Early Years

Our Magical Early Years in Greenwood 

Welcome to the enchanting woodland glade that is Greenwood, happy home to our Early Years children. This is where magic happens before our eyes every day! There is nothing more exciting than seeing our youngest children gaze with awe and wonder at life and its mystery unfolding before them, and we revel in providing the very best opportunities to nurture their curiosity, enthusiasm and love for learning.  

Our pupils take their first steps into the joys of nursery life when they join the Nutkins class, at just over 2 years old. Here, they are immersed in child-initiated play, where they can choose from a whole range of activities to spark their curiosity, and suit their needs and desires throughout the day. Their play and learning takes place in a beautifully equipped set of large, light classrooms, all enjoying free-flow into the outside learning area and enclosed woodland environment. In addition, the children enjoy exciting sessions from our specialist teachers throughout the week, whether it be dance, French, music, swimming, sport or Forest School, and here they make use of our extensive school site and its facilities. 

Whether you choose for your child to join us at age 2, 3 or 4, individualised learning is right at the heart of all we do at Yarrells. Our passion is to develop the whole child and, at the root of this has to sit happiness. Our little people need to feel safe, nurtured and loved, every moment of the day. Our staff have the highest qualifications and we provide generous ratios to ensure your child has warm and nurturing care throughout their time with us, they are able to build meaningful relationships with all the adults in Greenwood and they are able to develop their skills through rich and immersive activities in all seven areas of the Early Years Framework. 

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and cover seven areas of learning and development through immersive, inter-disciplinary themes that encourage the children across the early years age range to explore, investigate, play creatively and above all, have fun!   

The three prime areas are: 

• personal, social and emotional development 

• communication and language 

• physical development 

There are four further specific areas of learning and development: 

• mathematics 

• knowledge of the world 

• literacy 

• creative development  

We chart each child’s progress against these seven areas carefully to ensure we are providing tailor-made opportunities for them to develop at the right pace, with just the right amount of challenge. Children develop at such different rates in their early years that we need to make sure we get the balance right: we don’t want our little ones to be bored, but we also don’t want them to be overwhelmed so we work hard to create the right experience for each individual. As well as thematic learning activities, children are given exposure to phonics and numbers so that when they are ready, they are able to develop some of the core building blocks for their future curriculum. 

There are so many benefits to joining a nursery within a school setting: it’s like a big family and we celebrate everyone in it! Our facilities are excellent and as well as their gorgeous Greenwood home, the children enjoy making use of the whole school site, whether it be the dining room for delicious home-cooked meals, the library for story time or an adventurous walk in the woods and gardens in search of the Gruffalo! The children come to know and feel secure with all the staff in our community so they feel comfortable with increasing numbers of people; they join us for assembly twice a week; they take part in the school ‘Nativity’ and summer shows; they develop lovely relationships with older ‘buddies’ in the school who enjoy playing games with them at ‘buddy break times’ or reading stories to them at ‘quiet time’, and, when the time for Reception comes, our nursery children are ready to make the exciting leap into in the ‘big school’ environment, knowing we’re right with them, every step of the way.