What is Kindergarten? Discover the Fairfield Pre-school Experience
The Kindergarten, Fairfield’s wonderful pre-school offer, aims to provide a warm, caring and stimulating environment for children aged 3-5. Situated at the heart of our independent prep school, the Kindergarten is your child’s first experience of school life. We have invested in a new, purpose-built home for the youngest members of our Fairfield family to ensure that they receive the very best start.
What does a typical day in Kindergarten look like?
The Kindergarten children spend most of their time in our stimulating ‘free-flow’ area where they learn through planned, purposeful play and through a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activity. Alongside this, we actively encourage awareness of other environments within the School and children will regularly take part in enhanced activities such as Forest School, Music, Modern Foreign Languages, PE, and Yoga.
Our Kindergarten curriculum has been specially developed to bring learning to life. Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) education at Fairfield aims to recognise the unique child and develop resilient, capable, confident and self-assured individuals. We also focus on creating positive relationships and providing secure environments where opportunities and experiences respond to the individual needs of the child.
When it comes to lunchtime, children enjoy a range of nutritious, freshly prepared meals each week and Kindergarten staff members are on hand to help encourage good table manners and sensible eating habits during lunch. The pre-school has its own team of caterers who take pride in sourcing high quality ingredients and planning exciting menus. They are also able to support an extensive range of dietary needs, including allergies, intolerances and religious requirements.
How will my child be supported during their time at Kindergarten?
Kindergarten children are each assigned a ‘Key Person,’ who is their Class Teacher, to ensure that everyone has a member of staff who knows them best and is available to discuss any questions or concerns you may have.
We value the importance of close collaboration with parents to provide a seamless learning experience and encourage you to interact with Tapestry. This is an online learning portal where parents receive photos, observations and comments from their child’s Class Teacher to build a record of your child’s experiences and developments during their time with us.
How seamless is the transition from Kindergarten to Reception and what activities do the children take part in which help them to prepare?
Our team of highly qualified Kindergarten staff strive to ensure the transition between school years is as seamless as possible. Towards the end of the Summer term, we run an exciting transition programme where those children joining Reception get the opportunity to experience their new classroom and to meet their new Class Teacher. Whilst this is a more structured programme, by this point, children have already developed familiarity with lots of different areas of our wider multi-school campus and easily recognise many familiar faces.
Throughout their time in Kindergarten, children thoroughly enjoy Forest School – an engaging, outdoor area specifically designed for the unique sessions taught by our qualified Forest School Leader. The philosophy of Forest School is to encourage and inspire through positive hands-on learning in a woodland environment where the children develop key personal, social, and emotional skills, including independence, confidence, raised self-esteem, problem solving, teamwork and imagination.
The children also have specialist teaching in Music and Singing, Modern Foreign Languages and PE. Specialist music workshops sit alongside exposure to a range of languages and cultures, as well as regular PE and Yoga classes, where concentration skills are developed, to provide the children with an enjoyable and varied curriculum.
Why choose our pre-school?
- Fully qualified teachers – Experienced educators guiding your child’s development.
- Specialist subject teachers – Yoga, Modern Foreign Languages, Music, Forest School, and PE.
- 30 hours of government funding accepted – High-quality early education with financial support.
- Purpose-built facilities – Dedicated dining room, kitchen, and three spacious classrooms.
- Engaging learning spaces – Indoor and outdoor free-flow learning environment.
- Sensory room – Interactive cinema-standard projection for an immersive learning experience.
- Holistic learning approach – Encouraging curiosity, creativity, and independence.
