Our Nursery
Welcome to Nursery!
Welcome to our vibrant Nursery, a nurturing environment designed for children aged 2 to 4 years. Guiding our little learners on this exciting journey is Mrs Williams, our Early Years Foundation Stage Lead, Early Years SENDCo and DDSL. Mrs Williams is surrounded by a team of devoted teaching assistants, including Ms Renshaw, Mrs Adcock, Miss Robinson and Mrs Sadler, all working collaboratively to create a stimulating and supportive environment for your child’s growth and development.
We provide a safe and stimulating, multi-sensory learning environment to enable children to develop their skills and knowledge in all areas of development. We value play and learning opportunities initiated by the children, allowing them to play and explore, to be active learners, to be creative and to think critically.
Whilst our engaging curriculum and environments encourage learning and independence, we have a flexible routine where we enjoy learning through play. We experience a mixture of adult led and free flow child-initiated sessions.
As the children progress from Acorns into Saplings, there is more emphasis on being school ready and the adult led activities become more frequent and for longer periods of time to enable them to be prepared for the expectations of a busy reception class.
Snack and lunch times
The children enjoy a cup of milk or water and a healthy snack of fruit or vegetables. This is also an opportunity to engage in conversation and talk together about our experiences. During lunchtime, children can opt for a healthy hot meal or are welcome to bring their own packed lunch.
Our indoor and outdoor learning environments
The learning environment in our Nursery setting reflects the need for physical space in children of this age. Free flow child-initiated sessions allow the children to decide if they want to play inside or out. Our ‘Wild Wood’ and social farm area further enhances the outdoor learning opportunities, encompassing all areas of the curriculum.
Play and creativity
We believe that young children do not distinguish between ‘work’ and ‘play’ and that play provides opportunities for children to think creatively, practise ideas, communicate with others and understand the need for rules.
Communication and language
Children are actively encouraged to talk about their activities and interests. We ensure that our language models good, clear sentence structures and includes interesting and topic related vocabulary to enrich the children’s language opportunities. We use Makaton sign language throughout our sessions to support all children that need additional methods of communication.
Personal, social and emotional development
We consider that the physical and emotional needs of children need supporting if they are to learn effectively. The aim is to develop children’s emotional literacy and self-esteem by exploring emotions through stories, role-play, and games. We believe that fostering positive partnerships with parents/carers is particularly important to achieve these aims. We have an open-door policy and value the experiences that our families have together.
Physical development
Opportunities for climbing and riding the trikes and coupe cars along with other fun activities such as mark-making, threading and scissor skill activities, help develop both fine motor and gross motor skills. Children are encouraged to manage their own personal hygiene and safety with the level of support appropriate to their age and needs.
Literacy (Reading and Writing)
Reading
A wide range of stories, rhymes, songs and poems are used to engage children with language and print. The children learn how to handle books carefully and use them to find information. We enjoy listening to the children retell a familiar story in their own words.
Writing
Children are encouraged to make meaningful marks and to talk about what their mark-making means to them. The children begin to write some recognisable letters in their independent marks e.g. writing the letters of their name.
Mathematics
Children have opportunities to explore maths through continuous provision and through adult led activities. Following the guidance of Development Matters children learn the foundation of number. A lot of learning is achieved through construction activities where the children are encouraged to talk about shapes they have used and the reasons for their choices.
Understanding the world
Our topics and adult led sessions enable us to focus on aspects of ‘Understanding the World’. The children continue their explorations during child initiated sessions by utilising the wide range of resources we have to support each topic covered. For example, using the woods, visits to building sites, going to the town library and having the gardeners in to talk to the children, and the school social farm where the children learn about the world around them, caring for animals, developing skills and self-confidence, sharing experiences, and learning about produce.
Expressive arts and design
The resources available during child initiated sessions allow the children to explore musical instruments and singing, colours, textures, construction, imaginative role-play, small world activities and facilitate the use of a varied and rich vocabulary around them. A home-corner is a constant part of the provision, enabling the children to re-enact familiar experiences, and often another role-play area which is topic linked enabling the use of taught roles and activities. Our themes are wide reaching and open, to follow the children’s interests as they arise. We use a variety of stories and non-fiction books to support the themes. Additions are made and themes changed accordingly.
Interested in joining our Nursery?
We were proud to achieve a ‘Good’ rating in all areas of our recent Ofsted inspection – we were praised for our school leadership, early years curriculum, reading and phonics support, and promoting personal development through varied extracurricular activities.
Children are welcome to attend Nursery on a part-time or full-time basis (2-4 year olds):
- 3 hour morning sessions 9am-12pm
- 3 hour afternoon session 12pm-3pm
15 hours across 2.5 days
- Monday and Tuesday 9am-3pm then Wednesday 9am-12pm or
- Wednesday 12pm-3pm then Thursday and Friday 9am-3pm
30 hours across 5 days 9am-3pm
15 hour and 30 hours per week available for 3-4 year olds and eligible 2 year olds via the 24U funding.
To find out if you qualify for 30 hours or 15 hour free childcare, please visit www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
Book a tour!
If you would like to arrange a tour of our Nursery or school, or just need more information, please reach out to our friendly EYFS team by contacting our school office: 01630 652312 / admin@lon.mmat.co.uk – we look forward to meeting you!
Why not join our popular Stay and Play sessions?
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Our Nursery
