Nursery Bears 3-4
Welcome to Cotmanhay Nursery
Nursery Bears
Our wonderful nursery is currently led by Mrs Bailey (nursery teacher) and her fantastic and dedicated team of staff. We aim to provide educational and exciting experiences within a calm, caring and child-centred environment. We currently offer 52 morning places and 52 afternoon places for children aged between 3 and 4 years.
We Aim to Provide:
- A caring environment where children may explore and repeat experiences according to their needs.
- An atmosphere where every child feels secure, valued and confident.
- A broad, balanced and relevant curriculum, appropriate to the social, emotional, spiritual and intellectual development of individual children, including those with special educational needs.
- An approach to learning geared to the needs of young children, emphasising first hand experience, talk, PLAY and having FUN.
- Encourage children to be self-motivated, INDEPENDENT and questioning.
- Enable the children to make an effective, smooth and happy transition from home to Nursery and from Nursery to Main School.
- Involve parents in their child’s education. Parents are invited to take part in regular activity days and are very welcome to discuss their child's development with the nursery staff at all times.
Nursery Times
Morning Session - 8.30am to 11.30am - collection begins at 11.15am.
The Nursery gates/doors will be open between 8.30am and 9.00am for dropping children off and will be open again at 11.15am for collection.
Afternoon Session - 12.15pm to 3.15pm - collection begins at 3.00pm.
The Nursery gates/doors will be open between 12.15pm and 12.40pm for dropping children off and will open again at 3.00pm for collection.
Starting Nursery
Starting nursery is a very exciting time for most of our children and their families, however we are very mindful that this can also be an emotional time for some. In order to ensure all children have a fantastic start to their time in nursery we will stagger the times and dates of our new starters. We are also very mindful that all children settle differently, and some can find a busy nursery environment more difficult to start with, therefore we may offer a reduced week or a gradated entry should this be in the best interest of your child.
There will be lots of information shared with you prior to your child starting nursery. Please look through the documents below before your child starts nursery. If you have any queries or questions please do not hesitate to contact school.
Take a look around our Bears Nursery
Our Day in Nursery
Our nursery is split over two large rooms, which offers our children lots of space to play and explore.
Each day all the children engage in a short, fun and exciting carpet session with links to the current topics and themes. The children then have the opportunity to carry out a range of activities independently both indoors and outdoors and they will work with an adult on more focused learning tasks. All the children are offered a daily, healthy snack with a drink of milk or water and fresh drinking water is always available for the children to access. The children are given the opportunity to explore and play outside in the nursery garden and each day the children participate in some short activities from the Foundations for Phonics program provided by Little Wandle.
Toilet Training
Even though we hope that all children who start our Bears nursery will be toilet trained, occasionally, some children aren't.
We follow the Derbyshire County Council Guidelines and Policies for Personal Care.
Parents will be informed if their child has an accident, and how well they are doing using the toilet at the end of the session or if they have been changed. Detailed notes and records are kept on the times children are checked, reminded and changed.
Here are some links to information and advice on how to toilet train your child:
NHS Guidance - How to Toilet Train your Child
Derbyshire County Council advice on toilet training.
Parental Partnerships
We pride ourselves on our positive relationships with parents and guardians. All of our curriculum documents are available for parents to look at and the daily, weekly and termly planning is always displayed in nursery. We encourage all parents and guardians to complete questionnaires to enable the nursery team to develop their practise. Whilst your child is in our nursery you will be given the opportunity to attend parent activity days and we do offer parental interviews and all children receive a school report at the end of their time in nursery. Parents and guardians will be invited to join Class Dojo, we will then use this to share relevant information with you, and share your child's learning and experiences whilst in nursery. Parents and guardians can also add to their child's profile and have the ability to message the nursery teacher directly.
Multi-Agency
We work very closely with other agencies such as the Health Visiting Team, Sure Start workers and family support workers to ensure that we can meet the need of every child and their family.