Welcome to Armfield Academy Nursery
Our purpose built Nursery can accommodate 26, 3 to 4 year olds. It offers a safe, fun and educational environment for your child to explore with ‘awe’ and ‘wonder’ and a friendly and welcoming atmosphere awaits your child. We have a range of excellent resources and activities to enable your child to grow, develop and engage in imaginative and adventurous, child-initiated play. The children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and their Characteristics of Effective Learning are closely observed.
Nursery 2022/23
Staff
| Head of Primary: | Mrs J McKinnon |
| EYFS Phase Leader: | Mrs J Shepherd |
| Nursery Teacher: | Mrs E Vos |
| Nursery Administrator: | Mrs D Hayward |
Nursery Sessions
| Core Hours | Extended Sessions |
|---|---|
| Mornings: 8.45am - 11.45am | Breakfast: 8.00am - 8.45am |
| Afternoons: 12.15pm - 3.15pm | After School: 3.15pm - 5.30pm |
| Full Days: 8.45am - 3.15pm | (term time only) |
Sessions offered are based on parents/carers requirements and the well-being of the child. In addition to our core hours of 8.45am-3.15pm, we can offer extended sessions before and after school. These places are limited and need to be booked in advance.
Nursery Fees and Grant Information
Up to 15 hours – free of charge (every child is entitled to this 15 hours free through the 3 year old grant), or up to 30 hours, depending on eligibility.
Anything over 15 hours will be charged at a rate of £5.00 per hour, if not eligible for 30 hours free.
Snack and Lunch
As part of the National School Fruit Scheme, children have the opportunity to have a healthy snack both morning and afternoon. The children can also have milk if they wish. In Nursery, every child will need a labelled, bottle with a sports cap lid (please no screw caps) so they may drink water at any time during the day and stay hydrated.
Children can either have a packed lunch or a school dinner, and we eat together in the Assembly Hall. Electronic payments for school dinners are available through ParentPay. If you would like to change from dinners to packed lunches and vice versa, please give one week’s notice.
Nursery Uniform
Children in the Foundation Stage need to learn through hands-on experience which can sometimes be very messy! With this in mind, every child wears the Armfield school uniform (named) that can be easily washed. Please remember to always send suitable outdoor clothing (waterproof coat/wellies) as children play out every day.
The Nursery Curriculum
In Nursery we promote a love of reading. This term we are reading traditional fairy tales, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and looking at rhyming words and stories too. Outdoors, we will be planting herbs in our herb garden. We will learn about the life cycle of a butterfly and gain ‘hands-on’ experience of real butterflies emerging from their cocoons. The children can’t wait! We will celebrate new life and Easter too.
The children enjoy daily phonics activities, sing ‘Jolly Phonics Songs’ and follow the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme. The children get lots of opportunities to practise their fine motor skills and pencil grip and love writing for a purpose.
Experiences offered within our Nursery are varied with a balance of adult led and child-initiated play which is led by the children’s interests. We offer a structured routine but within that the flexibility to adapt and meet the individual needs of each child is a priority. Our secure outdoor provision is a major part of our environment and learning opportunities are also carefully planned and play can be on a bigger scale than indoors. We access outdoors daily as part of our continuous provision and will play in all weathers, unless conditions may cause a risk to children.
Home Links
Your child’s development and progress will be monitored closely by staff completing observations, as required within the EYFS. This information is used to share with parents and identify interests, consider possible new learning opportunities and future experiences that can be offered. We use ‘Tapestry’ to collect evidence of your child’s achievements and they also have their own learning journey books. We reward the children with Dojo points and share the children’s learning on our online class story.
Settling In
We have a settling in process which is very important to ensure your child feels confident at Nursery. After this process, a review will then take place. At this stage we may recommend further settling in sessions, re-consider the sessions your child is attending or agree on your child’s start date. This will change from child to child and be based on each individual child’s needs.
If you would like further information about our nursery or to arrange to come and have a look round, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01253 207702.
For information about the free childcare and tax free childcare schemes please CLICK HERE to visit the Childcare Choices website.
CLICK HERE to view our Parent Pages on how you can help at home.
Apply for a Nursery place
To download a request for a place form, please CLICK HERE.