Our Nursery Day (Lucy)

We feel that the optional additions to our school times support our unique families and their evolving needs over their time with us…

8:00 – Breakfast Club

8:35 – Early Birds

9:00 – Morning School begins

12:00 – Morning School ends

1:00pm – Lunch ends

3:00pm – Afternoon school ends

4:00pm –  After school club ends

Lucy welcomes each child individually at the front door. As their excited chatter fills the hallways, each class gathers together with their teachers and friends ready to make their way to their classrooms. The children who came for ‘Breakfast Club’ at 8:00am excitedly tell their friends what they ate.

When the children get to their classrooms, they hang up coats and bags on their pegs.  They put their healthy snack in the bowl to share with classmates later and say hello to their teachers and friends.

The children make their own choices in the classroom supported and extended by their teachers who foster learning and development opportunities – children learn to problem solve, with the process being as important as the outcome.

There are weekly morning clubs including French and Dance. We also explore music, drama, dressing-up, messy play, science experiments and cooking within the school day.

Snack

We have two different but equally important type of snack times depending on the day. A continuous snack table helps our children choose when to take a cup and plate, pour their milk or water and decide what to eat while chatting to other friends at the snack table. This helps children to identify and regulate their own hunger, clearing and washing up after themselves also encourages independence.

The other is a mid morning, community based snack time, with all of the children sitting together chatting and sharing snacks. Children bring in a piece of fruit or vegetable to share with their friends, in addition to the oatcakes we offer.

Outside

We use our wonderful school garden every day, each class also has access to our neighbouring Ladbroke Square Gardens at least one morning every week and every afternoon.

If the children are going home, they put on their coats and bag and wait on the bench in the front hall for their parents to arrive. Once parents or carers have safely signed the register, it’s time to go home.

Lunch

The children who are staying for lunch, all gather for a story and wait for their friends from the other classes to arrive. This great opportunity to chat about their mornings, make friends with children from the other classes. The teachers support and care for the children, while all enjoying the same meal.

Hot Food

We provide a popular optional hot lunch to those children who stay for lunch hour. Our children lay the table with china plates, glasses, cutlery and flowers from the garden. There are water jugs on the table to enable the children to help themselves and others, contributing to the sense of independence and community at school. These meals encourage our children to try a variety of foods and meal combinations, practice using knives and forks and save parents time and effort, preparing a lunch box each day, also reducing the amount of waste containers and packets from packed lunches.

The afternoons begins in the garden, back in the classroom the children use the Montessori equipment in addition to activities rotated throughout the week from art, music, drama, physical activity and adventure day (this could be a trip to the library, L.Sq Gardens, cooking, science experiment or an exciting guest).

At 3:00pm some of our children go home, while other children stay with us for an exciting ‘Afternoon Club’ until 4:00pm

Clubs

Our extra-curricular lessons are taken by experienced and enthusiastic specialist teachers. We hold French, yoga, dance and nature club within the school day. During the Summer Term we take part in the Forest School Club in Holland Park once a week. Breakfast and afternoon clubs run for an hour before and after school respectively, food and snacks are provided for hungry tummies.

School Trips and visits

We really enjoy involving the children in our vibrant community of Notting Hill. The school arranges for classes to visit the local library and other places of educational interest. Recent visits include the Ladbroke Grove fire station, children’s classical music concerts, our local residential care home and friendly local businesses. Our local police horses often visit for buckets of apples, carrots and plenty of strokes and pats from our children.