Nurture groups are a vital part of our preschool day.
As part of our planning and curriculum we track the children’s starting points, areas to teach and plan for and any areas where a child needs a little extra “nurture”. This ensures that we notice all children and work individually on progress.
Our nurture groups are 2 or 3 children at a time and are very popular – we often have little faces at the door asking if they can join in. The children love some quiet time away from the busy session and the quiet time is a really good chance to check where children are developmentally through games and activities and to make observations for key people to track progress.
The groups change every half term – they can include literacy and maths groups, mark making, confidence building, spending time with quieter children who find it hard to share what they know, garden club, role play, fine and gross motor work, turn taking and making friendships. We also work individually and in language groups with our EAL children to support them to develop understanding of our routines and English words and to build trusting relationships and celebrate their home language and cultures.
We also support development of listening and attention skills, help children who wander from activity to activity without being confident to join in during free flow and a group works on perseverance at an activity which is an important skill. Each child’s key person will let you know in person if your child is in one of our groups and it is nothing to worry about at all. It usually is just enough to build a skill and to collect observations.
Any comments are always very welcome and if you are ever worried about any part of your child’s journey with us please email Amelia (amelia@cullomptonpreschool.org) or chat to your key person at the end of the day or request an appointment during the day.