Nursery

The children in Early Years learn and develop through exciting and stimulating activities and experiences. Learning is fun. The children at Seaton House benefit from a very favourable adult to child ratio which enables the staff to really get to know the children and meet the needs and interests of each individual child. The Nursery and Reception classes have a well-established Early Years team of qualified Early Years practitioners.

We value the partnership between home and school and develop this through good communication, parent workshops, coffee mornings and family events. Each child is assigned a keyperson to build a relationship with the family and share information.

Children in the Nursery and Reception class are part of the ‘Early Years Foundation Stage’ of Education. The children experience a broad, well-balanced and planned curriculum which includes the seven learning areas:

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

Through a combination of adult led activities, planned experiences, visits and child initiated play the children develop skills across the 7 areas of learning alongside investigation skills, intellectual enquiry, observation skills and a love of learning. The children have access to a stimulating indoor environment and well resourced garden area. The children in the Early Years enjoy weekly cooking sessions, developing a range of skills and learning about healthy eating. They also have opportunities to learn about nature and our environment during our weekly Nature Garden sessions.

The children are encouraged to develop self-motivation, resilience and confidence to have a go. These characteristics of life long learner are embedded throughout the curriculum as we support the children to develop a growth mindset and encourage wellbeing and mindfulness.

We support the children to develop independence and to learn to work and play as part of a group. They develop social and emotional skills and a positive attitude towards learning.

Adults support the children’s play as well as planning more directed activities to introduce and develop concepts and skills. As the children move into Upper Nursery they continue to learn through play and stimulating activities. Further directed sessions are added to support the children with the development of number skills and phonics.

The Nursery day starts at 8.00am. The morning session finishes at 1.15pm. However, children may leave earlier at 12.00 noon or can stay the whole day until 3.15pm.

Our Nursery children are very much part of the main school and join the older children for assemblies, celebrations and various events throughout the year.

Wrap around care provision

We offer our After School Care to our Early Years children which provides care up to 6.00pm. From 3.15pm to 4.30pm children are cared for in the Nursery and take part in a variety of activities with staff from the Early Years. At 4.30pm the children join the main school at Junior House. A member of Early Years staff remains with the children until the end of After School Care at 6pm. There is a charge for this service.

Early Years Funding

Seaton House School is now participating in the Government 15 hours funding scheme for Early Years.  If eligible, the fees published will be reduced in line with the funding provided by the Government. The funding is applicable for children attending a minimum of 5 morning sessions, any afternoon sessions are charged at the rates published on our fee page.