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The Ivy Room is for children aged 3 - 5. We work in partnership with the Local Authority to provide free funded spaces, this means we follow the same Curriculum as the School Nurseries, with the added benefit of a smaller and more personal surroundings.
Our dedicated ELC team are fully qualified to provide the highest possible learning and care. The role as professional ELC practitioners is to enable each individual child to reach their fullest potential, building the foundations for lifelong learning.
The main areas we focus on a day to day basis are as follows:
Numeracy - counting, recognising numbers, simple adding and subtracting
Literacy - listening and talking skills with their peers and adults, letter recognition, writing their name,
Personal Skills - putting their shoes and coat on independently, setting the table and preparing meals, using cutlery, pouring drinks, managing to open packed lunch items.
The above skills are important for your child to feel confident and ready for primary school.
Our environment is filled with resources of various textures, materials and sizes, which will spark the child’s imagination, curiosity and enquiry. Natural and loose parts play a major role within the setting as open-ended objects can be adapted to whatever the child is playing.
The Ivy’s follow Building the Ambition, Realising the Ambition and The Curriculum for Excellence at the early level. They can be found following the link below:
The Curriculum for Excellence
The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is for children aged 3 - 18. Its aim is to help children develop and obtain skills and knowledge needed for life and to enable children to become:
successful learners
confident individuals
responsible citizens
effective contributors
These are referred to as the four capacities. There are eight curriculum areas which are:
Expressive arts
Health and wellbeing
Languages
Mathematics
Religious and moral education
Sciences
Social studies
Technologies.
When we are building our curriculum, planning the environment and experiences for the children, we, as practitioners, take into consideration the principles set out by the CfE:
Challenge and enjoyment
Breadth
Progression
Depth
Personalisation and choice
Coherence
Relevance.
Building the Gracie Drew Curriculum
Every early year's setting has a curriculum that is personal to them. It is based on the nursery’s ethos, their ELC practitioners and their children and families.
To build the Gracie Drew Curriculum, we looked at what we did daily as a nursery, such as snacks, tooth brushing, and outdoor play. Then thought about what we liked to do each year with the children, such as gardening, trips to the museum, and celebrating various festivals and holidays.
We then looked at what experiences and outcomes the children will gain from each activity or experience and bundled areas of the curriculum together. For example, the sand and water area will allow the children to gain knowledge in literacy, such as mark-making or learning new words. They will also develop their numeracy skills by measuring the sand/water and using mathematical language like adding and taking away. The children may also be learning about science through the various forms of water.
At Gracie Drew’s, we feel that children will experience all areas within the curriculum with their natural desire to explore, enquire and investigate. Therefore at Gracie Drew’s, we emphasise the environment to ensure it is enabling and inviting.
What Does my Child Need to Bring?
As we encourage your child to be independent, we strongly advise your child wears old clothes that you do not mind getting “learning stains” on.
Appropriate outdoor clothing. We spend a lot of our time outdoors; therefore, waterproofs and wellies are necessary. We have a small spares collection at the nursery if needed.
Sun hats and sun cream for the warmer weather. Gloves and woolly hats for the colder weather.
A spare set of clothes for any little mishaps.
Getting Involved
As parents/carers, you are the main educators of your children; therefore, we feel it is paramount that we work in partnership together to create a plan of care and learning for your child. We will share the next steps of learning termly and offer activities to help them develop at home.
We offer an all year round open-door policy which allows you to make appointments with your key carer or nursery manager to talk about your child’s development. We feel that only having meetings twice a year is restrictive. So please get in contact to arrange a meeting at any time.
The transition from Gracie Drew Nursery to School
The transition to school is a significant life event for children, and we aim to help ease this transition for both child and family. We endeavour to work closely with the child’s school, and where possible, with the consent given from families, we will share our experiences with the school; this may could include a written report or the child’s ELCC journey - Tapestry.
We will incorporate school-themed play and objects into the nursery, such as school uniforms for role play, books about school and primary one, and objects they may come across such as pack lunch boxes, jotters and stationery sets.
Prior to the summer holidays, will also liaise with your child's school to arrange a transitional visit with their primary one teacher. This will include a brief summary of your child and their experience at nursery.
At the end of their journey at Gracie Drew’s, we will celebrate the child’s time with us.
