We are based in the village of Eastington, which is near to Frocester, Frampton upon Severn and Stonehouse.

We are a community playgroup which has been established for over 30 years.

The playgroup is organised by a committee of parents who are elected each year and form an important part in the day-to-day running activities. We are a non-profit making educational charity and are registered and inspected by OFSTED. Our most recent OFSTED inspection was in June 2018 where we received an overall GOOD outcome and OUTSTANDING in Personal development, behaviour and welfare.

Qualified and experienced professionals are employed to run all sessions and provide a caring and stimulating environment for the children to play in.

Of course, being located on the Owen Harris Sports and Playing Field Grounds, we have the benefit of a beautiful play area which is safe and away from the main road.

OUR AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Personal, social and emotional development

Our programme supports children to develop:

• positive approaches to learning and finding out about the world around them;
• confidence in themselves and their ability to do things, and valuing their own achievements;
• their ability to get on, work and make friendships with other people, both children and adults;
• their awareness of, and being able to keep to, the rules which we all need to help us to look after ourselves, other people and our environment;
• their ability to dress and undress themselves, and look after their personal hygiene needs; and
• their ability to expect to have their ways of doing things respected and to respect other people’s ways of doing things.

Physical development

Our programme supports children to develop:

• increasing control over the large movements that they can make with their arms, legs and bodies, so that they can run, jump, hop, skip, roll, climb, balance and lift;
• increasing control over the small movements they can make with their arms, wrists and hands, so that they can pick up and use objects, tools and materials; and
• their understanding about the importance of, and how to look after, their bodies.

Communication and language

Our programme supports children to develop:

• conversational skills with one other person, in small groups and in large groups to talk with and listen to others;
• their vocabulary by learning the meaning of – and being able to use – new words;
• their ability to use words to describe their experiences;
• their ability to listen to, and talk about, stories;

Literacy

• knowledge of the purposes for which we use writing; and
• making their own attempts at writing.
• their knowledge of the sounds and letters that make up the words we use;
• knowledge of how to handle books and that they can be a source of stories and information;

Mathematics

Our programme supports children to develop:

• understanding and ideas about how many, how much, how far and how big;
• understanding and ideas about patterns, the shape of objects and parts of objects, and the amount of space taken up by objects;
• understanding that numbers help us to answer questions about how many, how much, how far and how big;
• understanding and ideas about how to use counting to find out how many; and
• early ideas about the result of adding more or taking away from the amount we already have.

Understanding the world

Our programme supports children to develop:

• knowledge about the natural world and how it works;
• knowledge about the made world and how it works;
• their learning about how to choose, and use, the right tool for a task;
• their learning about computers, how to use them and what they can help us to do;
• their skills on how to put together ideas about past and present and the links between them;
• their learning about their locality and its special features; and
• their learning about their own and other cultures.

Expressive Arts and Design

Our programme supports children to develop:

• the use of paint, materials, music, dance, words, stories and role-play to express their ideas and feelings; and
• their interest in the way that paint, materials, music, dance, words, stories and role-play can be used to express ideas and feelings.