Grass Roots Nursery Group
Grass Roots Private Day Nursery Tel:01422836280 grassrootsdaynursery@gmail.com
Grass Roots Preschool Tel:01422417659 grassroots.newroad@gmail.com
St. Peter's
The Fold
(Under 2's)
The Fold is our room children from 12 weeks to their second birthday.
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Our warm, secure and friendly atmosphere provides a range of benefits. These include a homely feel, lots of floor space to encourage mobility and a range of engaging activities.
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This self contained room also has the benefit of its own kitchen area. This consisting of a variety of amenities, which help to ensure we have everything on hand to meet your child’s needs.
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The Fold works around the Early Years Foundation Stage, which, for this age group, focuses mainly on three prime areas: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language Development and Physical Development.
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We ensure an adult to child ratio of 1:3 making sure that all children receive a high level of care and attention.
Within the room we have a wide variety of resources that are suitable for this age range. The practitioners use these resources to help ensure your child has everything necessary to develop in all areas through a wide range of stimulating experiences and activities, tailored to individual learning styles and stage of development.
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The children of all ages play in the shared outdoor area together, allowing the children to play with children from a range of ages. We spend as much time as possible outside as we believe this is important for children's development. We also value the experience this gives the children to spend time with children of different ages. The Fold also have a dedicated space outside which is an artificial grassed area on a decked area which is shaded and allows our non-mobile children to have a safe space to explore.
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Each child will be setup on our online system where you will be able to view your child’s daily record, including eating, sleeping and changing times, and any messages or notifications from the practitioner or management team. Also on this system is each child’s learning journal, including observations made by the practitioners of the children's progress.
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The Paddock
(2 year olds)
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This room is divided from the The Meadow (preschool room) which allows the children to see and hear the older children. It has a range of activities and areas on offer including a quiet, calm and cosy reading area, a climbing wall and slide, small world pretend play, sand and water, painting and playdough.
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The Paddock has a dedicated potty area allowing children to access the potties when needed. This area has books and other resources to encourage potty training skills. There are also toilets and nappy changing facilities available in the bathroom nearby.
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The children have their own pegs just outside the room, for coats and bags, and drawers inside each labelled with their name and picture for the children to store any belongings or art work that they create at nursery.
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The children of all ages play in the shared outdoor area together, allowing the children to play with children from a range of ages. We spend as much time as possible outside as we believe this is important for children's development. We also value the experience this gives the children to spend time with children of different ages.
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Each child will be setup on our online system where you will be able to view your child’s daily record, including eating, sleeping and changing times, and any messages or notifications from the practitioners or management team. Also on this system is each child’s learning journal, including observations made by the practitioners of the children's progress.
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The Paddock is our room children from their second to their third birthday.
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Our environment provides a range of developmental opportunities for the two year olds to explore their environment and investigate using their natural curiosities.
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In the Paddock, we still have a strong emphasis on developing communication and social and emotional skills, which are two of the three prime areas listed in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). We also provide lots of opportunities for physical development, which is the third EYFS prime area, including a range of fine and gross motor activities to increase children strength in their bodies and hands.
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We ensure an adult to child ratio of 1:4 making sure that all children receive a high level of care and attention.
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The Paddock has a wide variety of resources that are suitable for this age range. These resources are available for the children to access freely to help ensure your child has everything necessary to develop in all areas through a wide range of stimulating experiences and activities, tailored to individual learning styles and stage of development.
The Meadow
(3 & 4 year olds)
The Meadow is our room for children who are three until they start school. In this room we have an Early Years Teacher working closely with all the children, but especially the children who will be attending school the following September.
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In this room the focus is on advancement of skills already acquired and continuing to support and encourage children to using inquiry and questioning to learn through play. Also, in this room, we begin to focus on the specific areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) which include maths, literacy, understanding the world and expressive arts and design.
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The environment is homely and friendly, with a wide range of age appropriate experiences and activities for the children, to support the holistic development of all the children. We focus on each individual child, offering engaging activities that relate to their interests and level of development.
