Nursery

Our nursery classes are teacher-led, and all of our staff in the nursery hold a degree in early years. Our nursery provision has been rated as outstanding by Ofsted.

Our nursery staff have specialist knowledge of early years, and strong subject-knowledge. They are here to support your child with his or her transition into Reception class. School can be a shock to children who come along from private day nurseries, but at Ark Tindal the Nursery and Reception staff work really closely together to ensure this doesn't happen. We follow the statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (EYFS), which is set by the Department for Education.

Ours is a nurturing environment, which aims to develop the whole child. We focus on delivering the basics of reading, writing and maths - but we also support language, physical and social development. It is our aim that your child will learn to build strong relationships with other children at our nursery.

Every child is allocated a key worker when they join the nursery. The key worker is responsible for assessment and observations, and they lead small group work with the children. They'll also be your first point of contact if you have questions about your child's development. We use the Early Excellence Assessment Tracker, which allows us to easily keep track of your child's development, and share this with you, for you to add your own observations too. This means that everyone is kept informed and get a full picture of how your child is getting on in our classes, as well as outside of the nursery.

As we are part of Ark Tindal Primary Academy, we have access to more resources, and this means our nursery children take part in drumming lessons, assemblies and community days. They also have access to a large outdoor play area, an oasis in the middle of the built-up city.

Children at the nursery receive a free healthy breakfast, which they learn to self-serve, in order to develop their independence skills. The breakfast includes cereals, fruit and milk. 

Our nursery children also get an experience a week, which might be a visit from a farm, a story read in a different language, exploring a mobile Science Dome, or even a trip outside of the nursery.

We also offer sessions for families, including storytelling, workshops and play. Our family-learning programme is an opportunity for parents and carers to enroll on a course with us where you will develop your skills in supporting your child's education - this is a free course that we offer to help our community.