Early Years

Coopersale Hall’s Early Years Foundation Stage includes Lower Kindergarten, Upper Kindergarten and Reception. Children can begin school from 2½ years, and are able to attend on a part-time or full-time basis during the Kindergarten Years. School is full-time from the start of Reception.

Pupils have excellent relationships with staff and show excellent progress throughout their time with us. Children are happy at Coopersale Hall, with thoughtful provision for their well-being.

Specialist teaching in a number of areas greatly enhances the curriculum. We use the seven national Early Learning Goals as our basic minimum and enrich the children’s experiences through a range of other activities including weekly Dance, French, ICT, Music and PE lessons together with assemblies, performances, trips and outings.

The Early Years classrooms are large and well-resourced, with purpose-built facilities. The outside facilities are outstanding with dedicated areas for play that include all-weather surfaces, playgrounds and an adventure playground.

The inspection reports makes particular reference to our staff’s impact on the children’s learning, with all activities well-planned by enthusiastic teachers who assess the children’s progress carefully. Our EYFS Coordinator ensures that staff consistently demonstrate high expectations of children both in terms of behaviour and learning.

If you wish to see our Early Years department for yourself, please get in touch with our admissions team who will be able to book a tour.

Book a tour

Early Years School Life

The school day begins at 8.40am and ends at 3pm, and our Kindergarten children have the option of staying just in the morning or for full days with lunch. Many of our Upper Kindergarten and Reception children start earlier with Breakfast Club or stay later with Teatime Club.

We provide a mid-morning snack and a nourishing lunch is prepared on site by our catering team. The food is freshly prepared and cooked on site daily with a range of options for children to choose from. They develop their social skills as they eat together and our staff help them to cut up their food and to eat healthily.

Our younger Lower Kindergarten children are given the option to have a quiet time and a rest after lunch if needed. Most groups spend the afternoons with creative activities designed to encourage their imagination and relationships, and there are various after school clubs for our Reception children.

Early Years Learning and Teaching

The Kindergarten and Reception classes provide education for children from 2½ to 5 years, and the learning follows the EYFS requirements to develop skills in seven separate areas:

Prime areas:

• Communication and language

• Physical

• Personal, social and emotional development

Other areas:

• Mathematics

• Literacy

• Understanding the world

• Expressive arts and design

The curriculum is structured to allow an excellent balance between teacher-initiated and pupil-initiated activities. Our aim is for the children to be enthused by their learning and become engaged with it.

The mornings include phonics, numeracy and literacy work. The department adopts a topic-based approach to learning, with a range of activities in the afternoons that include art, music, cooking and physical education.

We provide the 2 year progress check for parents, as well as the EYFS profile report at the end of Reception, which is also shared with the Year 1 teacher. Parents are welcome to look at their child’s learning portfolio at any time and these are readily available in the classrooms.