About
The team
Sarah
Manager
Hannah
Assistant Manager
Our approach
At West Walton Nursery School our primary purpose is for children to feel happy, safe and secure at our Nursery. Our mission statement includes our commitment to “help children develop into happy, confident, young people and give them the best foundation for lifelong learning.”
Our approach focuses on children being happy and enjoying their time at nursery and preschool. We have developed our approach to child development which captures the interest of each child or group of children in the present moment. Young children have a natural desire to learn, explore and question. We offer an environment that enables child-initiated play to capture the moment of engagement. Opportunities to seize the moment when a child shows interest in an activity can be built upon the need to be recognised.
How we plan for children’s learning
The Early Years Foundation Stage states:
“Practitioners must consider the individual needs, interests and stage of development for each child in their care and must use this information to plan challenging and enjoyable experiences for each child in all areas of learning and development.”
This statement fits perfectly with our way of planning and teaching. We will treat each child as an individual, working alongside parents to plan and educate your children to allow them to achieve their best.
Young children learn through a wonderful mix of dynamic, hands-on learning experiences supported by our highly skilled adults who have a thorough understanding of child development. Our early years curriculum is continually delivered through the many experiences provided for children – the resources they use, the interactions that we build into their play and the moments of ‘direct teaching’ that occur throughout the day, every day.
The nursery playroom creates play spaces, which are continually available and familiar to young children to enable deeper learning – as children return to, repeat and extend their ideas over time. This promotes mastery behaviour as children are introduced to and supported with the use of carefully selected high-quality resources. Our resources are chosen to not only connect with children’s interests and their natural curiosity to investigate but also with a purpose in mind.
Our curriculum aims to develop children as independent learners – empowering children to lead their learning. Resources are carefully organised to make them visible to adults and children, not hidden away but valued and celebrated! We present them in ways to make them not only appealing to use but also to support incidental learning, e.g. using labelling and shadowing to reinforce early literacy and numeracy.
Alongside our continuous provision, we create delightful areas of curiosity which enable us to introduce inspiring enhancements to bring new learning to the children – enriching language, deepening understanding and providing opportunities to embed prior learning in new and diverse contexts.
We also endeavour to provide children with a variety of opportunities during their time in preschool. We have weekly visits from the music man, who sings new songs and brings in interesting instruments from around the world alongside bus trips; train rides; visits to the local area to link with learning such as the memorial for Remembrance Day; visits to nursing homes; working in partnership with the local Church. These experiences provide children with the essential knowledge to prepare them for their future, as well as giving them memories that will last throughout their lives.