About Us

Newton Abbot Pre-School is based in the cattle market town of Newton Abbot. We take full advantage of our location by going on regular trips around town making the most of the local amenities. The Preschool has been running for over 30 years, we are a charitable incorporated organisation run by Trustees and Volunteers.

Our small dedicated team are all fully qualified. We aim to improve outcomes for all children by providing a fun, caring and stimulating environment were children can learn through play, offering your child the best possible start. We place much of our emphasis on children’s interests and these are our starting point for next steps and themes. 

Our Culture Capital

  1. We read books on topics that the children are interested in and expand our activities alongside this e.g. Handa's surprise, we provided a story tray including the characters, real fruit and we provided real fruit for taste testing. The children expanded this by taking it in turns to practice balancing the fruit in baskets on their heads while walking.
  2. We encourage children to talk about their experiences and use this influence in our Roleplay area. 
  3. We enjoy exploring science experiments, the children showed an interest in volcanoes, so we mixed bicarb and vinegar with red food colouring to create a volcano for the children to watch explode. We filmed this experiment and put it on our open facebook so that the parents could watch and discuss the experiment with their children.
  4. We discuss the weather and the season on our daily registration, asking the children's opinions and encouraging them to debate and make choices.
  5. Our children absolutely love exploring any type of musical instrument and are always willing to have a go. They enjoy group singing and dancing, love action songs that they can get fully involved with and will make up their own songs.
  6. We provide support and encourage our children to explore our garden/physical resources fully and offer plenty of opportunities for them to develop these skills. If we feel a particular skill could be more positively developed by purchasing a particular resource, we will. We provide 2 sessions of outdoor play to ensure children who do not have gardens or opportunities to explore the outdoors at home, get to whenever they are in.
  7. We read a variety of stories, sing songs and rhymes to introduce new words, sounds and phrases. We repeat favourite stories to encourage learning through repetition and to provide plenty of opportunities for children to explore freely.
  8. We celebrate festivals and cultural events with the children.
  9. We take the children on trips to the local shops, parks and organise  trips based on the children's interests (Zoo, Farm, Beach etc.)
  10. We arrange for the dental nurse, police etc to come in and talk to the children  and for trips to the fire station and local vets as well.
  11. We love to hear all about the adventures our children have outside of preschool, so we encourage parents to send us photos and provide children with opportunities to talk about and share experiences with staff and peers.
  12. We write out and celebrate WOW moments with the children and also send these home for parents to share WOW moments with us in return. The children stand up at circle time and share their WOW moments with their peers.

Exceptional Key Workers System 

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​At Newton abbot Pre-school we plan daily for children’s next steps and interests. All children develop at their own pace. Our keyworker system enables us to ensure a planned curriculum tailored to the needs of each individual child and to build strong partnership working with all parents. Our aim is to meet all individual needs and to know how each child learns within the learning characteristics of:
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-Active learner 
-Creating and thinking critically
-Playing and exploring to prepare children to progress with confidence to Primary School.

​Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS)

Communication and Language

Our daily routine and all activities are centred around encouraging and extending all children’s understanding, vocabulary and fluency by talking and listening, to enable them to become confident communicators. We try to create a language rich environment, and through observation and assessment are able to assess where all individual children are inline with their developmental norms.

Physical

We have a lovely natural outdoor garden with a range of equipment and opportunities which allows children to explore the natural world and develop their confidence and gross motor skills. We also provide lots of learning opportunities to develop fine motor skills with the aim to increase control and precision. We encourage all children to become independent in self care and to gain an understanding of the importance of making healthy choices.

Expressive Art and Design

​We provide on a daily bases lots of creative activities where children can explore, get messy and use materials to express their own feeling and ideas. As well as having lots of different role play themes in order for children to share their experiences through play, to extend their imagination both individually and as part of a group.

Personal Social and Emotional Development

Our aim is to help children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others within a nurturing environment. Through activities, conversation and practical examples, they learn acceptable ways to express their own feelings and to develop respect and understanding for others, forming good relationships and having confidence in their own abilities.

Mathematics

We provide opportunities through adult supported practical activities for children to explore numbers, sorting, ordering and sequencing. Describing shapes, patterns, spaces and measures. Which form the bases for early mathematics. This growing ability allows them to solve problems and develop the mathematical understanding to use number operations such as adding and subtracting.

Understanding Of The World

​We use the whole environment indoors, outside, and the local community to help the children make sense of their world in which they live. Through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, professions and technology the children are able to gain a broad understanding of the world in which they live.

Literacy

​We encourage lots of communication involving sounds, rhyming and letters. We encourage mark making from the start, helping children to understand that marks make symbols carry meaning, and to help them become aware of the purpose of writing. We provide a wide range of reading materials and have daily stories and singing times in order to ignite their interest.

Daliy Routine

Successful Varied Routine for the children Refined over the by Team and Parent's verbal input into our Pre-School. Our Daily Routine is available to download as a PDF for Parent's, Family and Pupils.
Time
9.00-9.15AM
9.15-9.30AM
9.30-9.50AM
10.00-10.30AM
10.45-11.00AM
11.00-11.45AM
11.45-12.00AM
12.00AM
Morning Session
Welcome Children
​Registration
Drink of Milk or Water
Free Play/Adult Led Activites
Nappy Change
Garden
Story/Singing
Children Go Home/PM Children come in.
Time
12.00-12.45AM
12.45-2.00PM
1.45-2.00PM
2.00-2.45PM
2.45-3.00PM
​3.00PM
Afternoon Session
Lunch
Free Play/Adult Led Activites
Nappy Change
Garden
Story/Singing
Home Time