Facilities
Top Bananas Pre-School comprises of two spacious, light rooms, which are joined by a sensory walk through and an area where children can sit and look at books, whilst gazing at the bright blue feature ‘sky’ wall.
The Exploration room has areas of; dressing up, puzzles, games, construction (small and large scale), small-world, computer table, mathematics (counting objects, games and scales etc), role-play; home and babies.
The sensory walk is there for children to engage and explore their senses as they move from one room to another. The quiet area has a wide range of books (fiction and non-fiction), puppets, soft toys and exploration baskets; currently we have technological toys and items which are smooth and rough.
The Messy Play room has a literacy table with various mark-making tools, malleable play area (jelly, shaving foam, and gloop etc) and an arts and crafts table. This room then leads onto the children’s own toilet and changing area which encourages them to be independent and meet their own needs.
A wonderful outside area which is safe and secure is divided up into areas e.g. raised planting area, decking and astro-turf.
The Pre-School is accessed by a separate block paved route. Children are encouraged to take part in physical activities and discover outdoor play e.g. balls, bats, stilts, hula-hoops, parachute, bikes and gardening. They can also use the large chalks and paint brushes for painting, sand and water-play and of course their imagination to use these items and pieces of materials to create their own games.
We are very fortunate enough to have the use of the Harbour Hall for very wet and windy days. This will also be the perfect place for the Christmas Play and the School Leavers Graduation.
As of September 2019 a Baby and Toddler room opened.
This has now created ‘Top Bananas Day Nursery’.
The Nursery comprises of two spacious light rooms, which are joined by a sensory crawl. The sensory crawl/walk has concave and convex mirrors, hand eye co-ordination skill boards and various materials to experiment with.
The Exploration Room consists of a black and white cosy area, a green leaf cushioned cosy book area (bringing the outside in), a role-play kitchen, dressing up, dolls and accessories , several units with; bricks, blocks, skittles, games, puzzles, small world resources, people and animals. Pop up tents, tunnels play mats and ride on toys are rotated as well as books and other resources (this is to keep the children interested with our wide variety of toys and resources).
The Messy Play Room has a low circular and rectangular wooden table with low wooden chairs (this is so the tables are easily accessible for the children to sit at by themselves to encourage independence). A tuff tray is situated on the floor for small world and messy play, so the children can climb in and out and thoroughly explore. Various mark making resources, paints, crayons chalks and many more.
A food prep area for serving hot lunch and snacks (where snacks and food is tailored to each child’s age and stage of development for example; blending for little ones, to hand held for children that are baby led weaning.
There is also a separate sleep room with bunk bed cots, sleep mats, dimmed lighting, monitor and a musical light up mobile. There are fresh blankets and sheets provided to the individual child and washed on a weekly basis.
The Little Bananas also have use of the outside area and Harbour Hall. Toys are rotated and suitable for the age of children in that day. Toys and areas are set up each day.