As Head of Lower School, I love to see the children grow and develop and an important part of my role at RSM is to get to know each one of them really well as they progress through the year groups.
I like to build genuine partnerships with parents too, and most mornings and afternoons you will find me at the school gate or in the playground, as a familiar face to greet Early Years families. I am always available in person or on the phone to talk through any worries or concerns and I host termly coffee mornings for each year group, so parents have a regular forum to discuss different aspects of life at school.
I work with a fantastic team of warm and caring teachers and teaching assistants. We focus on making sure each child feels happy and secure because, ultimately, we know that happy children learn. The days in Early Years are filled with exciting adventures designed to harness the children’s natural curiosity and make them enthusiastic and happy learners, eager to come to school. Our wonderful classrooms and dedicated Early Years playgrounds, as well as a whole 15 acres of trim trails and nature areas, provide endless hours of fun and enjoyment as well as excellent learning opportunities.
I hope you find the information in this booklet useful and I would be delighted to talk to you in person about Early Years at Reigate St Mary’s.
Mrs Sam Selkirk Head of Lower School
WHY EARLY YEARS AT RSM?
Parents often ask how we differ from day nurseries. Just like them, we are open 48 weeks of the year, from 7.30 am to 6.00 pm, helping you juggle work and parenting. Like them, we accept childcare vouchers and offer 15 hours free childcare. Warmth, kindness and love are as abundant here as in all the best home-from-home nursery settings. However, being rooted in a school community brings additional benefits:
• Experienced and highly qualified staff with degrees in Early Years education and, from Kindergarten upwards, qualified teacher status. Your child is in the safest of hands.
• Excellent staff ratios meaning individual care and attention aplenty for your child, and the flexibility as a parent to add extra sessions when needed.
• A head start thanks to purposeful, exciting and creative activities, which encourage gross and fine motor skills, develop pre-phonological skills and lay the foundations for thinking skills.
• Meaningful partnership with parents: from the home visit before your child starts, to termly parents’ evenings and regular online feedback; from the daily face-to-face updates on potty training and naps, to help with the small but important worries (yours and theirs!)
• Access to facilities galore: think purpose-built sensory and climbing areas, all-weather play spaces – padded for the inevitable tumbles – nature areas for exploring, technology such as light boxes and iPads.
• The seamless transition into Reception that comes from a joined-up curriculum spanning ages 2 to 11, familiarity with routines, staff and buildings and a sense of already belonging to the community.
“Early Years children rapidly gain a broad range of skills as they engage wholeheartedly in activities that cover all areas of learning.”
ISI Inspection Report 2023
THE SCHOOL STRUCTURE
We educate children from the age of 2½ to 11 years old. To ensure the very best education and support, the school has a Lower and Upper School structure:
Lower School
Green Shoots
Early Years
Kindergarten
Reception
Key Stage 1 Years 1&2
Upper School
Key Stage 2 Years 3–6
From 2½ years. Children join in September or January and are therefore with us in Green Shoots for two or three terms, depending on their birth month.
The pre-school year. Children move up from Green Shoots into Kindergarten or join Kindergarten directly in the September before they turn 4 years old.
The first year of ‘big’ school. Children move up from Kindergarten or join Reception directly in the September before they turn 5 years old.
Children move up from Reception. Occasionally, places become available for direct entry into these year groups.
Full details can be found in our Upper School at RSM brochure – contact Jenny Myddleton for a copy.
This booklet has information on Green Shoots and Kindergarten - our nursery classes. Information about Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 can be found in a our Lower School booklet.
“A
child’s experiences during their early years provide the essential foundations for life. Their development during this period influences their basic learning, educational attainment, economic participation and health.”
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Review – Report on the Evidence 2011
THE IMPORTANCE OF DEVELOPING THINKING SKILLS
At RSM, we know that children need to develop important thinking skills from the very beginning of their education, as these form essential foundations for successful learning in the future.
What Are Thinking Skills?
Thinking skills are mental, cognitive and strategic processes that are utilised to solve problems and make decisions. They enable all of us to process information, recall facts and apply knowledge to various situations.
Why Are They Important in Early Years Education?
In the 20th century, education was based on the idea that some children could naturally learn and think better than others. Teaching involved disseminating chunks of information which children learnt by rote and were later tested on to check their progress. Over the past 30 years research by cognitive scientists and developmental psychologists has dispelled the myth that intelligence is static. We now know that the development of robust thinking skills through enquiry-based learning and problem solving from the very beginning of a child’s life, is fundamental to their future educational success
“We learn 10% of what we read, 15% of what we hear, but 80% of what we experience.”
