Teaching, Learning & Play

'Leaders make sure that staff are well trained so that they teach early reading effectively. Children learn phonics successfully from the moment they enter the Reception Year. They build on strong communication skills built up in Nursey. The books that early readers take home are carefully matched to the sounds they know. This helps pupils to gain the phonics knowledge they need to be successful readers' (Ofsted Mar 23)

Our carefully selected Early Years Team work closely with families to encourage and develop the children’s interests and skills. This enables each child to have the best start to their education by supporting them to reach their full potential and readiness for school, with no learner left behind.

Our Nursery education is led by qualified teachers during school term-time, who have broad and deep experience and knowledge of teaching primary age and early years children. Our Early Years Practitioners hold a range of qualifications from apprenticeships to post graduate degrees, specialising in early years. During the school holidays the learning continues, where the Nursery team continue the care for the children with a greater emphasis on play and exploration, led by our Nursery Manager & Operational Lead.

As young children learn best from first-hand experience and by exploring through play, the Team skilfully blend learning opportunities to increase readiness for school through a mixture of child-initiated play and adult-led learning. The children thrive in our well-resourced Nursery and are happy and confident when moving onto Reception Year, whether at Fielding Primary or another School. We pride ourselves in offering excellent opportunities for your child to grow and develop in a safe and secure environment. Learning through play is the main focus of our Nursery day, all play opportunities are carefully planned and structured around the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.

The foundations for learning start when children feel safe, emotionally secure and happy. Each child in Nursery has their own ‘main key worker and a supporting key worker'. These named adults take a special interest in the child's learning, development and well-being. Building a strong and trusting relationship with a child helps our practitioners to know how best to plan for their learning and development to support them throughout their Nursery journey.

Facilities

Nursery children benefit from all of the facilities associated with the main school.

Indoors we have two large, well-resourced, bright and airy classroom spaces and additional rooms which are separated into dedicated smaller zones for different types of play and learning following the Early Years foundation stage curriculum. Each zone is led by adults and include role play, maths, mark making-messaging, messy play, computers, reading, messaging area and sensory area plus more.

Outdoors, children have lots of space to run, climb, balance, ride, build and explore in the early years ‘outdoor classroom’. The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework continues to be delivered through a variety of focused activities in the outdoor learning spaces.

The children take part in onsite Forest School sessions to extend their opportunities for exploration and learning. All of our spaces allow us the flexibility to take advantage of ‘teachable moments’ that occur throughout the day, using spontaneous and unexpected occurrences. During Nursery Holiday Club the children have access to the school’s extensive playing fields, forest, pirate ship and allotment on site.