The best start for your child

St. Nicholas Nursery recognises the importance of early language awareness and staff members aim to provide the conditions necessary for children to develop and extend their language skills. Early stimulation and good quality care are essential for children to develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially.

When working with the babies and toddlers, independence, confidence and mobility are encouraged through a variety of activities using a strong sensory approach. Treasure baskets, heuristic play, cooking, singing songs and music times, outdoor play and co-ordination activities are included in the weekly time-table.

Our Approach to Learning

We place emphasis on developing an ‘inquiring mind’ and ‘love of learning’ through sustained shared thinking, and set the foundations for the more academic skills in Arithmetic and Language, which will dovetail into the National Curriculum at ‘big school’.

Some of the things we aim for the children to be able to know and do by the time they leave us include:

Recognise and write their names, know the names and sounds of letters of the alphabet and start to read.
Familiarity with a range of songs and nursery rhymes, and classic and modern children’s stories.
Recognise and count numerals up to 20, and beyond, understand that all numerals have a value, carry out simple addition and subtraction operations (by demonstrating this practically).
Simple scientific concepts (including hot/cold, air, magnetism, seasonal changes, life cycles, growth & change)

The educational work at St. Nicholas Nursery is guided by a rich blend of educational philosophies which we find particularly appropriate with the plentiful supply of excellent manipulative equipment.

Early Years Foundation Stage

We recognise the importance of the role of the Early Years practitioner in setting the foundations for learning. Our curriculum is planned using the Montessori philosophy and principles guided by the statutory requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The EYFS covers children from birth through to the end of August following their fifth birthday. It aims to help young children achieve the five ‘Every Child Matters (ECM)’ outcomes, which are: Staying Safe; Being Healthy; Enjoying and Achieving; Making a Positive Contribution; and Achieving Economic Well Being. The EYFS framework also incorporates seven broad areas of learning, which are:

Personal, Social, and Emotional Development
Communication and Language development
Literacy skills
Mathematical Development
Understanding the World
Physical Development
Expressive Arts and Design

For more information about our tailored approach please use the dropdown below.

The benefits of activity led learning

We engage in a diverse array of activities, such as sensory bottles, heuristic play with treasure baskets, gloop, collage painting, mud kitchen adventures, cooking club, Theatrebugs sessions for music, dance, and drama, gardening club, and more. Furthermore, we seamlessly integrate real-world projects into our curriculum, including the hatching egg cycle, butterfly life cycle, and even inviting fire engines and firefighters to showcase their role in our local community.