At Shining Stars Nursery we provide exceptional early years education and childcare for children aged 2 – 4 years of age. We have our Little Stars group for our youngest children and our Big Stars group for our rising 4 year olds. The children in both of our Nursery groups benefit from our extensive curriculum based in our light, airy and spacious well-resourced nursery building. In addition they have the freedom to learn outdoors on a daily basis choosing from a variety of child focussed areas and activities in our extensive outdoor spaces. The classrooms are all on one level, providing full accessibility to all rooms. They are truly engaging spaces which really do facilitate the very best in early years education and care. 

The Nursery curriculum is planned around a whole school thematic approach, alongside children’s interests and needs, with high quality texts at the core. Some of our recent learning journeys include ‘Into the Woods’, ‘On the Move’ and ‘Splish, splash, splosh’! Our indoor and outdoor spaces are designed to reflect our termly learning journey and create the WOW factor to encourage curiosity and excitement about the learning to come. Our Nursery day interweaves a range of learning experiences including indoor and outdoor Discovery times, time for child initiated play with high quality continuous provision at the point of play and large and small group adult led learning. 

As we are fortunate enough to have our nursery grounds within our infant school, we are able to offer an abundance of outdoor experiences and opportunities for our youngest pupils. These include participation in many of forest school type ‘Nature Explorer’ sessions; a fully stocked mud kitchen in the large dedicated Nursery outdoor learning area; regular jaunts to the nursery allotment area with the opportunity for the children to participate in seed sowing and watching their plants grow as well as regular visits to our very own Wallace Fields Infant School & Nursery chickens, with the added bonus of collecting eggs! 

British Values

As a fully inclusive nursery all of our staff actively promote ‘British Values’ within our setting. 

Teaching the children British Values provides guidance on developing their spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development. This benefits all of our children, and better prepares them for when they move on to their Reception year, to be better prepared for a modern life in Britain. 

The four values we teach and include in our curriculum on a daily basis are: 

1. Democracy 

We teach the children to know that their opinions and views really count. We encourage them to ask questions to promote their inquisitive minds. During our nursery day we promote respect by listening to our peers when they want to talk, share and discuss. 

We demonstrate ‘democracy’ during carpet time when the children may vote for their Book of the Week or an activity they would like to do. By giving the children choice and encouraging their confidence will help them to make those decisions for themselves. We interact by playing and learning including turn taking and sharing which builds up further respect for each other. 

2. Rule of Law 

We promote the Rule of Law by following our ‘Nursery Rules’. Our Nursery Rules are discussed and created with the children and staff. Everyone participates and makes an agreement on the rules about tidying up, our walking feet and inside voices! 

We also teach Self-Regulation to the children as this helps them to understand not just their own, but the behaviours of others and enables them to come to terms with how they are feeling. We support our nursery children to be able to manage their feelings accordingly. 

3. Individual Liberty 

Within our daily sessions the children have lots of opportunities to develop their self-esteem and increase their confidence within their own abilities. We take account of the children’s interest when we plan their learning. We are always observing their interests within the nursery classroom, how much they are enjoying a certain activity/area within the room and we encourage the children to express these interests. We make sure to celebrate all cultures and festivals of the children within the classroom and support the children’s understanding and celebrating our individuality and encouraging this. 

4. Mutual Respect and Tolerance 

We encourage the children to talk about feelings and support them to express them effectively. By celebrating all cultures and festivals of the children within the room, we are supporting children’s understanding and celebrating our individuality and awareness by promoting diverse attitudes and challenging stereotypes. We have a well-stocked library of books, many of which discuss feelings, how our actions make others feel and how we can show respect to the unique backgrounds of everyone within our nursery.