Our Philosophy and practise

Learning starts at birth, if not before. Children are born with the desire to learn. At the Centre, we observe a child’s pattern of behaviour and provide activities and resources which will build on and extend these patterns of learning.

Play is an important part of a child’s development.
Through play, we aim to complement and extend the child’s home experiences. During each session at Nursery, your child will have an opportunity to learn through play, supported by adults, on their own, with a group or with a friend.

We believe that play is important for emotional, intellectual and creative development. Within a play situation, children learn to be independent and to accept differences through asking questions, exploring and making discoveries. Play is fun and an enjoyable experience, and when one is having fun skills are learnt ant thought processes are at their best.

Play is a confidence-builder, raising self-esteem and self-awareness. In play, the child can attempt an activity or skill in a non-threatening and safe environment. Play encourages team-building, co-operation and sharing skills.

Daily planning and preparation is carefully designed to cover all aspects of child development

During the year, there will be regular observation of your child, by staff and yourselves to help us plan appropriate activities. The final assessment about your child will be transferred to the next school. You will be invited to discuss the development of your child with the nursery staff regularly.

Every child has a “Celebration of Achievement” folder containing information, samples of work and photographs. You and your child are welcome to look at this anytime and to make contributions with your child. This achievement folder will be presented to your child as he / she leaves the Centre at the end of the year at a special Graduation Ceremony.

We believe that positive behaviour education encourages a clam, purposeful and happy atmosphere within the Centre. It fosters positive, caring attitudes towards everyone, where achievements at all levels are valued. It encourages increasing independence and self-discipline so that each child learns to accept responsibility for their own behaviour. Our aim is to have a consistent approach to behaviour throughout the School, with parental co-operation and involvement. We aim to raise pupil self-esteem.

We will provide clear boundaries for acceptable behaviour to ensure physical and emotional safety. We aim to help pupils, staff and parents to have a sense of direction and a feeling of common purpose.

In our teaching, positive behaviour is encouraged by focusing on certain skills and abilities, including co-operation, sociability, kindness, empathy self-image and self-esteem. We have also developed a special “circle time”, which we invite parents to be part of. Circle Time encourages us to listen carefully to each other, to learn the language of positive behaviour, and to become familiar with relaxation techniques.

Your child will be allocated a Key Worker and a Secondary Key Worker when they start at Bram. Your child’s Key Workers are qualified, experienced early year’s educators whose role is to take responsibility for the education and welfare of your child during their time with us.

They will work in partnership with you, keeping you informed of progress and development through monitoring and record keeping. The Key Workers begin building relationships with key children and their families from the home visit, and is the first point of contact afterwards.

When you join Bram Longstaffe, you will be asked to fill in and initial discussion sheet where you will have the opportunity to write down whoever has permission to pick up your child. Only in an emergency can we accept verbal permission, and for security we use a password system.