Our youngest children in nursery thrive with nurture, predictability, and interaction.

Our babies are learning to play alongside their friends and to follow two-word instructions, like passing the ‘blue car’. They are learning to talk with two words together, but Makaton signs also help others to understand what they want, which saves frustration!

Our babies like the rhythms of their day to be reassuringly similar so that they can anticipate a familiar routine and can learn the sequence of actions with the daily routine, for example that we wash our hands before eating. Familiarity helps our babies become confident exploring all the fun things that are available for them to play with and to do.

It’s often the simple things that keep our babies busy – like putting objects into a container, and then emptying the objects back out! Even when they are mouthing objects, they are exploring different sizes and shapes. One of our babies favourite things is sensory play – this helps them to tolerate lots of different textures, and they love getting messy immersing their whole body in whatever an adult has set up for them to investigate!

Our babies love listening to stories, exploring board books, action songs and number rhymes. They often become very excited in anticipation of a ‘1, 2, 3 go!’ game. Even as young as they are, our babies are learning the first stages of literacy and numeracy through the things that that play.

Babies need a good sleep in the day – in a cot or baby bed – or maybe in a coracle - with comfortable bedding and a quiet, relaxing room.

Our babies may be little, but their voices are always heard, adults show respect, asking consent before changing a nappy or wiping faces. At mealtimes our babies are supported to serve their food at the table if they can. Babies are taught to wash their own hands, use a spoon independently and to take their finished plates away from the table – these things make our babies feel very big and important! And they help them to become independent.

Our babies love spending time outside and they get lots of fresh air every day. They enjoy trips in the big buggy, and in the garden, crawling, climbing, jumping and running on the grass, exploring resources and activities that are available. Physical play is something important for babies and they love it. As they gain confidence walking, climbing, rolling, or if they are very little just being on their tummies. Babies need enough space to be free to move, roll and stretch, to explore, rest and sleep.

What our babies get from nursery is a home from home.

Our toddlers need to be supported to do things for themselves – which is what they want to do! Toddlers love exploring, they are discovering how things work. Messy play is great for toddlers, it helps them to explore and investigate but also to build their fine motor muscles, practicing threading skills and mark making.

Toddlers love playing - and that’s how they learn. Everything that they do now is helping them prepare for school in some way. Toddlers love getting involved in songs and rhymes. They join in with actions in the songs and stories that they know, and they can guess what comes next. Toddlers often listen to stories, and they will talk about the pictures in their favourite books, and what they think is happening. With recognizable pictures and labels around them, they know where to find things and these often prompt them to use more words. Our toddlers are beginning to say some counting words, and they will randomly engage in counting in their play. They will join in with number songs and are starting to say some numbers in the right order. Their towers are normally at least 10 blocks high and they like stacking and can use blocks and cups together too. With their mathematical minds they are working out which shape goes where in different shape sorters including puzzles.

Our toddlers need to be independent, so they need to ask adults to enable them to do this safely. They are supported to serve their own meals, pour their own water, and to use a knife and fork and an open cup – they are also reminded to wash their own hands. Our toddlers are learning how to recognise when they need to use the toilet, to tell an adult, and to follow the routines to go. They should wipe their own nose. Toddlers still need to sleep, so have a space that is protected for rest, relaxing, and comfortable. Our toddlers need support from adults to recognise their ‘big emotions’, so if they are feeling happy or sad, they know what that is, and can tell someone. Their communication is improving, they can make many different sounds with their mouths and can listen to and match all sorts of different sounds. They are starting to talk in full sentences and are trying to follow three-word instructions, but they do become frustrated, quite often and they don’t quite know how to do something that they want to do. They need adults that ‘get them’ and who don’t get cross, but give them the help that they need to learn to play socially. Our toddlers need to be supported to know what to do, so they understand and can copy. They are learning important things like sharing, turn-taking, and showing kindness to their friends. Adults support them to do what is right, and to recognise what is wrong, so they learn quickly and can do more for themselves without getting frustrated.

Toddlers love spending time outside – they know how to get themselves ready to go out, putting on their own coat and shoes. They can walk confidently on trips, but they also love spending time in the gardens, exploring and playing. They love being physical, climbing, balancing, running and jumping – adults need to provide lots of opportunities to do this both inside and out.

In nursery our toddlers are enabled to thrive in their own world – a child’s world.

3, 4 and 5 year olds thrive from collaborative learning. They are small, but they matter. When they feel safe, they are comfortable to explore their emotions. They still get cross, and upset, but they are more comfortable independently talk to adults and friends to tell them how they feel and what they want to do. They are getting better at managing their emotions, resolving conflict, taking turns and sharing independently. If they find it difficult, they are learning to ask for help to understand the best thing to do. They are getting better at listening and to follow 4-word instructions.

They need to help to organise their play space and to decide what they would like to play with. They love lots of variation in their activities, they want to be active and happy learners. Adults need to support these children to try new things and to work things out, and working together on projects on things that are interesting to the child helps. They love exploring science, so cooking, experiments and messy play are some of their favourite things to do. Through play they are building the strength in their little muscles that they will need for writing, already they can use a pencil in the pincer grip to make small, controlled marks and common shapes. It’s not all about the small fine motor control, they need to build the big muscles too, they need these to sit at school, carry their lunch tray and to run around the playground. They need lots of active play, both from walks into the neighbourhood and with exploration and play in a garden area. They know what to wear to be safe outside, and can get ready independently, putting on their shoes and coats and even do the buttons and zips. They know when they need to rest, and they will relax in comfortable, quiet places if they need to. They confidently wash their hands, wipe their nose and face and serve their food and water at mealtimes. They are supported to eat with a knife and fork, and they can tell an adult if they need the toilet. They typically can use the bathroom independently, including wiping their own bottoms – mostly!

Literacy and numeracy is challenged is so many different ways. Because of all the different ways children learn, they can confidently recognise their own name when it is written down and are able to find the first letter of their name. Children see words in many different forms around them, including their play spaces. They have fun with rhyme and can say which words have the same beginning and end sounds. They can point and count by name for 1 to 3 objects and can tell the number of objects up to three without having to count them individually. They can say numbers to 5 and are learning to go beyond this. They still enjoy sorting different shapes into containers – in many creative ways, with the help of loose parts. They are independent, mature, and mostly sensible! They are learning all the things that they need to learn before going to school – the important things, like wanting to learn, being able to try again if things go wrong and being able to listen and follow what a teacher says and having the confidence to speak up if they want to know something.

Of course, they need guiding, and reminding to do everything the right way – but that’s what adults are there for.

Prescolare in nursery really is a community created with children for children.