The Early Years Department
Kindergarten and Reception
Our Early Years Department is made up of The Honey Pot, The Beehive and our two Reception classes. We take children in the September following their second birthday and see them through into the Pre-Prep School at the age of 5.
In the Honey Pot, children attend two or three mornings a week and from October parents can opt to extend these morning sessions to full days, finishing at 3pm.
Our Beehive children attend 5 mornings a week and when ready may also stay for afternoons until 3.00pm.
Full time school begins in Reception where the day runs from 9.00 to 3.00pm. After School Care is offered from 3.00pm.
Throughout the Early Years our professional teachers create just the sort of warm, safe and caring atmosphere in which children of this age can thrive. Class sizes are small throughout and the level of care is high with great emphasis placed on building confidence and self esteem. Each teacher is committed to encouraging children to become confident, independent and, above all, happy learners.
From the beginning we like to build strong partnerships with our parents helping to make the transition from home to school a positive one.
We provide an exciting and busy day for our little ones, as we make good use of our indoor and outdoor facilities. A look at the displays of the children's work around the classroom walls shows how immersed they have been in their topics.
At Pennthorpe we offer a broad and balanced Foundation Stage curriculum and use the "Early Learning goals" as our starting point. These are based on the six areas of learning:
- Communication, language and literacy
- Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy
- Knowledge and understanding of the world
- Physical development
- Creative development
- And most importantly for our youngest children Personal, Social and Emotional development.