Ofsted inspection

We have just been informed that an Ofsted inspection will be undertaken at St Mary's Nursery tomorrow (Friday 9th March). The inspectors will wish to gather parent/carer views about the school - this may be in person on the day, or you can complete Ofsted's online survey by registering with Parent View: http://www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk

Parent View asks for your opinion on 12 aspects of your child's nursery, including the progress made by your child, the quality of teaching, dealing with bullying and poor behaviour. The inspectors will use the online survey responses when inspecting St Mary's Nursery.

Please also take time to read the leaflet for parents/carers by clicking here.

Weekly round-up

Monday

Welcome back! We hope you all had a great week off. The children all looked refreshed and were raring to go for another fun week at nursery. Today's small world learning was about the natural environment, with the children exploring logs, leaves and grass. Their attention to detail was challenged in a Hexi-snaps activity, where they needed to create a shape that corresponded to a pattern on a picture. It really got their brains working after their week off!

Tuesday

The children were learning about oral health today - our practitioners had laminated pictures of teeth, and had coloured in "plaque" which the children had to brush away using real toothbrushes. All the children took great care to get rid of every last bit of plaque - we hope they are as conscientious about brushing when they are at home! We also talked about cavities (hopefully something that none of our children have experienced!) and how they are dealt with. Elsewhere in the nursery, children were getting creative with the stickle-bricks, creating a car wash for the toy cars. We used the iPads to look at different sorts of car washes so the children could decide how they wanted theirs to look.

Wednesday

We were thinking about emotions during circle time today. We read a book based around "emotion faces" and also did a photo puzzle where children had to guess what the emotion was that was being shown. Emotional literacy is a learned skill, and children need guidance if they are to understand the nuances of different emotions. It is also helpful for them to be able to put a name to their own emotions, as it enables them to understand and process these big feelings that they have! We also had fun today with a raucous game of tag outside (which segued into a game of hide-and-seek); other children engaged in a "party" role play, and made pretend party bags out of sandwich bags filled with small pieces of cut up paper and material as the "sweeties".

Thursday

We finally finished off our papier-mâché heart today, with the children showing some excellent colour-mixing skills. The left over paint was used for a free-painting activity, with some lovely pieces of art being produced. There was more messy play elsewhere, as we made moon sand out of cornflour and strawberry conditioner - this is excellent fun to play with, and smells great too! It can be formed and moulded, and has such a great texture that kids find it irresistible. It's super easy to make, so why not try it at home? You can find a how to here.

Friday

Today we made visual timetables to help the children's understanding of what happens over the course of the day. This is another simple idea that can be great to use at home, as young children often struggle with the concept of time. There are some useful resources here if you think this would help your child. We also revisited our activity from October when we planted the pumpkin seeds - we talked about planting the seeds and about how they grew, which led into a discussion about Spring and how the new growth will soon be coming. Although, looking at the weather forecast for next week, I think we may be waiting a little longer for Spring to appear!

We are hiring!

Nursery Assistant (part time)

St Mary's Nursery, Crowborough

We are looking to appoint a passionate and caring part-time Nursery Assistant to join the close-knit team working at our small, friendly day nursery in the heart of the Sussex Weald. We place great emphasis on a child-centred curriculum and developing opportunities for play inside and outside. We have a purpose-built classroom and a secure fenced garden with a covered pergola to facilitate outdoor play in all weathers. St Mary's Nursery was judged as good by Ofsted in February 2015.

The ideal candidate must:

• Possess a minimum of NVQ level 3 or equivalent in Childcare Education
• Have an excellent understanding of how young children learn
• Be committed to high quality early years practice which motivates children's learning and creativity
• Consistently demonstrate a high regard for inclusion and equality
• Work effectively with good communication and interpersonal skills

The nursery is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare and safety of children. Pre-employment checks and references will be sought and successful candidates will need to undertake a DBS check.

Salary will be dependent on qualifications and experience. Hours of work will be negotiable.

For an application pack, please email Gemma at stmarysnursery123@gmail.com

Newsletter

I hope you all had a lovely week off - could it be that Spring is in the air? It certainly feels that way (apologies if I've just jinxed it!). Click on the image to the right to view our newsletter for the coming term. We have lots of things planned, so don't forget to check out our diary page too.

Weekly round-up

Monday

We had a big fall of snow overnight, much to the delight of the children. Making sure everyone was wrapped up warm, we ventured outside to explore all that inviting whiteness. As well as being LOTS of fun, the snow gave the children many opportunities to develop their vocabulary as we talked about the properties of snow and how it changes (freezing, melting, liquid, solid). We brought snow inside as well so the children could investigate it further (without freezing their socks off!). Everyone was very sad when the snow melted in the afternoon. Hopefully we'll get another day of snow before Spring comes!

