Educational Goals
Positive Steps Pre-School Guide
If your child is approaching pre-school age (3-5 years), you'll find this guide invaluable. It contains all the information you need about this important educational milestone - also known as the Early Years Foundation Stage - to help you make an informed decision for your child.
Positive Steps Nurseries recognises the importance of pre-school education to your child's overall development. In fact, all our nurseries have a dedicated pre-school area, where children can be encouraged and prepared for school by experienced and knowledgeable staff. This makes us ideally qualified to explain the choices you now face as a parent.
At this stage in your child's life, your involvement is vital to help develop an enthusiasm for knowledge, not to mention important social skills such as communicating and sharing with others. To help you, this guide also contains a wealth of suggestions on everyday activities that you can do to help your child learn and have fun.
Pre-School Education - The Facts
Children do not necessarily do better by starting school at four. Teaching children reading, writing and maths in a formal environment can deny them other important life experiences (National Federation for Educational Research 2002).
A caring environment in which children feel safe and secure is essential for effective learning (Executive's Educational Dept 1999).
Children's aspirations, motivation and commitment are moulded through positive experiences in the pre-school classroom, helping them enter school with a positive outlook (Sylva and Wilshire 1993).
Pre-school attendance can result in initial IQ gains which give parents and teachers a positive view of the child's ability and help to raise his or her self-esteem (Myers 1992).
Pre-school experiences affect the ease with which children begin their school careers (Jowett and Sylva 1986).
To read more about How Children Learn in the Early Years Foundation Stage, and the rest of the pre-school guide, please click here.