Our Nursery Provision
Welcome to Eastfield's Nursery. We are extremely proud that our Early Years provision was judged Outstanding by Ofsted in November 2023.
Children in our Nursery benefit from a rich, stimulating and engaging environment that encourages exploration, experimentation and discovery, both indoors and outdoors. We recognise that high-quality early experiences provide important foundations for future learning and are committed to giving every child the best possible start.
Children learn through a wide range of practical, hands-on experiences. Our continuous provision gives children opportunities to make choices, follow their interests and develop their learning through purposeful play. Carefully planned adult-led and child-initiated experiences provide appropriate support and challenge.
Our experienced practitioners develop children's learning through high-quality interactions throughout the day. Adults model and extend language, introduce new vocabulary, ask thoughtful questions, demonstrate new skills and encourage children to think, explore, solve problems and become increasingly confident and independent learners. .
Communication and Oracy
Communication and language are at the heart of our Nursery provision.
Through conversations, storytelling, songs and rhymes, role play and collaborative experiences, children are encouraged to:
• express their ideas;
• listen and respond to others;
• ask and answer questions;
• develop their speaking and listening skills; and
• acquire and use an increasingly rich vocabulary.
At Eastfield, we believe every child has a voice that deserves to be heard. By creating rich opportunities for talk and high-quality adult interaction throughout the day, we help children become confident communicators and establish strong foundations for learning across the curriculum.
Learning to Think and Become Independent
We begin developing children's early metacognitive skills in an age-appropriate way.
Practitioners encourage children to think about what they are doing, make choices, select resources, solve problems and persevere when things do not work first time. Through skilled questioning and conversation, children begin to reflect on their experiences and recognise what helped them succeed.
Adults might ask:
• What are you trying to do?
• What could you try?
• What helped you?
• Did that work?
• What could you try next?
These early experiences help children develop independence, resilience, curiosity and self-regulation, preparing them to become increasingly thoughtful and confident learners.
Knowing Every Child
We get to know every child as an individual.
Ongoing observation, assessment and high-quality interaction help practitioners identify children's strengths, interests and next steps. This informs planning and enables us to provide experiences that respond to children's developmental needs while offering appropriate support and challenge.
At the end of Nursery, we consider children's development against the appropriate 3-to-4-year-old developmental checkpoints. This helps us identify children's next steps and supports a smooth and positive transition into Reception.
Preparing for Reception
As children progress through Nursery, we support them to become increasingly confident and independent.
Children develop the communication, language, physical, social and emotional foundations they need to engage successfully with future learning. Through purposeful play, high-quality interactions and carefully planned experiences, they begin to recognise themselves as capable learners who can communicate, explore, collaborate, persevere and solve problems.
Our aim is for children to leave Nursery confident, curious and excited about continuing their learning in Reception.
Our Reception Provision
Welcome to Eastfield's Reception Class. We are extremely proud that our Early Years provision was judged Outstanding by Ofsted in November 2023.
“Children in the Nursery and Reception classes benefit from provision of an exceptional quality. The most is made of every opportunity to support children in these classes.” Ofsted, November 2023
At Eastfield, children in Reception benefit from a rich, stimulating and engaging environment that encourages exploration, experimentation and discovery, both indoors and outdoors. We recognise that high-quality experiences in the Early Years provide essential foundations for future learning and are committed to giving every child the best possible start to their school journey.
Children learn through a carefully planned balance of adult-led teaching, purposeful play and child-initiated learning. Learning builds on children's individual strengths, starting points and next steps so that children receive appropriate support and challenge.
Our experienced practitioners develop children's learning through high-quality interactions throughout the day. Adults model and extend language, introduce vocabulary, ask purposeful questions, demonstrate new skills and encourage children to explore, think and solve problems.
Communication and Oracy
Oracy is at the heart of our Reception provision.
Through stories, role play, songs and rhymes, purposeful discussion, collaborative learning and everyday conversations, children develop their speaking and listening skills.
Children are encouraged to:
• express their ideas and opinions;
• explain their thinking;
• ask and answer questions;
• listen and respond to others; and
• develop and use an increasingly rich vocabulary.
Developing confident communicators provides children with strong foundations for reading, writing, mathematics and learning across the curriculum.
Learning to Think and Learn Independently
We begin developing metacognitive skills from an early age by helping children become increasingly aware of themselves as learners.
Through age-appropriate questioning and conversation, adults encourage children to:
• make choices about their learning;
• think about what they are trying to achieve;
• select strategies and resources;
• persevere when something is difficult;
• talk about what worked;
• learn from mistakes; and
• consider what they could try next.
This helps children develop independence, resilience, curiosity and self-regulation, alongside the confidence to tackle new experiences.
Preparing for Year 1
Throughout Reception, children are gradually supported to become increasingly confident and independent.
As the year progresses, teaching, routines and experiences evolve in response to children's development. This supports a positive transition into Year 1 without losing the purposeful play, exploration and interaction that are important features of high-quality Early Years practice.
By the end of Reception, we want children to be:
confident communicators • curious learners • active problem-solvers • increasingly independent • resilient when challenged • ready and excited for their next stage of learning
At the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, children's attainment is assessed against the 17 Early Learning Goals. The current Eastfield page already explains this assessment point to parents.
Above all, our aim is for every child to leave Reception with secure foundations for future learning, confidence in themselves and a genuine love of learning.
Find out more
Parents who would like more detail about what children learn and how our Early Years curriculum develops from Nursery through Reception can visit the Curriculum → EYFS section of our website.