Our preschool Butterfly Room for children aged 3–5 years provides a warm and engaging environment where children learn through play. Play is at the heart of learning, and we use a range of experiences to support children’s development across all areas in preparation for starting school.

We encourage play both indoors and outdoors, allowing children to independently explore, socialise, investigate, and develop confidence.

Outdoor play is an important part of our daily routine, giving the children opportunities to build physical skills, take risks, and explore in nature.

To further support physical development, we provide weekly sports sessions from Little Athletes that promote coordination, balancing, and teamwork, in a fun and active way.

We encourage Children’s learning and development through a range of exciting themes and topics, including occupations, growth, and exploring the world around them.

To enhance this learning, we enjoy outings within the local community or welcome visits from local partnerships such as the police or midwifes.

Other experiences may include visits to the farm, trips to the park and posting letters at the post office.

The children further develop their learning through hands on experiences, including learning about life cycles by caring for the nursery fish, caterpillars, and observing chick and duckling eggs hatch.

We also focus on supporting early literacy and mathematical skills through phonics activities, number recognition and counting.
We have group activities and sensory story sessions that encourage new vocabulary, listening, and communication skills.

When the busy environment can sometimes feel overwhelming for some of our children, we provide cosy and calming spaces such as our snug area and the sensory den. These spaces offer the children opportunities for quiet time, relaxation, or time to step away from the busy room when needed.

Our nurturing practitioners & environment support every child to grow in confidence, curiosity, and independence at their own pace. Preparing themselves for being school ready.

We encourage children’s independence through personal self-help skills such as toilet training, washing their hands and face, cutting their own snack fruit and self-serving their own meals.

Alongside the Brilliant Brushers programme, we have a clear focus on oral hygiene and explore the importance of brushing our teeth everyday together.

Parent Partnership is crucial to our practice. We know that leaving your most precious children with someone outside of your family can be a worrying time so we take every opportunity to send photos and updates to parents through our eyparent app.

Observations made of your children shows you the bonds they have made with staff and friends and the learning we have been doing.

We provide lots of home learning activities found outside of our door along with our focus story and song. This helps children to carry on the fun at home.

Sam and Sophia Sloth are our room mascots and home learning Sloth. Each week they get to spend time at a child’s house and our children have the important job of looking after them.

Key people will add activities into Sam and Sophia’s bag which supports their next steps and a diary entry to complete to show all of the fun you have had.

Located within the Thomas Boughey Children's Centre, the Thomas Boughey Kindergarten is situated in the heart of Shelton’s community with good links to Hanley, Stoke, Etruria & Festival Park and close to Hanley Bus Station & Stoke Railway Station.

Address: College Road, Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2DQ

Telephone: 01782 769591
Email: thomasboughey2010@gmail.com
Facebook: Thomas Boughey Kindergarten