Our Provision

Our Nursery offers provision from when a child turns 2 years of age until they enter Reception in the September after they turn 4 years of age. 

For 2 year olds we offer paid places (full days or morning only), and local authority places in the mornings only (for 5 days, other flexible options are also availble). Full details of our 2 year old provision including timings and costs are found here

For 3 and 4 year olds all our places are free of charge, full day, places. Full details of our 3 year old provision is found here.

Our Approach

Our Nursery environment is characterised by the formation of extremely positive and influential relationships between the school, pupils and their parents. We aim to support the development of the whole child, including their upbringing at home. Our curriculum is rich and varied. Our teachers are encouraged to dream big in their curriculum choices to inspire and engage pupils. In preparation for learning musical instruments further up the school, we invest in specialist music learning throughout the school – sport, drama and other enrichment activities also benefit from our all-through setting.

King Solomon Academy Nursery moved into a purpose built new nursery building in April 2021 at our Younger Years Site at Crompton Street, which houses 2-4 year olds. The site includes significant outdoor space for learning about plants, water, and materials and involve a great deal of activity and movement. Part of the provision in nursery is to use the outdoor space and wooded area to provide Forest School actitivites, building, working with and learning from the woodland area.

In the EYFS, we plan our provision based on the developmental milestones set out in the 'Birth to Five Years' document. The children's learning experiences are planned to enable them to learn and achieve in the early learning areas through play and investigative learning experiences. Children will learn both indoors and outdoors through safe, engaging cross-curricular experiences which are enhanced through warm, positive interactions by consistent and qualified staff.

Our 2 year olds will follow a planned cycle of half-termly topics as the basis for learning experiences. However, they will also follow interests more suitable to the cohort and in which they express fascination and enthusiasm. The teaching team will ensure there is an equal balance across the areas of learning and all staff contribute to our daily planning sessions where learning pathways can be discussed and adapted for groups of children or individuals. Children also benefit from enrichment opportunities such as Forest School, PE and Music through weekly specialist sessions as well as an exciting program of topic based workshops and visits. In this way, we offer rich and personalised teaching and learning which meets the needs of all our children.

The characteristics of effective learning are an integral part of our learning and are reflected in our observations of children. These observations, along with work samples, photographs and submissions from parents will create beautiful learning journals which capture the journey of a child's progress through their time in nursery.

Learning is structured to allow opportunities to learn formally including the foundations of phonics learning where the initial sounds are learnt in a fun and interactive way. We are keen that when pupils move into reception they are familiar with all the sounds needed to start reading quickly. In addition we introduce pupils to numbers and a rich vocabularly, so that they confident learners in reception. These short formal moments fall within a broader open and flexible learning environment where there is space to spread out and take part in a range of pupil activities to allow pupils to gain confidence and build on their curiosity.

We are excited to be able to welcome applications for 2 and 3 year olds for September 2021.

2 Year Old Nursery Provision

From September 2021, King Solomon Academy will be launching provision for 2 year olds. We are excited to build relationships with our families from a young age, building the foundations that will help our pupils to be happy and nurtured in the nursery years.

Our 2 year old provision will:

• Provide a loving, caring and safe environment for your child to grow and flourish
• Be based in our brand new, specially designed nursery building, with direct outdoor learning access
• Incorporate Forest School curriculum, led by our inhouse Forest School teacher
• Integrate carefully into our 3 year old, 4 year old and Reception curriculum

The timings of the day are set up so that siblings can conveniently attend the 3 year old and primary school day. Pupils who attend the 2 year old nursery retain their nursery place when they become 3 years old, when full time (8.30-3.30pm provision) is available, without cost, to all families.

Full details of the 2 Year old provision, costs and admission process can be found here.

3 Year Old Nursery Provision

The timings of the nursery provision for 3 year olds matches the school day. As well as being convenient for parents and giving us time to have an enriched curriculum for all pupils, it means that pupils are well prepared to be successful and confident when they enter Reception. 3 year old provision runs from 8.30am to 3.30pm (2.50pm on Mondays) without charge.

New starter places are available in the 3 Year Old provision each September in addition to those children coming from the 2 year old provision. The first places are reserved for those families eligible for 30 hours funding, but there are also a large number of places for pupils who are not eligible for this funding. We believe that providing a full day provision, we can support out families and allow our pupils to develop and learn quickly.

More information about our 3 Year Old Provision is found here.

Admissions

Our Nursery admissions information is detailed here.

After School Care

Parents can place nursery children in this facility up until 5.30pm (from September 2021).

For more information about the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum please click here.