The Foundation Stage

The Pointer School receives grant funding for children aged three to five, and it is therefore a requirement that the school is inspected at the appropriate points. Once your child has joined us the staff will plan exciting activities and experiences that will initiate progress in their development and learning. Young children will already have had a wide range of experiences and will have a wide range of skills and interests when they join the school at the age of three, four or five. They need a well planned and resourced curriculum to take their learning forward and to provide opportunities for them to succeed in an atmosphere where they feel valued and cared for.

The curriculum for the Foundation Stage underpins all future learning by fostering and developing children’s:

• personal, social and emotional well-being
• positive attitudes and dispositions towards their learning
• social skills
• attention skills and persistence
• language and communication
• reading and writing
• mathematics
• knowledge and understanding of the world
• physical development
• creative development

Nursery/Foundation Stage 1

At the very popular Pointers’ Nursery, not only are the children taught and cared for by qualified staff, but they can continue through the school without a break until they are in Year 6 (11 years of age). The stability and continuity that this affords is a great advantage to each child and his/her subsequent progress.

Staff ratios in the Nursery are excellent, ensuring that each child can receive a great deal of individual attention from our staff. Our Nursery Manager and Deputy Manager are specialists, with many years of experience (at Pointers) with young children.

The Nursery accepts children from the age of three. Children who graduate to Reception will have had their 4th birthday by September 1st (in the year of entry). In the Nursery, our aim is to give the children plenty of opportunities to learn through play, covering the six ares of learning by using tools such as Jolly Phonics, sand, paint, Play-Doh, construction, games, music, craft activities and drama. Modest direction is given where necessary. Furthermore, they will be encouraged to colour, cut out, count, listen to stories and express themselves orally to staff and to each other. Musical activities play an important part in the children’s routine and a specialist musician visits the department every week. Music and Movement and PE are also separately time tabled each week. Conversational French begins in the Nursery as it has been found that this early start works well. Spanish Dancing is another feature much enjoyed by all children in the Foundation Stage and Early Key Stage 1 (Nursery, Reception and Year 1). Parents will be pleased to note that specialist teachers are used in both French and Spanish, as well as Junior Gymnastics. The children also enjoy the use of new computers in the Nursery.

The morning session in the Nursery is from 9.00am to 11.45am, and the afternoon session from 12.30pm to 3.15pm. Many of our nursery-age children stay all day and also enjoy a cooked lunch. The morning session includes a light fruit snack and juice. Children old enough to be placed in the Reception Class are always full-time and will therefore stay to lunch.

Parents with children in the Nursery are invited to play a full part in the life of the school and are always welcome and encouraged to discuss their child with members of staff.

Children in the Nursery do not wear the full school uniform. Parents are asked to buy the special sweat-shirt and polo-shirt from the school suppliers (see School Uniform). Trainers and sandals are acceptable forms of footwear for Nursery children.

Reception/Foundation Stage 2

The Reception Class is a busy and happy class of four to five year olds and flows seamlessly from the Nursery. As in the case of Year 1, the Reception Class Teacher will have the help of a Classroom Assistant.

Children in Reception will wear the full uniform and experience an action-packed curriculum. The atmosphere is a little more formal than the Nursery - nevertheless, the approach is holistic with many opportunities to learn new skills, including French, Spanish Dancing, drama, painting and drawing, music and singing, writing and reading, construction, basic information technology and of course, games and play.

We are particularly proud of our well-equipped Nursery and Reception. Not only because of their excellent staff/pupil ratios but also because of the tangibly happy atmosphere. Indeed, parents are advised to read the recent OFSTED reports concerning the Nursery and Reception classes, where they will read an objective report which underlines the success Pointers has had in creating a wonderful environment for young enthusiasts.