About Little Russets
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It has become widely accepted that natural and dynamic environments can help children reach areas of their potential that indoor classrooms don't always provide.
With this in mind, we have created a purpose built nursery for children aged 0-5 years, where the emphasis is on outdoor learning. Our aim is to incorporate children's learning around the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, in a free flow environment, adapting activities to your children's specific needs and abilities.
With a maximum of 12 children per day, this enables us to offer individual care and attention within a family orientated atmosphere. We extended our log cabin in 2010 in order to create an additional room in which children can play and relax in.
We plan and implement experiences to concentrate on the six areas of Learning and Development:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development.
- Communication, Language and Literacy.
- Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy.
- Knowledge and Understanding of the World.
- Physical Development.
- Creative Development.
Where possible, we encourage your children to achieve these in our natural outside environment. In order for them to reap the benefits of outdoor life, we involve them in the following activities:
- Helping to look after and pick our fruit and vegetables. They can then enjoy preparing and eating their own produce, as well as having a healthy diet.
- Lunch is prepared on the premises using in preference organic produce and we involve children in helping to make puddings and sandwiches at tea time.
- Children are encouraged to feed and look after our chickens, so that they learn about responsibility and the rewards of this. Our chickens have free range of our 6 acres of woodland, which can make finding their eggs more of a challenge.
- We ensure children are dressed appropriately for outdoor life. Children have Little Russets' fleecy all-in-one suits to wear in winter plus light weight waterproof suits to wear at other times. In the summer we provide suntan lotion and ensure that they do not spend too much time under direct sun light. The woods provide an excellent shaded play area, from the rain, as well as the sun.
- We have playhouses and plenty of outdoor toys and play equipment so that children can play independently, make their own choices, learn how to manage risk and practice their social skills.
- In the warmer months the children will have the opportunity to use our tennis court and to swim in our swimming pool, dependent on parental consent, with a qualified lifeguard/lifesaver on duty. This has been approved by Ofsted. We provide children with short wetsuits to wear when playing in/with water to ensure they keep warm.
- Nature walks - Our fenced woodland holds a vast diversity of wildlife, including deer, foxes, rabbits, squirrels, frogs, pheasants, owls, woodpeckers and numerous species of garden birds. We have put up a variety of bird boxes and feeders to encourage as many different birds as possible to the woods. These walks provide a natural introduction to the teaching of biology through observing the natural habitats of our wildlife.
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