Sports
Being active and exercising is important from a young age. When children reach Les Papillons they have a weekly tennis lesson with professional tennis coaches. These are every Tuesday afternoon at the nearby Islington Tennis Centre. Children also enjoy weekly football with our outside football coaching specialist Danny who runs Little Soccer Stars. His great rapport with the children and interesting ways of coaching football ensure all children enjoy the session thoroughly. Football begins from the youngest toddlers and make Friday afternoons very active and sporty!
Music
We highly value music and can see the benefits that regular music sessions bring to each child. Children enjoy twice weekly music sessions with new and interesting ways to excite babies and toddlers about music. We are very lucky to have 2 amazing musicians who visit us every week, Sarah and Louise. On Thursday afternoons children enjoy guitar, singing and percussion with Louise and piano, puppets and rhymes with Sarah on Tuesday mornings.
Yoga
We are proud to be an accredited Yoga Kids school and we incorporate a range of yoga poses for relaxation into the classroom. We work with a yoga curriculum which links into our main curriculum, and children very much enjoy the sessions.
French
Children start weekly French lessons from Les Petites Souris at the age of 2.5 years with a native French teacher. The sessions are very fun, and consist of stories, rhymes and songs and the teachers uses props such as puppets and pictures to bring the lessons to life. Every term is themed so that children can pick up lots of relevant vocabulary. Parents are provided with the lesson plans. Children pick up the language very quickly and are not inhibited to experiment with a good accent!
Cookery
‘You could work through every curriculum area using cookery’ says the schools Principal. If you consider the skills in measuring, weighing, pouring, spooning, mixing, the scientific effects of heat or cold, reading and writing in terms of recipes and menus – it truly is a very enjoyable, practical all round subject. We place great value on regular cookery sessions and encourage parents to involve children in food preparation as soon as possible. Certainly a child who is interested in food and who helped prepare a dish will be more inclined to taste it!
Library
Every week nursery children pay a visit to the local library where they can enjoy story-telling and chose books to read for the week. As children reach school age we encourage you to register your child for their own library card so that they can take responsibility for book loans. We work with John Barnes Library and West Library.
Drama
Starting with dressing up and role play, drama has a central role in everyday nursery life. Children love to express themselves and pretend play enables their imaginations to develop as they lose themselves in their other worlds. Each Christmas the children participate in a play which has a moral and spiritual theme to it. Every child has a part and the children learn songs and lines – and put together costumes and scenery and props. We perform at the Pleasance Theatre which we are fortunate to be very nearby, and this enables many parents and friends to visit.