The Little Oaks Kindergarten at Oakwood is a hive of happiness and activity.
Children are welcome to join Kindergarten during the year they turn four. We believe this is a wonderful time to gently prepare children for the start of full time education in Reception.
Kindergarten children each have a key worker who takes primary responsibility for your child. This helps both the child and the parent with continuity and a sense of belonging. It also helps both staff members and parents to build good rapport with each other. We have an excellent staff/pupil ratio of 1:8 throughout the children's time in Kindergarten. This allows us to really know our children and develop wonderful relationships with them.
We ask that our Kindergarten children attend a minimum of three morning sessions per week. Children may attend for full days, mornings only or an extended morning with lunch. We encourage parents to increase sessions throughout the school year to prepare the children for full time school in Reception. For those parents needing extended care, we offer breakfast and after school club. In addition, Camp Little Oaks operates throughout most weeks of the school holidays providing fun-filled themed activities and run by Oakwood Early Years qualified staff.
Children enjoy a home cooked hot lunch, prepared by our in-house catering team. Children are encouraged to try the great variety of food on offer while enjoying a family atmosphere with their friends and teachers. Our catering team are able to support any individual dietary needs.
While our activities are play based and child oriented, we aim to foster a love of learning and creativity for all our children. During daily adult led circle times, children develop basic phonics skills including familiarisation with letters. Practical counting, number recognition and introduction to shape and measure are also introduced. Children benefit from specialist lessons taught weekly including French, PE, music and swimming., They also enjoy outdoor learning sessions in the woods. It is important to us that children enjoy their learning and begin a lifelong love of books and reading.
We believe a breadth of experiences is key to enable children to develop interests and hobbies as well as to improve their social skills and confidence. The children enjoy a great variety of activities, including dance, P.E., music lessons, cookery, art, French lessons, outdoor learning and swimming, taught by specialist teachers.
The Kindergarten is located in our Pre-Prep building which also houses our Reception and Year 1 classes. Leading directly from the Kindergarten classrooms is a secure courtyard where children can enjoy playing on scooters and trikes, with the outdoor sand kitchen or have a relaxing time in our outdoor book area. Kindergarten children make full use of the school facilities such as the gymnasium, theatre and wonderful playing fields.
Children in Kindergarten are often found outdoors. They use the fabulous Woodland Walk on a regular basis, so that they can explore the environment around them. Each term we focus on a particular topic (such as fairy tales, Signs of Spring or the Seaside). Additionally, we take the opportunity each term to take our children off site for a class trip. Past trips have included The Weald and Downland Museum, West Wittering Beach and regular trips to local care homes.
We believe our Kindergarten focus on creativity, independence and imagination offers a wonderful preparation for your child’s next step into full time education.