We are extremely proud of our Early Years setting at Belmont Grosvenor where children embark on a journey of discovery and exploration to strive to thrive before five.
We have created a happy, nurturing, and home-from-home environment where all children feel valued and safe and where they will have the opportunity to develop positive relationships with all practitioners and children within our setting. There are pockets of wonderment, curiosity and connectedness throughout each day here at Magic Tree Nursery.
We firmly believe that learning and growth can take many forms, and that all children should have access to high-quality education that supports their development in a holistic way. We provide children with opportunities to explore, experiment, to be imaginative, innovative, and enjoy open ended exploration, utilising real life and authentic resources and materials. Learning through play enables children to engage in hands-on activities, make choices, and follow their interests. Our approach aims to help children develop confidence, independence, and a love of life-long learning.
Our curriculum
We follow the Development Matters non-statutory framework which recommends a ‘follow the child’ approach ensuring each child’s development focuses on their individual needs.
Areas of focus are ‘a unique child’, ‘rich communication between children and practitioners’ and ‘an enabling environment’ to achieve their best possible potential. Development Matters also supports children’s progress towards all of the statutory EYFS Early Learning goals for the end of their Reception year.
As this document sees each child as individual and learning is not linear, they have taken away the months of development that children must achieve and in return, there are now ‘ranges’ to follow, for a typical development.
This allows children time to fully develop a new concept, before moving onto the next one. It also allows children the time to fully develop within a range, before graduating to the next room. Time is so fleeting, why not give them chance to really reach their potential before moving them on to their next steps?
The prime areas of development and learning lay vital foundations in the early years and are personal, social and emotional development, communication and language, and physical development.
All of our rooms are equipped with age-appropriate resources based on the children’s developmental ranges, giving them the opportunity to be part of their own learning. We are continuously reviewing and implementing eclectic resources to make sure we are meeting the needs of each child in our setting.
Each day, children are welcome to choose freely what they would like to play with, which allows us to further develop their interests and supports the learning of new skills.
Nursery activities
French
In Tree Tops, weekly French sessions are held during term time giving children a fun introduction to a foreign language at a young age. The children assimilate the words and accents without inhibition, and are soon able to understand, and then form simple phrases.
Swimming
Swimming lessons are for children aged three and over and our qualified swimming instructor gently introduces children to swimming, building confidence, and developing water safety.
Magical musicalrama
Magical musicalrama gives children a fun introduction to performing arts through the use of various activities – movement, action songs, role play, playing musical instruments, traditional rhymes, and poetry. The classes fuel imagination and creativity and enable children to start to develop skills for life.
Music guides and supports children by enhancing their communication and numeracy skills. It also helps them to improve their physical coordination as well as self-esteem and independence.
Story time
Story time at Magic Tree Nursery is an opportunity for children to be introduced to reading and language in a fun way. At Story time, children have the freedom to take part in activities that promote development and learning. It also inspires each child to fall in love with books and reading with the support and guidance of the practitioners.
Holistic play
Holistic play and treasure basket activities, both inside and outside, encourage children to discover and wonder at the magic of the world around them as they explore with their senses. They are inspired to be inquisitive and ask questions, as well as harness their natural curiosity through the use of treasure baskets and holistic play sessions.
Integration with BGS
The transition between nursery and ‘big school’ is an important time of change for both children and parents and fully preparing our children is an important aspect of life at Magic Tree. The majority of our children go on to join the Reception class at Belmont Grosvenor and to help this transition, Pre-Reception children are automatically allocated a place in our school’s Reception class and children benefit from this continuity. As Reception is the final year of the EYFS, their classroom is located within the Magic Tree Nursery which supports an easy transition for our Pre-Reception children.
Under the overall guidance of the Headmaster, both sets of staff from Magic Tree Nursery and the pre-prep department work very closely together, sharing their expert knowledge of the children so that all staff understand each child as an individual. As children move through Magic Tree Nursery, they spend more time in the main school, eating in the dining room as well as taking part in the Christmas nativities.
Children settle very quickly into Belmont Grosvenor, having been well-prepared for the next chapter in their school life.
Inspection report
Belmont Grosvenor School is regularly inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI). The latest inspection took place in September 2022 with the report published in October. This inspection was an RCI (Regulatory Compliance Inspection) on the whole school, as well as an Ofsted inspection for our registered EYFS (nursery) setting. BGS achieved the ISI’s highest possible accolades, ‘Outstanding’ in the nursery inspection and fully compliant in all 8 framework areas. BGS remains ‘Excellent’ from its previous 2018 EQ (Education Quality) Inspection.
