All areas of the Nursery School, downstairs, upstairs and the garden are accessible to children aged 3 to 5 years.  The garden is shared with children from the Orchard Room aged 0 to 3 years. All aspects of the environment are carefully structured. Staff plan a well balanced range of opportunities and enable young children to develop their own interests. Young children need an environment which offers opportunities to repeat experiences in different contexts to ensure their understanding develops in depth.

Workshops in the Nursery School
The environment, both inside and in the garden, is arranged in workshop areas linked to the curriculum:

• Graphics

• Books

• Mathematics

• Science

• Dreaming Space

• Creative

• Sand and Water

• Woodwork

• Music and movement

• Home Corner

• Tasty space (for cooking, snacks and meals)

• “Small world,” construction, blocks

Each of these Workshops has the potential for work in many areas of learning.  Staff ensure that the range of equipment and activities based in the Workshops offer progression and challenge for all children.  The ways in which Workshops are arranged promote learning:  furniture and equipment are set out to allow children to move around easily and safely between areas and from the building into the garden:  links are made between the activities and equipment e.g. placing books and graphics near to each other to provide examples of meaningful print.

A secure daily routine ensures that children can make informed choices about the best use of time available subject to staff guidance where appropriate.

Provision in the Orchard Room

The Orchard Room provides 18 places for children of three months to three years. We are registered for six children under two years of age and twelve children between two and three years old.  The Orchard Room is open between 8am and 6pm, 50 weeks per year and children can attend in a stable pattern over several days.  The admissions policy states that children should attend a minimum of three sessions. 

The Orchard Room, like the Nursery School, has an ‘entitlement’ environment in which children can access resources on a self-help basis.  The atmosphere is homely and nurturing.  The children can choose where they would like to play and learn, indoors or outside in the garden (which is shared with children aged 3-5 years attending Nursery School).

A key worker is allocated to each child when he/she starts in the Orchard Room.  Key workers build close relationships with each child and his/her family.  Wherever possible, the child’s key worker participates in his/her daily routines including feeding, changing and sleeping.  The key worker provides support and comfort to enable each child to feel safe and secure.  This gives children the confidence to explore the wider nursery environment. 

Orchard Room staff recognise that their focused interactions with children as key workers and play partners are the most important resource.  Key workers focus on each child as an individual and plan the day around the child’s needs.  Routines established at home for sleeping, feeding, resting, changing and potty training are continued wherever possible.

The areas created in Orchard Room include a sleep/rest area, heuristic play base, a home play area with ‘hiding’ places for disappearing and reappearing play, a mark-making area, books, music and an area that offers opportunities to explore construction and small world resources.  We use a limited range of brightly coloured plastic resources, preferring wood and other natural materials that stimulate a wider range of young children’s senses.

The staff observe, encourage, support, sustain and challenge the children as they play.  They interact sensitively with the children, initiating new experiences and activities when they judge that progress requires support: thus broadening the child’s knowledge and stimulating his/her thinking.

Across the provision, additional activities are planned to link in with individual children's interests and developmental needs.  Staff ensure that, over a period of time, children gain a balanced curriculum and this is monitored through analysis of children’s individual records.