Who will win Nursery of the Year 2015?

Out and about visiting outstanding nurseries

Outstanding Day Nurseries visited two of the nurseries who have been shortlisted for Nursery of the Year. The first visit was to First Steps Children’s Nursery in Northfield, Birmingham and the second was to Little Learners Childcare in Corby. Both these settings are Ofsted outstanding.

First Steps Children’s Nursery at Rathvilly School are a 120 place nursery, they offer childcare to children from 3 months to 5. The nursery environment is light and spacious which allows children to freely access the activities of their choice. Most rooms have direct access to their own outdoor area of which this is designed purposefully to enhance and develop all areas of children’s development. The highly qualified team plan fun and exciting experiences for the children taking into consideration the children interests and abilities.

The managers work very closely with the local nursery and teaching networks to host events to share good practice.

This outstanding nursery shows great passion in delivering high standards of care, practitioners observe the children during play using ipads and ipods to record and evidence actual learning.

Little Learners in Corby is a unique homely nursery that fosters aspects of the Reggio Emilia approach.  The learning environment is equipment with a vast amount of natural reclaimed resources that create endless learning opportunities for the children. The type of learning at Little Learners is child led, the planning is taken directly from the children and children’s interests are fully focused upon, for example a child had an interest in wearing odd wellies, a pair of odd wellies was then placed into an interest box for all to see.

Management and Practitioners work closely together to create this outstanding learning environment, every aspect of the Early Years Foundation Stage is embedded into the indoor and outdoor learning environment.

It is a massive achievement to be shortlisted for nursery of the year 2015, the winner will be announced on the 26th September at the ceremony in London. Good Luck!