Willow Nursery 2022 - 2023

In our most recent OfSTED 2018 Inspection it is reported that, “The early years environment is stimulating and engaging, both outside and indoors. Children get off to a good start in the early years.”

Adderley Nursery is open to children aged from two years old. The Nursery is expertly led by Mrs Barber and Mrs Thomas in consultation with Mrs Rawsthorne our EYFS/KS1 teacher. We currently offer 30 hours, 9:00-3:00 Monday to Friday.

Settling In

Starting Nursery is a huge step for children, it is the start of their journey into school and allows them to socialise with other children, create friendships and develop social skills. Our Nursery staff are trained to help children feel confident and secure at nursery, we pride ourselves on our friendly nurturing environment where we treat all children as individuals and promote positive relationships. We also endeavour to form close relationships with families and the wider community to promote the best outcomes for all children.

We work very closely with Chestnut Class to make the transition to reception as smooth as possible. With the open plan layout of the Early Years and Keystage 1 classroom, nursery children quickly become confident members of the school community and ready to begin their learning journey at Adderley School.

A Classroom Indoors and Outdoors

Our Nursery room is vibrant, welcoming and set up for children to explore, play and learn. Our learning happens both inside and outside. Our outdoor area has recently been renovated to further stimulate imagination, play and physical challenges. We are very lucky at Adderley to have our own woods which children are able to make the most of during weekly forest school sessions where we discover our local environment, seasonal changes and local wildlife. We go out whatever the weather so prepare for muddy children!

Our learning

The children follow the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The EYFS curriculum is split into seven key areas of learning which are:

1. Personal, Social and Emotional Development
2. Communication and Language
3. Physical Development
4. Literacy
5. Mathematics
6. Understanding the World
7. Expressive Arts and Design.

The EYFS curriculum also has three ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’ which are to promote, critical thinking, active learning and playing and exploring

Our Nursery children have the opportunity to join in both ‘Adult Led Activities’ and ‘Planning in the Moment’ based around children’s interests. Adult led activities are based on a continuous cycle of observations and assessments. Adults plan based on the needs and interests of the children. Adults will then assess the activity and plan the next activity to aid progression and motivation, these are called ‘next steps’. Adult led activities are Literacy, Phonics (Little Wandle Letters and Sounds), Maths and Forest School.  Adult led activities allow the children to gain specific knowledge and skills.

The children also have the opportunity to be in charge of their own learning and development. They do this through ‘Planning in the Moment’. Planning in the Moment allows practitioners to follow children’s interests and do activities with them there and then, it’s a response to learning ‘here and now’. This learning allows children to be independent and to be engaged in their interests. An example of this would be if one child was interested in Dinosaurs, a practitioner then might take them on a dinosaur hunt or make dinosaur eggs with them in the creative area. They could then extend this by learning dinosaur facts.

Practitioners use an online system to support learning, this is called ‘Evidence Me’. Evidence Me is used to observe/assess the children in their play. Practitioners take videos and photos of the children when they are doing a ‘wow moment’ during their child initiated play. Parents are able to receive updates from this online site so they feel they have close links to learning experiences.

Foundations for phonics in Nursery

We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:

• Sharing high-quality stories and poems.
• Learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
• Activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending.
• Attention to high-quality language.

We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.

Nursery and reception children also enjoy a range of high quality picture books including poetry, fiction and non-fiction as they begin Pathways to Poetry and Pathways to Write. Pathways to write is a whole school programme for the teaching of writing, using well-chosen and inspiring texts as a starting point to inspire pupils’ own love of writing. In nursery we develop vocabulary, spoken language and introduce early reading and writing skills; giving pupils the opportunity to play with language orally. In EYFS, pupils engage with rhymes, with an opportunity for all to practise performance and for crafting their own poetry.

Nursery daily timetable

9:00 Welcome – explore the setting

9:10 Adult Led Activity 1 – literacy/phonics

9:30 Child Initiated Play.

10:30 Adult Led Activity 2 - maths.

10:50 Snack.

11.00- 11.15- Break - Outside Play.

11:15 Child Initiated Play.

12:00 Mat chat

12:00-1:05 Lunchtime and outside play.

1:00 Adult Led Activity 3.

1:30 Child Initiated Play- Practitioners will observe and do Planning in the Moment activities.

2:15 Story

3:00 Home time