Zebra Room
2 - 3 Year Olds
Our Zebra Room is a purpose-built pre-school room, which offers morning and afternoon sessions for our 2-3 year olds.
We are open for pre-school from 9:00 am until 12:00 pm for our morning session and 12:00 pm until 3:00 pm for our afternoon session, Monday to Friday during Term Time.
We operate a lunch club facility for afternoon pre-school children, which begins at the start of our session at 12:00 Midday. Our lunch club facility runs for approximately 45 minutes during this session, and our children bring a packed lunch from home. Our lunch club facility can also be added onto a morning pre-school session with the collection of children from parents/carers at 1:00 pm. Drinking water is available at all times throughout the sessions and is also provided at the lunch club.
We operate on a ratio of 1:4 staff to children in our Zebra Room for our 2-year-olds and 1:6 for our 3-year-olds (Statutory Government ratio requirements 1:5 and 1:8, respectively). We are able to accommodate up to 20 children in each Zebra Room session and are registered with Ofsted to take up to a maximum of 48 Early Years children on site at any one time in our Panda Room 1-2 years, Zebra Room 2-3 years and Giraffe Room 3-4 years combined.
All About Us
Our Zebra Room is led by Josh. We adhere to the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and operate a Key Person System in partnership with our parents and carers to build positive and trusting relationships from the start. Each family is offered a Home Visit before starting to meet their Key Person to support settling in, as well as gain a shared understanding of each child’s individual needs and interests. Our Zebra Room team will regularly observe and plan next steps to support their key children’s Learning and Development against ‘Birth to Five matters’ using our online Parenta Footsteps observation platform and upload regularly for parents and carers.
For our 2 year olds, we primarily focus on the 3 prime areas of Learning and Development, which include Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development. These 3 areas are broken down into: Making relationships, Sense of Self, Understanding Emotions, Listening and Attention, Understanding, Speaking, Moving and Handling and Health and Self-care.
Each child’s progress is recorded and tracked each term, and a statutory 2 Year Assessment report is provided in partnership with parents/carers and our Health Team, for each child who attends a minimum of two sessions per week and is settled between the age of 24 and 35 months.
Learning Through Play
In the Zebra Room, we operate free-flow play and learning opportunities both indoors and outside in the Zebra garden area, providing a varied selection of high-quality continuous provision for our children to access. This includes a ‘Snuggle Zone’ for quiet time, relaxation and sharing of stories or small group games, a mark-making/writing table with a selection of mark-making materials, e.g. pencils, coloured pencils, crayons, Chubbi marker pens, stencils, paper, rulers and magnetic writing boards, a large role-play area which is changed regularly to reflect the interests of the children. Examples of our role play areas include: People Who Help Us, Space Station, Polar Regions and the different seasons, which all have dressing up clothing and hats, a selection of books, small world play and props to support imaginary play. We also have a home corner, with a kitchen and café area.
We provide large and small construction activities like building blocks, Duplo, Mobilo, a selection of puzzle boards, a malleable area for play dough, cooking activities and tuff tray/floor activities with materials like rice, sand, water and ice. A selection of painting resources for arts and crafts is also made available, and children have access to self-select activity drawers. Every morning, our children are encouraged to join in measuring and mixing ingredients to make fresh playdough together for the day.
Outdoor Fun
Our outside area is set up with sand and water play, a slide, a seesaw, fixed tyres and a climbing crest for practising gross motor, balancing and climbing skills, loose parts play with tyres and planks, a gardening area, ride-on toys, outdoor reading and a chalkboard area. Our children also have access to our Forest garden for free-flow play when not being used for focused activities.
During each session, our children are provided with a nutritious snack and a choice of milk or water to drink. This is provided by a rolling snack bar, which is run for approximately 30-45 minutes during the morning and afternoon sessions and is really beneficial for our children’s social skills and physical development. Our children are encouraged to practice good hand hygiene by washing hands before snack, making choices from a selection of fruit and/or vegetable sticks, dips and a carbohydrate option, as well as begin to learn independence skills, placing their rubbish in a bin and plates and cups in a bowl of warm soapy water to help wash up afterwards.
What Do We Get Up To?
During our morning and afternoon sessions, once children are registered and headcounts are complete, we operate free-flow play and learning opportunities, so our children can access both indoor and outdoor activities of their choosing. A handbell is rung for tidy-up time towards the end of each session alongside a now and next visual chart to support our children’s emerging language skills.
Children are encouraged to help tidy toys away and join a short circle time together to finish each session. Circle time in our Zebra room is fun and interactive, with children joining in stories and rhymes using props, puppets, song bags, parachutes and musical instruments to support their understanding and learning. All sessions finish with our special ‘Pre-School’ song, which we all sing and sign together.
We are proud to deliver focused group sessions for our Zebra Room children, which include our ‘ Lift Off to Language for 2’s’ sessions, our Forest School Programme and our ‘Healthy Movers’ sessions. We also have open Forest School sessions throughout the week. (Please see Forest School, Lift Off to Language and ‘Healthy Movers’ for further details).
Snack Time
A typical morning or afternoon snack in Zebra and Giraffe Room:
A cracker with dairy free spread, sliced apple and a portion of banana. Milk or water is provided for a drink. Other variations include: breadsticks with dip and fruit, pitta bread, hummus and fruit, etc.
What To Bring
We ask parents to provide a small rucksack or drawstring bag with nappies, wipes, nappy creams and comforters if needed and a change of clothes, including socks and underwear, for toilet training and in case of wet play. Please provide a named warm/weather-proof coat and a pair of wellington boots for Forest School activities.
In the warmer Summer months, we encourage parents to send their children with a named sun hat and sun cream. We encourage parents not to send their children in open-toe footwear or laces where possible. If your child attends lunch club, we ask that you provide a named lunch bag with a packed lunch for your child.
Please note, to protect our children and staff with severe allergies, we are a NUT-FREE setting and all of our children’s lunch bags are checked daily for nut products before entering the room for lunch club.
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