ABOUT ST.JAMES

CONTACT

Who we are – Our Staff

We are a private, family-owned Nursery and Pre-School. Caroline started the nursery over 45 years ago in her own home, and now her daughter, Natasha is the managing partner. Lisa and Charmaine are joint managers, in charge of the day to day running of the nursery. Agata is our Early Years Teacher, within the Pre-School and, alongside Claire, they are our deputy managers.

Many of our staff have been with us for several years and are very experienced in the care and education of young children. Our Early Years qualifications include degrees, diplomas and NVQs. The team also have forest school, foreign languages, sports coaching, dance, art and music skills. All of our permanent staff have a first aid qualification and all are DBS checked.

St James provides 2 units:

Hedgehogs

for younger children, aged 3 months to 3 years

Owls

for children aged 3-5 years.

Each child has a special member of staff (a “key person”) who ensures that they are happy, secure and who is responsible for their learning, development and making progress.

The Nursery also runs a small holiday club for children aged 4 – 8 years.

Our Aims

To inspire our children with a beautiful, enabling environment, providing curiosity, awe and wonder

To be a fully inclusive Setting, treating all children as individuals, using a “child-centred” approach

To provide high quality teaching, meeting the needs of children, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), using the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

To develop high quality practitioners, who have continuous professional development and who feel valued

To support a child’s interests, inspiring and showing new possibilities

To encourage strong positive relationships with practitioners, through the “key person” system

To encourage friendships, promoting self-confidence, positivity, and happiness

To ensure each child feels safe, secure and has a strong emotional well-being

To work in partnership with parents, respecting their role and encouraging and valuing feedback

To teach children about other cultures, celebrating festivals and events and promoting British Values.

To be role models for healthy lifestyles and encourage physical exercise, healthy eating and teeth cleaning

To encourage appropriate risk taking and challenge, whilst being supported

To work closely with other professionals, to meet the needs of the child

To help our children be happy, healthy and confident with high self-esteem and self-worth

To value our children, our families and our staff team

We are compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 – no personal data is shared unless legally obliged to do so or where consent has been provided. We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office.

"I love receiving my daughter’s photos, videos and observations online.

It’s so reassuring to see she is happy”

Esme’s Mummy

What we do – Learning through Play

St James Nursery is so lucky to have a beautiful learning environment, full of natural materials, authentic items and loose parts. We plan a variety of activities (indoors and outdoors) for our children based on their interests and their individual needs and “next steps”. These include water and sand play, cutting and sticking, singing and role play, painting and puzzles, technology and music, gardening and climbing!

Natural and authentic resources are our preference. We are a “The Curiosity Approach” Setting (our accreditation was achieved in 2020), bringing curiosity, awe and wonder into early childhood and creating the “thinkers and doers” of the future. Find out more at www.thecuriosityapproach.com

We follow the government-based framework for early learning called the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) which outlines the standards that school and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children.

Crucially, we never forget that every experience provides an opportunity for children to learn.

Our Curriculum

Each child is unique. The child is the curriculum and what they learn and how they learn is unique to them. We follow the child’s interests, the seasons, celebrations and festivals. We have the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) as our framework, and using our environment as the ‘3rd teacher’, we plan in the moment for each individual child.