Whitchurch Montessori and Forest School follows the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, combining it with the principles of the Montessori method. The EYFS sets the standards that all Early Years settings must meet to ensure children learn and develop well, are kept healthy and safe, and are ready for school.
You can learn more about the EYFS here: EYFS Framework
The EYFS Principles
- A Unique Child: Every child is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident, and self-assured
- Positive Relationships: Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
- Enabling Environments: Children learn and develop well with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents/or carers
- Learning and Development: Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities.
The Educational Programme
- Communication and Language: Developing children’s spoken language underpins all areas of learning and development. Children are provided with a language-rich environment, where they develop confidence and skills in expressing themselves, listening, and using new words in various contexts.
- Personal, Social, and Emotional Development: This area is crucial for children’s cognitive development. Children learn to understand their own feelings and those of others, develop a positive sense of self, set simple goals, have confidence in their abilities, and build strong friendships. They also learn to cooperate, resolve conflicts peacefully, and care for their bodies through healthy eating and personal hygiene.
- Physical Development: Physical development is essential for children’s overall well-being. They develop both gross and fine motor skills, gaining strength, balance, co-ordination, and agility.
- Literacy: We aim to nurture a lifelong love of reading. Children have access to a wide range of books, both fiction and non-fiction, and become familiar with core nursery books and rhymes. They learn about the structure of stories, retell and recite them, and develop early phonological awareness, laying the foundations for reading and writing.
- Mathematics: A strong grounding in numbers is crucial. Children learn to count confidently, develop an understanding of numbers up to 10, and explore relationships and patterns within numbers. They also work on spatial reasoning, including shapes, space, and measures, building a secure base for developing mathematical skills.
- Understanding the World: This area offers opportunities for children to make sense of their world through exploration, observation, and learning new vocabulary. Children learn about people, places, technology, and the environment through stories, rhymes, and hands-on activities.
- Expressive Arts and Design: Artistic and cultural awareness supports children’s imagination and creativity. Children explore and play with various materials and express their thoughts, ideas, and feelings through activities in art, music, dance, role-play, design, and technology.