The Village Project
What is the Village Project?
This is a county initiative intended to improve Early Years Education across settings that share the same site or are close in proximity. The aim of these projects is to improve the learning development of children under the age of 5 and promote the best practice across the Early Years.
Mayfield Preschool and the Project
We work closely with Mayfield Primary School to provide children in both settings with the best early learning opportunities that they can get, as well as supporting a smooth transition for children into primary school life - whether they will be moving next door or further afield.
Our Village Project actions have been devised to really promote good language and communication skills, as well as phonics learning and Parent Partnership through Famly. Alongside this, we moderate learning with the reception teacher to make sure that judgements in both settings are consistent.
Our Children
As part of the project, we have planned periods of time where our children will visit the school and vice versa, allowing them time to spend with their friends who went to primary school they year ahead of them. They will all get opportunities to enjoy shared child led and adult led play sessions, phonics sessions with the school and a gross motor/PE session, during the course of their years with us. We also plan for shared music fun mornings, sports days and other events! This project is meant to support all children, not just our 'rising fives' who will start school at the beginning of the next academic year. The impact and success of these sessions will be measured and monitored through observation and assessment of the learning taking place, and in regular meetings with all professionals.
Impact
The impact of this project will be measured by how well our children transition to school. As well as this we hope to see increased confidence in our children when communicating with both adults and their peers, and see their language and communication outcomes rise during their time in the early years settings.
Mayfield Primary School
For more information on the Village Project, or to find out more about Mayfield Primary School, please click on the Village Project logo.
First Year Review (June 2017)
We have nearly completed the end of the first year of our Village Project and the culmination of our action points, time spent with the EYFS Team (preschool practitioners and Reception practitioners), and in working in conjunction with county, have so far demonstrated some good successes.
As hoped, the IMPACT of the Village Project can already be seen in our children- with confidence in school readiness and in playing with peers and older children already growing. ALL our children have settled well into going into another setting, joining in with new or different social events or inviting other grown ups and children into our setting.
For more on this, please see our summary using children's and parent's voice from both Mayfield Preschool and Mayfield Primary school.
Third Year Review (July 2019)
At the end of our third year of working alongside our Primary school's reception teacher we have found that all children thoroughly look forward to village project time - whether it be welcoming the older children in to our setting or visiting the school for PE or free play.
IMPACT In our PSHE learning journeys we have noted that our rising fives (school leavers) are more confident in attending story sessions and in the transition to 'big school' than on previous years. Children talk about village project time and their older friends or siblings at the primary school, and are happy to join in with PE activities or group events.
SUCCESS We have noted that as a cohort, the children's ability to work together, problem solve and reach a resolution come out at age expected or higher, an improvement on previous years. This year we have seen children have more confidence in themselves as learners and be willing to 'have a go' - measured through our Characteristics of Effective Learning and in our leuven scales for well being (which is high).
Six Year Review (July 2022)
It has been great to start the village project back up after COVID precautions. We have been working alongside the primary school's reception teacher throughout the year and have found that we focussed on PSED (personal, social and emotional development) as a key factor. We found the children really enjoyed their visits becoming more confident throughout the year. Happy to free flow play and showed great curiosity.
We are pleased that the IMPACT of the village project has helped with the transition to primary school, helping develop the children's confidence in new environments. The children often talk about "when we go to big school" and showed great independence when visiting the reception class or celebration assemblies by the end of the year.
SUCCESS We have noted that as a cohort, the children's wellbeing and resilience has grown, being more willing to 'have a go' and show more active learning through play. The primary school reception teacher also observed how the cohort settled into 'school life' with more ease.
