At Little Squirts we recognise the importance of early attachments and encourage positive relationships through our flexible key worker system.

We provide a nurturing environment which allows for plenty of baby led play, ensuring that activities are rotated to encourage the development of preferences and interests.

Throughout the day our babies enjoy lots of sensory exploration which promotes early brain development as well as being great fun. We enjoy getting messy with water, sand and shaving foam as well as various foods, adapting activities to make sure they are age appropriate.

We also provide Heuristic play sessions throughout the week to help our babies learn about how things work through the exploration of natural objects and their properties.

For our younger babies we have a separate garden area for them to explore in safety, however as they get older we do encourage them to join our older children in the main playground. This encourages learning from peers as well as promoting responsibility in our older children.

The Terrapin room routine

Our Turtle room is the main play area for our over 2’s with free flow into the playground.  It is set up to ensure free choice of activities are available all day, encouraging children to explore all areas of their development. The children have access to construction, small world models, sensory, ICT and arts and craft activities as well as a cosy book corner and an exciting interchangeable home corner that is transformed to something new each week. 

The Turtle room staff plan lots of fun and educational activities helping the children to reach the next steps of their development. Each week the children learn about a new topic, a new song and a new letter of the alphabet and incorporate this in the art and craft activities.

Every child in the Turtle room belongs to a coloured team and has a designated Key person who responds to their needs and helps them to settle into the setting. The key person works in a close relationship with the child and their parents and tracks the child's developmental progress using an online system called Tapestry.

Once the children start in the Turtle room they will be expected to wear our lovely preschool uniform.  This is to help the children to develop a sense of belonging and prepare them for the school years where a uniform is also compulsory.

The Turtle Room Routine

Our Ocean Room is a large hall and is extremely versatile throughout the day.

In the mornings the Ocean Room is set up as a class room where our over 3's do their morning registration, circle time and preschool lessons. Preschool lessons alternate between maths and literacy weekly. They are tailored to meet children's individual needs, with 3 or more activities for the children to choose from. 

From 10.15am the Ocean and Turtle rooms are free flowing for all the children (over 2) to be able to choose their preferred activities.

The Ocean Room is also used as a dining hall and an area for our parties, annual performances and for our extracurricular sessions which include Music Squirts, Mini Movers and Sensory Play. The Ocean Room is also used an an exercise area on really bad weather days.

The Ocean Room Routine