Our nursery environment and facilities enable your child to explore, develop and learn. Our Baby, Toddler and Preschool spaces are specially designed and equipped especially with them in mind. You’ll see many familiar homely items such as bookcases, tables, chairs, and sofas just much smaller than you are used to!
We consider the spaces around your child to be like their third teacher, joining you as parents and us as educators in guiding them through their learning. And you’ll notice how we use our garden area as an outdoor classroom too, full of features to support their play and learning. Our Baby, Toddler and Preschool rooms are perfect for the ages of children that spend their time in them.
We keep many aspects of our nursery environments consistent as we know your child will benefit greatly from this. With core resources, enriching toys, games and creative materials, that are always at hand for your child to play with. However, it is not unusual for parts of our nurseries to become unique adventure places where your child’s imagination can run free!
Our nursery is located next to the beautiful Campton Woods which provide lots of opportunities for Woodland adventures all year round. The children love experiencing the changing seasons, the sights, sounds and smells and all the fun games we play in the woods. Even the babies have the opportunity to visit in slings so they are at a perfect height to see and experience the environment whilst also enjoying a lovely snuggle with a member of staff.
Being located within a preservation area we are keen to nurture this environment by supporting sustainable practices through the use of upcycled and recycled natural resources. Our open ended resources have no fixed purpose and can be used in a multitude of ways encouraging children to use their imagination and curiosity to be the pilots and directors of their own play. Our older children have the opportunity to experience risk taking through the use of ceramics and breakables. Without such opportunities they cannot lean to take care of resources and the consequences of their actions.
Our eclectic, beautiful and diverse resources allow even our tiny babies to use all their senses to explore the different feel, smell, sound, sight, and tastes within their environment, encouraging longer engagement and inquisitive minds.
There is no ‘real’ ICT available to children within the nursery as many children are accessing more than the recommended amount at home. Instead, we offer lots of ICT toys for role play and encourage the development of language through play, turn taking and sharing.
Babies (Squirrels) Environment
Children from 3 months-18 months benefit from the large, bright, open plan day room, well equipped with the latest in sensory equipment to test their senses and encourage development. As babies spend a lot of time sleeping at this early age, we provide a dedicated sleep room. We constantly monitor the temperature to ensure the babies are comfortable at all times. As a golden rule, there will never be more than three babies to any one member of staff so you can be assured that your little one will get the essential attention they need at this stage in their life. Your child’s key person will take care of all your child’s personal needs whenever possible.
We ensure the room is well appointed with outstanding levels of equipment, allowing your child to discover at their individual level of understanding. The room focuses on the primary area’s of the ‘Early Years Foundation Stage’ framework and encourages learning through play. We encourage heuristic play through the use of treasure baskets and natural materials in order to stimulate children’s natural curiosity. There are various dedicated areas offering different activities such as The ‘Cosy Corner’ where children can sit in a group and listen to stories and enjoy song bags, and a messy area where they can explore their creativity. The children have supervised access to their own fantastic garden.
We have a separate sleep room with bespoke bunk cots for your little ones to rest and recharge their batteries ready for more learning and playing. This room is dark and cosy with no distractions and we will discuss with you how your individual child likes to settle
Toddlers (Bunnies) Environment
The Toddler room also benefits from a number of dedicated areas. There is a creative area, a cosy corner, small world area and a home corner for lots of role play. As this is the time when the majority of children start ‘toilet training’, the toddlers room is equipped with children’s toilets, encouraging independence. Our unique garden is fully equipped with an impact absorbing surface and lots of outside equipment designed to encourage coordination and balance.
Again , we encourage children to develop their imagination and curiosity through the use of natural, open ended resources and wooden toys. Everything is stored at the children’s level and they are encouraged to choose what they would like to play with and help reset at the end of the session.
Preschool (Badgers) Environment
Preschool children also follow the ‘Early Years Foundation Stage’. We support them and prepare them for their eventual move to school. We follow the interest of individual children, linking them to the seven areas of learning:
- communication and language
- physical development
- personal social and emotional development
- literacy
- mathematics
- understanding of the world
- expressive arts and design
We have a large role play area full of dressing up clothes including hats, bags and shoes and a construction area full of large and small wooden and cardboard objects and shapes which the children then add to using small world characters to enhance their play in different ways each day.
The children have open access to the garden every day (free flow) from their room and complete a lot of their daily activities outside through choice. The garden also reflects the areas of learning and allows problem solving on a grander scale with further opportunities for constructing obstacle courses, vehicle making and lots of role play.
We encourage the children to be involved in their own food preparation at snack and tea time and self serve their food at meal times.
All our children get the opportunity to into the woods regularly and we always risk assess our outings and ensure that ratios are adhered to.
