About Us
The Stacey Pre-school is a pack-away setting based in the light and airy main hall of The Stacey Centre and its organic orchards and grounds. We operate as a blended traditional Early Years setting and Forest School.
The Stacey Centre and The Stacey Pre-School are run as a charity and are managed by The Stacey Community Association; a committee of volunteer trustees all of whom live and work in the local area.
It's our mission to be an exemplary provider of quality early years education and childcare for the children of our community and to encourage children to explore, learn, grow and make friends from within a nurturing, enabling and friendly environment.
Forest School
With The Stacey Pre-school already benefitting from a large private patio and exclusive regular access to our beautiful organic orchard, gardens and raised beds, trustees have developed a large plot of land adjacent to the Pre-school's patio which is used exclusively as a Forest School space for our young learners to enjoy and explore.
Our enriching Forest School activities offer lots of opportunities for learning in the natural environment and for the children in our care to learn about, appreciate and respect our planet and the natural environment from a Forest Schools Association accredited Level 3 Forest School Leader.
An Eco-Friendly Setting
The Stacey Centre has been an eco-friendly community setting for several years: we have a robust composting and recycling programme and we do not use any single-use plastics on the premises.
The Stacey Pre-School has also joined the 'Plastic Free Communities: Surfers Against Sewage' environmental charity to better promote and share our ethos with members of our community. We have said goodbye to glitter, plastic straws and cling film and hello to bamboo toothbrushes, wet bags and biodegradable baby wipes and nappy sacks - with more positive changes yet to come.
We hope to lead by example and to encourage our youngest community members to learn about the importance of caring for the amazing planet we live in.
Please click the links to learn more about Our Sessions & Fees, Free Childcare and Our Day.
NEWS & DIARY DATES
STAY & PLAY
Friday 6 September 2024 10.00 a.m. - 12.00 p.m.
FREE Session: Open to all of our current children, our new starters and prospective families wanting to visit our setting before registering their child. Please email us for further information at: thestaceypreschool@gmail.com
STAY & PLAY
Tuesday 23 July 2024 10.00 a.m. - 12.00 p.m.
FREE Session: Open to all New Starters for Autumn Term 2024 and Spring Term 2025.
Whether your child is a new starter for Autumn or Spring terms or if you are wanting to visit our setting before registering your child, we are looking forward to welcoming you to The Stacey Pre-School. Please email us for further information at: thestaceypreschool@gmail.com
LEAVERS GRADUATION ASSEMBLY & PARTY
Thursday 18 July 2024 at 2.30pm
A special whole school assembly to celebrate all of the achievements and fun that our friends have made whilst at Pre-School. Open to all current families.
12.30pm - 1.30pm Picnic in the Forest
1.30pm-2.30pm Forest School activities
2.30pm Graduation Assembly
OUTDOOR CLASSROOM DAY - STAY & PLAY
Thursday 23 May 2024
Although everyday is Outdoor Classroom Day at Pre-School, we will be celebrating once again by inviting parents or carers to join their child to enjoy some forest school activities together in our dedicated Forest School area. Children will be making "Spinning Wooden Tops" using natural resources and going on a "Sound Walk" around our grounds as well as joining in with our campfire cooking for snack time. We are also inviting all of our Autumn Term starters to join us for a free Stay & Play session (booking is essential). We can't wait!
READY FOR SCHOOL SACKS
Summer Term 2024
Our hugely popular "Ready for School Sacks" are currently being re-stocked with new resources for our Summer leavers to take home and borrow so that parents can participate in their learning together. Our red sacks are designed for our 4 year olds to share with parents and carers and are themed around a specific area of learning to support transition to school in September. Our sacks will have a quality book for you to share together, plus an educational game, puzzle or story prop and some simple worksheets to enhance learning together.
We are also preparing our "Ready to Play" Sacks for our 2 and 3 year olds to borrow and enjoy some targeted learning at home with their family. Resources are themed around well loved stories that younger children will be more familiar with from home or Pre-School and come in their own brightly coloured sack complete with fun simple teaching and activity guides.
EASTER EGG HUNT & CRAFT WORKSHOP
Saturday 30 March 2024 10.00 a.m.
Book your tickets online at thestaceycentre@gmail.com
Limited tickets available, parental supervision required.
WORLD BOOK WEEK
Monday 4 - Friday 8 March 2024
We will be celebrating World Book Day for the whole week with lots of fun literacy activities and some special guest readers at Story Time.
CHRISTMAS PARTY
Thursday 14 December 2023
Our end of year Christmas Party for all Stacey Pre-School children will be held on the afternoon of Thursday 14 December. We are very lucky to be able to confirm a special guest who will be visiting the children!!!
