Preschool Classes

At our Family Centre we provide preschool classes for deaf children
from around 2½ years of age until they start primary school.
For younger children we run baby classes and toddler classes.

About our preschool classes

We run preschool nursery sessions at our Family Centre every week day during term-time from 9.30am to 2.30pm.

Children can attend up to four sessions a week – although most attend for one or two sessions, as we encourage parents to also place their child in a mainstream nursery where appropriate.

Through these services, we aim to engage and stimulate deaf children throughout their preschool years. We strive to nurture strong listening skills that will equip each child in their journey to developing speech and language.

These services are provided by our skilled and experienced team of Teachers, Speech and Language Therapists, Classroom Assistants and Regular Volunteers.

Family support

We have an “open door” policy in the nursery, where we encourage parents to participate and observe their child in the preschool setting.

This, along with regular written information and informal advice, enables parents to observe strategies and gain information about the language objectives we cover during the lessons in order that they reinforce this language at home. At the beginning of each language-learning topic we also provide vocabulary sheets, song sheets and ideas for activities to do at home.

We believe that one of the most important aspects of our preschool services is the support that parents give to each other. During their time attending our preschool nursery parents and children form relationships and friendships with each other which often last for many years.

The preschool class curriculum

Our teaching team plans the lesson content carefully, ensuring that our Preschool curriculum follows the objectives of the Department for Education’s Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework (EYFS) that sets out the standards that school and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years of age.

Activities during the preschool day

In our preschool nursery, the children participate in specially-planned activities which aim to develop attention, listening and talking skills. We aim to provide opportunities for each child’s social, emotional, intellectual, and physical growth based on their own individual needs and abilities.

The preschool classes encompass a wide range of activities that aim to engage and help stimulate the children’s residual hearing to help nurture strong listening skills and to foster early communication skills that will equip them in their journey to developing speech and language.

A typical session includes the following elements:

‘hello’ circle time,
a focused activity,
snack time (incorporating listening, language learning and turn-taking opportunities),
music and singing,
lunch time,
free play,
story time,
creative activities, and
‘goodbye’ circle time.

We also run regular fully-supervised trips in the local area when relevant to the language-learning topic we are studying in the classroom.

Assessing progress and setting targets

With parental input, our team regularly assesses each child’s listening skills and their nonverbal and verbal communication skills. These assessments form the basis of regular Individual Education Plans that target specific language and listening skills for development.

Joining our preschool classes

If you have a deaf child aged from 2½ to 5 years and would like to join our preschool classes, please contact us.

Specialist Speech and Language Therapy

We offer each child in our Preschool classes access to our Specialist Speech and Language Therapy service. One of our Therapists will see each child on a regular basis and will work closely with colleagues on our Education team to monitor and develop the child’s receptive language skills (what they can understand) and expressive language skills (what they can say), their speech clarity and their social skills.

The Therapist will also give practical demonstrations and activities so parents can provide further language-learning opportunities at home. With parental permission, our Therapists will also liaise with other professionals working with the child to ensure the best outcomes.

Costs

We ask parents/carers to make a contribution towards the costs of providing this service, although these sessional fees are heavily subsidised by our charitable income to ensure as many children as possible can benefit from our services:

£12

We currently request a parental contribution of £12 per preschool session.

Parents can pay for the fees in a variety of ways, including using Early Years Funding or Childcare Vouchers / Tax-Free Childcare. If you are experiencing financial difficulty and feel that you will be unable to pay these fees please let us know.

We have done everything we can to keep these fees as low as possible, and they do not cover the full cost of providing this specialist service for deaf preschoolers, which we subsidise using other sources of charitable income such as donations and grants.

The Elizabeth Foundation is a registered charity and we rely on income from a range of sources to support as many deaf children and their families as possible, wherever they live. Please consider making a donation if you would like to support the costs of providing this service.

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Ofsted ‘Outstanding’

Our education services are rated as ‘Outstanding‘ by Ofsted:

“Children thrive in this exciting, education environment.”

“There are high expectations for every child and children make excellent progress in their learning and development.”

“Children are incredibly well supported to progress to their next stage of education.”

“Staff expertly develop children’s listening and communication skills. They skilfully plan activities to introduce new language to children.”

“Staff have high ambitions for children and they deliver an exceptionally well-planned curriculum.”

Read our Ofsted report

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