Rowan Prep School > Preschool

We know that choosing the right Preschool is one of the earliest and most important decisions that you will make for your daughter. On this page, you will find more detailed information about what life is like in our Preschool. To get a real feel for our Preschool, please contact us to arrange a visit, we will be delighted to show you and your daughter around.

A Typical Day in our Preschool

The morning session runs from 8.45am to 12.30 pm.
The afternoon session runs from 12.30pm to 3.15pm.
During the sessions there is a balance of adult led, specialist activities and child led exploration.
The adult led and specialist activities include:
- Song of Sounds Phonics
- Magical Maths
- Get Active - Gymnastics and Games
- Library session
- Make and Bake cooking activity
- Dramarama lesson
- Forest School
- Little Linguists French lesson
- Music and Movement
- Get Active sports lesson
- Little Engineers – STEM based activity
While the day is well-structured into separate activities and sessions, girls also enjoy free play in their classrooms and outdoor spaces and are encouraged to enjoy the full range of facilities available for them.
Wrapround care is available Monday to Thursday from 7.45am until 6pm and on Friday from 7.45am until 5pm.

Partnership with Parents

All girls are assigned a key worker who will develop a special relationship with your daughter. The key worker will be your first point of contact and is on hand to provide any support needed.
We use Tapestry as an online journal to help record all the activities, learning experiences and milestones of the girls in our Preschool and Early Years. Parents have access to this journal and get regular updates of their daughter’s progress.
Parent's evenings are held each term and we hold regular show and share sessions where the girls delight in showing their parents around their classrooms and sharing the work that they have created. Parents also receive a detailed school report at the end of the Summer Term.

Caring for our youngest girls

For Preschool age children, the confidence and ability to communicate their individual needs varies from one child to another. Within our nurturing setting, our dedicated team provides an intuitive and inclusive provision that ensures all our children's needs are met, from access to healthy snacks and drinks to playing safely and kindly with each other. Children in our care feel safe, secure and valued. Parents consistently tell us that the relationships built with staff have been instrumental in supporting their child’s development, both in terms of their learning and their social skills.
Our specialist teaching staff quickly develop a bond with the children in their care, starting with their very first introductory sessions to our Preschool and continuing through detailed and continuous communication with you. The specialist teachers are on hand to provide any additional support that your daughter might need.
Child safety is of paramount importance to us, and all Preschool staff are First Aid qualified to OFQUAL standard.
Sleeping arrangements – The children’s sleep routine begins at around 12.40pm with toileting, then we settle into the smaller room on sleep beds with the blinds down and play calming music. Your daughter can bring a comforter to help her to settle if needed.
Changing arrangements – We have a nappy changing area for those girls who need it and we are also on hand to support potty training.

Healthy Eating

Children enjoy nutritious and well-balanced meals throughout the day.
Lunch menus are planned in advance by our in-house catering team and are shared with parents the week prior in our Friday Notes parent communication.
We offer a morning snack of fruit, cheese and crackers with either milk or water which is eaten at around 10am. Parents provide an afternoon snack of fruit which we eat at around 2:30pm
The Preschool staff and catering team work closely with parents to ensure that every child's individual dietary requirements are met.

Transition to Reception

At Rowan we have high expectations of the girls. We follow the EYFS curriculum but also have additional Rowan expectations. If we feel that there is something that they could do independently, we encourage them to do so while maintaining our nurturing ethos. For example, doing zips on coats, we know that if we encourage this in Preschool by saying “let’s do it together” and doing the bottom of their zip up then they will begin to want to do it independently.
This ethos translates into their education; children who have developed the motivation to be independent, will be more confident to “have a go” when learning new skills across the curriculum and will also be more prepared to practise. These characteristics support effective learning.
Throughout the final summer term of Preschool, we continue to increase the adult-led tasks in order to get the girls ready for the transition to Reception. In order to best prepare the girls, we focus on four main areas: building independence and confidence, early reading, mark making into writing and early mathematics.
Creating Friends For Life – we consider our Preschool to be the start of the journey through Rowan Prep School and most girls stay on to complete their prep school years with us before moving onto a senior school that is right for them. Many friendships are established in Preschool and continue to flourish throughout the girls’ years at both Rowan Brae, Rowan Hill and beyond.

Meet our Preschool Team

Mrs Kate Broome – Head of Preschool and Early Years Phase Leader
Mrs Rebecca Hooper - Montessori and Early Years Practitioner
Mrs Katie Traub – Early Years Practitioner
Miss Laura Finch – Early Years Practitioner
Mrs Joanna Booker – Early Years Practitioner
Mrs Clare Wayne – Early Years Practitioner

We would be delighted to show you around our outstanding Preschool. To meet our dedicated Preschool staff and to see our wonderful facilities for yourself, please contact our Head of Admissions on 01372 462627 or by emailing: admissions@rowanprepschool.co.uk

In the meantime, you can take a virtual tour and explore inside our Preschool rooms via our interactive maps:

Click here to visit the interactive maps.

We also run a weekly Toddler Group during term time – please click here for more details.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Preschool at Rowan Prep School.

Daily Life

ROWAN BRAE

ROWAN HILL