Tuesday

There was magic in the air today at nursery, with the children having lots of fun making potions. Everybody got into the spirit of it, and it led to a fun role play where Sophie was turned into a frog, Katie was turned into a spider and Wendy was turned into a bunny rabbit! Fortunately, the effects of the potions didn't last long and the staff were back to their normal selves by hometime. Elsewhere, the children enjoyed a squishy and slimy sensory tray full of shaving foam and cornflour. Lots of messy fun!

Wednesday

Our practitioners had cunningly kept some of Monday's snow in the freezer, so the children were able to enjoy some more snow play today. They also had fun with the magnetic shapes, making a wide variety of different things - a house, a snake, a snail, a flower, a stage - and demonstrating great creativity. We worked with the children on their phonic sounds today, helping them to remember by linking the sounds to an action.

Thursday

Today, the children helped to decorate the papier-mâché love heart we made last week. It's looking very colourful! Outside, we'd created an "Ice Age" drop box with dinosaurs trapped in ice, which led to more discussions about the properties of ice and how it melts. Of course, ice can also be dangerous, and we spoke about the importance of staying safe around frozen water. 

Friday

A "train" was set up in nursery this morning, made from chairs and a wooden steering wheel. A large number of the children gravitated towards his activity, so to enrich the play we added a video on the interactive whiteboard of scenery passing by a train window (and the children counted the tunnels we went through!). Other children developed the play further, with some laying out the Brio train track next to our "train", others making train tickets or announcing the train stops. And they all took it in turns to be the train driver, showing great sharing skills.

Weekly round-up

Monday

Our focus this week was "becoming a good friend", with all the things that entailed. At circle time, the children had a good discussion about what it meant to be a good friend - being kind, sharing with others, taking turns. What thoughtful children we have at nursery! Some had a chance to practise their turn-taking when playing a Peter Rabbit interactive PC game; others learned about sharing when enjoying our small world fairy castle set up.

Tuesday

There was a spontaneous dressing-up session at nursery today, with two very different outcomes - on one hand, a re-enactment of the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; on the other hand, a racing driver outfit brought out the car mat, traffic lights and cars. Elsewhere, the children were developing their mathematical knowledge of 3D shapes and number, using unifix cubes and magnetic shapes. At circle time, we continued our focus on what makes a good friend, and showed how the nursery's Golden Rules help us to be kind to others.

Wednesday

Evie and her family made bright green play dough at the weekend, and she brought some in to nursery for her friends to play with. Thank you Evie - what a great way of demonstrating sharing and kindness! There was some great turn-taking on show elsewhere, as some children used the giant meccano to build a bus. They took turns using the screwdriver and worked collaboratively to make their bus, which also created the opportunity to develop their communication skills. Great work, guys!

Thursday

During circle time today we played ring games with the children. Evangeline extended this by encouraging the children to observe the effect the movement was having on their bodies - their breathing got faster, their heartbeats increased. Evangeline then produced a real, working stethoscope so the children could listen to each other's hearts. They were fascinated! Later, there was an impromptu jamming session as some of the children got out the musical instruments and played together. What they lacked in rhythm they certainly made up for in enthusiasm!

Friday

The children are obviously in a musical mood, as there was another jamming session today - this time outside, on the pots and pans. The stethoscope continued to be a fascination, and led to a very involved game of doctors and nurses (with Becky as the willing patient). Elsewhere, the children were conducting a paper aeroplane investigation, trying different ways of folding the paper and seeing which could fly the furthest. They measured and recorded the different distances, as a way of developing their mathematical understanding.

Weekly round-up

Monday

We had a chilly start to the week, with the children enjoying an exploration activity where they had to melt frozen hands to discover what was inside the ice. They found a selection of animals which corresponded to the signs of the Chinese Zodiac, linking this activity to our focus on Chinese New Year. The children's learning about this topic was further supported at snack time, when they enjoyed trying prawn crackers.

Tuesday

Our exploration of Chinese culture continued today, with the children taking part in an activity where they were encouraged to draw Chinese numbers in trays of red rice (red being a very lucky colour in China!). For some children, this activity evolved into an exploration of the texture and properties of the rice; others used it as an opportunity to practise writing their own names. To further develop our "Chinese restaurant" in the role play area, the children made paper plates of different foods - this led to interesting discussions about healthy eating, and we also talked about the importance of oral health.

