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Nursery

The best start for your child's educational journey.

At our beautiful Wicken Park site, our Nursery offers outstanding care and facilities for children aged 12 months to four years all year round, providing a safe and happy springboard for your child’s education.

Our Nursery staff bring with them a wealth of childcare expertise, including Nursery Nurses with Qualified Teacher Status and over 30 years of experience in Early Years settings collectively. You can rest assured that your child will be left in the very best of hands.

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Welcome

The warmest of welcomes to our outstanding Nursery.

The introductory years of a child’s education are brimming with excitement, exploration, investigation and discovery. The pre-school years are a fundamental time when children are first introduced to a world beyond the secure familiarity of home life.

Here, they will become more independent and socially confident, begin to make friends and experience new opportunities to play and learn, while also interacting with adults beyond their immediate family.

Our youngest children flourish happily in the safe and nurturing environment of our Nursery, underpinned by an excellent Early Years curriculum that equips them with the skills and confidence for the start of school.

At Akeley Wood, we believe it is vitally important that once you have chosen the right nursery and Early Years Foundational Setting (EYFS) for your child, you also build strong links and lasting relationships with teaching and support staff, sharing in those observations, goals and ideas that will help to maximise the Nursery experience.

Our excellent and enthusiastic staff are highly qualified and chosen with great care, reflecting our commitment to maximising the comfort, happiness and progress of our children.

It is our aim to ensure that all our Nursery children are given an inspirational foundation for a fruitful and well-rounded education.

We offer children a dynamic environment in which they are encouraged and supported in developing their diversity of talents, allowing all our young individuals to thrive.

The Nursery staff understand our children and are always on hand to give them a cuddle or words of support should they need it. We love that the boys come out at the end of the day with a smile on their face, mud on their clothes and stories of time with their friends.

– Akeley Wood Nursery Parent

CURRICULUM

Personalised learning and teaching.

We use recognised numeracy and literacy programmes, embedding valuable consistency that stretches from preschool into Junior School and above. We have also enjoyed great success in employing synthetic phonics techniques to advance reading levels well above the minimum required UK standards.

While we use the Early Years Foundation Stage as the basis for a balanced Nursery curriculum, we are able to tailor our teaching and learning to meet the specific needs of individual children, building on their strengths, supporting them in areas of challenge and helping them to achieve success on their own terms.

Specialist staff to encourage new interests.

A unique advantage of the close connection between our Nursery and Junior School is that from the age of 2.5 years, your child will benefit from sessions in Music and from age 3 years old Drama, Cookery and P.E. are introduced, taught by specialist staff from our Junior School, illuminating their curiosity and instilling new passions.

Children will also spend valuable outdoor educational and play time in the inspirational setting of our Forest School, where they learn to engage with their environment in new and stimulating ways.

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TRANSITION THROUGH NURSERY

Gentle adjustment to support development.

Nursery children are divided by age into four groups:

- Ladybirds 1 (12-18 months old)
- Ladybirds 2 (18 months to two and a half years)
- Caterpillars (two and a half to three years)
- Butterflies (three to four years)

Throughout their Nursery years, our aim is to spark curiosity, enthusiasm, and independent thought in our young children; to build solid foundations on which they can grow and thrive. When the time comes for them to start school, they can make that leap with confidence and success.

Join us for an Open Event

From whole school open mornings to an Akeley Breakfast and Tour, there are opportunities throughout the year to visit us onsite and discover what an Akeley education has to offer.

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Facilities

Explore our idyllic Nursery facilities at our Wicken Park site, complete with spacious rooms for each stage, onsite Forest School and acres of land in which to learn and play.

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Nursery Funding

Akeley Wood School is a registered provider under the Early Education funding for all eligible families in the Nursery and Reception classes and offers up to 15 hours of childcare entitlement per week. For more information, please contact Ann.Taylor@AkeleyWoodSchool.co.uk.


We accept Tax-Free Childcare towards nursery fees and additionally wraparound care fees from Reception to Y6.

An exciting new world of discovery.

Learn more. Download our prospectus.

Download our prospectus

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