Learning through play
Caring Hands Nursery provides care for children from two years up to five years of age. The new setting opened in May 2019 and is located in the heart of Fulham just a few minutes from Fulham Broadway Station.
The Nursery offers multiple learning opportunities for all children, with an experienced team of professionals focusing in individual development and personalised learning, supported by an extensive range of play resources that help develop their creativity, curiosity and initiative.
Caring Hands Nursery works in partnership with parents to encourage, support and extend children’s progression, transitions, “School Readiness” and build positive relationships.
The Early Years Foundation Stage
We follow the statutory frame of The Early Years Foundation Stage which breaks down children’s developmental stages into seven different areas. This allows practitioners to create and plan exciting activities for the children in order to enhance their learning and development.
Personal, Social and Emotional
Self-confidence and self-awareness: Our staff allows children to select and try new activities alone or with others, discuss ideas and find different ways of doing them. This process allows children to gain self-confidence and self-awareness which are important too as they grow up and be self-confident in their own abilities.
Managing feelings and behaviour: Children are allowed to discuss how they and others express their feelings. They begin to understand that some types of behaviour are unacceptable. The staff co-operates with children to decide on their issues. They are allowed to share their experiences with others and come to an understanding of how to behave in different situations (alongside developing their social skills).
Making relationships: While playing in a group, children are encouraged to develop a positive sense of themselves, to respect and care for others, and take turns with others willingly. They are given opportunities to form positive relationships with adults and other children.
Communication and Language
Listening and attention: Children are allowed to listen attentively in various situations including listening to stories and songs. They are encouraged to comment about them by asking questions with expressive actions using hands and face movements. They listen to what others say and improve their communicative aptitudes and language mastery.
Understanding: Children are given opportunities to experience a rich language environment and encouraged to ask questions on the contents of stories and songs using ‘why’ and ‘how’. All children are considered to take part in this exercise which promotes their language skills.
Speaking:We allow children to speak freely and frequently to express their views and get to know the future, present and past tenses of verbs.
Physical
Moving and handling: We provide opportunities for children to be active and interactive; to gain control in movements, to negotiate space, to develop coordination and handle equipment and tools effectively; even handling of a pencil correctly for writing.
Health and self-care: Our staff encourages children to talk about their own health, the importance of physical activities, and keep themselves safe and healthy. We give them information about the ingredients of a healthy diet. They are given information on how to manage their own personal hygiene and attend to their own personal needs effectively by themselves. This includes dressing-up and going to toilets.
Literacy
Reading: Children are allowed to read simple sentences and understand them. They are encouraged to talk with each other and gain competencies in telling others what they have read.
Writing: Our staff nurtures children to use their phonetic knowledge of words (Link sounds and letters) to use when writing words in simple sentences. They are given the opportunity to read them to others. Children are given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest.
Mathematics
Numbers: The nursery has a large array of number cards. Children are to count from 1 to 20, and place them in the correct order. When given any number they are to give the number next to it and the one proceeding it. We give them small objects so that they find the correct number of objects to tally them with the given number. Using these objects they learn to count, understand and use numbers, add and substract single-digit numbers. Simple problems of doubling and halving are given to them.
Shapes, space and measures: Children are given opportunities to solve problems on size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money. They explore, recognise and describe the shapes of objects using their mathematical language to name them; such as rectangle, circle, square, triangle, semi-circle, cube, cone and sphere.
Understanding the World
People and communities: Children are encouraged to talk about the present and past events of their own lives and learn similar situations of others. They learn about the cultures and traditions of others and their ways of life. They understand the similarities and differences of those around them and embark on the process to live in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society.
The world: Children will inquire and talk about their own environment in relation to places, objects and living things. They gradually learn why environments are different from one another in the world and talk about these changes, learning to make sense of their physical world.
Technology: Children gradually recognise the products of technology in their own homes, nursery setting and in places they have been and seen in the media and learn it’s use. Children are given opportunities to explore, observe, select and use products of technology to suit their ages.
Expressive Arts and Design
Exploring and using media and materials: Children will sing songs, make music and dance. They do experiments to change them to suit their own or collective desires. They will explore and use a variety of materials, tools and techniques and experiment with colours, designs, textures, forms and functions with adult guided safety measures.
Being imaginative: We encourage children to explore and be creative. Ample opportunities, using open-ended materials and tools are given to them. They are free to produce their own ideas, own ways of painting and mixing colours and paint objects/patterns of their choice to express feelings through design/technology/art/music/dance/role-play/ stories.
