Corner House^® Gillsland Nursery

Special Festivals

Our nursery encourages children to celebrate a wide range of festivals and celebrations throughout the year.  We always encourage our little one’s families to share their backgrounds too! This is one of the best ways for children to learn about different religions and cultures by celebrating various world religious festivals, food tasting from different countries and dressing up in the national dress of their friends.

Encouraging Communication

Every day at our nursery we understand the importance of promoting language and communication. Through your child’s daily interactions with other children and our practitioners, we seek to encourage communication and identify speech and language difficulties and supporting your little one in their development journey. With our calm, relaxed lunch experience, Our trained practitioners understand and expand the communication developments that take place during this time.

Excellent Resources

Our nurseries provide an extensive range of resources to encourage children to learn through play.  We favour naturalistic learning resources and make fantastic use of our outdoor equipment, promoting free-flow and child-led learning.

Eco Schools

Eco Schools is the largest sustainable schools programme in the world and is designed to encourage action on sustainable development issues.  Our children love getting involved in their Eco Schools projects and learning about how to help protect the environment.

www.eco-schools.org.uk

Fundraising Activities

Taking part in fundraising activities helps children to learn about others that are less fortunate than themselves and to understand how we can help them.  Fundraising events are good fun and are a great way to bring children, families and communities together.  Some of the fundraisers we have taken part in are: sponsored toddles, superhero days, baking cakes to sell and garden parties.

Graduations

We celebrate the big move to primary school with a special graduation ceremony each year – caps, gowns, the works!

Heuristic Play

We encourage Heuristic Play with our 1–2-year-olds, embracing every child’s natural curiosity.  Heuristic play involves offering children a range of different objects and receptacles with which they are encouraged to play freely without adult instruction.

Planting and Growing

We make use of our wonderful outdoor spaces and forest areas by encouraging children at our nurseries and Out of School Care clubs to plant, grow and tend to fruit, vegetables, flowers and herbs throughout the year.

Settling-In Sessions

Our nurseries offer free settling in sessions.  Parents can bring their child for a couple of hours first, gradually introducing the child to a new environment.  Settling in sessions are aimed at helping your child to adapt to their new surroundings and become more familiar with the staff and other children.

E-Learning Journals / Parent Zone App

Our E-Learning journals and Parent Zone app allow you to see your child’s activities at nursery with the click of a button.  Staff upload images and notes about your child’s participation in activities at nursery for you to access wherever you are.  Our nursery tablets offer exciting and stimulating learning experiences tailored to challenge and engage little ones.

Baking Activities

Wherever we can we encourage children to partake in preparing their meals at nursery.  We love to see children take pride in their culinary creations and enjoy healthy and delicious food.