The Nursery Day
At Cumnor Nursery, we support all areas of child development through play, both inside and out.
We offer a wealth of rich and inspiring experiences, as well as a learning environment and inspiring teaching methods that encourage each child’s curiosity and interests to develop. Children leave the Nursery ready to move onto the next stage of their learning journey – whether they are moving on to Cumnor Pre-Prep or a local primary school.
A typical day at Cumnor Nursery includes:
Learning through play
Learning for young children should be a rewarding and enjoyable experience through exploring, creating discovering and investigating. Children have access to a wide and stimulating range of activities they can choose from, both free and guided, including crafting, painting, puzzles, imaginative play, small world, construction and messy play as well as our enclosed all-weather play area.
Investigation and exploration
At Cumnor Nursery we work through, and beyond, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. This allows us to tailor individual learning in order to achieve the best possible learning outcomes for each child.
Our child-centred approach and topic-based, creative curriculum enables us to support each individual child through activities including mark making to develop fine motor skills, exploring numbers, singing, rhyming and plenty of story time.
Our continuous provision ensures a wealth of activities for all children to choose; their interests and ideas are constantly explored, creating a fully engaging environment in which to flourish.
Active engagement
Being part of the Pre-Prep, the Nursery has access to all the school’s facilities, outdoor space and a committed team of specialist teachers including:
- Dance and movement with a specialist dance teacher
- Swimming with fully trained, specialist teachers
- Physical education and games with fully trained PE staff
- Woodpeckers
- Music classes with specialist music teachers in the Music Barn
Rest and reflection
Circle time is an opportunity for everyone to welcome each other, share ideas and feelings, talk about what they might be doing that day, and for individual children to share any news they have with their peers. After lunch all children in the Nursery have quiet time, during which the children rest and recharge their batteries ready for the afternoon. Those children who require a sleep are able to do so in our relaxing Quiet Room.
Food
As part of Cumnor House Sussex, Nursery children are extremely well catered for by Cumnor’s fantastic team who are passionate about food and dedicated to making food fun. Nursery children can have up to three hot meals a day including breakfast, lunch and supper which are all cooked on site. A light tea of sandwiches and fruit is provided for children staying between 4 and 5pm. We cater for all dietary requirements and ensure our food is nutritionally balanced and seasonal. Mealtimes are also an important learning opportunity and our Nursery children have their cooked lunch in the main school dining room where we actively encourage them to try new food, support them in learning to use cutlery and socialising at the table with staff who eat alongside.