Explorers Class

Welcome to Explorers Class

Children start their learning journey at Sleights in Explorers Class. Our hardworking and dedicated team is made up of Mrs Bland, Mrs Wharrick and Miss Idle, our Pre-School leader. Explorers children enjoy activities that stimulate and engage children’s interests and lead to spontaneous play.

Practitioners know the children and their strengths and areas for development. It is this excellent knowledge that enables children to establish excellent foundations for their time at Sleights.

Explorers Class is open from 8.50am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday during term time. We are very flexible at accommodating sessions to suit all families. This can include mornings, afternoons, or all day. Lunch is also offered for children.

In September 2022, we excitedly opened our brand new, purpose built, Early Years unit. 

We are proud to be able to offer 2 year old provision for children in Explorers class. We are able to offer both private and funded places for children when they turn 2. 

The term after their 3rd birthday, all children become eligible for government funding, this allows them to access 15 hours free childcare a week, or 30 hours for qualifying working families.  It is possible to share funding between two different childcare settings and if you would like to do so please inform a member of staff.

Wherever possible, we are happy to admit children after their 2nd or 3rd birthday prior to the funding commencing. However, this is dependent on the availability of spaces at the time.

Clothes

We hope that children in Explorers Class will enjoy a variety of play – some of it messy! With this in mind, we ask families to consider the clothes that children in Explorers wear during sessions.

Key Worker

Each child in Explorers is allocated a key worker. The aim of this role is to oversee your child’s learning and development journey throughout their time in Explorers. This key worker will share key learning activities with children and report strengths and target areas to parents and families.

 

 

 

Chocolate Day! February 2019

This week began with a launch day to our new writing topic, investigating “How is chocolate made?” The whole school worked in mixed groups during the day to complete a range of activities based on making chocolate. We want our children to be able to write with real purpose and using experiences, so what better way to learn about making chocolate than by doing it!

 

Mrs Hann worked outside with the children on Monday, down in the forest. The groups worked hard to create their own mud chocolate creations, adding different textures and objects to give some added crunch to their recipes! The children hunted around the forest for interesting and unusual objects to add in. It was excellent to see all children of all ages supporting each other in this task.

 

To help our day be a success, we kindly received a donation of chocolate and materials for making our own lollies from Alex at Crofts Chocolates in Scarborough. With Mrs Roe, the children had the very exciting task of using this donation to make their own chocolate lollies. When I visited, each lolly was heaped with sweets and marshmallows, which made them look really delicious!

 

Mrs Walker and Mrs Exelby led the baking efforts on Monday. During the day, each child had the opportunity to create their own chocolate creations. Working together to carefully add the ingredients, mix them together and prepare them for baking was something that everyone enjoyed. If you were able to join us for the café in the hall during the afternoon, I am sure you will agree that they looked delicious!

 

Finally, with Miss Stubbs, the children created their own packaging for their chocolate lollies. After looking carefully at the designs of well-known chocolate brands, the children then came up with their own designs. It was fun to see how the children were using these brands to influence their own, with many adapting well-known chocolate names and designs.

 

At the end of the day, it was great to be able to invite so many families into school to see the children’s efforts from the day and read their stories in our chocolate café. The event was incredibly well attended, with it being said that the cake sale was “like a fair day!” This overwhelming support is amazing. Thank you to everyone!

 

Explorers’ Blog

Exploring with Paint

The Explorers love to get messy and painting is always popular. They explored colours and a variety of textures and just enjoyed  the process of finding out what paint does.

Office Work

The Explorers have had a Post Office in the classroom. Lots of fantastic writing has taken place. The class took a walk to visit Mrs Stubbs in the School Office to see where all the real work happens.