Nursery Rooms

Our Day Nursery follows the Early Years Foundation Stage (statutory guidance implemented throughout the setting) and Development Matters, which is non-statutory curriculum guidance to support.

There are seven key features of effective practice:

In planning and guiding what children learn, our team will reflect on the Characteristics of Effect Learning, which are:

There are the seven areas in which use to plan and develop our activities:

In addition to the above specific requirements for the operation of Our Day Nursery, we also feel it is important to encourage participation from parents and carers. Therefore, In addition to operational requirements, we place great importance on parent participation and collaboration. Each room promotes ongoing, open communication, enabling parents to share observations, ideas, and feedback. This strengthens the partnership between home and nursery, supporting children’s learning and wellbeing.

. Each room also has a mascot, which is taken home weekly by one of the nursery children, allowing them to communicate the adventures of the mascot each week in our mascot diary, supporting parent partnership.

Outdoor Learning & Natural Environments

We offer extensive outdoor spaces that encourage curiosity, hands-on learning, and connection with nature. Children can plant, dig, explore water, and interact with animals like chickens and ducks. Outdoor features include a covered sand area, climbing and den areas, natural construction zones, water walls, and a large outdoor art barn. These areas support imaginative play, collaboration, and problem-solving.

Our Day Nursery - Toilet Training

At Our Day Nursery, we understand that toilet training is an important milestone in every child’s development. We work closely with families to make the process positive, encouraging and stress-free, following each child’s individual pace and readiness. Our caring team provides gentle support, reassurance and plenty of praise, helping children to build confidence and develop their independence in a safe and nurturing environment.

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Baby Room

Ages: 6-18 months

Capacity: 12 children & 4 team members

The Baby Room is designed to replicate a warm, home-from-home environment, ensuring that children and families feel welcome, safe, secure, and happy. Furniture and play equipment have been carefully selected from Community Playthings, a leading provider whose motto, “Children come first”, reflects our commitment to prioritising each child’s needs.

The room layout features separate yet interlinking areas that support holistic learning and encourage children to explore at their own pace. These areas include

A separate cot room
Home corner
Messy play
Reading
Construction
Small world play
Sensory and physical play areas

Daily routines are planned with flexibility, allowing team members to create in-the-moment invitations to learn based on the children’s interests. This reflects the principles of the Curiosity Approach, fostering engagement, exploration, and independent thinking.

The babies also have access to their own dedicated outdoor garden, designed to encourage exploration using all of their senses and interaction with natural resources. This area includes a water wall and a mud kitchen, supporting discovery, creativity, and problem-solving. An undercover calm space outdoors is also available, equipped with books, song props, and soft furnishings, providing a tranquil environment where babies can relax, self-regulate, and enjoy quiet time.

Through these thoughtfully designed indoor and outdoor spaces, the Baby Room nurtures each child’s physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development, supporting a holistic learning journey grounded in curiosity and exploration.

Transition Room

Ages: 18 months to 2 years

Capacity: 6 children & 2 team members

We added the Transition Room simply because we believe children of this age are experiencing an essential transitional stage as they develop into a more conscious sense of self. The main changes within this room are that children transition to sleeping on floor mats within the room and also that they begin to access the bigger back garden, including the trikes and climbing/large art areas.

The room is designed to include all elements of our Baby Room with adaptions to support the abilities of this age range and allow for increased autonomy.

The benefits of a smaller room capacity allows the focus to be placed on this transitional stage, which we feel is critical for children of this age. From experience, this approach greatly assists with moving into the Toddler Room and parents have fed back that it supports children in developing their communication and social skills hugely which is a great foundation for moving into the busier toddler room.

Toddler Room

Ages: 2-3 years

Capacity: 20 children & 5 team members

The world is now a much more exciting place for our toddlers, so it is important for this room to support their growing minds and need for exploration. We have created a fun and dynamic space, spread over 3 rooms that are full of resources that challenge and encourage investigative play.

The room layout features separate play areas focused on the 7 areas of learning within the EYFS that allows for the children to freely play in the space of their choosing. The children have regular access to our outdoor play area, which includes equipment designed to challenge their physical capabilities and spark their imaginations. In our garden, we also have retained a substantial outhouse, which lends itself perfectly to an outdoor classroom (due for completion early 2025).

Children love being outside in nature and experiencing the seasons change and our outdoor area containing a potion station, play-dough table and loose parts kitchen encourage exactly this. Children are given opportunities to get involved in planting seasonal produce, hunt for bugs as well as observing other wildlife within our abundant outdoor environment.

Preschool Room

Ages: 3-5 years

Capacity: 20 children & 3 team members

While school readiness is a key focus of our Preschool Room, we recognise that strong relationships, secure bonds, and a sense of wellbeing are equally fundamental to a child’s development. The journey through our Baby, Transition, and Toddler Rooms has laid the foundations for a more structured day, while maintaining a child-centered, holistic approach.

In Preschool, children begin to experience focused learning times, including phonics, letter formation, reading, and numeracy, with the aim of exposing each child to these essential skills before they transition to Reception. However, this is balanced with a strong emphasis on nurturing social, emotional, and creative development, ensuring children are confident, curious, and resilient learners.

The room is carefully designed to feel like a home-from-home environment, featuring an armchair, carpet, and lamp for carpet time. There are also dedicated tables and chairs for focused activities alongside flexible floor and creative spaces that children can access freely.

Areas within the room include:

Messy play using a variety of materials to support sensory and exploratory learning.
Role play areas with resources to encourage imagination, collaboration, and social development.
Reading areas that provide quiet time and opportunities for storytelling.
Writing areas where children can explore mark-making and practice handwriting skills.
Construction and small world areas designed to promote cooperative play and problem-solving.
Mathematics areas where children engage in hands-on problem-solving and reasoning tasks.
Exploration areas including a light panel for investigating colour, shape, and shadows, and a microscope for observing natural materials and developing scientific curiosity.

The Preschool Room also prioritises the development of independence and self-care skills, such as putting on their own socks and shoes, hanging up belongings, and completing everyday tasks with confidence.

All of these experiences are underpinned by the Curiosity Approach, allowing children to follow their interests and explore learning in an open-ended, child-led way. By combining structured skill-building with holistic, interest-led exploration, we ensure that each child leaves our Preschool confident, socially capable, and curious—ready for the next chapter of their learning journey.