BOOGIE MITES & MATHS - FREE WORKSHOP
[Parent Education Course & Boogie Mites Session]
Thursday 16 November 2023
Open to all current families at The Stacey Pre-School. A professional Boogie Mites instructor will introduce families to the benefits of using music, instruments and dance to enhance their early years child's understanding of numbers and maths, followed by a free 60 minute Boogie Mites session for their child. Parents/carers will also be given free digital resources to access at home with their child. Booking is essential.
OUTDOOR CLASSROOM DAY and STAY & PLAY
Thursday 2 November 2023
We will be celebrating Outdoor Classroom Day at The Stacey Pre-School with the children enjoying forest school activities in our dedicated Forest School outside area. Children will be making "Tweet Treats" and making firework art using natural resources. We are also inviting all of our Spring & Summer Term starters to join us for a free Stay & Play session (booking is essential).
HALLOWEEN GRAVEYARD WALK
Tuesday 31 October: 5.30pm-7pm
A spooktacular FREE family event, open to all and ideal for early years children and their families. Held at The Stacey Centre, take a walk through The Stacey Centre orchard which will be transformed into a creepy graveyard, toast a marshmallow in the witch's cauldron, decorate and munch your own gingerDEADman before finally collecting a Halloween 'Trick or Treat' goodie on your way home.
MACMILLAN BIG COFFEE MORNING
Wednesday 27 September 2023
Join us for a cup of tea or coffee and a slice of cake to support MacMillan's Big Coffee Morning. The children will be decorating cupcakes and making cupcake art in Pre-School as well as joining us in The Lounge of The Stacey Centre to choose a cake and post their donations into our collection box.
PARENT 'STAY & PLAY'
Ongoing dates - every term
Open to all parents/carers. Join us at The Stacey Pre-School for a fun stay & play session with your child. Speak to Vicky to save your place.
STAY & PLAY SESSION
Friday 1 September 2023
We will be holding our pre-term Stay & Play session for current and prospective families on Friday 1 September 2023 from 10.00 a.m. - 12 noon We hope you can join us. Please remember to book your place by emailing us: thestaceypreschool@gmail.com
FOREST SCHOOL
Summer 2023
Our Trustees and the Pre-School Team have worked really hard during the Summer to give our organic outside space a fabulous 'glow-up' so that we can encourage our young learners to make the most of this valuable resource.
As well as our organic allotment and our chickens we now have new maths and literacy stations which have been stocked with lots of natural resources to support learning in mark making and number.
We also have an intriguing new 'investigation station,' more outside benches to surround our firepit, as well as a climbing frame, a water station, a weather station, and a mud digging area, an outdoors library including a story telling throne, plus lots of other fun loose parts and resources to support development and learning for early years children. We know the children are going to be really excited to begin exploring, learning and playing in their amazing Forest School.
END OF YEAR PICNIC & GRADUATION ASSEMBLY
Friday 14 July 2023
12pm-1pm: Picnic in the Forest
1pm - 3pm: Forest School Session
3pm-4pm: Leavers Graduation Assembly
AN EGGS-CITING EASTER !!!
Easter 2023
The Stacey Pre-School staff and children were all really excited to watch our eggs hatch into fluffy chicks from their incubator at Easter. Our grown chickens now have their permanent home in our Forest School area where the children will help to care for them, feed them and collect their eggs.
SANTA'S VISIT
Friday 16 December 2022
After our Nativity play, the children (and staff) were super excited to have a visit from a very special guest at our Christmas Party who came with a sleigh full of presents for the children.
END OF YEAR PARTY
Saturday 23 July 2022
Everyone had lots of fun at our End of Year party on Saturday 23 July with face paints, yummy party food, a garden scavenger hunt and a bouncy castle! We were sad to say 'goodbye' to some of our leavers who are moving on to school in September but we know they will have an amazing time making new friends.
THE QUEEN'S PLATINUM JUBILEE
The children enjoyed lots of Jubilee activities: they made crowns, baked crown biscuits, played with Union Jack spaghetti, painted Union Jack flags, built towers, and watched the changing of the guards.
THE LORD MAYOR'S VISIT TO THE STACEY PRE-SCHOOL
Tuesday 26 April 2022
We were extremely pleased that some of our parents and children could meet with the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth on Tuesday 26 April when he visited The Stacey Pre-School.
The children helped with our ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open The Stacey Pre-School and gave the Lord Mayor a tour of our orchard, allotment, the sensory garden and the Pre-School.
We were very lucky to receive a generous present on behalf of our children: 2 x life size toy dogs for outside play - a lovely addition to our resources. Thank you to the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress for visiting with us.
OUR ALLOTMENT
March 2022
With help from The Stacey Centre's volunteer gardeners, our Pre-School Team have been busy developing our very own allotment, complete with child sized gardening tools and equipment, a giant bug hotel, and even a shaded area for our hard working mini gardeners to rest under.