Early Years

The Early Years Foundation Stage at Normanhurst includes Lower Kindergarten, Upper Kindergarten and Reception. Children can begin school from 2½ years, and are able to attend on a part-time or full-time basis during the Kindergarten Years. School is full-time from the start of Reception Class.

As our recent school inspection confirms, all children flourish in the Early Years. They have excellent relationships with staff and often exceed their expected levels of progress. Normanhurst provides a happy and secure environment to learn and our pupils really enjoy their time at school.

The inspiring and exciting curriculum is based around the seven Early Learning Goals, but is augmented and enriched with a wide range of other activities including Music , ICT and PE lessons; French and Drama workshops; assemblies, performances, ‘forest walks’, trips and outings.

There is generous provision for the EYFS, with spacious classrooms and a dedicated outside learning area which enables learning to happen both inside and outside the classroom.

Each child has a dedicated Key Worker who is responsible for monitoring their progress and development, which is recorded in a portfolio which is available for you to see whenever you would like to.

The EYFS Coordinator is responsible for leading the team of staff and planning the curriculum. As noted in our recent inspection, our strong team of experienced staff works closely with parents enabling them to be involved in their child’s learning.

If you wish to see our Early Years department for yourself, please get in touch with our admissions team who will be able to book a tour.

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Early Years School Life

The school day begins at 8.40am and ends at 3.15pm, although there is the opportunity for ‘wrap-around’ care when parents require an extended day in the form of a Breakfast Club and an After-School club.

We provide a mid-morning healthy snack and fruit in the afternoon. A nourishing lunch is prepared on site by the Chartwells catering team. The food is freshly prepared and cooked on site daily with a range of options for children to choose from. Pupils develop their social skills as they eat together and this is a lovely part of the school day.

For the younger children in Kindergarten, there is the option to have a quiet time and a rest after lunch if needed.

Children in Reception Class have specialist Music tuition and are able to attend a number of extra-curricular clubs including activities such as ‘Little Musketeers’ (fencing), multi-sports, karate, reading club and board games club.

Early Years Learning and Teaching

The Kindergarten and Reception classes provide education for children from 2½ to 5 years, and the learning follows the EYFS requirements to develop skills in seven separate areas:

Prime areas:  

• Communication and language
• Physical
• Personal, social and emotional development

Other areas:  

• Mathematics
• Literacy
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design

The curriculum is structured to allow an excellent balance between teacher-initiated and pupil-initiated activities. We want our pupils to be enthused by their learning and engaged with it; we recognise that children need to be able to shape their learning and share their ideas.

The mornings include work with a letters and sounds reading programme, mathematics and language. The department adopts a topic-based approach to learning, with a range of activities in the afternoons that include art, music, cooking and physical education.

We provide the 2 year progress check for parents, as well as the EYFS profile report at the end of Reception Year, which is also shared with the Year 1 teacher. Parents are welcome to look at their child’s learning portfolio at any time and these are readily available in the classrooms.