Little Hoots Nursery
Our Wonderful Nursery.
Welcome to our Nursery Class for children aged 2 to 4 years, where each day is full of new discoveries and fun. Little Hoots Nursery is a maintained nursery which is part of the school. It is led by qualified teacher and former Local Authority Early Years Advisor Becky Wilcox. This decision to employ a qualified teacher to teach our nursery children was informed by substantial educational research reports such as ''The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education Project (EPPE)' by Sylva, Kathy; Melhuish, Edward; Sammons, Pam; Siraj-Blatchford, Iram; Taggart, Brenda; (2004). We firmly believe a high quality nursery education will give the children the best start in their school life.
A more recent educational report entitled, 'Quality and impact of Centre-based Early Childhood Education and Care' by Janta, Barbara, Janna van Belle, and Katherine Stewart, Quality and impact of Centre-based Early Childhood Education and Care. European Union, 2016 states that the advantages of children attending a high quality setting with highly qualified staff include, 'educational and labour market outcomes, economic outcomes and social outcomes, such as improved child health and wellbeing.Together, these outcomes make a strong case for increasing investments in the quality of ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) at a national level. The EC’s Recommendation ‘Investing in Children: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage’ re-emphasised the importance of investing early in high-quality nursery education.'
Our Nursery has its own classroom and dedicated outdoor space within the School grounds. As well as having their own space, children in Little Hoots care also able to access the facilities in the main School including the hall, library, field and daily mile track. The children in Little Hoots love to have the opportunity to chat over the fence with the older children in School and to see older siblings during our outdoor play sessions. Children in Little Hoots learn through playing and exploring, being active and through being encouraged to be creative and critical in their thinking. In Little Hoots we provide a play based curriculum in a stimulating environment that provides for children's individual learning and developmental needs and interests. Please see our Early Years page for details of our Early Years Curriculum and our Little Hoots Class Page to see what we have recently been doing in Nursery.
Sessions
Little Hoots run two sessions a day, our morning session runs from 8.45-11.45am and our afternoon session runs from 11.45am-2.45pm, The afternoon session will include lunch as part of the session, children can bring a packed lunch or order a hot school lunch. Morning and afternoon sessions can be combined into a full day session from 8:45am - 2:45pm. Children in nursery need to be collected by 2.45pm. If you have older children in school and would rather collect your nursery child at the same time as them, you are able to book a wrap around session of half an hour (2.45-3.15) at a cost of £3 per day for 3 and 4 year olds or £4 per day for 2 year olds.
Funding
All 3 and 4 year olds are entitiled to 15 hours of free education a week from the start of the term after their third birthday, some 2 year olds are also eligible for this funding, Depending on parents circumstances some 3 and 4 year olds will be entitiled to 30 hours funding a week to check eligibilty for this funding please visit https://www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare. Details of all childcare funding available for children in the early years can be found on the following website, https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-and-education-for-2-to-4-year-olds
If you require additional hours, or if your child is not yet eligable for a funded place the charges at Little Hoots are as follows, £6 per hour for 3 and 4 year olds and £8 per hour for 2 year olds.
If you would like to visit the School to look around the Nursery please email admin@hullavington,wilts,sch.uk or call 01666 837604
For information about applying for a nursery place please click here