Dromore Nursery School Information Page

Information and notices in regards to Dromore Nursery School.

Message from the Principal:

May I take this opportunity to welcome you to Dromore Nursery School. We strive to make every child’s time at Nursery School a happy, rewarding and successful one. We are proud of our extensive outdoor classroom, creative and inspiring indoor environment. We have been declared ‘Best of the Best’ in the Northern Ireland Best Kept School Awards for providing this rich and stimulating setting.
It will be our aim for each child to:
• Be afforded the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills so that each child can attain his /her maximum capability and fully utilise their talents.
• Each child will be given the opportunity to learn and extend the skills of tolerance, respect, co-operation and self-control, all essential qualities for becoming a good citizen and life long learner.
• We will inspire confidence, self – knowledge and awareness which are the foundations for happiness.
Children will be given the opportunity to:
‘BEING, BELONGING AND BECOMING’


STAFF LIST

Teaching Staff
Principal
Mrs Sharon Beattie BA Hons. Dip. ED. , MEd. , PQH, (TEACCH)
Teacher
Mrs Sharon Chambers BA Hons. , PGCE.
Music Teacher
Mrs Patricia Hamilton ALCM

Classroom Assistants
Miss Joanne Baxter N. N. E. B
Mrs Elizabeth Jones CACH Level 3
Mrs Roberta Ogle NVQ 111

School Secretary
Mrs Jane Russell
School Caretaker
Mrs Allison Chambers


STATEMENTS
The Nursery School is a non – denominational, fully inclusive Southern Education and Library Board School.

We have 3 classes of 26 children. One full time class (4. 5hrs) in which children have a midday meal and dinner routine, two part – time classes (2. 5hr). All children will experience the same curriculum and many collaborative days when all the children meet together.

We believe in providing the broadest experience possible which includes a wide variety of educational visits across the three terms. The experience of a ‘Woodland School Initiative’, many local visits and a passion for introducing children to looking after and experiencing their local environment.

We believe in introducing children to a wide variety of animals and living things in a safe and caring environment.

ETI FINDINGS 2009
6 Outstanding findings:
1. . . make full use of the stimulating indoor and outdoor environment, respond positively to the staff’s high expectations and the behaviour is exemplary
2. Very effective and purposeful use is made of all the time available to promote the children’s learning…. .
3. …excellent opportunities for learning in all areas of the pre-school curriculum: the staff provide a wide range of challenging and interesting activities…
4. There is outstanding provision for children with special needs….
5. …. strong emphasis on staff development…. .
6. In the areas inspected, the quality of education provided by the nursery school is outstanding; the quality of pastoral care is also outstanding
The school is an exemplar of good practice for many areas including:
• Provision for children with additional needs
• Language development
• Outdoor Learning
• Pastoral Care
• Parent Involvement

PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS

For the best results we need to work in partnership. Just as you have high expectations of Dromore Nursery School and its staff, we have high expectations of you. Our basic aims are identical, to ensure that your child develops as a whole person in a happy, confident and successful manner, we expect to work in partnership with you in many ways to provide an all-round education for your child.

Parents and the wider family will be afforded many opportunities to get involved at a variety of levels;
• Parent Learning Association
• Parent help in the classroom in a variety of ways
• Parent support on educational visits
• Parent involvement in snack preparation
• Learning with your child
• Grandparents week
• Male Role Modeling week
• A variety of information evenings, social events and extra-curricular activities

SCHOOL UNIFORM
• Royal Blue Sweatshirt
• While Polo Shirt
• Grey Trousers /skirt
• Coats, hats and school bags with logo’s on them are also available


HEALTHY EATING AND HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOL

At Dromore Nursery School we aim to promote the all round development of the child. This includes their health and dental care therefore we will promote Healthy Eating in our nursery.


OUTDOOR LEARNING
The outdoor classroom, with its multi-sensory, often unexpected events and objects, provides just the stimulation that boys and girls need to develop physically. But a garden also offers a unique situation for cognitive development. The growth of thinking, understanding and real knowledge comes from deep immersion in experiences. Cognitive development does not come from being told, shown or demonstrated to. It comes from feeling, seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, and preferably using the whole body as well as all the senses. It comes from practice, repetition and reinforcement, and from application of skills and emerging knowledge in different situations, and in the company of different people.

The more time children spent outside, exploring the world at their own pace and with all their senses, the more links they will make in their brains and learning processes are enhanced.


Young children need plenty of uninterrupted time to practice and test out their newly evolved theories and emerging knowledge, and they do this through play and self initiated learning. Giving them genuine choices of where, what and who to play with ensures that they have time to continue their experiments and reinforce the pathways in their brains. Without this time to lay down and reinforce the physical patterning of their brains, children’s cognitive development will be partial and fleeting, much like the theory we learn just for an exam.


Motivation for young children comes through:
• Success
• Enjoyment
• Appropriate challenge


Practitioners and parents need to recognise that the children they live with and work with are not stereotypical, they are unique. Each child (even brothers and sisters in the same family) has her own character, and we should take time to observe their behaviour to establish their needs and strengths.

6 AREAS OF THE PRE-SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Every child will be given the opportunity to experience and develop knowledge and skills in the following areas:
Language and communication
The Arts
The World Around Us
Physical Development
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Pre Mathematical Awareness
Underpinning all of this is the life long skill of developing ‘thinking skills’
Thinking about thinking is essential, self directed and skilful thinkers and learners know how to:
Stop it!
Know it!
Do it!
Reflect on it!

“Education is what is left over when you’ve forgotten everything you were taught” B F Skinner
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. ” Einstein

Space and time for reflection on their learning is giving children the language about thinking:
I see
I think
I wonder
‘I used to think now I think! ’

PLAY THE FOUNDATION FOR LEARNING.