A wide range of activities and experiences are provided for children, and there are extensive resources for their use inside and outside the nursery.
Through a combination of play, creative activity and structured sessions each child is encouraged to develop knowledge, skills and understanding in a range of areas. We aim to :
- provide a happy, friendly and secure environment in which each child can maximise their potential
- develop children’s cognitive, affective, psychomotor skills which gives them confidence in their ability
- help children develop social and behavioural skills so that they can relate appropriately to other children and adults
We work closely with parents by discussing your child’s progress with you and through a personal profile which describes their achievements. We understand that parents have different requirements for their children, and so there are no constraints on the number or range of sessions that your child attends.
Downside has excellent facilities for play and structured learning. These include a home corner, library corner, resources for language & literacy, mathematics and practical science and technology including computing, housed in two interconnecting classrooms, a 'junior' room for 2-3 year olds and a ‘senior’ room for 3+ and 4 year olds.
Supervisors and the staff teams in each of the classrooms work with specific groups of children and with individual children and so they get to know each child and their particular needs. Maintaining a high staff to children ratio ensures that individual attention can be given to each child.
Please click on the tab headers below to view more information about our activities and the curriculum.
Inside Activities
Weekly sessions of French language learning through games and fun practical activities are provided so that at the age when it is easiest to learn a foreign language children start to develop some vocabulary and simple expressions. This is often celebrated with a ‘French Day’. Cooking is also part of their experience and culinary delights are taken home for the rest of the family to enjoy ! Children are invited to bring their pets into the nursery to show others - these have ranged from ponies to tortoises!
Outside Activities
Outside, the nursery has an enclosed courtyard play area and a larger completely secure play area of approximately half an acre equipped with an exciting range of toys and equipment for imaginative play and learning. A large grassed area is used for games and Sports Day, and a tarmac all weather surface area means children can play outside all year round.
Some examples of our use of the outside area throughout the year include the children’s spring planting of seeds and vegetables in the garden and the harvesting of the results later in the year. Through this practical experience they start to undertand where some food comes from and the life-cycle of plants. In March each year we have frogspawn in our courtyard and children follow the life-cycle of the frog, finally releasing the small frogs into the village pond in the summer. To help develop children’s co-ordination as well as extending outside year-round exercise the Surrey Football Coaching Centre visits us each week to offer ball skills sessions, When it snows sledging and building snowmen are popular activities !
Visits and Events
To further broaden children’s experience, throughout the year we organise various events and visits which are regular diary events for parents and we always look forward to these occasions. are welcome to attend too. These typically include Sports Day & picnic at the end of the summer term; a children’s production at Christmas time; trips to the Polka Children’s Theatre at Wimbledon to see productions specifically for early years children and Legoland in Windsor., Visits to local farms and to the village pond at tadpole time are also highlights of the year’s activities.! Additionally we invite representatives of the local community, such as the police and fire service for activity sessions.
Science and ICT
Downside gives children a range of experiences using different types of new technology. ‘Bee-bot’, a programmable robot introduces the children fun aspects of computer control, and the computer with specialist early years prorammes is always popular.
Children's Art Gallery
Encouraging and developing children’s creative ability is an important part of our curriculum. Art and craft work that the children have developed is displayed so that they can share their success. Some examples are included in the gallery.
