Little Ants Nursery
Staff
The staff in Nursery are Miss Brook, Miss Petrie and Mrs McDermott
Our Aims
We aim to:
- Provide a high quality education, through a broadly-based balanced curriculum, which promotes spiritual, moral, cultural, intellectual and physical development.
- Nurture young children and provide a stimulating and safe environment which encourages them to flourish.
- Cater for individual needs, regardless of gender, race, age or capability and developing the talents of all.
- Develop a love of reading which is embedded in the curriculum.
- Develop a strong relationship between parents/carers and Early Years staff.
- Have FUN learning!
Nursery Admissions
If you would like a Nursery place for your child please complete the application form below and hand it in to the school office, along with a copy of their birth certificate, proof of address and Baptism certificate (if applicable). Please note your child must have turned 3 years old at the time of joining for us to offer them a place.
Nursery Hours
Our Nursery offers the following sessions (unless numbers are full)
Option 1: 15 hours - 2 and a half days (term time only)
Monday - Tuesday 9am - 3pm
Wednesday 9am - 12pm
Option 2: 15 hours - 2 and a half days (term time only)
Wednesday 12pm - 3pm
Thursday - Friday 9am - 3pm
Option 3: 30 hours extended entitlement* 5 days (term time only)
Monday - Friday 9am - 3pm
*30 hours extended entitlement places cannot be allocated until you have applied for the funding through www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
Food and drink
All children will have the opportunity to have milk, water and healthy snacks of fruit and vegetables during their session. We encourage the children to be involved in making and preparing a variety of healthy snacks for each other too. We ask parents/carers for an annual voluntary donation of £3 to continue to provide towards these enriched activities.
Children are required to bring their own lunchbox to school for the days they are in for the full day. Lunchboxes should be healthy and sweets/chocolates should not be brought in.
Nursery Dress Code
It is important that children in Nursery are dressed in comfortable, practical clothes, e.g. sweat shirts, jogging pants, polo shirts etc (no motifs please) as there are times when children are involved in messy play activities. Please also think practically about what shoes you send your child in, e.g. Velcro fastening. These need to be something that can put on and take off independently.
We ask for you to dress your child in the school colours which consist of a red sweatshirt or cardigan (please see photos below), grey trousers/skirt and a gold polo shirt. Here is a link to our uniform supplier - Custom Embroidery & Garment Printing | Embroidery In House
Please also ensure your child has a pair of wellington boots so they can access outdoors in all weather. A change of clothes and underwear is also needed to be kept in spare bag, in case of any accidents.
Lastly, please ensure all your child's clothes are labelled!
Nursery/EYFS Curriculum
The Nursery is organised to encourage children to be independent. It is divided into areas of interest and equipment is stored to allow children easy access to select and put away. The curriculum is based around play to make learning exciting and relevant for young children. There is a heavy influence on 'child-initiated learning' which encourages the children to use the space around them to develop what they are interested in, e.g. making models and stories about rockets.
A love of books will be embedded throughout all areas of Nursery. Children will be encouraged to take part in our library book session, which will allow them to share a school book with family at home. There will also be weekly activities both indoors and outdoors to create a sense of awe and wonder for the children. This will then be used to develop the children's vocabulary.
We are very fortunate to have a fantastic outdoor provision for the children to use in their learning. Not only do we have an extended area which explores all areas of the curriculum, e.g. storytelling seats, mud kitchen, planting pots, performance stage and natural music area. We also have access to an onsite wildlife garden. Last year this was used to explore signs of Autumn and needless to say, the children loved it!
Children's achievements are continually assessed. All children work towards the Early Learning Goals as part of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Observations are recorded using an online program called Tapestry.