At Hilden Oaks, we aim high to give children the best possible start to their education and place each child at the centre of everything we do. Our team are highly skilled professionals who have an in-depth understanding of early child development. We support the children to learn through play both inside and outside, closely following the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum in order to develop and track each child’s learning and development.

Learning opportunities are planned to provide challenge, developing not only knowledge but also the skills and abilities that allow our children to question, debate, collaborate and problem solve, building upon skills they have previously acquired in Kindergarten.

Children are taught to recognise failure as the key to success and that Preschool is a safe space where mistakes are key to gaining mastery. Our hope is to encourage their natural curiosity and passion for learning, laying the foundations that will allow them to make the most of the opportunities available to them.

We strive to build positive relationships where children learn to socialise and work with each other. We recognise that our School Values, such as kindness and respect, are qualities that we celebrate and embrace during their time with us.

The important transition between Preschool and Reception is carefully planned, including teacher visits and parent information evenings in addition to involvement in the main school’s Harvest Festival, Christmas Nativity and Easter Service.

During the Trinity term, Preschool children start eating their lunch in the School’s dining room to prepare them for their school days ahead.

Once children reach Preschool age, they start to experience a little more structure in their daily routine through play and exploration, preparing them for Reception, including daily mathematics and phonics as well as regular music and PE, taught by specialist teachers.

All the children begin to explore the wider world in the company of their peers, and to form their first friendships. By the time our children move on to Reception from Preschool, they have the security and confidence to start more structured learning.

In Preschool we make maths fun! We believe that children learn best when lessons have a practical element and are always encouraged to ‘have a go’ and incorporate maths in their play. We follow the White Rose maths scheme and this is continued into Reception. Over the year we cover the key mathematical concepts including numbers from one to ten and touch on some larger numbers. In addition, we also cover shapes, measurement and patterns. This gives the children an excellent foundation for moving on to Reception.

Phonics is taught daily in a fun, age-appropriate and engaging way, closely linked with the prime areas of communication and language and physical development. This ensures that the pre-reading skills such as, rhythm, rhyme and sound discrimination are secure first. This allows us to move onto an introduction to the synthetic phonics programme of Read Write Inc, which is also used beyond the Preschool. During all lessons we use kinaesthetic, visual and auditory styles of learning to embed core skills for reading and writing. This learning is then immersed with high quality practise, with opportunities in all other parts of the day through play, as the children explore and develop.

We currently have a few Preschool places available for children aged 3 to 4 years. If you would like to find out more about our fabulous Preschool, or wish to book a visit, please go to the Admissions page.