Bumble Bees is a 2-3 year room. Continuous provision areas together with stimulating activities are planned to encourage understanding through logic, reasoning and free thought. We allow lots of time for free play, as well as two daily planned adult led activities to stimulate the children's thinking and promote active learning.

Story-time, singing-time and group-time are more structured to encourage listening, concentration and communication and language skills. Group-time consists of registration, then completing our visual timetable. All children are encouraged to participate, supporting confidence and self-esteem, always tailoring participation to the individual child’s needs and interests. Children come up and stick the activities up onto the visual timetable, so the children understand when they will be doing on that particular day.

Mark-making skills are further encouraged, offering name cards to copy or to mark make on. Mark-making opportunities as in all rooms are evident in all areas of the provision, further encouraging early emergent writing. Children’s personal skills are further developed in Bumble Bees, getting them ‘ready for school’.

With this in mind we work closely with the feeder schools, having meetings to discuss the term ‘ready for school’. This has been invaluable and we have followed advice from the teachers. There is emphasis on listening and attention activities, which are known to support children with early reading skills. Continued support with managing own hygiene and personal skills, such as putting on and fastening coats and shoes. We ensure we are supporting the children in getting prepared for school. All these areas have been highlighted as important to successful and smooth transitions for children into their new schools.

All the staff are committed to ensuring your child is ‘ready for school’, so they leave Hackenthorpe Hall Nursery well rounded, confident, happy, independent individuals ready to embrace new experiences and learning.