West End Farm-Burgess Hill

Our approach is based on the children and their interests and we strongly focus on child-led activities. We make sure that the children have rich and interesting environments both inside and outside where they can explore and find exciting opportunities to increase their physical and mental capabilities.

Child led activities are based on the children’s interests and how their mind works, looking closely at how to extend and expand them by observation and planning their next steps. Adult led activities take place where the practitioner will plan an activity and will encourage and develop the children’s abilities by talking them through the process and encouraging them to cooperate with each other to produce their own work. The children are allowed to flow freely between the indoor and outdoor activities giving them the choice of different environments. The construction area has a bench with tools together with different natural resources and loose parts to build with. They have the opportunity to construct objects using planks, tyres, guttering as well as different shapes of wood and blocks. All these items encourages the children to use their imagination and to develop their fine and gross motor skills.

The reading den gives the children a place to sit quietly and read a book and to play with puppets or to just unwind. The home corner is rich with different resources and fresh food for the children to again explore their senses and to develop an understanding of play through their imagination.