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This room is divided from the other groups which allows the children to see and hear the younger children nearby. The children have their own pegs just outside the room, for coats and bags, and drawers inside each labelled with their name and picture for the children to store any belongings or art work that they create at nursery. They also have free access to the bathroom area which has potty’s and toilets as well as nappy changing and hand washing facilities.
The children of all ages play in the shared outdoor area together, allowing the children to play with children from a range of ages. We spend as much time as possible outside as we believe this is important for children's development. We also value the experience this gives the children to spend time with children of different ages.
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The Meadow has a range of activities on offer including a quiet, calm and cosy reading area, maths and literacy resources, small world pretend play, sand and water, painting and playdough. This room also benefits from free-flow access to the outdoor classroom area, allowing children to decide whether they would like to be inside or out.
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We ensure an appropriate adult to child ratio making sure that all children receive a high level of care and attention.
​
Each child will be setup on our online system where you will be able to view your child’s daily record, including eating, sleeping and changing times, and any messages or notifications from the practitioners or management team. Also on this system is each child’s learning journal, including observations made by the practitioners of the children's progress.
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Outdoor
Area
Young children need to be active to learn. Recent research has shown that movement is inextricably linked to learning. Children really do “move to learn and learn to move.” The outdoors offers them unique opportunities for growing and learning.
The outdoors is not just an area where children develop their physical skills, let off steam or have a break. Nor is it an area to go to as a ‘treat’ after the ‘real learning’ has been done inside. It is a place where much valuable learning can take place. Being outdoors should be an integral part of every young child’s day and an integral part of practitioners’ planning for the play and learning experiences for young children.
Our outdoor area has been developed with how important outdoor is play in mind.
Being outside is an exciting sensory experience for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Babies will enjoy the exciting visuals on offer as you take them for a walk outdoors. Toddlers and preschoolers love the chance to explore different spaces and touch natural objects - leaves, pine-cones and puddles included.
Playing outside is really important as it gives your little one the chance to look around and learn. While having fun outside is important, when children are outdoors it helps their development.
The areas we have are water play, sand, mud kitchen, construction, play frame with slide and stage/play house. The under 2's have a separate space on the decked area where they can play and explore, whilst still interacting with the older children.
We are constantly developing on the areas outside to include the children's interests and the seasons.
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Here are seven benefits of outdoor play (from the NCT website)
1. Help your baby sleep better at night
Research shows that babies sleep better at night if they’ve had some fresh air and sunshine during the day. Definitely worth a walk or play outdoors to help your baby sleep better.
2. Outdoor play is a fun way to learn
Getting outdoors to play is a brilliant sensory experience for babies and toddlers. There is so much for them to see, explore and learn. The changing nature of the outdoors makes it an incredibly stimulating and multi-sensory place to play. This is important as babies and young children learn and gain experience through all their senses.
3. Developing motor skills
Young children need the opportunity to use their whole body and develop their gross motor skills. Playing outdoors in your garden or local park lets babies crawl or toddle further. As they get older, they’ll have space to run and jump outside. They can also develop their fine motor skills as they pick up natural treasures like leaves and fir cones.
4. Encourages a healthy lifestyle
Getting outdoors with your toddler can help them burn off some energy and encourages a healthy lifestyle. Through physical activity and challenges, being outdoors helps children sleep, eat, and live more healthily. This encourages them to form healthy habits for life.
5. Care for the environment
Playing outdoors is a brilliant way to get out in nature and become aware of the environment. Children who gain knowledge and appreciation of nature are more likely to become environmentally aware adults.
6. Positive impact on the whole family
It’s amazing how fresh air can blow away the cobwebs and make a world of difference to how you feel as a parent. Even a short walk can do the world of good for the whole family. Especially on days after a sleepless night or when your child is feeling grumpy or grizzly at home.
7. Make new friends
Getting outside is also a good opportunity for parents to get some gentle exercise and meet friends.
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