Weston-under-Penyard CE Primary School - Hazel

Welcome to Weston-under-Penyard CE Primary School EYFS Unit

Hazel Class

Our innovative, teacher-led Early Years Unit is a wonderful place for our pupils to start their school life. We promote a safe and nurturing environment, enabling children to grow in confidence as individuals and to understand the need for kindness and respect towards one another. We provide a creative, broad, fun-filled and enquiry-based curriculum, tailored to suit each child. Our learning environment, which includes a bespoke playground including a garden area, a construction area, a small world area and a mud kitchen, fosters children’s natural sense of curiosity and independence and encourages them to become critical, creative thinkers, who embrace challenges through purposeful play, underpinned by our growth mindset-based ethos.

Every child who joins our Early Years setting is welcomed into a community of children, their families and our teachers engaged in the wonder of childhood and the joy of learning.

Children only get one childhood and our school team are dedicated to ensure that children get the best of experiences and highest of standards. We welcome you to come and see for yourself how we nurture success.

For more information on learning in EYFS please see our school EYFS page under curriculum.

Our EYFS Intent

To provide an outstanding, nurturing and inclusive environment which gives children enriching and pertinent experiences to prepare them for their next educational phase.

Our Early Years Team

Our highly-qualified and caring Nursery Team are a valued asset to our school nursery, with years of experience. They are supported by the highly-skilled and experienced River Wye Federation Senior Leadership Team.

Our enthusiastic and dedicated staff have up-to-date training. As professional individuals, they place the needs of the children and the wishes of the parents as their top priority.

Stringent recruitment procedures are followed in respect of all staff who join the nursery, which include interviews, trial sessions, references and full DBS police checks. Staff receive a comprehensive Induction Programme and undertake regular appraisals and CPD as part of the River Wye Federation's improvement cycle.

Mrs Lee-Smith and Mrs Price share the lead role in our Early Years classroom. They are supported by a team of experienced Early Years Practitioners - Mrs Smith, Mrs Haile and Ms Green.

Specialist Teaching

Throughout the week, our children have the opportunity to be taught by PE coaches. Subject leaders from across our Federation take a hands-on approach in supporting the progression of subjects.

Mark Catlin is our school's Sport Coach. He supports children across Nursery in developing key skills in Physical Development.

The advantage of our amazing Early Years Unit is that children are included in whole school events, can make use of excellent facilities and have opportunities to transition well into the school family with their friends.

We have in-house support from agencies such as specialist speech and language therapy, health visiting and paediatric osteopathy, to ensure that your child progresses not just academically, but through ambitious developmental milestones.

Our nursery benefits from a well-equipped setting, consisting of indoor and outdoor classrooms. Our school sits in the heart of the countryside and children benefit from a wholesome curriculum of tending to our edible garden and taking a short stroll to our school woodland. We also love to go out exploring - the Weston rolling hills, the local streams, local shops and anywhere else that piques our interests! We make the most of visitors on-site, even if they are busy working! The children also enjoy using our school facilities - our school hall, lending library, sporting facilities, and IT equipment.

A key part of our school

Children from our Nursery transition smoothly to their Reception year. They feel secure in their surroundings and routines.

Our Early Years team work closely with other teachers, from joint planning and moderation through to organised joint events such as Christmas, Sports Day, transition activities and joint teaching and learning sessions.

Pupils from Year Six regularly join Early Years for buddy reading, visits to church, and shared play.

What makes our Early Years setting unique?

We are at the forefront of the latest research, which suggests that Nursery and Reception children benefit from sharing a setting. It means that Nursery aged children are exposed early to phonics, Talk for Writing, Talk for Reading, UNICEF Rights Respecting work and other aspects of the life and character of our wonderful school.

Café Sano

Our wellbeing café offers children the opportunity to be involved in the preparation and eating of healthy food. Recently, we have made humous, healthy smoothies, vegetable wraps, and roasted squash as well as learning how to use a variety of tools and techniques. Throughout the year we use the Café space to introduce food from other cultures and celebrate festivals and special events.

The Wonder of Woodwork

Hazel Class has a designated workshop area. Children use these to design and create woodwork pieces, using tools and resources.

The experiential nature of woodwork involves the ‘whole’ child developing core dispositions and especially nurturing wellbeing, self-confidence, and a sense of agency – that ‘can-do’ spirit that develops as ideas are put into action. Creative and critical thinking skills are central to woodwork, both in terms of self-expression and problem-solving – as children make choices, find solutions, learn through trial and error and reflect on work. Children develop learning at their own pace and once they have mastered basic skills, they start to explore possibilities and express their imagination. Woodwork provides rich, multi-layered experiences with many opportunities to build on previous learning. The knowledge and skills gained can resonate throughout life.

Classroom Environments

Hazel Class has dedicated spaces for construction, exploration, imaginative play, sand & water play, mark-making and working with all the senses.

Spaces frequently change in response to the interests of the children and staff enhance provision through daily reflections.

Our community spaces are where the class can come together to tell stories, sing, dance and celebrate. It is also used for large scale construction such as building blocks to create Rapunzel’s tower or junk modelling an ice castle! The space changes and adapts to children’s interests and needs and every day we all join together for a wide variety of stimulating learning experiences.

Parent Partnerships

We deeply respect the role that parents play as the principal carer in their child’s life and we want to develop a close working relationship with you so that we are consistently meeting your family's needs. We find that open, two-way communication is the best way to handle this so we always make time to talk at the beginning and end of each day and you will receive information about your child's nursery day verbally, in writing or through photographs.

We share our observations of your children with you using an online learning journal called ‘Seesaw’ and you can see these anytime you choose and access our observations at home to share with your family.

Parents are invited into the classroom every Friday from 3pm to share a story, read with the children or find out about their learning.

We are always looking for helpers from our community who can share a range of skills with our children.

Nursery Education Entitlement

All 3 to 4-year-olds in England can get 570 hours of free early education or childcare per year. It’s usually taken as 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year.

The date you can start claiming depends on your child’s birthday.

Child’s birthday	When you can claim
1 January to 31 March	The beginning of term on or after 1 April
1 April to 31 August	The beginning of term on or after 1 September
1 September to 31 December	The beginning of term on or after 1 January

You do not have to use the full entitlement if you don't want to. The 15 hours entitlement can be shared with another provider if you wish, but you cannot claim for more than 15 hours a week in total.

The entitlement stops once your child starts Reception class in a state school.

Come & Meet Us

We always welcome visits from parents and carers who wish for their child to attend Weston-under-Penyard CE Primary School. If you wish to make an appointment to have a personalised tour with our Head of School and to meet our Early Years staff, please phone the school office.