Grass Roots Nursery Group
Grass Roots Private Day Nursery Tel:01422836280 grassrootsdaynursery@gmail.com
Grass Roots Preschool Tel:01422417659 grassroots.newroad@gmail.com
Grass Roots Preschool @ New Road
The Orchard offers a variety of freely accessible resources tailored to individual learning styles and developmental stages. Children can explore a calm reading corner, pretend play areas, mark-making stations, and engaging sensory experiences like playdough activities.
This room is thoughtfully divided from The Woodland, our preschool space, allowing younger children to observe and engage with older peers, supporting their sense of progression.
The dedicated bathroom area helps children gain independence in potty training, with books and resources to encourage their growing confidence. We also provide toilets, handwashing stations, and nappy-changing facilities to support their needs.
Each child has their own peg for coats and bags, labeled with their name and a picture, reinforcing a sense of belonging and responsibility.
Children of all ages enjoy a shared outdoor area, where they can play alongside peers from different age groups. We believe outdoor play is essential, and we encourage children to spend as much time outside as possible, fostering movement, exploration, and social development.
To keep families connected, each child is set up on our online system, where parents can view daily updates on meals, sleep routines, and personal care, alongside learning journals filled with observations and milestones recorded by our practitioners.
A Nurturing Space for Little Explorers
The Orchard is a welcoming and thoughtfully designed space for children aged 18 months to three years, providing rich developmental opportunities that encourage exploration and curiosity.
We place a strong emphasis on communication and social-emotional development, two of the prime areas in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Through engaging activities, meaningful interactions, and gentle support, children gain confidence in expressing themselves, forming friendships, and understanding emotions. Alongside this, we provide plenty of opportunities for physical development, helping children strengthen their growing bodies through fine and gross motor activities such as climbing, mark-making, and sensory play.
With an adult-to-child ratio of 1:5, our practitioners ensure high levels of care and attention, nurturing each child’s unique learning journey.
The Orchard
(Under 3's)
A Space for Growth and Discovery
The Woodland is designed for children aged three years until school age, offering an inspiring environment where young learners develop confidence, independence, and inquiry skills.
An Early Years Teacher works closely with all children, providing additional support to those preparing for school transitions. In The Woodland, children build on their existing skills, using questioning and exploration to learn through play. Alongside the prime areas of the EYFS, we begin focusing on the specific areas of learning, including maths, literacy, understanding the world, and expressive arts and design.
This room maintains a homely and friendly atmosphere, with age-appropriate activities that encourage holistic development. We tailor experiences to each child’s interests and individual learning pace, fostering a love of discovery.
Children can see and interact with younger peers in adjacent spaces, supporting a sense of community and progression. They each have a peg for coats and bags outside the room, as well as personal drawers to store belongings and artwork created at nursery.
The bathroom area is freely accessible, providing toilets, potty stations, nappy-changing facilities, and handwashing areas, supporting children’s growing independence.
The Woodland features a variety of engaging areas, including a cosy reading nook, maths and literacy stations, pretend play spaces, painting, and playdough activities. With free-flow access to the outdoor area, children have the freedom to choose between indoor and outdoor learning, fostering autonomy and exploration.
The Woodland
(3 & 4 year olds)
We ensure an appropriate adult-to-child ratio, ensuring high levels of care and attention for every child.
Each child is set up on our online system, allowing parents to access daily updates, notifications, and learning journals, providing insight into their child's progress and development.
Outdoor
Area
Outdoor play provides space for exploration, movement, and confidence-building, reinforcing motor skills, coordination, and imaginative play. We encourage children to spend as much time outside as possible, ensuring a balanced and enriching experience that supports their development.
Learning Through Movement and Play
Young children move to learn and learn to move. Research shows that movement is deeply connected to cognitive development, and outdoor play offers unique opportunities for both growth and learning.
The outdoors is not simply a space for physical activity—it’s an integral part of a child’s daily experience, providing valuable opportunities for curiosity, teamwork, problem-solving, and sensory exploration.
Our carefully designed outdoor area offers a rich sensory experience, encouraging children to interact with natural objects like leaves, pinecones, and puddles, supporting their early understanding of the world.
Here are seven benefits of outdoor play (from the NCT website)
1. Help your child 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 children 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 children 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 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 or child 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.