In the nursery environment, practitioners provide opportunities for children to use real life resources to make independent choices and to solve problems. Brightly coloured plastic toys have been replaced with real-life, open-ended resources and ‘loose parts’. Practitioners only intervene in the pupils’ play when they feel there is a good opportunity to expand on their learning and understanding.
Staff have high expectations of all children and celebrate a growth mindset. Practitioners play a key role in modelling and nurturing independent skills. This is evident in the nursery’s daily snack provision. Nearly all pupils pour their own drinks, handle knives, peelers and other tools safely, and wash their own cups and plates. Practitioners also use this time to develop pupils’ use and understanding of Welsh.
The nursery session follows the ‘rhythm’ of the child, and their learning is not interrupted to stop for focused activities. During the two-and-a-half-hour session, practitioners aim to achieve a balance where children have the opportunity to develop important life skills but also, follow their passions and interests. When a pupil makes a discovery or asks a question, the practitioners follow the their lead and give them time, space and support to investigate and explore their thoughts and ideas further. This approach directs all of the pupils’ learning.
Where the school identified writing as a whole-school action on the school improvement plan, the nursery practitioners began research into the pre-writing skills needed for children to write. All learning in the nursery aims to build the foundations needed in readiness to write, such as developing the children’s core muscles through outdoor play, and opportunities to develop coordination through large scale painting at different heights and angles.
