Playgroup is your child’s first introduction to formal school, and the beginning of their Durham educational journey. It is a precious time of exploring the world around them, making friends and becoming more independent. Our Playgroup classrooms are bright, lively and welcoming environments, with well-qualified staff ready to greet and support your child on arrival.
Social interactions form the basis of children’s learning in Playgroup and children receive nurturing support as they develop new friendships and interact with peers and adults. Teachers encourage children to expand their developing confidence and skills through play, movement, dancing, singing, acting, role playing and stories. Children engage in a variety of activities, to ‘have a go,’ and test out new ideas.
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Focused play areas and activities target a specific skill development, like role play to encourage talk and communication, crafts to build fine motor skills, and pattern building to lay the foundations for mathematics.
The Playgroup classrooms provide a rich literary environment, with books, story-telling, singing songs, and reciting rhymes to ignite early reading skills. Children have free access to paint, chalk, sand, and water play, and the use of a variety of malleable materials, such as clay, corn flour, wet soil and sloppy sand, which engages them in exciting tactile and sensory experiences that are paramount in their early development.
