Nursery

At Dunottar Junior School we aim to provide a Nursery Education that meets the individual needs of every child in our care. We offer a safe and secure environment that will encourage each child to take full advantage of a wide range of presented opportunities and experiences through an extensive and sensitively introduced curriculum.

Our aim is to provide activities and opportunities that will challenge children to become autonomous learners in an enabling environment. We follow the statutory guidance: The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) which has many specific legal requirements including ensuring that settings provide a balance of adult-led and child-initiated learning . Child-initiated learning is wholly determined by the child.

We aim to ensure that children know their way around the environment and feel secure within it. Girls should quickly grow to understand the routines and expectations of the setting and be able to select and return their own resources confidently. We aim to equip them with the tools and techniques to make informed choices and to develop their own ideas and projects alone and with others. We want girls to become highly involved in their learning, excited and motivated by their environment. Our girls should feel confident in their environment and be willing to try things out, knowing that effort is valued.

Girls can be admitted to the nursery when they are 4 and remain in Nursery until the September following their 4th birthday. They can attend all day or a morning session. Some children stay for school lunch and eat in the main dining room accompanied by their teachers.

Nursery is based on the ground floor of the junior block in the courtyard. It comprises a large open room with zoned areas of learning within it. It has its own toilets and hand basins adjacent. The nursery girls have a small outdoor play area off their classroom, fenced off from the main courtyard area. Access to the nursery and the rest of the school is through a keypad door. The nursery also uses the main school gymnasium for PE, the swimming pool and goes to the Junior hall for ballet and one assembly per week. The nursery often play in the school garden in the summer term, and have regular walks through the woods to The Jubilee Field along with Reception class.