Little Wellingtons is very fortunate to have an amazing outdoor area with a safe and secure garden that is surfaced with artificial grass to provide a clean, safe and natural outdoor area which is an enclosed garden that is set back for children not to be visible from the roadside so therefore very secluded to allow children freedom to explore within a safe environment.
We follow the EYFS and provide all the areas of learning in the garden area. Therefore we ensure children have an opportunity for mark making with clip boards and large chalks and chalk boards and a numeracy area with a number line for children to be counting and recognising numbers and an alphabet line. We have a new mud kitchen to enable children to engage in lots of messy and fun natural activities like making mud pies and mixing natural materials of twigs and leaves and exploring their natural environment to create holistic play.
We also encourage quiet enclosures and tents for stories and for children to have the opportunities to seek quiet times by reading a story under a tent or sitting on a blanket.
Physical development is encouraged for children to develop large motor skills by playing on the slides, balancing beams, stepping stones, crawling through the caterpillar tunnels and playing ball games with the staff and in small groups. Fine coordination is also accessible for children by learning to peddle the bikes and large toy cars, and scooters that children can choose to play with in the garden. We also have role play areas and sand and water play activities. Practitioners ensure that lots of opportunity for learning is accessed with a variety of activities that are supervised with a high ratio of staff overseeing the children at each area to ensure their safety and interaction with the children to fully support the learning.