To help our children reach the desired destinations, we use the following Vehicles:

Environment – At Crossens Nursery School, our environment is our greatest ‘vehicle’ for learning. It allows for a wealth of opportunities and experiences which support and develop the 7 areas of learning through play. The environment considers the needs and interests of the children, whilst building on the progressive skills and knowledge appropriate to their development.

The ’Rhythm of the Day’ - Our routine is consistent in order to help children to feel safe and secure within the environment, having access to a wide variety of opportunities throughout the day. For this reason, and knowing how important relationships between children and their key workers are, our sessions begin and end with group time. This allows for emotional check-ins and brings all children back to their familiar adult.

Planning – We have a collaborative approach to planning to address the key needs of our children. Planning is informed by the direct feedback and involvement of the team each week during our staff meetings. Staff voice is very important to us and the insight of our skilled team members is shared, valued and used informatively to write the next plans for group time and for the environment.

Group Time and Book Sharing

Key Workers lead their group-time at the beginning of each session. The groups consist of the same children and adult each time, to aid the building of relationships and allowing for Key Workers to monitor progression further. The structure consists of: a welcome song, registration, a specific teaching element, and time to practice/ model such together. There are opportunities to embed this learning through ‘free-play’ in the environment. The ‘group time’ finishes with an ‘exit task’ linked to either COEL or the 7 areas of learning. Key Workers have a good knowledge and understanding of their pupils and know how to adapt the planning to suit the needs of their group. Sessions end in group time with a ‘Book Share’ focus, allowing topics to be addressed, vocabulary to be explored, early phonics skills to be applied and books to be explored via our ‘FINS’ reading lenses.

‘In the moment’

Staff have a good knowledge of their children and how best to move their learning forward. ‘PAUSE’ is used to help inform where and how to take the learning further. Effective interactions ‘in the moment’ include: providing further opportunities for challenge, adding a supportive resource, using ‘shared thinking’, questioning and quality vocabulary to extend thought and understanding, and finally some feedback regarding what the child has ‘done well’ and what they might try next.

Enrichment

Our pupils have access to wider learning opportunities such outdoor learning, resident artists, visits outside the nursery and also other visitors to our nursery.

Partnerships

We pride ourselves on our relationships with parents, carers and other agencies. Working together, we can ensure the best outcomes for our children, identifying barriers to learning early and taking actions to address such issues, before our children leave us to go to Primary School.

Please see our learning overviews to see how learning opportunities are mapped over the course of the year.