Nursery

We are a 24 place teacher-led nursery incorporated within a Foundation Stage Unit. All our staff have specialised training and expertise.

In our nursery the learning environment is planned to offer children

  • First-hand experience: opportunities to explore the world around them and build their understanding through forming ideas, testing, and revising. Children have a wide variety of opportunities for sensory exploration, which include planned introductions of materials to stimulate exploration, discovery and thinking.
  • Interactions with others: a high priority is placed on the quality of interactions with supportive adults, who support the child in thinking through events and ideas as they engage in their activities. The routine is planned to allow children to interact in a variety of ways: within the larger community of children and adults, and in small groups or one-to-one, with both adults and peers
  • Play: deepest learning for young children occurs in their play, as they bring together their most recent understandings, together with highest motivation, to function at their highest level. Planning for uninterrupted time, resources and support for children to engage in high quality play enables children to progress across all areas of learning.   Through the process of plan-do-review, children learn to structure their play opportunities to follow their innate desire to learn from their experiences. Adults plan to support this process by helping children to extend their ideas as they plan their day, by joining in the play, by providing opportunities for play matched to the interests and development of the children, and by provoking further learning through stimulating situations, materials and challenges.
  • Direct instruction: whilst children build their own concepts through experience and interactions with others, they also acquire specific skills through being shown how to do them or through support to extend their abilities. Planned adult-led activities provide opportunities for introducing new skills, and for developing and practising skills. These opportunities are sharply focussed to support appropriate progression in each child’s learning.

This reflects the 4 overarching principles of the The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), namely

  • every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured;
  • children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships;
  • children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers; and
  • children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum Document informs all our work. This is a statutory document produced by the government: EYFS framework 2021

Starting Nursery

Please remember that this is the beginning of up to 20+ years of school/college for your child and it’s worth getting the transition from home to school right. With this in mind, we aim to establish a relationship with you and your child before they start nursery by inviting you to our induction session. Once they officially start, you may find that your child will benefit from a slow drip-feed into nursery life. You are welcome to stay with your child for as long as it takes to settle them in. You can help your child settle in by being as positive as you can about the experience. We will be there to guide you through this special time. Your child will be allocated to a key worker

Admissions

Our admission policy states that children living within the Clun catchment area, in the term following their third birthday, are given priority of placement. Providing all local children who wish to have a place are catered for, any child may apply to attend. Children are eligible to attend nursery from their third birthday, up until their government funding starts, if places are available and parents are willing to pay.

Session Times

Your child is entitled to six nursery sessions per week. Each session lasts for 2.5 hours

Morning sessions:     9:00-12.00 am

Afternoon sessions: 1.00- 3:15 pm

The Nursery is open all day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays. You must select which days you would like you child to attend. The only stipulation is that they must attend on consecutive days if available.

If your child attends two sessions on the same day e.g. a morning and afternoon session, or if you would like to lengthen a morning or afternoon session, for a fee of £3.50 your child can attend a supervised lunchtime club. These run from 12.00-1.00   You can supply your child with a packed lunch or buy a delicious hot meal from the kitchen at £2.30. Lunchtime club sessions need to be booked in advance so that we can ensure suitable staffing levels.

Refreshments

As a Healthy Eating School, your child is entitled to free fruit and milk each day. We actively encourage the children to bring their own-labelled water bottle, which they have free access to throughout the session. We are advised that these should contain water only, as drinking fruit juices and sugary drinks through spouted bottles causes tooth decay.

Books

Your child will be given a stout plastic book bag when they start nursery and they may take a book home each day to share with you. The books available to take home are put out in the foyer each morning. We do not have a signing out system as all attempts failed! We trust you that you will keep a mental record of the book your child brings home and ensure its safe return. Books are really expensive and our budget always tight!

What to Wear

Come dressed expecting to get in a mess!

The Nursery is really a workshop. The clothing you or your child chooses to put on make a great difference to your child’s nursery day and they shouldn’t have to worry about it! We provide aprons but accidents happen when children are being creative.

  • Are their clothes easy to put on and off? Rushing to the loo and then realising you’ve got a leotard, dungarees and a sweater on is traumatic for all of us!
  • They will spend much of their time outside in all weathers so please provide them with suitable outer clothing.
  • We provide aprons but accidents happen when children are being creative so please expect them to come home dirty.
  • The Forest School motto is ‘There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!’ We go to Forest School in all weathers. Lots of layers, waterproof trousers and coats, and really warm footwear are the best thing. Our experience tells us that unless Wellingtons are thermally lined, stout shoes/trainers and two or three pairs of warm socks are best. Nothing is more miserable than being cold.

Assessment and reporting to you

Through close observation of your child at play and during adult-directed activities, we build up a picture to help us to plan and deliver appropriate educational experiences. This assessment of skills is continuous, and is the beginning of a learning profile that will move with your child throughout their education. The profile is compiled of a number of things including their Learning Journals, Forest school diaries, photographs and a sheet that tracks their level of understanding through 7 identified areas of learning:

  • All areas of learning are equally important and interconnected. However, three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning and for building children’s capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. These are the prime areas:
    • Personal, Social and Emotional Development
    • Communication and Language
    • Physical Development

    The prime areas are strengthened and applied through four specific areas:

    • Literacy
    • Mathematics
    • Understanding the World
    • Expressive Arts and Design

We do offer formal parent evenings in the nursery and have afternoons where you will be invited to meet with your child’s key worker and discuss your child. We are always available and willing to talk to you either through an informal chat or a planned meeting at your request. Please be reassured that if we have any concerns about your child we will immediately be in touch with you. You will receive a written report when your child leaves the Foundation Stage which both you and your child will be invited to contribute towards.

Our Partnership

We would like your involvement with the nursery to be a time of partnership, enabling us to together continue constructing a rewarding time in your child’s life. As parents, you have been the most important people in your child’s education and nobody knows your child better than you. Once your child feels secure in the nursery environment we aim to help him /her grow socially, intellectually, physically and emotionally.

Children make most progress in all the above areas when they feel happy, secure and confident. We provide a wide range of learning activities through a balance of play and adult directed activities and believe that children thrive on experiencing success. Their efforts and co-operation will be warmly praised so that their confidence and self-esteem will grow too: areas of development that are probably the most valuable of all. Motivated in this way, your child will continue to want to explore and develop, and the learning process that began at their birth will continue happily in the nursery setting.