Wednesday

Following on from last week's circle time focus on "what makes me special", today the children began work on a special display around this theme. They painted hearts, and on them have been written the children's own words about what they think makes them special. We are also creating a display about different cultural festivals celebrated by people in our community, and the children have been colouring Rangoli patterns and pictures of Hindu gods for the section about Diwali. Many of the children remembered when we learned about this festival in the autumn term.

Thursday

There was a lot of creativity going on at nursery today, as we had set up a very popular junk-modelling station. As with last week's loose parts activity, this is a great way to encourage children's imaginations. Today, just from some random bits and bobs, the children created such wildly diverse things as a robot, a swimming pool, a dog and a dinosaur! Elsewhere, the nursery baby dolls were getting all dressed up before being taken on a special outing to the Chinese restaurant.

Friday

The children did more research into Chinese culture today, as we learned to count in Mandarin and attempted some traditional Chinese dancing. We all looked very graceful! Elsewhere, the marble run had an outing - always a very popular toy, this is a great problem-solving exercise as well as helping the children practise their turn-taking. We also created a small-world road set up, with traffic lights and traffic jams. Just like Crowborough at rush hour!

New nursery logo

We're excited to announce that St Mary's Nursery will soon be getting a new logo! We are in the process of finessing the final design, and would like your opinion. Please help us decide by taking the short survey below. The most popular design will be rolled out over the coming months.

Create your own user feedback survey

Weekly round-up

Monday

Our focus in circle time today was "What I like about me" - we read the book of the same name, then thought about all the things we like about ourselves. At the craft table, the children were presented with a variety of materials for some open-ended creativity; elsewhere, we explored what patterns we could make in sand using a variety of tools.

Tuesday

Some children requested a "dinosaur village" today - instead of setting it up for them, we invited the children to create one themselves. They had a fantastic time creating their village, starting out with an empty cardboard box and decorating it with tissue paper. In another child-initiated activity, we made play dough and used it to set up a pancake restaurant. The children had a lot of fun thinking up different toppings for our delicious "pancakes".

Wednesday

We thought about other cultures today at nursery - the children listened carefully to "All Kinds of Beliefs" during story time, and we showed them a CBeebies programme about the Chinese New Year (something we will be focusing on in the days leading up to this festival). Other activities today included working on the children's numeracy using our Numicon resources, and turning the quiet area into a house for the children.

Thursday

We had a "loose parts" station at nursery today - "loose parts" are materials that can be combined, redesigned, taken apart and put back together in multiple ways (e.g. fabric, buttons, balls, twigs, seeds, shells, flowers, stones...). Research has shown that children playing with loose parts are using more creativity and imagination and developing more skill and competence than they would playing with most modern plastic toys.

Friday

The home corner was converted into a Chinese restaurant today, and the children enjoyed writing the menu, placing their orders and "eating" their food (even if the noodles were really made of wool!). In circle time we talked more about Chinese New Year, and listened to some traditional Chinese music. Later, we tried our hands at writing Chinese characters with a brush.

Weekly round-up

Monday

Happy New Year! We kicked off 2018 at the nursery with a polar animal excavation activity - the children were presented with toy penguins frozen in ice, and they had to work out how to set them free. This activity explored ideas of solids and liquids; in the afternoon, we extended this idea by swapping the ice for cornflour and water - this is a non-Newtonian fluid, which turns from fluid to solid when we squish them in our hands! Who says science can't be fun?

Tuesday

We were being musicians today at nursery, with the children experimenting with different tempos and volumes on different instruments. Other children worked on their pen control, and as well as mark-making we encouraged them to form recognisable letters. Elsewhere, the children's fine motor skills and problem solving was challenged with a selection of floor puzzles.

Wednesday

Despite the chilly weather, we were outside today on a mini-beast hunt. The children were fascinated to see the insects up close in our bug catchers, and wanted to learn more about them so we went on the internet to do some research. Also outside was a painting station, were children experimented with colour mixing. Inside, we set up a dinosaur small world play area; some of our children decided that there was something missing, so added cars to the scene... and why not?

Thursday

The children were exploring number and comparison today, using playdough and our "compare bears" - these cute little bears (Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear) are great for size-grading (big, medium, small), comparison (which is bigger?), counting and sorting. They are even proportionally weighted to use on a balance scale for measurement discoveries. Elsewhere, we had a desert island set up, with lush foliage, wild animals and a pirate ship to play with.

Friday

We had a popular water-play set up today, where the children washed toy babies in the bath and dried them off. One of the children talked about wanting to go shopping with their mother, so in response we set up a mini supermarket in our role play area, with tills, a wooden market filled with different foods, baskets and money. Outside, the fire engine became a bus for the day - which led to a very rousing rendition of 'The Wheels on the Bus'!