St Bartholomew's CE Primary School

Welcome to St Bartholomews Primary School Foundation Stage Unit. We look forward to meeting you and your family and welcome you to visit our setting before requesting a place. We offer settling in sessions to ensure your child feels happy, safe and in the best environment to learn. We hope that the session/s will help your child to settle and make you feel comfortable knowing we will love and care for your child.

Acorns Nursery at St Bartholomew’s CE Primary School in January, which has 28 children, has created an outdoor wonderland.

Gill Deakin, teaching and learning advisor for early years, said: "It is a magical place to be, where children are guaranteed a great start to their learning journey. All the adults oozed enthusiasm and were so tuned into the unique needs of each child in their care.

"There was a real buzz of excitement and achievement in the room from the children and from the adults, who obviously wanted to be there to help their children grow into independent and fun-loving learners."

She added: "Each child responded with beams of delight to show how much they appreciated the individual time the adults spent with them in their chosen play activity, which was needed for them to grow in confidence and feel valued as they learnt new skills.

"All this stems from the strong leadership of the whole early years unit starting with the two-year-old room, moving into nursery, and continuing into the reception class."

As well as welcoming new children, the nursery is offering the full 30 hours a week free places to parents who only qualify for 15 hours under the government scheme.

Teacher and nursery lead Nik Furnival said: "Since September the school has funded the additional 15 hours which has been a great boost to the children whose development has accelerated and, in some cases, has enabled parents to work or work more hours.”

Phase leader and deputy headteacher Mike Goodall said: "We were thrilled by the advisor’s comments. We work hard to do our best for all our children and to create a seamless transition from nursery to school."

Nursery staff Nik Furnival, Mike Goodall and Emma Godfrey introduce the children to Santa at their forest school campfire

In the Early Years Foundation Stage at St Bartholomew's, we pride ourselves on ensuring children are safe, happy and thriving in their learning. We want our children to feel welcome and at home with adults who care and believe in them throughout their journey through our school to achieve their dreams and goals. To do this we promise to support the children to develop their self-belief and independence which will allow them to flourish as they move through our school. We want to create a sense of awe and wonder in our young peoples minds and this starts as soon as the children begin their journey with us.

About our Nursery

At St. Bartholomew’s we aim to begin the school journey through our nurturing all-inclusive Nursery with the same overarching values and dedication as the rest of our school. Our Child-centred teacher led approach to nurturing our nursery children aims to develop confident well rounded children who will progress through a love of learning.

The environment we provide is stimulating and exciting and supported by qualified caring staff who know their children well and encourage them at every milestone.

We pride ourselves with excellent parent partnership and relationships with other professionals to guide and support families, giving children the best start and experience of education that they can.

Nursery Offer:

St. Bartholomew’s Nursery is an inclusive teacher led provision which caters for children from 2 year of age to school age.

Children are taught in one of two dedicated groups meeting the needs of the differing age groups.

Our Offer for our Little Acorns class which caters for the younger children from aged 2 years is Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 11.30am. Both funded and non-funded children can attend this setting.

Our offer for the older Nursery children who are taught in our Acorns class, from the term after their 3^rd birthday, until they join our Reception Class, or are reception class age is either 15 hours funded, 30 hours funded or a mixture of funded and non-funded hours.

Our Nursery operates throughout the year during term time for 38 weeks, we operate in the last week of term should you require it, in lieu of TED days

Should you have a fee paying place, you would not be charged should we have to close the nursery for any unforseen circumstance however, you will be charged should your child be absent.

We require 1 month notice for a change of hours. Consideration can only be given to this if there is space and appropriate staffing numbers to facilitate it.

Nursery opening hours and funding:

Little Acorns

Open from 8.30am to 11.30am Monday to Friday

You are welcome to enquire about a place for your child to start the term after their 2^nd birthday.

To find out if you qualify for a free childcare place with 2-year old funding, click here: https://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/2yearfunding 

Acorns

Acorns are open Monday to Friday from 8.30am until 3.pm.

Children can join our Acorns provision the term after their 3^rd birthday. Every 3 and 4-year old is entitled to 15 hours free childcare per week.

We aim to be as flexible as possible and will do our very best to meet each parents requirements regarding hours attended however, the usual sessions are either mornings from 8.30am to 11.30am or afternoons from 12 noon to 3pm

If you qualify for 30 hour funding your child can attend for longer sessions.

Should you not qualify for 30 hours but wish your child to attend in excess of 15 hours, you may request to do so and be invoiced on a monthly basis for the extra hours.

In some instances, we are able to ‘gift’ extra hours but this is considered strictly on an individual needs basis, agreed with our Nursery Manager.

To find out if you qualify for/apply for 30 hour funding, click here: https://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/info/20512/free_childcare_for_3_and_4_year_olds 

More information on funding and how to apply can also be found at Childcare Choices: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

Fee paying places

Should you not qualify for free childcare or want to top-up your child’s place with additional hours, you can do so. The fees effective from September 2022 are as follows:

2-year old – hourly rate £ 5.50

3 & 4yr old  - hourly rate £4.85

In brief

• Childcare for 2-3-year olds (Little Acorns), 3-4-year olds (Acorns)
• We offer 15- and 30-hour funding
• Sessions to suit your needs from 8am-3.30pm
• Term time 38 weeks
• Funded 2-year-old places
• Breakfast club
• Forest School with specialist Forest School leaders
• P.E.
• Cookery
• ICT
• Extensive outdoor area
• Specialised staff who are well trained and able to meet the needs for all children

Would you like to visit or put your child’s name down to start at our Nursery?

Having read the information about us, if you would like to visit and complete an enrolment form or have a look around to see our great provision, please telephone the school number 01299 823454 and you will be directed to our Nursery Admissions Administrator.

Policies

As our Nursery is part of St Bartholomew’s CE Primary School, many of the school policies which can be accessed on this website are relevant to the nursery provision also but in addition, please see the links below to specific documents:

Nursery Admissions Policy

Safeguarding

Early Years Intimate Care Policy 

To arrange a visit, please speak to Mrs Johnson via email on SJohnson@sbp.saet.co.uk or contact the school office via telephone on 01299 823454.