Facilities
Located within five minutes walk of the Avery Hill campus, the Avery Hill Day Nursery provides 30 places for children from 2 years to 5 years.
The Nursery is open for 42 weeks a year, 8.00am - 6.00pm Monday - Friday. Fees for student parents are £45 per day, staff parents pay £50 per day. More details on fees and opening hours can be found in the section Using the Nursery.
The Nursery provides a clean, fresh and bright environment where children have ample opportunities to be active and each child is cared for according to their individual needs. Healthy meals and snacks are provided for all children.
Classrooms
For age group 2 - 3 years and 3 - 5 years there are two classrooms.There is also an outdoor classroom for age group 3-5. There is also a large garden and the Forest School (see below).
Child-led activities: it's OK to be me!
The Avery Hill Day Nursery is led by the principles set out in the Department of Children, Schools and Families's publication Early Years Foundation Stage: Every Child Matters, fostering an enabling environment and child-led learning.
More information is set out in the Nursery's aims.
The Forest School
Avery Hill Day Nursery has introduced a Forest School within their setting that is very much part of nursery life. Forest School uses the outdoor environment to help all children learn. They discover the wildlife that exists within the forest and the changing seasons.
Through regular visits to the Forest School, they are encouraged to develop independence, improve language and decision-making, and raise their self esteem through small achievable tasks.
What are the aims of Forest School?
To allow children:
- the time and space to explore and learn at their own pace
- to develop a relationship with their outdoor environment through frequent and regular experiences throughout the year, not just as a one-off
- to use their own inherent individual style of learning
Offer children the opportunity
- to make their own assessment of risk
- to develop thinking, speaking and problem solving skills
- to build on their innate motivation and positive attitude to learning
- to help them understand, appreciate and care for the natural environment
- to support and enhance all areas of learning
A typical Forest School activity
- The children are read the story Walking in the Jungle.
- The children then take active roles in searching and discovering the animals in the story hidden in the Forest School. thereby re-enacting the story.
- They bring the story back into the classroom by activities such as making a map of their adventures using things in the Nursery.
Other activity areas in the Nursery
Home Corner
A part of the Nursery where children can play at making meals and washing up. Home Corner has real cutlery, which teaches the children how to treat everyday objects with care. Other skills they learn in Home Corner are sorting, counting, tidying and building.
The Vegetable Patch
Each year the children grow a selection of vegetables in the vegetable patch within the Nursery garden. The vegetable patch gives the children the chance to be involved in the growing process, from planting seeds through to harvesting the crop.
ICT in the Nursery
The Nursery has a number of brand new PCs with educational software including drag and drop applications.
Sensory Area
A sensory area to encourage interactivity and stimulate the children.