RGS The Grange Nursery

7.45am to 6pm.

Ladybird Room – 12
Caterpillars – 16
Butterflies – 35

We have 13 passionate and experienced Nursery practitioners.

Grow, Explore, Discover.

Children can go outside every day and learning activities are often held outside. All of the Nursery rooms have their own outside area.

Ladybirds and Caterpillars visit Forest School Friday morning and Butterflies Friday afternoon.

Sports day, Nativity, Mother’s Day, Harvest Festival and Ballet performances.

All Nursery children are allocated a Key Person.

We follow the Early Years Foundation stage, ensuring our objectives for the term are based around this framework. Weekly themes and activates are then set within these objectives.

We use ILD (Interactive Learning Diary) to track every child’s development and journey. This is done through observations and knowledge of the children.

We use Seesaw for parent communication. Staff send a mixture of photos and observations for parents to see, as well as using this as a daily diary. Parents are also able to comment and ask questions. Parents also have access to ILD and can view the observations and add their own from home. We have parents’ evening once a term and staff complete a ‘My journey’ document once a term to show parents what their child has achieved and what their goals are for the next term. We also suggest activities parents can do at home with their child.

Yes, we use a trusted catering company with an excellent reputation.

All dietary and allergies are catered for.

We follow the school nutritional guidance. 

We provide both fresh and dried fruit at morning snack.

Fruit is provided at break time and lunch is also provided. If children stay after 3.30pm then we request that parents provide a packed tea for children.

There is no need for your child to be potty trained before starting Nursery, we support families when they’re ready to start potty training.

We ask all nappies and wipes to be provided. Staff will make you aware when supplies run low. 

Our school nurse is on-site 5 days a week and all staff are First Aid trained.

Staff will arrange a home visit where they will meet you and your child before starting Nursery. We also offer two morning settling in sessions from 9.30am to 11.30am and 9.30am to 12.30am.

We offer home visits and settling in sessions for all children. This ensures both the children and parents feel happy and comfortable before starting their regular days. 

We offer soft mat beds for sleeping with a blanket and sheet which is laundered in setting.

There are around 16 children in each Reception class.

Children are welcomed into Before School Care from 7.45am and are supervised by fully qualified, familiar adults in order to provide children with consistency and security. The school day starts officially at 8.35am with Registration at 8.40am, followed by Form Time or Assembly.

After, the children have daily English, Mathematics and Phonics activities, which are seamlessly interwoven into the provision, both inside the classrooms and outdoors in the Outdoor Learning Area. Children are exposed to a wealth of opportunity to explore and develop their skills within all seven areas of learning of the EYFS framework, including the Characteristics of Learning, which run through every thread of the EYFS developmental stages. Independence is fostered from the outset, in the form of additional ‘Rainbow Challenges’, which the children know they have to complete over the course of the week, but which they can access at any time. Our ‘free flow’ provision further enhances the children’s development, allowing them to make independent choices and offering many new learning experiences. This approach boosts mental and physical wellbeing and confidence. The children benefit from additional stimulating spaces and freedom to explore the world around them, allowing them to make decisions and assess risks, whilst reducing the feeling of being rushed from one activity to the other.

Within the school day, the children are given regular breaks and refreshments, as well as a cooked lunch, which is served in the Dining Hall, and supervised by familiar adults. Our ‘Family Service’ is key to reinforcing the message of healthy eating and good manners.

The school day officially ends at 3.35pm at which time parents are free to collect their children and our After School Care provision runs until 6.00pm. We invite parents of those children attending ASC to provide a healthy snack, which is affectionately known as ‘Little Tea’. Our ASC programme is supervised by familiar adults and includes a range of fun and engaging activities, as well as opportunities to socialise in a less formal setting at the end of a busy day. Our ‘wrap-around care’ is inclusive of the school fees.

We have many different topics within Reception. More recent topics covered have been ‘People Who Help Us’, ‘Journeys’, ‘Festivals’ and ‘Traditional Tales’. The children also benefit from weekly Music, French and PE lessons from our specialist teachers.

The children benefit from regular specified breaks outside, in addition to the ‘Free Flow’ provision, which allows the children to access the Outdoor Learning Area should they wish.

At RGS The Grange, we are fortunate to have two Forest School sites, which the Reception children will visit every week for a whole afternoon. Benefitting from several fully qualified Forest School Leaders, the children are afforded many beneficial opportunities to extend their learning experiences.

We are very keen to ensure that the children enjoy a number of educational visits during their time in Reception. In the run up to Christmas, they enjoy a ‘Santa Safari’ at West Midlands Safari Park, or a trip along the Severn Valley Railway on the ‘Santa Express’. We visit the Bishops Wood Centre in support of our Traditional Tales topic and, in support of our ‘People Who Help Us’ topic, we visit the major new interactive gallery for under 8s at the Birmingham Thinktank – MiniBrum. It is the Thinktank’s very own ‘mini city’, where children are in charge! In addition to these visits, we are also fortunate to welcome our treasured parents and people from the wider community into school to talk to the children about various aspects of life, such as festivals and jobs.

Every child benefits from an educational programme that addresses their individual needs. ‘No child is missed out and no child misses out’. Those who require additional support, benefit from our excellent Learning Development Department and those identified as ‘Gifted and Talented’ benefit from various strategies designed to provide them with the opportunity to flourish. The Interactive Learning Diary (ILD) provides parents with an additional link to school whereby they can submit observations of their children following a notable event, whilst also gaining access to the observations being made at school. We firmly believe that the children develop best when parents and staff work closely together and the ILD provides a valuable platform through which this can be achieved.

Our staff assess each child on entering Reception using a Baseline Assessment and an additional trusted and informative programme, PIPS. We have a smooth transition from Pre-School to Reception, due to our close communication with our Pre-School Department. As the year progresses, each child is assessed and individual targets are set. Parents are informed at regular intervals of their child’s attainment and those areas for continued focus. ‘Next Steps’ are provided, along with ideas to help parents support their child’s learning at home. Towards the end of the year, we conduct a further PIPS assessment to gauge each individual’s progress and areas for continued focus. We hold annual moderation meetings and subsequently make judgements about each child against the ELGs, the results of which are submitted to the county.

The foundation for the teaching of reading at RGS The Grange is based on the solid and secure teaching of Phonics, as well as a strong emphasis on those anomalies of the English language in the form of ‘tricky words’. We follow a rigorous programme, which takes the best parts of the Letters and Sounds programme, combined with Read, Write, Inc and our own extensive experience to provide the children with the best possible start in reading. The children are provided with a range of texts, which are sent home and enjoyed with parents and extended family. 

Maths is interwoven into all areas of learning within Reception. There is a strong emphasis on learning the value of number and understanding the basic properties of number, as well as Shape, Space and Measure. We use a range of stimulating resources, including Numicon and the much loved (by children and staff!) Numberblocks.

Children have the option to take part in Ballet once a week. All children also have the opportunity to experience ‘taster sessions’ with peripatetic music teachers, in disciplines, such as violin; taking home a loan instrument for a few weeks at a time.