Who Will Teach And Support My Child?
Our nursery staff is a small team of five: Nina is our Nursery Manager, Rachel and Dominique who are our early years Practitioners and Katie our Finance Officer.
The nursery staff have been with us for many years and are an integral part of the ethos of the nursery.
They are constantly looking to develop and enrich their knowledge of childcare, and are all trained in the most up-to-date qualifications, including those recognised by EYFS: CACHE and Foundation Degree.
Additionally, every member of staff is trained in Paediatric First Aid and Safeguarding Policies and Procedures.
We always have at least two members of staff available to the children, and are staffed in accordance with the regulation specified by OFSTED:
Ages 2+ : 1 adult to 4 children
Ages 3+ : 1 adult to 8 children
What do the children do each day?
At Belbroughton Nursery we follow the Statutory Framework for Early Years Foundation Stage. This approach is based on ensuring each child is given a stimulating and supportive environment in which to learn effectively.
All of our toys, games and activities are based around the three areas of effective learning – playing and exploring; active learning; and creating and thinking critically – and can be seen in the model shown as Figure 1.
Figure 1: The Unique Child: Characteristics of Effective Learning- The Statutory
Framework for Early Years Foundation Stage
Our daily sessions are organised so that children can choose from a range of activities and, in doing so, develop their ability to select and work through a task to its completion.
As well has having constant access to a range of age-appropriate developmental toys and craft activities, the nursery is structured around 4 distinct corners, which are always accessible and designed to support each child’s development. These are:
- The Home Corner – which provides children with the pportunity to role-play in a grown-up world, and is changed regularly depending on the children’s interests. It is has previously been a kitchen, lounge, shop and hairdressers.
- The Book Corner – where children can choose to read on their own, with friends, or ask a grown-up to read them a story.
- The Small World Corner – which includes an array of different worlds in miniature, such as space rockets, farms, fair grounds, etc.
- The Construction Corner – which gives children access to structural problem-solving activities, such as train tracks, building blocks, puzzlesand sticklebricks.
Children are also helped and encouraged to take part in adult-led activities throughout the day, such as cookery, gardening, nature trails and craft, which introduce them to new experiences and help them to gain new skills, as well as helping them to learn to work with others.
In addition to offering children unlimited access to our secluded nursery garden, we are very lucky to have access to the school’s extensive playing fields and woods, in which we regularly arrange supervised play sessions.