Edgar Dale
HOW DO WE DEVELOP THESE SKILLS IN EARLY YEARS AT RSM?
The Early Years curriculum at RSM cultivates thinking skills by developing the characteristics of effective learning in each child. These characteristics are:
Play and explore:
• Find out and explore – show curiosity using senses and interests.
• Play with what they know – representing their experiences in play, showing flexibility in their thoughts.
• Being willing to ‘have a go’ – taking risks, using trial and error, and not being fearful of making mistakes.
Be active learners:
• Being involved and concentrating – showing high levels of fascination.
• Keeping on trying – and then bouncing back after difficulties.
• Enjoying achieving what they set out to do – intrinsically motivated to accomplish something.
Create and think critically:
• Having their own ideas – solving problems.
• Making links in their ideas – noticing patterns, making predictions, cause and effect, developing schemas.
• Choosing ways to do things – planning, checking how things are going, changing strategy if necessary, reviewing how well the activity went.
• Solving problems without adults suggesting what to do, or even worse, doing it for them!
In Green Shoots, children are beginning to show that they are thinking critically. This might be a child finding new ways to solve a problem or make a link with their experience; for instance whilst playing with the train track a child may face the challenge of completing the track by finding the right shape and size to fill the gap; they may also remember and recall a trip they have made on a train or a family member going to work on a train.
WELLBEING
In Early Years we want the children to feel loved and to know how to love others. It is belonging and relating to others that fosters self-esteem, brings happiness and makes a life worth living. Without these cornerstones of wellbeing, a child’s potential will never be fully realised. Everything else hinges on it.
We recognise that children learn best when they are happy. Strong, positive relationships mean our children feel secure and loved. Expressing emotions is an important part of wellbeing and we support children to do this through stories and puppets, calming visual toys like oil timers or sometimes a cuddle. We encourage the children to work together, to be kind and to support each other. We have a Zones of Regulation programme throughout the school which teaches children how to recognise and understand their emotions and gives them the tools to self-regulate when necessary
Skills learnt at this early stage help children to manage and talk about their feelings as they mature.
Early Years children are part of the whole school House system, which fosters relationships between the children across year groups and enhances the sense of belonging to the school community.
When the children arrive in the morning they choose a zone to place their name into. In this way, even our youngest children can let their teachers know if they are not feeling themselves that day. The teachers then know to make more time for them and any little worries or problems can be talked through.
“Pupils show sensitivity, understanding and tolerance towards each other regardless of background, culture or ability.”
ISI Inspection Report 2023
“There’s a warm-hearted feel to the school and an overwhelming sense that community and relationships are at the heart of it.”
Muddy Stilettos
INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY AND STEAM
A recent study at Oxford found that the job opportunities that exist today may well be replaced by automation in the next 20 years. It is therefore essential that children are able to communicate, create, store and manage information and develop robust coding and robotics skills. This can be achieved through well-planned integration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in all areas of their learning using a diverse set of ICT tools and a welldeveloped coding curriculum.
At Reigate St Mary’s, Early Years classrooms are exciting and inspiring places where the children use technology to explore. Metal detectors and colourful lightboxes aid enquiry and investigation. Voices are recorded on recordable whiteboards and EasiSpeak microphones in preparation for writing or performance. Digital cameras allow work to be captured and shared on large interactive whiteboards by utilising AirServer.
All of this boosts creativity, language and intellectual skills as well as fostering social interaction, curiosity and independent learning. It helps to develop higher-order thinking skills, and provides the children with individualised options to express their understanding.
STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering and maths and teaching focuses on bringing together elements from each field in order to help children think about how to solve real-world problems. In Early Years, exciting STEAM activities help children to think outside the box.
Using the story of the Three Little Pigs, the children are tasked with using recyclable materials to make a house that is strong enough that the wolf cannot blow it down. Teachers promote critical thinking through a series of questions and the children are encouraged to test their houses, using a fan or hairdryer perhaps, and revise their model if need be.
“Committed staff have established an effective collaborative culture across the school that fully engages pupils of all ages and abilities.”
ISI Inspection Report 2023
OUTDOOR LEARNING & FOREST SCHOOL
Reigate St Mary’s is set in 15 acres of grounds with plenty of room for the children to run around, build dens, roll down hills and have adventures. All year round, good use is made of the playgrounds, nature reserve, EDEN area (for quiet time), vegetable patches and pond. Outdoor learning is an integral part of life here for all our year groups.
Early Years has a number of dedicated outside play areas and the children spend as much time as possible in the fresh air. Green Shoots and Kindergarten share a large multi-sensory outside area and the children love to use the play equipment, water and sand, and ride tricycles or play with balls. All of Early Years make full use of the rest of the grounds too. Tadpole hunting in the pond is a favourite activity!
