Home from home
Our Play Spaces
We provide a warm, secure and welcoming home-from-home environment where parents feel reassured to place their babies and children.
The Baby Room
Discoverers
0 to 18 months or Competent walker
This room was designed to be a natural and comfortable transition from home to nursery, with soft and comfortable furnishings to create a calm and welcoming environment. We can have up to 6 Babies in the room with an adult-child ratio of 1:3
Caring and reassuring adults make themselves available to be a safe base for your baby to begin to independently explore and make choices as they play. Every child has their own key person as we recognise the importance of attachment. Each key person aims to build a strong parental partnership with allows us to establish shared understanding between home and our setting, and adapting routines to your baby’s individual needs.
Each caregiver, engages in playful interactions that are in tune with your baby’s individual needs and abilities. Our babies are nurtured to fully develop their physical and communication skills to allow them to freely access the environment and express their wants and wishes through emerging language and gestures. We have created an environment that promotes sensory exploration, the development of core strength, coordination, and positional awareness. Our team of caregivers take time to tune in to the messages your baby is giving through vocalisations, body language, and gestures. We introduce babies to a wide range of music and action rhymes allowing them to join in and develop their vocabulary. We provide babies with a nutritious and balanced menus, adapted for the weaning stage of your baby, whilst we also sensitively encourage them to try new foods.
Happy and content babies will learn best when all their needs are met and they have developed a trusting relationship with their caregivers. The resilience that grows from having a secure start in The Baby Room helps prepare them for the next step in their journey at Hippitots, as they transition to becoming little explorers in the Little Rainbow Room.
Little Rainbow Room
Explorers
18 months to 3 years old
We can have up to 16 toddlers in this room with an adult-child ratio of 1:4
In Little Rainbows, we help children become keen movers and enthusiastic communicators who are able to make their own decisions. Throughout the day, your little explorer will have plenty of opportunities to play alongside others, where adults sensitively model and encourage collaborative play, promoting turn-taking and sharing. The room provides children with access to bathrooms which allow them to explore potty training readiness and enable them to gain independence in self-care.
A ‘free-flow’ system, allows children to access a variety of activities across different areas, extending to the outdoor yard and a large enclosed garden beyond, where children can develop a fascination with nature. Furthermore, our teachers emphasise the development in Literacy, Maths and Arts where children can explore practical mathematical problems, and express their creativity through mark-making, music, dancing, singing, and building a repertoire of favourite songs and stories. As children at this age begin to express themselves through pretend play, we provide resources and spaces that allow them to imitate events from their own family life, in so developing their self-identity.
The Jigsaw Room
Investigators
3 & 4 year olds
We can accommodate up to 24 children between the 2 adjoining spaces, with an adult-child ratio of 1:8
We have BIG expectations for our ‘little’ investigators by providing challenges, promoting resilience, and raising aspirations. We aim for our children to become confident about learning and happy to talk about things that they’re interested in. We offer a broad range of ‘provocations’ that encourage children to experiment, have their own ideas, and have a go at problem-solving, learning through trial and error.
Our preschool provision places emphasis on children’s understanding of mathematical concepts as well as developing literacy skills through play-based experiences. Children are exposed to print rich environment, with a wide range of reading materials and mark-making tools. We offer experiences where children deepen their mathematical knowledge through practical learning. Our Early Years Teachers engage children in discussions around topics that further develop their cultural capital they learn about the world, nature and the communities around them. Children can independently access resources and spaces with a wide range of media, materials, and tools, enabling them to create and have their own ideas and representations of their life experiences.
The spaces accessed by the children promote play and curiosity, and inspire children to ponder and reflect on their identities in comparison to others, aiding in their personal growth. We believe these experiences will prepare our children for the next step on their learning journey as they leave us ready for school.
The Outdoor World
The Big Garden & The Yard
We are very proud of our Outdoor Provision and consider ourselves to be very fortunate to have access to two Outdoor Spaces.
A large 30 m2 walled garden, a space which is bigger than a tennis court but not quite as bit as a football pitch, and a smaller play area, affectionately known as ‘The Yard’, accessible from the toddler room at the rear of the building.
Both spaces are safe and secure with high walls and secure gates. These are areas where children can take ‘safe’ risks, engaging in play which they find challenging, risky (and sometimes even scary) and learning how to manage it independently.
The garden has been designed as a space where your child can play and learn on a larger scale, experience nature and differing weather conditions, have the opportunity to grow and take care of plants and flowers, make mud pies, and the freedom to run, jump, hop, climb, explore and investigate.
Football skills
with Coach Shane
During term-time, parents have the opportunity to enrol their child in a weekly Football Class after their child turns 2 years old.
Run by Coach Shane, an honorary member of the Hippitots Team for more than 10 years, our children enjoy having the opportunity to learn new and exciting ways to move their bodies. They love how approachable and funny Coach Shane is, especially when he makes learning football a lot of fun.
With a degree in physical education, Shane spent time working as a PE teacher before setting up his own coaching business in 2011, working with nursery and primary schools in the region.
Football skills is an additional activity offered at Hippitots every Wednesday morning during term time. Children are not required to take part in this activity and parental permission must be given. Charge per session - 2 year olds £3.00/3 & 4 year olds £3.50.
More than just a joyful place...
Laying the foundations for life-long learning, whilst embracing opportunities to ensure every child reaches their full potential.