Welcome to Bolton Brow Nursery, a happy, calm and caring environment where children become sociable, resilient and confident.
Places are available now for children aged 3-5, with up to 30 hours free childcare available. If you are looking for somewhere your child can develop a love of learning as they play and explore in a safe and nurturing environment, read on to find out more about our nursery.
Let our nursery teacher, Mrs Brunelle, show you what Bolton Brow Nursery is all about.
A day in the life of our nursery
8.45am-9am
Children arrive at nursery for a slow and calm start to the day. They follow a morning routine of hanging up their coat and adding their name to the display, helping them with name recognition, before choosing their area to play. Some children need a little while to settle in, so a gentle start helps.
9.30am
The children come together for a group activity led by the teacher or key worker. This could include language games or a focussed activity based around topics the children are interested in, whether rockets or dinosaurs.
10am
Movement and singing are great ways to build the core foundations of learning, developing language and concepts like patterns, and the children love joining in.
10.15am
Inside or out, independent play is what it's all about. We ensure our children have lots of time for extended play, and a variety of stimulating activities on offer. Children are free to follow their own interests, whether that's role play, mark making or building.
11.30am
We come back together for story based activities, reading together, exploring authors, joining in with actions and learning the language of story telling. Listening and rhythm form the foundation for early phonics learning.
12pm
We eat lunch together family style, with a choice of two tasty hot meals. Sociable and unrushed, daily routines such as this help children gain independence and self-confidence, practising skills they will need at school such as using a knife and fork.
1pm
The afternoon starts with an activity together, such as yoga or our favourite 'dough disco'.
1.15pm
The afternoon is chance for more free flowing independent play. Children are free to play outside come rain or shine, and most love to spend lots of time in our fantastic outdoor area. Once a week we have Forest School with our specialist outdoor leader. We also love to explore our local community, perhaps a visit to the Post Office to send a letter, or feeding the ducks.
3pm
Time to go home after a busy, happy day. We have strong relationships with our nursery parents and love to share our explorations with you.
What do children learn at our nursery?
Building the foundations
At the core of nursery is children laying down strong foundations that will support them in their future learning, things like developing practical skills, practising the building blocks of language or understanding the world around them, and we carefully plan our activities to support the seven areas of learning. We also build up their emotional foundations, nurturing confident, resilient children who care about others.
Learning to play
When you visit our nursery, you will find a calm and purposeful environment with much of the time, the children all busily engaged in independent play. But there’s no such thing as ‘just playing’ - they are actually working hard experimenting, exploring and learning. They are developing the social skills they need to play and interact with others and the independence to confidently accomplish day to day routines or speak in front of others.
Learning through play
When they move on to reception, children start to tackle some of the skills and knowledge they will need in school, such as grasping the concepts underlying phonics and maths, and gradually increasing their attention span. It’s still very much about playing though, there’s plenty of time later for sitting at a desk.
Because we’re part of Bolton Brow Primary School, we have a big advantage in being able to gradually integrate our youngest children into school life. We give them opportunities to get to know other teachers and older pupils and involve them in events like Sports Day. This means that starting school doesn’t come as a ‘shock’, but instead follows gently as they become ready.
The 7 Areas of Learning
Personal, social and emotional development
Communication and language
Physical development
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design
Qualified Early Years Teachers
Our Nursery and Reception provision is led by fully qualified Early Years teachers, so you can be assured that we don’t just provide great childcare but great education as well.
Talk for Writing
Our nursery children love stories. Each half term, we learn a new short story using Talk for Writing. The children love to learn the different actions and join in with the voices, while developing their story language.
Outdoor play
Outdoor learning is a huge part of our day. The children have the opportunity to explore outdoors throughout the day, no matter the weather according to their interests and learning needs.
Building relationships
Through purposeful interactions, play partnering, and modelled language, adults help scaffold and develop social skills for all children.
Do you like what you see?
If you’re interested in a place at Bolton Brow Nursery, please get in touch. We’d be delighted to meet you and to talk about your child.
Joining our nursery
Children are admitted to our Nursery class three times a year (September, January and after Easter) from the term following their 3rd birthday (or later). Full time and part time places are available, and full or half days, which is ideal for introducing children to the school environment.
Free childcare
All 3 and 4 year olds in England are entitled to 15 hours free childcare per week. Many families are entitled to 30 hours. You can use these hours for your time at Bolton Brow. Please contact the school office for further information.
