Our nursery unit provides an excellent start to school life and is the foundation for future learning. It is our policy to share positively with parents in creating a safe and caring environment where each child may, through play, develop their full potential in every aspect of their growth.
Our nursery staff also encourage the children to express their ideas confidently and develop the listening skills so vital to their language development. Musical experiences will also help to reinforce listening skills as they experiment with sound and rhythmic patterns.
Our planning is guided by the ‘Curricular Guidance for Pre-school Education’. This guidance is presented as six areas of learning that will provide a foundation for later achievement. The six areas are:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
- The Arts
- Language and Literacy
- Early Maths
- The World Around Us
We work hard to forge strong, positive relationships between home and school to ensure each child feels happy and secure in their new surroundings. We hold events throughout the year where parents are invited to come and spend some time with their child in nursery, such as, French Breakfast, Stay and Play Days, Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
Our nursery staff are always available to update parents/carers on their child’s progress through informal chats at the beginning or end of each session. More formal parent –teacher consultations also take place in October and March.
We also aim to develop a sense of belonging by integrating the nursery children fully into the life of the primary school. They make regular use of the facilities in the main school, and dine in the school canteen, but also attend special assemblies and other events e.g. visits from theatre companies or musical groups. In the summer term, nursery children also join the foundation stage children for lunchtime play.
Our nursery staff also liase closely with the foundation stage teachers, Primary One in particular, to ensure continuity and progression and also to enable a smooth transition from nursery to Primary One.