Nursery

At Westfield Nursery, we promote learning through play. We aim to create a happy and safe environment where children develop independence, curiosity, co-operation and confidence.

Our philosophy is to value every child as a unique individual, who enjoys learning and thinking for him or herself. We provide a supportive and secure environment in which every child can flourish and learn at their own pace and in their own individual ways. We provide open-ended creative activities both inside and outdoors.

All our activities, displays, record-keeping, and observation are centered around the individual needs and learning of the children. We encourage the growth of social skills and empathy amongst the children.

The relationships which the children develop with each other and with our staff are central to their happiness and lay the best possible foundation for their future.

Our nursery is run by a fully qualified teacher ensuring that our children get the best possible start to their school lives.

We hope that your child enjoys their time in our nursery and that by learning through play your child will build the foundations for learning for life!

Early Years Foundation Stage

At Westfield Nursery we use Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage to plan a broad and balanced variety of play-based learning experiences.

These learning experiences are based upon seven areas of learning. All children are given equal access and opportunities to develop their knowledge and understanding in:

The prime areas:

• Personal, social & emotional development
• Communication and language
• Physical development

The specific areas:

• Literacy
• Number, shape, space and measure
• Understanding the world
• Exploring media and being imaginative

We use a mixture of child initiated and adult led learning opportunities to encourage learning through play. In our two year old room, the children focus on the prime areas, using sensory play to experience the world around them.

Learning for all the nursery children, takes place both indoors and outdoors and the doors are always open. We encourage children to bring wellies and we have spare rain suits so they feel comfortable as they play outside all year round.

We plan our activities based on observing a child’s interests which may include; the wild areas, malleable materials, role play, music, ICT, art materials or model making.

Planned themes are incorporated into the term to learn about festivals and cultural traditions. We immerse the children in stories, songs, rhymes and mark making as we gradually introduce the basics of literacy.

We follow the government initiative Letters and Sounds, Phase 1 as this forms the foundation for learning to read and write. Numeracy is introduced through different activities, such as counting games, weighing activities and measuring – mostly this is taught through PLAY, inside and outside of the classroom.