Nursery

Welcome to Nursery, the home to our youngest children here at Carden. In Nursery we have a child centred approach which fully embraces the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) curriculum. We value each child's interests, home celebrations and experiences. We strive to make our Nursery a place where children feel safe, happy and valued. Positive relationships with families is key, and all staff are here to support the whole family. Our team are proud of our experience and knowledge with teaching young children, and will strive to help each child reach their full potential.

Child-centred approach

Carden Nursery is a safe and welcoming place for children aged 3-4 years. We offer a free flow environment where children are free to explore their environment and expand their interests through a range of exciting and purposeful resources and activities. The children have access to our immense outdoor spaces which we use daily. A visit to the orchard or rain scape are regular activities, where we surround ourselves in nature and create exciting adventures!

What goes on in Nursery?

The indoor and outdoor environment is set up to meet all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and reflects all the children’s current interests. These environments include: role play, small world, construction, writing and mark making, messy play, loose parts, maths zone, nature table, fine motor, play dough, music and movement, sand and water and cutting. We offer a structure which invites routine and consistency. Morning and afternoon carpet times ensure quality first teaching. These sessions might include Talk for Writing, PSED circles times, number games and songs, music and movement, and phonics. These teaching times are then followed up within small groups where adults are able to work at the children’s level and support individuals to make progress.

Classroom Environment

In early years, the environment is the third teacher (the other two being family and educators). At Carden, our environments reflect current as well as previous learning. In order for our very young learners to consolidate and extend their knowledge , we ensure that our environments enable them to explore independently and creatively, whilst practising new skills and lines of interest. We are proud to provide our children with stimulating and expanding environments, which are exciting to explore. The children’s artwork and mark-making is displayed as a way to celebrate their achievements whilst boosting self esteem and confidence.

Literacy and Talk for Writing (reading and writing).

We have been finding out what an author is, and have started with Julia Donaldson. It has been great fun sharing her stories, and talking about our favourites.

At Carden, we use the Talk for Writing scheme. In Nursery we use this approach to early literacy to focus on developing language through oral storytelling, rhyme and imitation.

Autumn 1 text: Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle. Some of the activities we have enjoyed include:

Learning this action story
Going on adventures inside and outside using the repetition of ‘Up the hill and down the hill and round the roundabout.’
Exploring the hills and trees in the orchard (and picking apples!)
Creating our own songs and rhymes
Making stick puppets
Painting the characters using big brushes!
Retelling using small world
Innovating by changing the characters using our story map
Making our own village by painting houses and using various characters which will be used in our small world and story telling area.

For our phonics we have enjoys going on listening walks and playing phase 1 games.