A DAY IN THE LIFE IN NURSERY
Normal Nursery School hours: from 8.15 am – 3 pm (the morning session ends at 12.30 pm).
Please find an example of the Nursery Timetable below.
8.15 am - 9 am
The children arrive at school. Most children arrive at about 8:30am and come into the school with their parents. They change out of their outdoor clothing, and say goodbye to their parents, rushing and waving from a window above the undergraduate quad.
Some of the older children come into school with an older sibling, or having said 'goodbye' to their parents at the school gate, come in to Nursery with one of the Year 8 children or a Gapper. They change quickly, eager to find a friend or an activity to work with.
Once in the classroom, the children quickly settle in, find work from the shelves, engage with open-ended bricks, trains or playdough to work with and chat to their friends.
9.10 am
Just after nine o'clock, when we have all arrived and are settled, we have our morning meeting, where we welcome our friends, sing our daily songs and have seasonal or topic discussions following the children's interests.
9.30 am - 11.30 am
The children continue their work in the classroom, selecting materials to work with from the shelves independently, or engage in collaborative open-ended work in the classroom or in the garden. The children are invited to use new activities with their teachers, either individually or in small groups, developing their skills and fostering their independent learning.
Throughout the morning, we encourage the children to have a glass of water whenever they need one, and sit and have a snack with a friend.
11.30 am
We are engaged in making sure our classroom is tidy, before washing our hands for lunch.
11.45 am - 12.15pm
Lunch is eaten with our Pre-Prep friends in the dining room.
12.15 pm - 12.30 pm
We return to the meeting room for a story, game or presentation of a new activity.
12.30pm
Some of our children finish their day and are collected from the Front Garden of the school.
12.30 pm - 1.30 pm
The children begin their afternoon.
We might begin in the garden, in the sandpit, engage in role-play in the mud kitchen following a hunt around the garden, or maybe read a book or work with art materials we have taken outside from the art studio.
On some afternoons, the children follow up with an activity they begun in the morning, or take up a new idea, perhaps introduced by a friend at the lunch table or following on from our group time or presentation after lunch.
The children will often have a project that they would like to work on in the classroom. They may like to revisit an activity they have begun in the morning, ask to work with something new with a teacher, or work with a series of activities from the shelves in the classroom.
2.10 pm - 3.20 pm
We tidy the garden and the environment by about 2:10pm and come inside for a snack with our friends.
The children will help to pack their bags, finish working in the environment and may leave work on a table with their name marker ready for the morning.
We finish the day with a story or two, some songs or games.
3 pm
Many children finish their day at 3pm and are collected from the Front Door of the School.
Some children join their siblings as they depart at 3:20pm (Reception), 3:25pm (Year 1) or 3:30pm (Year 2).
After School Care - Available until 5pm
If you wish your child to attend After School Care, please book these as far ahead as possible so we can help the children with this new rhythm to their day, and we can introduce them to the After School Care team.
