Nursery

Ethos & Aims

The Nursery provides a solid foundation for life at Cargilfield for 3 to 5’s. Focusing firmly on personal development via learning through play, children are encouraged to expand their horizons and develop their skills across the 5 key areas of learning:

Central to this aim is the belief that all children, however, young, are individuals whose core personalities should be respected and our programme of work seeks to allow each child to become a confident, independent learner with excellent self-esteem and social skills by the time they are ready to move on to P1.

What do the children do?

Working on the principle that children learn best if they are enjoying what they are doing, our curriculum is topic based and draws on the children’s interests and ideas. To ensure no duplication, we run a rolling two-year programme.

Activities included in an average term are:-

Facilities

The Nursery benefits from a suite of rooms and ancilliary spaces:-

Food

We believe that children cannot learn if they are hungry and so provide a healthy snack in the morning and afternoon sessions, prepared in the Nursery kitchen, and a full cooked lunch taken in the main school dining room.

Clubs

At present there are two optional clubs, equally suitable for boys and girls, run by outside early years specialists:

Fun in the sandFun in the sand

Staffing

The Nursery has a Teacher in Charge, Nursery Nurses and a Nursery Assistant. All staff are fully qualified or in training. We work on a maximum ratio of 1 adult per 8 children.

Sessions

There are ten 3.25 hour sessions available between 8.30 & 3.00 pm each week on a flexible basis. The morning session is from 8.30 to 11.45 and the afternoon session from 11.45 to 3.00. You can select a mixture of morning, afternoon or all day sessions.

The Nursery is a Partner Provider with Edinburgh City Council and so funding is available to all children from the term after their 3rd birthday until they move up to P1.

Wrap-around care is available with an Early Birds Club from 8.00 to 8.30 am and After School Club (based in the Nursery) from 3.00 to 6.00 pm.

Home – School Link

The link between home and school is of great importance in these very early years and we encourage good and effective communication between staff, children and parents/carers at all times. Parents are invited to come into the Nursery to share their skills and interests with the children (and staff) on a regular basis and are also welcome to join in with trips off site.

So, to summarise;

The central tenet of the Nursery at Cargilfield is to foster a happy, carefree and supportive atmosphere in which children can develop at their own natural pace and come to view learning as exciting and enjoyable. Staff are trained to build a mutually positive & respectful relationship with each child as an individual whose needs and interests lead the programme of work. By the time they move on to P1 they should be independent, confident individuals with excellent social skills and emerging self discipline.