Woodcroft Early Years
At Woodcroft Nursery your child will be greeted by our warm, welcoming and caring staff. We have a passion for children’s education and believe the experiences your child has in the Early Years sets the foundation for their future learning. In our Early Years setting, we strive to provide a vibrant, engaging environment to inspire children to play and learn. Our Early Years comprises of two classrooms, shared with our lovely Reception class and an amazing outdoor area!
MEET THE
EYFS Team
Miss C Bateman
Teacher
Mrs N. Whitehurst
Teaching & Learning Practioner
Mrs S. Johnson
Early Years Practitioner
Alongside focused daily Phonics, Mathematics and literacy activities, staff plan play activities based on topics tailored to children’s interests. Our wonderful staff help to facilitate children while they play, helping them to learn whilst they play in a fun, engaging and supportive environment. We offer Forest School sessions as part of our weekly timetable to provide a wealth of outdoor learning opportunities such as den building, exploring the natural environment, discovering the world around them and learning how to safely use tools. Allowing them the freedom to be creative and use their imagination in a variety of ways in the outdoor environment, Forest School also encourages the development of spatial awareness and gross and fine motor skills. Forest School provides exposure to manageable risk, which teaches the children how to assess risk and tackle it safely.
We offer a variety of play spaces including role-play, sand, water, construction, small world, a cosy reading corner, maths area, mark making and phonics areas, funky fingers (to promote fine motor skills) and a creative area.
The curriculum is planned around the following areas
- Communication and language development
- Physical development
- Personal, social and emotional development
- Literacy development
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
Nursery & Reception Information
We endeavor to go out in all weather, unless the conditions are too severe or unsafe! If it is cold and rainy or snowy, we wrap up warm and go out and explore. After all, this provides many more learning opportunities for children! As they say “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes”. As well as simply encouraging a love of nature and the great outdoors, outdoor play has many other benefits for our children, it promotes healthy physical activity, team play and social interactions. Outdoors, children learn so much many things without even realising: from problem solving to social skills. Playing and learning outside encourages the children to show and develop their individual characteristics of effective learning.
Our nursery setting is open Monday to Friday during term time, providing a full and busy curriculum for children aged between 3 and 4 years old. We manage our own waiting list, so if you would like to register your interest before your child turns 3, we will happily add them to our list. If you would like to apply for a nursery place for your child please contact the school office on 01538 714796 or woodcroftoffice@sbmat.org. We will arrange for a welcome pack to be sent out to you which will include further information on our Nursery setting. When your child turns 3 and is due to start in Nursery we will send the relevant forms and arrange a home visit as part of our induction process. During this visit, our staff will talk to you and make arrangements for your child to begin their bespoke transition into our nursery setting.
We offer provision for children from their 3rd birthday. Alongside funded places we also offer additional paid sessions which can be booked subject to availability. Please see below for further information.
We can offer provision for your child, 5 days per week from 7.30am until 6.00pm during term time. We are lucky enough to have Ministry 4 Sport who specialise in running sports and care clubs. To find out more head to our Treehouse Before & After School Club page.
All children are entitled to 15 hours of funded Nursery provision from the term AFTER their 3rd birthday. In addition, parents may be eligible for an additional 15 hours of funded Nursery provision.
Click on this link to check your eligibility for 30 hours funding.
Help Paying For Your Childcare – Click here to visit the Childcare Choices website.
If your child was born between
1st April – 31st August
Your child’s funded place can begin on
1st September (Autumn Term)
If your child was born between
1st September – 31st December
Your child’s funded place can begin on
1st January (Spring Term)
If your child was born between
1st January – 31st March
Your child’s funded place can begin on
1st April (Summer Term)
We do accept Think 2 funding, please contact the school office for more information.
The following links provide additional information.