In the Early Years at West Hill we want our children to feel safe and happy at school.

We provide

• A safe, nurturing and stimulating environment which supports the growth of independence, resilience, collaboration and a love of learning.
• An excellent and enjoyable education where each child is valued and enabled to achieve the highest possible outcomes.

We value and endeavour to foster, close partnerships with families to facilitate close links in children’s learning and wellbeing between home and school.

In the Early Years at West Hill we pride ourselves on listening to children and those who care for them and using this information to personalise child’s learning.
Learning should be fun and we strongly believe in first hand learning, valuing the importance of the indoor and outdoor environment to develop children’s curiosity, creativity, thinking and problem solving skills. Our aim is to develop life-long learners.

We believe that the best outcomes for children occur when most of the activity within a child’s day is a mixture of:

• Child-initiated play, actively supported by adults
• Focused learning, with adults guiding the learning through playful, rich experiential activities

We plan and organise activities in the daily routine to reflect the different types of learning to best support children’s well-being and continual progression. By combining child-initiated learning and adult-led opportunities our staff select the approach that best fits the developmental stage of the children, and for individuals and groups.

Alongside the children’s interest as a stimulus, we also use a topic based approach which ensures that the planning for Nursery and Reception covers the learning goals of the curriculum.

When appropriate, children are taught through a talk for writing approach which is in line with the rest of the school. In conjunction with early phonic sessions leading to following Read Write Inc. approach to early reading.