Children's personal development in the early years is a strength of the school

Ofsted, 2018

Our Early Years Provision consists of a Nursery class (Caterpillars) and Reception class (Butterflies). Each group has their own spacious classroom and share a large outdoor learning space. It is an exciting and friendly place to play and learn. 

When pupils first join us, we focus primarily on the 'prime' areas of learning:

• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development

These prime areas support pupils to become resilient and confident independent learners and lay the foundations for their success in the other specific areas of learning: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. We believe that children learn best through well-planned, inviting and open-ended play opportunities. We base our activities on observing the children's interests and then supporting, enhancing and extending these interests.

The outdoor environment is very important to the children's learning, as it gives children unique opportunities to learn about nature and enables children to develop their physical skills on a larger scale and to begin to learn to manage risk in a supported and supervised way. The topics taught within EYFS are based mainly on the children's interests. This is because we know that children learn best when they are fully engaged and interested in what they are learning. The children are encouraged to be independent, critical thinkers and learners, as well as risk takers.

If transitioning from our Nursery, or joining our Reception class from elsewhere, we will offer your child a well-planned and gentle settling-in programme. This usually involves a phased admission into Reception over two or three weeks.