What are the benefits of playgroup?

It is important for children to meet and play with their peers on their own terms without the support of their parents, this develops their confidence and social skills and, hopefully, is an enjoyable experience and will stand them in good stead, teaching them life skills that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Our role is to prepare all children for school and so at Playgroup we encourage young children to be more independent, however these occur as the children are ready to take them, and happen at different times in differing ways, and whilst children are in Playgroup we are able to fully support children as they take these first steps. Whilst our Playgroup is smaller than the local council run nursery, the size of the building allows us to fully support all children within the establishment, at all times. Staff are constantly aware of all the children, what they are doing and what and who they are playing with, not only does this mean that Playgroup staff can extend the children's learning it also means that staff are aware of the children's behaviour and we can usually deflect situations before they occur, meaning that we have very little negative behaviour our Playgroup.