Organisation

The nursery caters for 120 children on a part time basis who attend either 5 mornings or 5 afternoons per week.

Currently, parents visit without children for an informal meeting where they are able to meet staff, have a short slide presentation about the nursery and view the building and grounds.

New children are then admitted to a morning or afternoon session in small groups and are settled in gradually. The intake procedure takes a few weeks and we ask parents and children to be patient if they are not admitted in the first weeks.

On the child's first day they stay with their parent/carer for one hour. On the second day they stay alone for 1 1/2 hours and, if settled, then stay for the full session for the rest of the week. If children need a longer period to settle staff and parents will make individual arrangements.

The children are divided into two base classes of thirty with either Mrs Duxbury or Mrs Byrne in Rooms 4 and 1 respectively. They go to these rooms each day for informal registration, discussion, songs etc. then divide into groups of 12 with their own group leader.

Members of staff and their group go to a different room each day for a small group-work session, to enable children to experience all the areas of the curriculum during the course of the week. After this focus work the children can choose their own activities.

During each session, children are taken in groups of 12 to the hall where they may climb/dance/move to music then have a drink or snack. Outdoor play is available during the session, weather permitting. At the end of each session the children are encouraged to tidy away their own materials and return to their base room, (Room 1 or 4), for a story/songs or discussion. It is from these base rooms that they are collected by their parents or carers (who must be over 16 years old).

The curriculum is planned around a theme each term which incorporate learning between incorparate experiences from the ‘Early Years Foundation Stage’ curriculum as defined by the DCSF and the 5 elements of every child matters. Copies of each topic with shared activities are sent home each term and displayed on the noticeboards.