Little Ed's Nursery
Laying the Foundations for Learning
Situated in the heart of St. Edmund’s School’s 40 acre site, the bright rooms and covered outside decking allow numerous creative spaces for exploration and discovery within our Little Ed’s Nursery.
Children are able to join us from the age of 2 years old and can stay with us until they are ready to move on to Reception.
Our age groups are as follows:
Nursery 1
Children aged 2-3 years
Nursery 2
Children aged 3-4 years
(in their pre-school year)
Our dedicated learning environment includes separate areas for our Nursery 1 and Nursery 2 children, allowing for age appropriate resources to be available for all children to explore independently. All our Nursery children benefit from having free flow access to a large undercover decking area that allows them to be outside whatever the weather.
Nursery children also have their very own garden, designed specifically for our Early Years children. The garden incorporates a large mud kitchen, sensory garden, climbing equipment and areas for free play and outdoor mark making.
Alongside inspiring resources, all these areas embrace our child-led learning ethos, enabling our children to develop their skills and interests through a play based approach. Little Ed’s is a nurturing environment where everything and anything is possible with the right encouragement and support.
Appreciating the importance of being outside enjoying the fresh air and the benefits that come from learning outside the classroom, our Early Years children also have their very own Forest School area within the school grounds. This is visited regularly throughout the week by all Nursery and Reception children. From toasting marshmallows on the fire, to making dens, the possibilities for learning and exploring outside are endless.
Daily Sessions
There are 3 types of session at Little Ed’s:
Morning:
8:00am -12:30pm.
This session will include a morning snack and a cooked lunch provided by the school kitchen.
Afternoon:
12:30pm – 3:15pm
This session will include an afternoon snack.
Full day:
8am – 3:15pm
This session will include a morning and afternoon snack, plus a cooked lunch provided by the school kitchen.
Appreciating that our parents have busy lives, we also offer after school care options with Stay and Play Club from 3:15pm – 4:20pm (Monday to Friday) and Little Ed's Picnic Club from 4:20pm – 5:30pm (Monday to Thursday). These are available for booking on a flexible basis by parents. If your child is with us for Supper Club, a light supper is provided for them.
Little Ed’s also offers Holiday club provision for an additional 13 weeks of the year, taking us up to a total 46 weeks of opening. The Holiday club is run within the nursery setting by familiar staff and offers daily sessions from 9am – 4pm with a cooked lunch provided.
Communication & Learning Journeys
At Little Ed’s, we consider good communication between home and school imperative and we value the day-to-day contact we have with our parents. Our dedicated Nursery team are always pleased to meet and chat with parents either before or after a Nursery session and we also host a parents evening in the Summer term.
To ensure continuity, a designated member of our Little Ed’s team becomes each child’s key worker who will interact and relate with them every day, promoting their confidence and independence. Furthermore, our fantastic secure “Online Learning Journeys” help the nursery staff to record and celebrate your child’s achievements and interests at nursery. The online system creates an effective, frequent two-way flow of communication between school and home, making sure you really do play a big part in your child’s Nursery life. The same online learning journeys follow the children through Nursery into our Reception class ensuring the very best continuity for everyone.
Nursery Life
‘’Play is the Highest form of Research’’ Albert Einstein
Life in our Little Ed’s Nursery is certainly fun, busy and diverse. The children are always at the centre of our provision and we believe in following their individual interests and abilities.
Our staff facilitate access to a wide range of resources and introduce learning experiences for the children through varied play opportunities provided each day.
We encourage children to be independent in their play and learning and allow lots of opportunity for ‘free flow’ play where children can choose which resources and activities to engage with. Staff interact with the children throughout the day to enhance and support their learning and individual interests.
Our Little Ed’s children also benefit greatly from weekly visits from Specialist Teaching staff who lead sessions in French, Sport and Music. The children also regularly access areas of the school such as the Multi Purpose sports hall and the extensive school grounds which includes an Early Years forest school area. From September 2024, we have started new 'Stretch and Grow' dance classes where the children have the chance to turn their energy into an adventure.
Early Years Children also enjoy external visits from, ‘Zoolab’ and an Animal Petting Farm, which are annual calendar highlights. We also enjoy having parents with interesting hobbies or jobs come to visit us – these have included a dentist, fireman and a willow weaving workshop in the past!
Throughout the year the children are involved with whole school events too including World Book Day, the school disco and local charity events. Not forgetting of course their own EYFS Sports Day, Nativity and annual Easter Egg hunt.
For 3 successful years we have enjoyed a fantastic and unique relationship with a local Care home, and visit regularly with our nursery and reception children. The benefits of these relationships for both the children and the residents is so incredibly positive and the children thoroughly enjoyed their visits.
Our Little Ed’s Staff
Our Little Ed’s Nursery is run by our Head of Early Years, Karen Bailey. Karen works with all of the staff in our Early Years ensuring the children across both Nursery and Reception experience the very best standard of Early Years education. She also works to ensure the smoothest of transitions when our children leave Nursery and join our Reception class. All of our Key Nursery staff are qualified to a minimum Level 3 in Early Years and hold their Paediatric first aid certificate. All EYFS staff access regular internal and external professional development training to keep our practice up to date with all of the latest initiatives and best practice in early years.
We offer staffing ratios of 1:4 for children aged 2-3 years and 1:8 for children aged 3-4 years. However, with assistant staff available we often benefit from a higher ratio of staff for our children.