A very warm welcome to Caterpillars and Dragonflies, where some of the most exciting first steps of school life begin! Caterpillars is our Foundation class, while Dragonflies is home to children in Foundation and Year 1. We want every child to feel happy, safe and truly part of our Oxley family, building confidence, making friendships and developing a love of learning from the very start.

Our days are full of opportunities to wonder, explore, create, talk, play and discover. We encourage children to ask questions, have a go, share their ideas and celebrate all the little moments of success that make these early years so special.

Throughout the year, our learning takes us on all sorts of adventures. We explore exciting questions, including: Who am I and where do I belong? What happens in the night sky? What happened ‘Once Upon a Time…’? What makes animals amazing? How does your garden grow? and What is it like where I live?

Children discover more about themselves and their bodies, the changing seasons, animals, plants and the natural world. We travel a little further afield too – exploring different places, discovering continents and oceans, finding out about astronauts and famous people, and learning more about our own local area of Shepshed.

Our Oxley values are at the heart of everything we do. From their very first days with us, we encourage our children to Be kind. Be brilliant. Have an I can attitude. This might mean helping a friend, being brave enough to try something new, keeping going when something feels tricky or feeling proud of themselves and others. We want children to learn that being brilliant isn’t about getting everything right – it is about having a go, being curious, trying your best and believing that you can.

Learning in Caterpillars and Dragonflies is also about growing into a happy, confident and caring member of our school community. We help children learn how to make friends, understand their feelings, listen to others, take on challenges and become increasingly independent. They learn how to look after themselves and one another, build kind and caring relationships and begin to understand how to stay safe, including when using technology.

And there is always plenty to get stuck into! Children might be painting, building, designing, singing, dancing, investigating, programming Bee-Bots or getting active in PE. From gymnastics and ball skills to collage, printing and making puppets, our curriculum gives children lots of different ways to explore their interests, discover new talents and experience that wonderful feeling of “I did it!”

We know just how precious these first years at school are. Our aim is for every Caterpillar and Dragonfly to feel known, cared for and proud of who they are, while becoming a little more confident and independent each day.

There will be new friends to make, questions to ask, things to create, challenges to conquer, stories to share and plenty of fun along the way. Most importantly, we want our children to love coming to school and to head home each day excited about what tomorrow might bring.

Welcome to Caterpillars and Dragonflies – the beginning of a very special Oxley adventure.