Manor Lodge Nursery is a happy, nurturing environment where all families and children are welcome. We see our Nursery provision as the first steps of each child’s education journey.  At Manor Lodge Nursery we recognise the importance of building strong relationships with all our families from the very beginning. Every family has the opportunity of a home visit from staff: this is designed to get to know the child in their home environment and build relationships with parents. Families are then invited into nursery for children to become familiar with the setting and build confidence for starting nursery.  As a staff we recognise the uniqueness of every child and strive to celebrate and develop every child in their individual way.  Learning takes place in high quality provision areas both inside and outside, which reflect children’s interests and introduces them to new and exciting learning experiences. Communication and Language is at the heart of our Nursery curriculum and staff take every opportunity to encourage children to speak to both adults and other children about their play, extending their sentences and vocabulary.  There is a strong focus on Personal and Social Development which allows children to develop independence, understand and talk about their feelings and form positive relationships with other children.

Our curriculum is centred around stories: every term we read a traditional tale and a classic story book which form the springboard for learning in every area of the curriculum. Children are encouraged to explore activities in continuous provision which link to these stories and their learning is further developed in small groups teaching specific skills.

The seven areas of learning 

A Session in the Life of a Nursery Child at Manor Lodge

The day starts with the children finding their peg and putting away their coats and bags independently. They then go to play in the different provision areas of the classroom. This is child-led and helps the children to settle into Nursery. Then we gather for circle time, which is well structured to ensure children learn routines and can join in with familiar songs and rhymes. This time is used to introduce new skills to all children including our phonics scheme Little Wandle. These skills are later consolidated in the setting with adult support. We then move onto group snack time where the focus is on social and communication skills. After that there is more child led learning in both inside and outside provision areas and also small group teaching to target next steps in learning. This may include simple maths concepts, Stories for Talking or creative skills. The session finishes with nursery rhymes and story time where the children’s language and vocabulary is further developed.