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Shorty's Nursery

Our nursery provides a warm nurturing environment for our youngest pupils, where they can flourish through play from their 3rd birthday until they are ready to join ‘big school’ in the September after their 4th birthday.
Trained and dedicated staff provide a child initiated free flow learning adventure including songs, nursery rhymes, story time and messy play whilst covering the basics of literacy and maths.

Facilities

Extensive, beautiful school grounds set in the heart of Thanet, Kent allow the children in our care to become adventurous learners both indoors and out.

Our facilities include an onsite forest school, a free flow outdoor learning area, which is continually updated and refreshed by our skilled site team, and a modern indoor learning space which is designed to support our young learners’ natural curiosity.

Our classroom is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our learners, at any one time we may have a Construction area, a Role Play area, a Home Corner or Small World play area, all of which are great fun and support language development at the same time!

The children have access to a wealth of messy play activities throughout the day encouraging creativity and sensory exploration; mud kitchens, water tables and painting are some of our favourites!
Our nursery has a dedicated kitchen off of our main room, allowing the children to access cooking activities. The children gather in our main room for meal and snack times throughout the day, enabling the ‘family’ feeling that sharing meals can bring, whilst also preparing them for school meal times as they grow.

Curriculum

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, which covers the areas of

Personal, Emotional and Social Development
Communication and Language
Physical Development
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design

The children are encouraged to explore, play and learn whilst developing independence and resilience, amongst other skills.
We implement our rich learning environment by following a topic based curriculum and carrying out ‘In The Moment’ planning, designed to act responsively to our children’s interests.
We believe that children learn best when they are having fun, thriving in an environment that nurtures their natural curiosity whilst building on their existing knowledge.

Your child’s learning journey - Tapestry

At DJPA we use a secure online learning journal called Tapestry to build a record of a child’s experiences, development and learning journey through their early years education.

Your child’s progress and learning will be captured in their online learning journal, which is available for parents to view at any time and available in app form. We encourage our parents to be fully involved, as we want to create a precious and valued record of your child’s journey through their early years.

Photographs and observations about your child playing and exploring at home and in the Nursery generates a unique record to share with the whole family.
The communication between staff and parents that Tapestry enables, helps build a shared understanding of how every child can reach their full potential, as they begin their learning journey with us.

More information about tapestry can be found here

Our team

Our Nursery team provides excellent care that is overseen by experienced and passionate leadership.
The staff are well-qualified and endeavour to provide an engaging and enriching experience for our children.

The impact of our overarching approach is that our EYFS team are driven to ensure that the provision is of the highest quality, consistently reviewing the environment and activities to inspire excellence.
The wellbeing of the children in our care is our primary focus, ensuring that they feel safe and secure during their time at Nursery.

We believe that children who form positive relationships with their carers and peers will feel confident to explore their interests and fulfil their learning potential.

Our nursery has the benefit of being 'teacher led' meaning that our fully qualified early years teacher is responsible for planning your child's day to ensure that their individual needs are met and they are supported to make the best progress towards being 'school ready'.

We invite our families to share news about their home life through an app called Tapestry, particularly recent interests or activities, that can enhance their child’s learning. Additionally, our staff will share recent activities or interests that have sparked joy or enthusiasm to build a detailed picture of your child’s unique passions.

Before you start

We'd love to get to know you and your child before they start with us.

Once you have accepted a place at our nursery, we will invite you in to discuss your child’s routine, answer any questions you may have, complete any remaining paperwork and finalise the arrangements for settling-in sessions.
Once we feel your child is settled and happy, they can begin their regular sessions with us.

Sessions

The Nursery School day runs in two sessions. The morning session starts at 08:30am to 11:30am and the afternoon sessions run from 12:15pm to 3:15pm term time only, For those eligible to 30 hours all day sessions from 08:30am to 3:15 are also available.