Owls
Owls is the third and final stage of our Barfield Nursery, for 3-4 year old children.
We ask for our Owls to attend school for a minimum of five sessions a week and learn through purposeful play-based activities in small groups. They are treated as individuals in a warm and caring atmosphere. Additional sessions are available and encouraged for those who are more resilient, especially during the Summer Term, to ease the transition to full-time school when they enter our Reception classes.
Half-term topics are planned, based on the children's own interests to ensure that the children have a wide range of experiences linked to the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. To complement the fully resourced activity rooms, the children have free access to an enclosed outdoor learning area. The children are encouraged to use this as often as possible.
In addition to their class-based learning, the children have weekly Swimming lessons, Music lessons, fortnightly Forest School sessions with specialist teachers and make regular visits to the Foodtech Room, weekly visits to the library, Swimming lessons, Music and French lessons. Forest School sessions take place fortnightly, all with specialist senior school teachers. Not only does this give the children the best opportunities in these subjects, but it also helps to ease the transition to Reception, with the children already being familiar with a number of the teachers that they will continue to see.
Find Out What The Children Get Up To In Owls
The children have many opportunities to explore outside in the extensive grounds at Barfield and every day, they visit the large Sandy play for play-time. During the Summer term, the children enjoy an arranged trip to Squires Garden Centre to extend their knowledge and understanding of the world.
Children begin to develop their reading skills through our Phonics Scheme, which begins with hearing the sounds, making sounds, and rhyme and alliteration prior to commencing sound and letter correspondence activities. We use ‘Read Write Inc’ resources to support learning in this area. Early writing skills are developed through play dough and beadwork for muscle building and fine motor control, leading to mark-making activities such as drawing in the sand, using large paint brushes with water outside, and play writing in the role-play corner. As the children develop, we teach the correct cursive letter formation from the beginning, through a multisensory approach, in preparation for pencil writing in Reception.
