The staff in nursery are Jenny Knowles, (EYFS Team Leader) and Teaching Assistants: Laura Mather, Joanne Stevenson, Donna Gardner, Lindsey McAuley, Chelsey Stirzaker, Samantha Wallace and Emma Johnson.
Our intention within the Early Years Foundation Stage at Ryelands Primary and Nursery School is to be a consistently high quality setting to provide a secure foundation for children’s learning. We intend to provide a child-centred approach with learning and development opportunities planned around the needs and interests of each individual child, through a mix of planning in the moment, topic led planning and delivering an individual next step, skill-based approach. We recognise that many children start our nursery or reception with starting points significantly lower than typical development for their age and our intention is for all children to make accelerated progress to close this gap.
To aid this we ensure that our transition between the phases of EYFS is as effective as possible by ensuring it is a process and not an event. We aim to develop a triangle of trust and a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers to all work together to accelerate the progress of the children’s learning. We believe that every child should be included and supported and there should be equality of opportunities. We follow a gender neutral approach and work with several agencies to support the needs of all of our children.
Children in our foundation stage classes learn the skills and knowledge from the educational programmes.
Parents who work over 16 hours can check their eligibility for a 30 hour place. To check eligibility parents can visit: www.childcarechoices.gov.uk. If the parents are eligible for a 30 hour place for their child, they will be given an 11-digit code which they need to bring to nursery.
The 30 hour childcare at our setting is completely FREE. The children can attend Monday-Thursday 8.45-3.30 and Friday morning 8.45-11.45 and bring a packed lunch to nursery each day for NO CHARGE. (With the option to pay £15 to top up the Friday to a full day).
NEW NURSERY WRAPAROUND CARE FROM SEPTEMBER 2026
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New nursery wrap around care
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As a whole staff team we aim to:
- Provide positive relationships and respectful caregiving for every child. We aim for these positive relationships to develop children to become resilient, capable, confident, strong, independent, holistic, life-long learners.
- Provide a language rich, enabling environment inside and outside which cater for the needs and interests of our current cohorts.
- Maintain a safe, caring, happy environment where every child matters and each child feels safe, nurtured, loved and supported.
- Encourage respect for each other and for the environment.
- Nurture the spiritual, moral, social, emotional and physical wellbeing of each individual for life.
- Develop and promote lively and inquisitive minds with the desire and skill to explore new ideas.
- Foster a sense of awe and wonder and develop natural curiosity, so children enjoy learning in and out of school.
- Encourage our children to believe in themselves, while equipping them with the fundamental skills to enjoy and achieve in life.
- Interact with all of the children to develop language acquisition and oracy (and by using Wellcomm and NELI).
- Help children learn how to self-regulate their feelings, thoughts and behaviours, through supporting them through co-regulating their emotions and behaviours.
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The children learn within the prime areas of learning:
- communication and language
- physical development
- personal, social and emotional development
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The children will also learn within the specific areas of learning:
- literacy
- mathematics
- understanding the world
- expressive arts and design
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Session time information:
Options for your 15 hours of nursery child care:
Option 1: 5 mornings a week 8.45-11.45 am
Option 2: 5 afternoons a week 12.30-3.30 pm
There is also the option to extend a morning or afternoon session with lunchtime childcare (11.45am – 12.30pm). If your child attends nursery in a morning they can stay for lunch and then go home at 12.30pm. The cost for this would be £2.50 and your child could bring a packed lunch from home. This option is also available for children to arrive at 11.45am and have dinner at nursery before the afternoon session.
30 hour free childcare using parents working parent codes are:
Monday- Thursday 8.45 am- 3.30 pm
Friday 8.45 am- 11.45 am. -
Autumn 1
For the first half term we will settle all the children into nursery and focus on building positive relationships with their new peers and adults in nursery.
The children who returned to nursery from last year will help the new children to settle into nursery.
We will be busy learning ‘All about me’ and Autumn this half term.
- Autumn 2
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Spring 1
- Spring 2
- Summer 1
- Summer 2
