St Bartholomew's CE Primary School

We begin our journey with our 2-year-old provision, the Little Acorns.

Each child has a qualified key worker adult who learns alongside your child, building relationships that enable them to deliver personalised learning opportunities to support their early development. We pride ourselves on building strong relationships with both parents and children as the early years of children’s learning can greatly impact on future achievements.

We believe in celebrating every small step that your child makes, from potty training to giving up their comforts. We have developed strong relationships with outside agencies that will allow your child to benefit from a wealth expertise.

As you know, at this age children learn fast and are interested in finding out about everything that we do. Learning through play allows children to build on and gain new knowledge and skills in a happy and safe environment.

We encourage social skills by providing exciting activities for children to look at and explore together. At this age children tend to play alongside each other but they do soon make friends and learn to play together with the help of those around them. Activities are free choice both inside and outside, with adults modelling and scaffolding skills.

Your child will have a specific key person that will get to know you and them really well, finding out what they like/don’t like and using this knowledge to plan for their success through all stages. Memories are captured through the use of Tapestry an online learning journal. This allows you to join their journey and also add to it at home.

We promote good behaviour through the use of positive reinforcement and modelling as communication does vary from child to child. We aim to work closely with families in order to support children and use distraction techniques when necessary to encourage positive play.

As your child moves into Acorns we continue with the fabulous work started by the Little Acorns team but look to add further awe and wonder to their educational experience by challenging and stretching them to become confident, independent learners. Your child will again have a key person in this room who will get to know them well. The room is led by a fully qualified teacher and our Nursery manager. We follow the key areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage, providing stimulating activities for learning. A balance of child and adult led opportunities will encourage your child to learn new and build on existing knowledge and skills in a fun and purposeful way.

The development and achievements of your child will be tracked and shared with you through TinyTracker. In addition, we provide weekly updates via Dojo. In September 2022, we will move to a more detailed weekly update on Dojo, replacing the current process.

Being a part of school allows us to utilise the facilities, such as, Forest School, the school hall, large playground and ICT suite which also allows the children to become familiar with the environment. If your child is offered a place at our school in Reception, they then don’t feel so daunted as they are familiar with both the staff and building, aiding transition.

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.

We claim for 38 weeks of funded sessions term-time, this includes any Bank Holidays which may fall within this period even if the nursery is closed. It also takes into account any Teacher Training days (TED) as we do not receive funding for these 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.

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.

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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.

Additional hours are available to meet the needs of the child and/or family.

To find out if you qualify for/apply for 30 hour funding, click here.

More information on funding and how to apply can also be found at Childcare Choices.

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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

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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.

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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.