Environment

What first attracted me to Stevenage was the amazing garden and access to the woods. Life at Stevenage will be an adventure for our little ones, and we find children learn best when they are engaged and having fun. We want our children to be able to thrive on a combination of outdoor learning, teamed with our well-resourced, natural, and homely feel indoor environment for our indoor learning. We plan to provide a mixture of natural wooden resources and real items such as pots, tea towels, fruit and veg in our home corners so they can play in a real life home and use their imagination to play with friends and act out their emotions and storytelling skills.  We include pasta makers and real utensils in our playdough stations, to help practice fine manipulative skills and will do group times of yoga and emotion bags to identify how we are feeling or games and story sacks to encourage sharing.

I believe today; children have a wealth of experience in ICT at home from a young age. We move slightly away from technology and put an emphasis on real life experiences and learning through play. We will use ‘in the moment’ planning to engage children on their interests there and then and extend their learning through this.  We ignite their curiosity – setting up activities as ‘provocation’ and having a curiosity approach to learning. This could be in a ‘Gruffalo’ builder tray, with props from the story, the book, key words, and sensory aspects from the story such as mud and grass – to ignite the children’s imagination and senses, with staff to support their learning and extend development – working towards their next steps. All our resources are set up on shelves and crates for the children to access easily, or in baskets of treasure for our little ones to discover. As a nursery owner I encourage so many different messy and sensory activities every day for the children to explore and we incorporate communication, language, literature, and maths into every area to encourage the children to learn and access this in their play. Our Staff team will plan activities such as science experiments and we will have different set ups in our mixing stations such as fruit tea, with water, teas, lemons, limes and fresh herbs for the children to mix and explore with their senses.

We consider the spaces around your child to be like their third teacher joining you as parents and us as educators in guiding them through their learning. And you’ll notice how we use our garden area as an outdoor classroom too, full of features to support their play and learning. Our Baby, Tweenies, Toddler and Preschool rooms are perfect for the ages of children that spend their time in them.

Our nursery aims to create a home from home environment – our ethos has influences of Hygge and the curiosity approach to ignite their curiosity to explore and learn and we aim to include the following in nursery:

• Atmosphere – creating a warm, calm and homely atmosphere
• Presence – focus on what they are doing and feeling right here, right now
• Pleasure – activities that are fun and promote happiness and wellbeing
• Equality – sharing and respect for others
• Togetherness – spending quality time together and forming strong bonds
• Gratitude – time to reflect and discuss what they’re grateful for
• Harmony – less focus on competitiveness and instead enjoying playing together
• Truce – learning to play fairly and manage conflict
• Comfort – a comfortable, cosy environment
• Shelter – space to relax or read alone

We incorporate this by adding cosy book dens, real life resources in our home corners and create potion benches and playdough units with herbs, scales and fruits to ignite curiosity and invite play.

Babies Environment

Our baby rooms offer so much for the youngest children at our nursery, providing them with a space that caters for their quickly developing needs.  Space for cosy cuddles and stretches in their infancy, toys and activities to boost their physical development – rolling, sitting, standing, and striding.  And place for that all-important exploration as they begin to make their mark on their little world.  To support this babies get more space per individual child than the older children at the nursery, enabling them to master their movement and interactions before progressing on their nursery journey. 

Tweenies Environment

The Tweenies room benefits from a number of dedicated spaces, all designed with sensory and creative activities in mind to stimulate the children’s development and enjoyment. These areas help the children to explore their creativity through activities such as reading, messy play and daily structured activities, supported by our staff, throughout their time with us. We continue to build their confidence, encouraging the children with toilet training through specially designed toilet facilities which are just the right size for children their age. Tweenies benefit from a staffing ratio of one member of staff looking after no more than four children.

Toddlers Environment

Around the age of 24 months, the children progress to the Toddlers room, introducing them to a world of possibility!  We carefully design the layout and equipment to give Tweenies and Toddlers many opportunities to challenge themselves through exploring freely to manipulate and master the toys, games and learning resources.

In these rooms, we see your child introduced to caring for themselves and taking their first steps towards independence with potties, toilets and sinks available within the room where your child will be supported, guided, and encouraged.  You will notice that we have many familiar household items and features available for your child to play with, this supports your child’s natural desire to imitate what they see you and other adults do around them, with smaller versions designed with their development solely in mind. 

Preschool Environment

Your child will embark on their pre-school journey with us at around three years old, enjoying an enriching learning environment that fully supports their individual needs as well as the group activities and play. There will be some guided areas, such as construction area, home corner, book area, and creative spaces for music and art.

To complement these, we provide a range of areas and activities which serve different purposes to inspire your child’s imagination and role play, they’ll be able to safely explore feelings and friendships, develop problem-solving, and have space available where they can have quiet time and reflection.  Their time in the pre-school environment leads them towards starting their school journey, where their first year at school sees them complete their Early Years Foundation Stage journey that began at our nursery.