Patcham Village Pre-school

07/07/2026

Only one way to cool down in a heat wave 🍦

21/06/2026

Happy Father’s Day to all our wonderful Dad’s.

15/06/2026

Free Registration for places booked before July.
Get in touch if you’re looking for a preschool for your child for 2026-2027.

20/05/2026

Our strawberries are coming on beautifully 🍓

15/05/2026

What is TastEd?
TastEd is a charity that exists to promote taste education to children across the UK.

Why is it important?
We know that most children in the U.K. don’t eat enough vegetables and fruits. One of the
biggest reasons – aside from the cost of fresh food - is that many children just don’t enjoy
vegetables. TastEd is a method for giving children the positive exposure to vegetables that is known to be the route to learning a liking for them over time.

Research from Finland found that this kind of sensory food education can increase a child’s
willingness to eat vegetables and berries.

As well as building a child’s confidence around new foods, these lessons in eating can also
raise attainment in speech and writing because we find that food is a subject that grabs
every child’s attention and they end up doing some great speaking and writing without even
realising it.

The Golden Rules
The golden rules for all TastEd sessions are:
● No one has to try
● No one has to like
These rules take all the pressure off a child and strangely make it easier for them to both try
and like new foods over time. Establishing these ground rules will create an atmosphere
where your child is free to explore food without worrying that you may be offended if they
don’t like something or if they feel they just can’t bear to taste it.

We know that these rules may be different from the ones you have at family mealtime where
lots of parents do ask children to try just a bit of everything on their plate. That’s fine. You
can explain to your child that there is one rule for mealtimes and another rule for TastEd
sessions.

Using the senses
These lessons aim to use all five senses to explore food, every lesson includes fun sensory
experiments with food: e.g. sniff the tomato, feel the peach, listen to the crunch carrot.
● Sight - this will be the least invasive sense for your child to explore as it’s the one we
use most, a child who might be scared to taste something new will be happy to look
at the food.
● Touch - this is our biggest sense, mostly found in the skin but also in muscles such
as the tongue. We touch food with our hands but also with our mouths, the feeling of
food in our mouths is called texture. Often, when children say they hate the taste of
food what they really mean is texture. So this is a really powerful concept for children
to learn and explore.
● Smell -
‘flavour’ happens mostly in the nose not the mouth, children can explore this
by holding their nose whilst trying different foods.
● Hearing - the aim is for children to think about how hearing impacts our food
experience, which is something they may never have considered before.
● Taste - try and end with the taste lessons. By the point your child reaches the ‘Taste’
lesson they should have built up some confidence with new flavours, knowing they
will not be judged for not liking something.

If you’d like information and ideas for home please follow this link: https://www.tasteeducation.com/what-do-we-do/

12/05/2026

08/05/2026

Sir David Attenborough is known and loved by many people for the way he helps us understand animals, nature and the world around us. As he celebrates his 100th birthday today, it was a wonderful opportunity to introduce the children to his work in a simple and inspiring way.

For young children, learning about Sir David Attenborough does not need to focus on long lists of facts or complicated environmental issues. Instead, it can begin with curiosity. What animals do children already know? What do they enjoy noticing outside? Have they ever watched birds, spotted insects, looked closely at flowers or wondered where different animals live?

We explored animals inside the preschool and looked at the changes our caterpillars have made. We then explored nature outside, visiting our local gardens, and collecting memories.

07/05/2026

We had a lot of fun getting the bus to Preston Park today.
We love celebrating the children’s interests and incorporating these into our planning and activities.
We feel very lucky that we can head out on our adventures as we keep our staff to child ratios low to be able to support all our children’s needs & interests.