Nursery

Thank you for being interested in our Nursery!

The Nursery at Roundwood is a very special place where your children will flourish, experience new things and have the best possible start to help them get ready for ‘big school’.

We are lucky to have fabulous facilities including a dedicated nursery room and outside play area, as well as our Forest School, Sensory Garden and other outdoor learning spaces. 

Our highly experienced, passionate team put the children at the heart of everything they do – so that your children are safe, happy, have fun and can build strong foundations for their learning.  Our team includes a teacher, Forest School Leader and highly qualified nursery staff who have specialised in Nursery and Early Years – and they all love their time in Nursery!

What we offer

From September 2023, we are very pleased to be offering both sessions during school hours and, in conjunction with our afterschool club provider, a full wraparound offer (from 7.30-6pm).

Teacher & Forest School leader sessions (8.30am-11.30am/12.30pm/3pm)

All children aged 3 and over on 1^st September can utilise the 15 hours free childcare provided by the government.  These sessions happen every morning from 8.30am-11.30am.

We also offer full school days from 8.30am-3pm, for which you can utilise 30 hours’ free childcare if you are eligible (check eligibility here for 30 hours free childcare), or else you can self-fund these sessions (see here for information on fees). 

In the afternoons, we offer either Forest School with our qualified Forest School leader or Outdoor Explorer sessions.

We ask that your children comes to our Nursery for at least 4 mornings each week and strongly recommend all 5 mornings (which uses all of the 15 hours’ free funded childcare). We passionately believe this gives the best outcomes for your child-we plan our curriculum across the whole week and don’t want any child to miss out. It also really helps the children develop social skills when they are with the same small groups all week. 

We also offer lunch club from 11.30am to 12.30pm, where your child can enjoy a hot lunch in school (or bring a packed lunch) – all of our nursery children eat together and then spend some more time playing with their friends.

You can ‘mix and match’ morning, morning and lunch and full day sessions to fit whatever is right for you and your child – the only restriction is that the free 15 hours is used for at least 4 of our morning sessions. 

Breakfast and Afterschool Nursery club

Nursery children will be able to attend Breakfast club (7.30-8.30) and afterschool Nursery club which will be run by Jousters, who currently run our afterschool provision for the rest of the School.  Nursery club will take place in the usual nursery room so that the children are familiar with the environment.

Applications

Please apply here on our website by Monday 6^th March 2023 for school-run sessions. We will offer places shortly after this. If you apply after Monday 6th, we will either add you to our waiting list or offer you a place in line with our admissions policy.

If you wish to access Jousters provision, please find more information here on how to arrange: Jousters Childcare – Roundwood Primary School

Any questions?

Please contact the Nursery team via the school office – phone 01582 460756 or email admin@roundwoodprimary.herts.sch.uk

A typical day in nursery

There are never two days quite the same in our Nursery. One day we might be flying off to a warmer country to climb the highest of mountains. Or swimming in the depths of the ocean in search of seahorses and turtles.

We begin our morning session with child-initiated learning. This is where the children choose where to learn and play independently. During this time, friendships are forged, communications are rich and imaginations run wild.

Next, we come together to sing our welcome song and share news from home, or to celebrate birthdays or special celebrations. This is followed by wake and shake, where we reawaken our bodies following a short time of sitting and listening. Our learning then moves in a group-time session, where we will cover one of the seven areas of learning and focus on a learning statement from the EYFS framework. Our group-time sessions are always visual, active and engaging.

Our nursery children are encouraged to bring a healthy snack and water bottle and we sit together to enjoy this special time. This is a lovely time for the children to chat amongst themselves, and is so lovely to hear the many diverse topics that are discussed!

At nursery we like to be ready for all eventualities such as the British weather. We ask that all children have a pair of wellingtons boots and an all in one waterproof in school. These are so invaluable and allows the children to experience all weathers and participate in all outdoor learning.

Once we have re-fuelled our bodies with food and water, we go off to explore the outdoors. The children have the opportunity to climb and balance, explore our sensory areas with water, sand, and mud. In the outdoors the children can experience creating art on a larger scale. Such as using water based paint sprayer on large canvas or creating natural art from natural resources that are all around us.

Our morning sessions draws to close with a plenary session of all that we have learnt and done. We share a story together before some children head home and the others head off for lunch.

In our Afternoon session, we follow an Outdoor Explorer or Forest School programme that is both active and enriched with lots of new experiences. We still follow the EYFS framework statements with a focus on outdoor learning.  The children love to explore our vast school grounds and thrive on the freedom this gives them. We have been digging and collecting soil to turn into mud. We had a great time making mud pies and decorating them with acorns, leaves and twigs. We have collected our own apples from the school orchard and made apple crumble, yummy! One of our favourite explorer sessions was collecting branches and making our own den to have our afternoon snack in. We also have a child-initiated learning hour during the afternoon and finish our day with a story using props to help bring the story to life.

Online application for the next academic year starting 1st September 2023 for children born 1st September 2019 to 31^st August 2020.

Our priority for all children in our Foundation Unit (Nursery and Reception) is to provide your child with a safe, warm and stimulating learning environment. We strive to give every child the support they need to fulfil their potential and achieve this by building positive relationships with parents and carers.
We promote effective early learning through playing and exploring, active learning & creating and thinking critically. We endeavour to develop the children’s ability to make decisions and become independent learners, thus encouraging them to share responsibility for their learning.
You are very welcome to come and see us please call the school office on 01582 460756 or click here.

Also – if you have any questions, please feel free to contact the school office and they will do their best to help (or put you in touch with someone who can).

Please only complete the form below if you are applying for a place for the academic year 2023-24.

Notes to parent

How the information on this form will be used:

By completing this form and signing the declaration you are agreeing for Roundwood Primary School, if they are oversubscribed, to check whether your child’s details meet the school’s published admission rules and if he/she can be offered a nursery place.

Any personal data collected will be treated as confidential under the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998. We will not use the data for any other purpose, nor will we share your data with any third parties other than the Department for Education (for statutory reporting), Hertfordshire County Council departments who may from time to time send you advice, guidance and information relating to changes to early years provision and educational services that are relevant and/or of benefit to your child, and your local children’s centre who support the local authority by assisting families to access the services that children are entitled to.

Children who have been adopted from care or are subject to a special guardianship order or a child arrangements order.

Eligibility will be based on your declaration that your child was formally a looked after child and on the evidence of their status e.g. a copy of the relevant order. This form and a copy of the relevant order should be seen by the school and they will confirm with Hertfordshire County Council that they have seen confirmation and enable a place to be offered under this criteria.