Our Nursery

We endeavour to provide a safe, loving, secure, stimulating and exciting environment for our children to “Light their Spark” of learning. In Nursery we strive to enable all children develop their capabilities and become confident individuals. Our ultimate aim is for children to build the essential skills and knowledge they already have and ensure they are ready to start their school journey when they leave us to enter their Reception year.

We teach children our school’s core values of LOVE, RESPECT, PERSEVERANCE AND THANKFULNESS, through the Early Years Curriculum.

This Curriculum has 7 areas of learning

3 Prime Areas – (These areas are fundamental, they work together and move through to support development in all other areas)

PSED – Personal, Social and Emotional Development
PD – Physical development
CL – Communication and Language

4 Specific Areas – (These include essential skills and knowledge)

Literacy
Maths
Understand the World
Expressive Arts and Design

Each individual child reaches out to relate to people and things through the Characteristics of Effective learning, which transfer through all areas of learning

These characteristics are: Playing and Exploring, Active Learning, Creating and thinking critically

We use the 5 point “Leuven scale”, which is a form of assessment that measures children’s emotional well-being and involvement. These are directly linked to the Characteristics of Effective Learning.

We work very closely with Reverend Linda from our local church. Reverend Linda visits us every week to share a story with the children.

Phonics

Alongside Toddington St George we teach the ‘Little Wandle’ phonics programme. This provides children with the baseline learning they require to be ready for early reading in Reception. Any children who are ready for early reading will be assessed and will begin the accelerated reading programme with support from the Early Years lead.

Transitions

Throughout the nursery school year we join the whole school for singing assembly every week, allowing children to become familiar with the school and assembly routines. Weekly Mr Darlington joins us for our VIP (values in practice) presentation to celebrate our children’s achievements. There is fluidity between the school and nursery staff so children quickly become familiar with the staff across the school.

Throughout the year we combine with the Reception team for things such as school trips and experiences. This helps to bring learning to life and practically embed learning.

In partnership with the Early Years Reception team we have created a ‘school ready’ programme which runs within our summer term. This includes; visits to the Reception classrooms, small teaching sessions with the Reception teachers, playing within the Reception garden area and opportunities to become familiar with the Reception environment. This ensures the transitions at the start of their school Reception year are seamless.