West End Playgroup | A day at playgroup

A Day at Playgroup

Breakfast Club from 8am to 8.30am

Save all that hassle at the school gate and get your little one to breakfast club at West End Playgroup first! You can be safe in the knowledge that they will soon be tucking into a healthy and substantial breakfast. This is a great way for children to form strong bonds in a small group environment too.

Mornings at Playgroup from 8.30am to 12.30pm

Drop off for our morning session starts at 8.30am and concludes at 9.30am at which point we gather the children for circle time and registration (a great opportunity to learn numbers). At circle time we get the children involved in the topic of the week, through discussion, songs and poems. This is also the time to explain all about the wonderful activities that will be on offer during the session and to find out what exciting things your little ones might want to tell the group.

After circle time the children are free once more to explore the various learning through play activities that have been set up for them each day. From dressing up, playing with paint and play dough, to riding a bicycle or doing a jigsaw, we are a free flow, free play setting with a range of child lead and adult lead learning opportunities.

Fine motor skills are developed at the mark-making table through fun activities and with special 'work' with Jess or Aleya, in groups, or one to one sessions, which the children love.

The morning session concludes as parents arrive to collect their children from 12.00 - 12.30pm and the afternoon session starts.

Afternoons at Playgroup from 12.30pm to 4.30pm

After lunch the play continues with small group games, cooking and maybe a kick about with some balls on the village green or a trip to Garson's Farm. Afternoons usually finish with story time and a drink and snack before pick up time. Parents collect between 4 - 4.30pm.

Forest school, our woodland nursery, runs every afternoon throughout the year (subject to demand) and is a fantastic opportunity for all children, from two years old, to reap the benefits of outdoor play and learning. We start our session with register and a safety talk, before heading out to walk to our site, which is just a short way from the village hall.

We love to stop and explore all the different things that we find on the way, from tadpoles turning to frogs in the spring and leaves turning from green to orange and red in the autumn. Once at forest school we sit on our logs and have our packed lunch.

Lunch is followed by tree climbing, bug hunting, fire building and lots more. The benefits of forest school are now well known but for further reading please see our section on forest school.

"An early breakfast club drop-off, followed by a morning session at Playgroup and an afternoon at forest school gives my son a wonderfully varied day. It is also long enough for me to go to work. I couldn't find this combination of varied activities on offer anywhere else."

- Sarah

"West End have helped to pave the way for my son to start school in the most supportive way and for that I will always be very grateful"

- Louise