Nursery Care
The Reggio Emilia Approach
We see children as competent, resourceful, curious, imaginative and inventive individuals who possess a desire to interact and communicate with others. A main focus of the ethos is to acknowledge the environment as the 3rd teacher – something that we hold very strong in our practice. We view our role as to organise and make accessible environments that are open-ended and rich in possibility and opportunity and that invite the children to embark upon extended exploration.
As a brief introduction to the Reggio Emilia Approach, please take a look at the video below:
With this in mind, opportunities for first-hand real-life experiences are a regular feature of the children’s time at Nursery. Trips we have taken the children on previously have included: nature walks; pond dipping; tree climbing; community walks and visits; delivering toys to Barnardos; delivering our shoebox appeal gifts; library visits; sports day\olympics in the local park; Clent Hills to explore trees and woodland; visits to the local florist, post office and travel agent; car journeys; farms; picnics;
We also invite interesting guests into nursery to give the children the opportunity to widen their experiences, some examples of this include: the animal man; ice cream van; fire engine visits, police visits and we’ve even had parents visiting to share their specific skills e.g. dancing, sewing, bricklaying, cooking, puppet shows and artists visits. The children absolutely love seeing different people and learning and appreciating how they live, where they work and the stories they have to tell. Of course all safeguarding and security procedures and permissions are always in place.
On a weekly basis we have Sport4kids who do outdoor multi skills sessions with the children in kindergarten and preschool. We also have Little Diamonds Yoga who come in and do a weekly yoga session with our kindergarten and preschool children.
We also invite guest visitors to do sessions with the children at different points throughout the year. For example, we’ve had a visitor do pottery with the children, a local church comes annually to do a story and song session and Santa visits at Christmas time. Each of these sessions has a range of benefits for the children, their engagement, their understanding of the world and their development as a whole.