Our Nursery

At Mara Nursery we follow the Curiosity Approach and Planning in the Moment.

Following is a brief description of each.

If you would like more information, please contact us by email: [email protected].

A Baseline assessment is completed with the parent after the child’s initial six weeks in the nursery. This entails a zoom meeting between the parent and the child’s key person.

Planning: children are planned for individually. Each child is ‘focused’ on regularly. Parents are invited to help us to decide on the child’s next steps of learning which are facilitated during the two-week focus period.

We carry out three types of observations which help us to support the focus child’s learning and development.

• Objective led planning - when we work with the child we will have the identified next step in mind. We follow the child’s interest to support their learning.
• Planning in the moment – this is when we notice an opportunity to support the child’s learning during their play, this may or may not be linked to their next step.
• Spontaneous observations – we notice something the child is doing that we wish to record but we do not feel it appropriate or necessary to intervene.

Information including observations and photographs are entered onto a Nursery software programme called Famly which parents have access to. Parents can also add their own photos and information.

Running alongside the work we do with the Focus Children we have pre-planned Continuous Provision. Each age group (room) has a personalised Continuous Provision plan. The Continuous Provision plan offers age-appropriate ideas for activities in selected areas of learning to ensure we are offering the children a broad, rich curriculum full of exciting provocations to play and learn.

Workshop style opportunities run alongside to facilitate independent learning. Continuous Provision is on a 6-weekly cycle, it is flexible and adapted to meet children’s needs and interests.

The Curiosity Approach

Curiosity is the very foundation of learning. It is what drives children in the early years to explore, do, and think for themselves. It is the key to fostering that curiosity lies in the way you set out your environment.

In a Curiosity Approach setting, you won’t find brightly coloured walls and hundreds of shiny plastic toys. Instead, you will see wooden materials, natural resources, and neutral backgrounds that allow the colour to shine. Of course, stimulation is key to developing little brains and building those connections that help them learn. But bright, busy and plastic provisions are not doing it in the right way. Plastic all smells the same and feels the same. On the other hand, if you are recycling and sourcing open-ended resources and natural materials you are bringing different elements, textures, feels and smells. A sense of curiosity and wonder will come with it.

Week 1	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
BREAKFAST Planned to provide 20% of a child’s nutritional requirements Drinks: Water 8.15am to 8.45am	Melon slices and toast	Scrambled eggs on toast	Carrot and Cucumber sticks with natural yoghurt	Eggy bread	Veggie sticks with houmous
MID MORNING ROLLING SNACK Planned to provide 10% of a child’s nutritional requirements 9.30am	Fresh seasonal fruit Milk or Water	Fresh seasonal fruit Milk or Water	Fresh seasonal fruit Milk or Water	Fresh seasonal fruit Milk or Water	Fresh seasonal fruit Milk or Water
LUNCH (11.15am) Planned to provide 30% of a child’s nutritional requirements Drinks: Water only	Lentil Spaghetti Bolognese	Baked fish, with new potatoes, broccoli, and carrots (v) Baked Tofu	Cheesy broccoli, pea and mixed bean pasta bake	Lemon & herb chicken, Tray baked Sweet potatoes & veg (v) Quorn chicken	Fish bites, homemade wedges & mixed beans (v) Lentil/veg bites
MID AFTERNOON ROLLING SNACK Planned to provide 10% of a child’s nutritional requirements 2.30pm	Rice cakes with cream cheese	Flatbread with cannellini beans and lemon dip	Cheese and tomato muffins	Whole meal pitta fingers, sliced egg and home made dip	Oat Flapjacks
LIGHT TEA (4.15pm) Drinks: Water only	Beef & Chicken and or/tomato soup with home made bread (v) Tomato soup	Spinach & cottage/ cream cheese pinwheels, with side salad (v) Pea and sweetcorn fritters	Tuna & sweetcorn rice and mixed vegetables	Chickpea & vegetable curry with couscous	Garden picnic: Summery chickpea and rainbow penne pasta salad

Week 2	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
BREAKFAST Planned to provide 20% of a child’s nutritional requirements Drinks: Water 8.15am to 8.45am	Scrambled eggs on toast	Yoghurt and fruit smoothies	French toast fingers	Cheese and tomato muffins	Cheese toastie squares
MID MORNING ROLLING SNACK Planned to provide 10% of a child’s nutritional requirements 9.30am	Fresh seasonal fruit Milk or Water	Fresh seasonal fruit Milk or Water	Fresh seasonal fruit Milk or Water	Fresh seasonal fruit Milk or Water	Fresh seasonal fruit Milk or Water
LUNCH (11.15am) Planned to provide 30% of a child’s nutritional requirements Drinks: Water only	Spinach & paneer curry with rice	Chicken & veg stir fry with noodles (v) Veggie tofu Stir Fry	Salmon fishcakes, with mixed veg tray bake (v) Broccoli, lentil and potato cakes	Vegetable Lasagne with Cheese (Leek, Zucchini, Carrot, Onion, Lentil and Tomato)	Three bean chilli and bulgur wheat
MID AFTERNOON ROLLING SNACK Planned to provide 10% of a child’s nutritional requirements 2.30pm	Cucumber, pepper sticks with houmous	Apple and raisin oatbars	Veg sticks natural yoghurt & tzatziki	Rice cakes with cream cheese	Veggie sticks with tomato salsa dip
LIGHT TEA (4.15 & 4.30) Drinks: Water only	Jacket potatoes with tuna and sweetcorn	Vegetable rice with beef meatballs (v) Mixed veg egg fried rice	Chicken Caesar wraps, side salad (v) Houmous and salad Wraps	Bagels with scrambled egg with diced mixed peppers	Garden picnic: Baked baguette tomato and cheese pizza slices and mixed salad

*Children are served breakfast between 8 - 8.45am selection of cereals and toast or fresh berries Pumpkins Room children may have more frequent meal options due to their age and stage of development, alongside formulae or milk. All children are provided with access to fresh jugs of water every day with beakers to help themselves. Pumpkins have beakers. All other children drink from a cup/china mug.

Our daily routines for the younger children are split into morning and afternoon sessions.

The morning sessions run from 8am until 12.30pm. The afternoon sessions run from 1.30pm until 6pm.

Older children follow "The Curiosity Approach" with Prime areas incorporated throughout the whole day: personal, social and emotional development, physical development and communication and language.

Trips from the nursery are pre-planned and we aim to give parents at least a weeks’ notice. The ratio of children to staff is 2:1 regardless of age so children tend to go for trips in smaller groups.

We welcome any suggestions for local trips and visits. Please request our trips and visits policy from the office.

Some examples of trips that we conduct include; going to the post office, going to the local shops, a trip to the park or to Brook Farm Open Space. All trips must be risk assessed prior to the children leaving the nursery. Staff are required to complete an observation on the trip to show the educational significance of their trip and why it was carried out.