Our Learning Environment

  Our Learning Environment  

The first five years of a child's life are crucial to their future development.  All our staff are committed to ensuring that the children within our care enjoy a safe, stimulating and challenging environment and for us that includes an opportunity for them to enjoy the love of God through song, prayer and Bible stories in simple appropriate form.

       

In the 30 years that we have been open, we have seen hundreds of children happily develop emotionally, socially, physically, intellectually and spiritually.  Many of them still come back to visit us, sharing with us how 'special' Samuels has been to them or return to complete  'Work Experience' opportunities with us. 

We are now at the stage where past children are bringing their own children to share in the Samuels experience, which of course is very special! 

Our nursery is very popular with local families of all faiths and cultures. 

       

   Early Years Education     

We base our curriculum on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and all our plans are interpreted imaginatively and creatively through play. Please see our ‘early years curriculum’ page for more information about the Early Years Foundation Stage. Our nursery provides a Christian foundation in education for children aged 2 years 6 months and up to 5 years in a rich environment of love and care. At Samuels we are pleased to offer:

   Personalised Learning   

All our children are linked individually with a named 'Key Worker'.  This key worker is your child's main person in nursery.  Staff work together to understand, and observe each child in their play to support their progress in all areas.  Should your child's keyworker ever be absent from work. We operate a 'key-worker buddy' system, whereby another member of our team, who knows your child well ,can step in. 

 At Samuels we understand the importance of building trust from children.  Your child's keyworker will spend quality time with your child , getting to know them first hand, and building a professional/caring teacher-child relationship with them. This is the first step to personalised, successful early years learning and teaching.  We follow each individual child's interests and extend on these to build on the child's learning & development.  We make regular observations and track their development  to enable us to have a careful and comprehensive understanding of their development and progress.

We regularly use observation, tracking and assessment techniques to help us understand where you child strengths are in their learning.  We also measure children’s levels of involvement and well being.  Parents are given regular opportunities to discuss these observations with their child’s key worker. 

We provide small story time language groups.  These groups make it possible for us to develop each child's language and communication skills. We use the adult engagement techniques to reflect on the sensitivity and stimulation of our staff and the levels of autonomy that we offer the children. 

Online learning Journals:  We use an online learning journal system and this software is called Tapestry. This secure platform allows parents to be actively involved in children's learning. Further details can be found on the red button called Tapestry below. 

     

                     

Our main play area  is carefully set up with lots of choice through free-access, to include imaginary and small world play, early maths, construction, tactile/sensory play, and much much more! 

         

         

                                                 

Our book corner/quiet area provides a light space for children to develop their early reading and literacy skills as well as  building on their communication and language skills.

We also enjoy  small group stories from a wider variety of books, learn songs and rhymes.

       

          

Our outside area enables children to ‘free flow’ from the play room to discover a wide variety of play activities in a safe, covered area. This is available throughout the year. They can explore sand, water, wood, stones, chalks and a variety of natural and manmade materials. Children can build with construction equipment, ride trikes, and wooden vehicles and use a variety of other physical play equipment.                                                   

In our garden area, children have opportunities to build on their knowledge and understanding of the the world through searching for bugs in our digging area and discovering the world of planting and harvesting vegetables and flowers. The children grow fruit and vegetables which include potatoes, tomatoes, beans, apples and strawberries which they plant, nurture and harvest.  These are then enjoyed at snack time and  others cut opened and explored to find precious seeds inside! *Seasonal dependant