Welcome to Ladybird Playgroup
Why Choose us?
About
Our modern, purpose-built Playgroup building provides excellent indoor and outdoor play facilities for children aged from two years to school age. We are located in a beautiful rural setting, within the grounds of Thriplow Primary School.
We celebrate all children's achievements however big or small. Every child's development journey is different and unique.
How we celebrate WOW moments:
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Verbal Praise
Actions e.g. Thumbs up, clap
Makaton signs
WOW observation on your child's Tapestry account.
Stickers
Key Worker and Buddy
Each child is assigned a Key-Worker and Buddy, who will get to know them well and be their main carers at Playgroup. The Key-Worker and Buddy will ensure that your child is settling well.
At Ladybird Playgroup, we work closely with parents to learn about the children and to provide updates on their child's development and progress.
What Happens at Ladybird Playgroup?
We focus on different topics, chosen to reflect the interests of the children. As well as providing learning opportunities to help support them with their individual Next Steps.
The usual weekly activities are interspersed with a range of special events such as local outings, family days for parents and visits from interesting people such as the fire service, dentist, nurse or a vet.
The Wild-Space/ Field Sessions on Friday
The children love the outdoor space behind Ladybird, where there are lots of areas to investigate with logs to step on, hills to climb, bugs to hunt, a mud kitchen to create in and our wooden house to explore.
On the field there are opportunities to make dens under the trees, observe the bird houses, practice ball skills, ride bikes and run,run,run.
How we record your child's development progress
At Ladybird Playgroup, we use the ‘Tapestry’ Online Learning Journal to record your child’s development progress. On your child starting with us, you will be sent an email asking you to make a password for your child’s individual account: this is where you will receive updates, observations, WOW moments and reports, which are a great way to develop good two-way communication between you and your child's Key Worker/Buddy.
We also use your child's Tapestry account to share accidents/injuries in our effort to reduce the use of paper - doing our bit to help the environment.
See some of the Healthy Tasty Snacks we have at Ladybird
Preparing your little ones for the transition to School
Activities for pre-school year children at Ladybird
We do activities, group times and outings for the pre-school children, separating them from the other ages to allow them to explore and develop in an age appropriate way. This split allows both the younger children and the pre-school children to have time to interact with the children in their own year group, developing friendships, communication skills, personal, social and emotional development, and listening and attention skills.
Ladybird staff feel this is a great benefit to the children's individual early years educational journey and all involved really enjoy these small groups activities.
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We focus on the pre-schooler's age appropriate abilities in health and self-care, social skills, being able to make simple choices, resilience, to listen to others and be able to follow simple instructions.
​Transitions:
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Sharing information with receiving schools in the summer provides a smooth transition of the children’s Learning Journey through the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
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The children moving on to Thriplow CofE Primary School have opportunities for extra settling in sessions, including: story times, play times in their new classroom, tour of the school and a weeks’ worth of lunches in the school hall.
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Other receiving schools often request a visit to Ladybird and/or deliver their own taster days, which we encourage parents to take up.​