The children also have timetabled Forest School sessions in a special Forest School area in a secluded part of the school grounds. Forest School fosters independence, resilience, confidence, problem solving and creativity and the children’s progress and development is closely monitored by our highly trained practitioner, Miss Peters.
“The school’s provision of access to a varied outdoor environment enables pupils to be inspired by the wonders of the natural world.”
ISI Inspection Report 2023
“Many a time I have observed children do something outside that they had yet to achieve inside. That sense of space for many young children is key.”
Sam Selkirk
TAPESTRY & THE HOME/ SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP
We believe in building meaningful partnerships with our parents, right from the start of their time with us. The process begins with a home visit before your child joins us and once they start, we are always available at drop off and pick up to chat through any issues of the day, if necessary. The team are also available by telephone to discuss matters in more detail and regular parents’ evenings provide a more detailed review of your child’s progress. This is a journey we are on together!
Early Years teachers use our secure online learning journal, Tapestry, to build a record of your child using photos, videos and diary entries. You can view their progress and leave comments or upload your own files to the journal, so a complete picture of your child’s development is built.
SETTLING IN & SMOOTH TRANSITIONS
We know how important it is for children to be familiar with adults and surroundings before they join us. To help with this we have a welcome programme which includes:
• Regular settling sessions - little and often works best
• A visit to your home or your child’s nursery setting
• Invitations to a Teddy Bear’s Picnic and Meet the Teacher Event in June
• Recorded stories by class teachers for your child to watch at home.
• A final ‘refresher’ settling session just before term begins
• Teams Q&As with Mrs Selkirk and an open door policy. There is no such thing as a silly question.
By the time your child joins us, they will have already begun to form relationships with teachers and we hope that families will feel a sense of belonging from the start.
“Education is not the learning of facts, it’s rather the training of the mind to think.”
Albert Einstein
COMMUNITY
We have a wonderful school community and regular open classrooms to give families the opportunity to share in their children’s learning. We also love to welcome parents to sports days and musical performances to help celebrate the children’s achievements.
Our active parents association, Friends of St Mary’s Association (or FOSMA for short), arrange a host of activities during the year, which are enjoyed by everyone. They also run SMaSH (St Mary’s Social Hub) and parents regularly get together to walk their dogs, go for a run or just meet socially.
“The quality of pupils personal development is excellent.”
ISI Inspection Report 2023
“Pupils of all ages and abilities have extremely positive attitudes to learning.”
ISI Inspection Report 2023
WRAPAROUND CARE
BREAKFAST CLUB
7.30 am – 8.00 am
This is a paid for service available for all pupils.
SUPERVISED EARLY CARE
8.00 am – 8.25 am
Free of charge. Green Shoots and Kindergarten children can go straight to their classrooms.
SIBLING LATE CARE
3.30 pm – 4.00 pm
Free of charge for Green Shoots to Year 2 children who are waiting for older siblings to finish at 4pm.
EXTENDED DAY
3:30 pm – 6:00 pm
This is a paid for service for Green Shoots to Year 6. A hot tea is served between 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm in the Dining Room.
HOLIDAY CLUBS
Reigate St Mary’s recognises that parents have busy lives and our holiday clubs ensure that all children from Green Shoots upwards can be looked after at school for approximately 48 weeks of the year.
Holiday clubs are either run by RSM staff and provided by us, or by our partner; Camp Beaumont (Reception to Year 6 only). RSM Holiday Club includes activities such as gymnastics, treasure hunts, swimming, bowling, roller discos, art & craft and visits offsite to Box Hill or Bocketts Farm.
Camp Beaumont are experts in their field, providing high-quality Ofstedaccredited day camps offering children the chance to try over 40 sports, games and creative activities on a daily timetable, all based on the RSM site. campbeaumont.co.uk
Green Shoots and Kindergarten have their own Early Years Holiday Club which runs alongside the main school’s but is designed for the youngest pupils. Based in the dedicated Green Shoots and Kindergarten areas, and run by familiar staff, it provides continuity for our youngest children, with activities designed especially for that age group.
EXAMPLE TIMETABLE: GREEN SHOOTS
EXAMPLE TIMETABLE: KINDERGARTEN
“The earliest years in a child’s life are absolutely critical. There is overwhelming international evidence that foundations are laid in the first years of life which, if weak, can have a permanent and detrimental impact on children’s longer-term development. A child’s future choices, attainment, wellbeing, happiness and resilience are profoundly affected by the quality of the guidance, love and care they receive during these first years.”
