Our Two Settings
Whiteley Preschool offers two welcoming settings, each providing a safe, stimulating environment where children can play, explore and learn.
Community Centre
Our Community Centre setting offers two main areas for children to enjoy throughout the day: Woodlands, our main hall, and our garden. These spaces provide opportunities for imaginative play, creativity, physical development and outdoor exploration.
Whiteley Preschool North
Based in a dedicated classroom at Cornerstone School, our North setting offers a smaller, nurturing environment with its own secure garden and access to the wider school grounds. Children can enjoy a variety of indoor and outdoor experiences while developing their confidence, independence and friendships.
Both settings share the same child-centred ethos, with warm relationships, play-based learning and children’s individual needs at the heart of everything we do.
Explore each setting below to find out more.
Community Centre
Main Hall
Our Main Hall
Our main hall is at the heart of our Community Centre setting, providing a welcoming and secure environment where children can settle, feel a sense of belonging and grow in confidence within our preschool community.
Each child is part of a key group, with their own designated carpet area where they can keep their drinks bottle and comforter. These familiar spaces and the secure relationships they build with their key person and other children help them feel safe, settled and confident to explore their surroundings.
Throughout the day, children have opportunities to come together in their key groups for shared activities and conversations. They talk about their feelings, share ideas, discuss their plans and celebrate special occasions. Stories, songs and early phonics games help develop communication, listening and early literacy skills.
Our everyday provision
The hall is arranged to provide a range of accessible, open-ended resources that children can choose from independently throughout the day. Our continuous provision includes opportunities for creative activities, playdough, mark-making, role play, construction, small-world play, books and exploratory play. Resources are thoughtfully selected to encourage curiosity, imagination and problem-solving, allowing children to follow their own interests, revisit ideas and develop their skills through repeated experiences.
We value natural materials and real-life resources that give children meaningful opportunities to investigate, experiment and make discoveries. Practitioners observe children’s play, join in when appropriate and introduce additional resources or ideas to extend their learning. This balance of child-initiated exploration and sensitive adult support helps children develop independence, creativity and a genuine love of learning.
Our creative and playdough areas strengthen fine motor skills and encourage self-expression, while the mark-making area builds the foundations for early writing. Role play and small-world resources, including bricks and trains, inspire imaginative storytelling, collaboration and problem-solving, supporting children’s communication, social development and understanding of the world.
Snack and lunchtime are also important parts of the day. Sitting together gives children opportunities to develop independence, practise social skills, make choices and build healthy habits in a relaxed, supportive environment.
Our main hall is much more than a room to play in. It is a space where relationships grow, curiosity is encouraged and children are supported to develop across all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
The Garden – Outdoor Learning
The Main Hall leads directly onto a spacious, well-resourced garden, providing children with opportunities for outdoor play, exploration and learning throughout the day. We believe outdoor experiences are an essential part of childhood, offering freedom to move, investigate, take manageable risks and discover the world first-hand.
Our garden includes a range of permanently available areas, including water play, a sensory walkway, playhouse, mud kitchen, outdoor classroom and bug and investigation area. Alongside these features, our everyday outdoor provision includes opportunities for construction, creative activities, mark-making, imaginative play, physical challenges and exploring natural materials. Resources are accessible to encourage children to make their own choices, follow their interests and return to ideas as their learning develops.
Our everyday outdoor provision
We provide open-ended resources that can be used in different ways, allowing children to lead their own play and discover new possibilities. Children might mix water and mud, build with loose parts, create pictures, investigate natural objects, care for plants, search for minibeasts or invent their own games. Practitioners support this learning by observing children’s interests, joining their play and introducing questions, resources and challenges to extend their thinking.
The different areas offer rich opportunities across all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Water play and the mud kitchen encourage experimentation, investigation and early scientific thinking. The sensory walkway and physical play opportunities support coordination, balance and body awareness. The bug and investigation area nurtures curiosity about the natural world, encouraging children to observe, ask questions and share their discoveries. Construction, creative resources and imaginative play also support communication, collaboration, problem-solving and physical development.
Outdoor learning is a key part of our preschool ethos. Children are encouraged to access the garden throughout the day and across the seasons, recognising that movement, fresh air and first-hand experiences can enrich their learning in many different ways. This supports the EYFS characteristics of effective teaching and learning: Playing and Exploring, Active Learning, and Creating and Thinking Critically.
To help children enjoy outdoor play in different weather conditions, we provide all-in-one weather suits to help keep them warm, comfortable and dry when it is wet or cold. Children’s safety and wellbeing always come first, and access to the garden may be adapted during extreme weather in line with our adverse weather procedures.
Our garden is much more than an outdoor play space. It is an extension of the learning environment, where children can develop independence, build friendships, investigate their surroundings and enjoy the freedom to learn through active, meaningful experiences.
Whiteley Preschool North
