Hedgehogs
Welcome to Wellington Nursery
Welcome to Wellington Nursery. We provide a caring, exciting and happy atmosphere for children from the age of 2 and ½ years old to attend and take their first steps into education.
I thought I would introduce myself and talk about our wonderful nursery. My name is Emily Sevenoaks and I am the nursery manager. I work very closely with my nursery assistant, Clare Bowcott who has been a well-loved member of the Wellington School community for quite some time. We also work very closely with our Head of EYFS, Miss Evans to help strengthen our links with Reception and help develop our understanding and planning of the early year’s environment.
In the Nursery, we take pride in carefully planning stimulating and structured activities built around the children’s interests however allowing for free flow and child-initiated play. With our experienced staff, all children are encouraged to explore, learn and discover. We implement a topic-based approach to learning but are flexible to changes where we support the development of the whole child.
Our Nursery setting offers one large classroom with an adjoining wet area for all our messy fun. We also have an adjoining sheltered outdoor area with access to a large playground, fields and a wooded forest school area.
Our staff support positive relationships with both children and parents. We are open from 8:45 – 3:15pm each day and you can choose which days and sessions best suit you and your child, with the option of half day, full day and breakfast and after-school provision. Breakfast club is open 7:45-8:30 and afterschool club runs from 3:00-5:30, 4:15 on Fridays.
Through careful observation and assessment, we can establish each child’s next steps. We use SeeSaw as a communicational guide to help support positive relationships with parents and support strong connections between each child’s home and school life.
At Wellington Nursery, every child’s happiness is of paramount importance. We want all the children in our care to feel happy, safe and for their experiences to guide and support them for their next adventures in education. Please feel free to contact the school reception or email myself or Miss Evans directly for any more information.
Contact details: kevans@fernacademytrust.co.uk : esevenoaks@fernacademytrust.co.uk or phone our school office on 01432 830264.
Autumn Term Newsletter
hedgehogs autumn term newsletter 25.pdf
Autumn Term: Take it Outside Tuesdays
In ‘Take it Outside Tuesday’ for the last week of term we explored the festival of Diwali. We explored some of the key aspects of the festival and used different stories to help develop the children’s understanding. The children created some wonderful Rangoli patterns using coloured water and pipettes and also decorated hands using straws, sticks and leaves to represent hand tattoos knowns as Mehndi. They also created a larger Rangoli on our white sheet, which they painted independently.
Celebrating Diwali introduces children to different cultures and beliefs which is a key part of the ‘Understanding the World’ curriculum within the Early Years.
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Heading into the new term, we have adapted a new initiative called ‘Take it Outside Tuesday’. Outdoor learning is vital in the Early Years because it supports physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development by encouraging exploration, creativity, and a deeper connection with nature. Before the summer we developed our new Early Years garden, which now the children use and explore each week but on a Tuesday in particular as all our learning is taken outside – whatever the weather!
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As an Early Years department, we enjoyed a wonderful trip to Queenswood. The children went for a long walk trying to hunt down the characters in the Gruffalo story. We explored all the different trees and particularly loved seeing all the leaves changing colour. After lunch, we played in the playground. The children showed great skills and determination in trying to climb the apparatus. Woodland environments encourage active play like running, climbing, and balancing, which helps develop gross and fine motor skills, coordination, and strength as well as providing a safe space for children to take managed risks, which builds confidence, self-esteem, and resilience.
Fruity Thursdays
The Early Years smelt very sweet due to our fruit cutting activity. The children had great fun choosing their favourite fruits and cutting them up to make either a fruit salad or fruit kebab. Activities such as creating fruit salads from harvested produce connects children to the concept of harvest and helps them make links to the food we eat. We especially enjoyed eating our wonderful snacks at the end of the day!
Please Don’t Forget…
- Healthy/appropriate snacks and lunchboxes to be provided please
- A labelled bottle of water
If you would like your child to have hot dinners, please speak to Mrs Pennington in the office.
If you have any questions regarding nursery please speak to Miss Sevenoaks (Nursery Manager) or Clare (Nursery assistant).
Email: esevenoaks@fernacademytrust.co.uk
