The Pre-School

Little Oaks Pre-School has been established for many years, the previous owners ran it for over 30 years. Mrs. Nuttall took over the the group in 2001, after working there for 6 years. She had previously worked in and run 2 other pre-schools. Mrs Nuttall's children previously attended the school ( her youngest only leaving in September 2001,so she understands the quality of care needed, from a child experiencing "leaving mum" for the first time through to a smooth transition in to primary school.

We have 7 members of staff working in the group which means we meet, if not exceed, the government recommendations. of 8/1. The majority of our staff are mothers so have practical experience of child care, not just qualifications!

Our fees are £6 a morning and we receive the government funding for children the term after their third birthday.

Sessions run from 9am to 11.45am for our younger children and 9am to 12 noon for the older ones, Monday to Friday during the school term (we roughly follow the LB of Bromley term dates).

Children are expected to attend for a minimum of two mornings a week, gradually increasing to five when they receive the government funding.

An average morning session consists of:

	9am - doors open
	between 9am and 10am there is free play with children choosing their own activities
	10.30am - the children are separated with the Oaks Group (the rising 4's and 4 year olds) going to a different room in order that they can work towards the National Curriculum more closely
	The Acorns Group (the younger children) play for longer before looking at the topic of the day.
	10am-10.30am - time for milk and biscuits, a very sociable time when the children serve their own milk and biscuits at the milkbar and discuss various (often very amusing) topics
	11am - this is the time we use to either play games, do more physical activities or........if we have one of those very rare nice days......we go out into the garden with the bikes, buggies, climbing frame etc.
	11.45am - time to collect coats, have a story and discuss the next days activities.

Obviously this is a very brief outline of a typical morning as this web page probably wouldn't have enough space for us to detail all the activities we do.

Every year we hold Christmas parties which the children thoroughly enjoy. We also try to put on different shows, Last year for the first time the Oak's Group produced a nativity play which resulted in quite a lot of tear filled eyes amongst the parents (and staff). The Acorn's then joined in with the singing of Christmas songs for the parents to enjoy (next year the Acorns will have grown into Oaks and it will be their turn to be the stars of the show !!).

We also hold a yearly "sponsored wheelie" which consists of the children going around a track using various forms of wheeled equipment.....anything from buggies to bikes, as long as wheels are involved. The charity we collect for varies each year but the theme always involves children. In the past years we have collected for the Candle project at London's St Christopher's' Hospice, and The El-Shaddai Charitable Trust (a children's orphanage in India). This year our charity was the NSPCC Full Stop Campaign, we are still waiting to find out how much money we have raised for this worthy cause.

Recently we were fortunate enough to receive a generous donation from Jet Aviations so we are looking forward to being able to buy a new climbing frame, play house for the garden and a parachute (amongst other things).

Any comments or questions please email:claire_nuttall@ntlworld.com

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