Our Nursery Setting
We aim to provide a stimulating environment both indoors and outdoors that will give your child an enjoyable and rewarding start to school life. Our nursery is equipped for 39 children on a morning and an afternoon.
This provides a ratio of at least 13 children to one qualified adult.
Our Nursery is set up with areas indoors and in the outdoor area, which appeal to children and their interests. We have thought very carefully about the layout and resources available for the children as they have all been chosen to support and promote your child’s learning and development. There are opportunities to develop skills across all areas of learning wherever your child prefers to play. Inside we offer a wide variety of activities for the children to develop skills across all areas of learning such as the opportunity to share books, make marks (early reading and writing), through trying a variety of creative and role play experiences (expressive arts and design), using tools such as scissors, pencils and paintbrushes (physical development) and time to share their ideas with others (communication and language).
In the outdoor area the children can also explore all areas of learning on a larger scale. They come into contact with nature, they can explore making marks in the mud with sticks or with chunky chalks on the tarmac (early writing) and develop their large physical skills through the challenge of climbing, balancing and pedalling (physical development). Our whole environment supports children’s learning in all seven areas of the curriculum.
Session times are as follows:
Mornings 8:30am – 11:30pm
Afternoons 12:15pm – 3:15pm
We have flexible start and finish times to enable a secure farewell.
Learning Through Play!
Well planned, purposeful play, both indoors and outdoors, is a key way in which young children learn with enjoyment and challenge. In playing, they behave in different ways: sometimes their play may be energetic, sometimes they will describe and discuss what they are doing, sometimes they will be quiet and reflective as they play.
Through play, in a secure environment with effective adult support, children can:
- Explore, develop and represent learning experiences that help them make sense of the world;
- Practice and build up ideas, concepts and skill;
- Learn how to control impulses and understand the need for rules;
- Be alone, be alongside others or cooperate as they talk or rehearse their feelings;
- Take risks and make mistakes
- Think creatively and imaginatively
The Foundation Stage Curriculum
When starting Nursery, children enter the Foundation Stage. This begins in school when children reach the age of three until they leave Reception. The curriculum for the Foundation Stage underpins all future learning in seven areas.
The three prime areas are:
Communication and Language
Physical development
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
The four specific areas are:
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive arts and design
The prime areas lay vital foundations in the early years, in nursery we spend time focusing on these areas before moving on to the specific areas.
Parental Involvement
We believe parents play a vital role in the education of their child, and hope that we will be able to work together to give our children a successful start to school life.
We hold regular parents evenings, parental engagement sessions and use Seesaw to communicate and share learning experiences with parents. Seesaw is also great for them to share and record their experiences at home with nursery.