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Nursery

Our nursery provides a safe, supportive environment where children can be independent and challenged in their development, where families are welcomed as partners, and relationships are firmly based on mutual respect and trust.

Nursery Curriculum

Our nursery curriculum is designed to encourage children to foster a positive attitude towards learning and build strong foundations for their future. In nursery, we support our children to be happy, confident and full of awe and wonder for the world around them.

The prime areas of learning take priority as the children begin their nursery education and continue to develop and run through all of the seven areas of learning as they progess through each term. We are passionate in the belief that strong foundations in the prime areas successfully aids the building blocks towards quality teaching and learning in the specific areas.

Created with the individual needs and interests of our children in mind, our nursery curriculum prioritises language development and places high value on quality interactions. Through carefully planned learning themes, we foster a cross a curricular approach to learning, encouraging children to gain a deeper understanding – through making connections to things they already know.

We use a balance of child-initiated and adult-led play, to provide nursery children with daily opportunities to explore, discover and rehearse. With the support and guidance of skilled adults, who sensitively scaffold learning, we encourage children to learn and use new vocabulary and language structures.

Our continuous provision is carefully planned to ensure that children have the opportunity to build confidence and develop their knowledge and skills. Building on our knowledge of the children, we provide a range of resources, from those that are familiar (to revisit and reuse for different purposes) to interesting and simulating items (often from the natural world), to engage and extend learning.

Alongside play based learning, daily adult-led group time builds upon previous learning, introduces new concepts, further develops communication and language, and provides opportunity for sustained shared thinking.

Strong attachments

Establishing warm, trusting and responsive relationships is at the heart of our nursery provision. In nursery, each child will have their own keyworker, a person who holds a special relationship with them, makes them feel safe and ensures that their care is tailored to meet their individual needs. Through developing these trusting relationships, children quickly gain in confidence in the nursery environment.

An Enabling Environment

Our nursery environment is key to realising our curricular goals.

Providing an extensive and stimulating environment with a range of discrete learning spaces, our nursery provision is firmly focused on ensuring our children learn specific knowledge and skills to prepare them for the next stage in their educational journey.

We carefully plan ‘enhancements’ and ‘provocations’ within our continuous provision to spark children’s interests, challenge their thinking and develop their communication and language skills.

The Great Outdoors

Outdoor learning is central to all we do, and our outdoor classroom is specifically designed to support all aspects of the curriculum- offering challenge, space and many opportunities to discover and apply new knowledge and skills.

Outdoor learning provides children with freedom, supports well-being and enables children to connect with nature. When learning outdoors, our children are able to explore the natural world, observe changing seasons and gain a knowledge and understanding of the world around them.

The outdoors is unique in that it provides a diversity of resources that are not replicated indoors. Our Nursery Outdoor Classroom provides a range of learning spaces, including:

An outdoor kitchen
Opportunities for physical development (climbing, digging, den building, bike riding)
Loose parts for imaginative and creative play
A space to make noise, listen and explore sounds and music

Parent Partnership

Parent involvement is crucial. We actively work with parents to ensure their child gets the best start in their education, making ourselves available to offer support and advice.

Daily welcome tasks provide meaningful opportunities for parents and staff to work in partnership, and regular stay and play sessions celebrate learning.