About Rough Common Pre-School
Rough Common Pre-School is a privately run pre-school and nursery based in the Village Hall of Rough Common, Canterbury. We have ample off-road parking providing a safe environment to drop your child off. We are within walking distance of Blean Primary School and main bus routes.
We offer care to children from the age of 6 months – 4 years. There are two areas within our main room, our Pre-School Room for children aged 2 & ½ – 4 years and our Baby & Toddler Room for children aged 6 months – 2 & ½ years.
We aim to ensure that all children achieve their full potential by offering a welcoming, safe, fun and stimulating environment in which all children are encouraged to explore, investigate and follow their interests and be actively involved in their learning.
We pride ourselves on our welcoming home from home atmosphere, where the children can play and learn in a safe and nurturing environment. We work hard to maintain a fun and accessible environment that stimulates the growth of our children through play. We welcome families from all cultural and religious backgrounds and believe that our children’s families are their first educators, building strong family relationships are firmly embedded in our ethos.
We believe it is important that the children have access to natural materials and “loose parts” to enhance their experiences with us. Encouraging children to use these resources as they choose can provide a wider range of opportunities than one that is purely adult led. Children playing with loose parts are using more creativity and imagination and developing more skill and competence than they would playing with most modern plastic toys.
We have a secure outdoor environment, again split into two areas for the different age groups. The children have access to our outside space every day and in all weathers. Outdoor activities contribute to children’s health, their physical development and their knowledge of the world around them. Children are empowered to choose where they would like to play throughout the day and we believe that this seamless flow of play and learning between indoors and outdoors enables children to make the most of the resources and materials available to them and develop their ideas without unnecessary interruption.
Rough Common Playing Field is situated on site as well as Blean Woods directly opposite us and we make regular use of these areas as well as exploring our local community.
Approach to Teaching
At Rough Common Pre-School our children are at the center of everything that we do; we value them all as unique individuals. We believe that children learn best when they are stimulated and able to follow their own interests, making choices for themselves about their learning journey.
This is best achieved through play-based experiences, where the children are given the opportunity to explore their own interests, enquire, question, plan and take risks which in turn leads to high levels of wellbeing and involvement.
Learning through play allows the children to develop at their own pace, supported by quality staff interactions which helps to develop creativity, stimulates their imaginations, develops physical skills and builds on their self confidence and self-esteem; laying secure foundations for lifelong learning and development. Through play our children make excellent progress both emotionally and cognitively.
To achieve this, we follow a planning cycle known as ‘in the moment planning’ that is extensively backed by research in the Early Years and has been developed further by Anna Ephgrave. This process involves children rather than adults choosing where their learning takes place. The children have free access to all areas of the setting with the role of the adult being to stand back and observe what the children are doing, assess what they need to learn/do/know next and plan their teaching right there and then ‘at the moment’.
Most importantly, the role of the adult is to enhance the children’s experience, not interrupt it!
Forest School
Forest School, a Scandinavian concept brought to the UK in 1993, is a holistic approach that provides outdoor learning through play, exploration and supported risk taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through learner inspired, hands-on experiences in a natural setting.
Forest School allows children the opportunity to develop their communication and social skills, as well as develop physically, intellectually and emotionally through connections they make with nature.
Our Forest School sessions take place in a secure, private woodland area across the road from the village hall. They are run by Suzanna and Simone, our Outdoor Learning Leaders, both who are currently undertaking the Level 3 Forest School Leader qualification.
Children will attend a minimum of 3 forest school sessions per term on their usual days of attendance. In addition to regular sessions, our Forest School Day takes place on the 1st Wednesday of each month (term-time only) for all children who attend a Wednesday session.