Nursery

The Hilden Oaks Nursery offers outstanding, unique and flexible care for children from the age of three months. We understand that parents want to give their child the best possible start in life, and our vibrant and nurturing nursery environment provides a gentle introduction to school life, allowing children to progress seamlessly through to more formal schooling.

Our staff are fully qualified, and the children enjoy exceptional levels of staffing care, with a high ratio of staff to children. We are committed to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, focusing on the development of the whole child. 

Hilden Oaks is very much a family environment, with the Nursery forming an integral part of the school. Parents and friends are actively encouraged to take part in pre-school life either by joining our Parent & Toddler group, or by bringing their children into school to take part in extra-curricular activities.

We work closely with parents, making sure that staff are always available at pick-up and drop-off times to share the events of their child’s day. We use famly an easy-to-use and secure app that centres around unique personal news feed, making it easy to stay in touch and work together. This app helps staff and families celebrate their child’s learning and development.

The best way to see how our fabulous Nursery could work for your child, is for you to come and visit us either at our weekly Parent & Toddler group or by making an appointment at a time that suits you.

The Hilden Oaks Nursery is split into three different age bands, allowing our children to enjoy a variety of activities chosen to best suit a child's individual abilities. When children join the Nursery, it can often be the first time that they have left their parents to meet with new peers. We ensure that each child spends time playing with their contemporaries or playing as a group in the garden so they can improve their social skills and grow as children. We pride ourselves on preparing children for a smooth transfer to school, and our recent inspection reports reflect the success of our efforts.

Kindie (3 months–2 years)

The children in Kindie are guaranteed individual attention as we maintain very high staffing ratios at all times, allowing each child to be cared for personally. Kindie provides the opportunity for early socialisation and learning through play, enabling our children to develop personally and individually.

Kindergarten (aged 2–3 years)

As the children move through to Kindergarten they are encouraged to start becoming more independent, whilst still developing their social skills and learning through play. We also start to introduce a few the Hilden Oaks Values, which become an integral part of their daily lives.

Once children reach the age of three, they move on to Preschool

Early Years Curriculum

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the statutory curriculum guidance for all children from birth to age five. The EYFS is built on guiding principles which inform our work with the children:

• Every one of our children is unique and constantly learns through being resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

• Our children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

• Our children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs. There is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.

• We understand that our children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.

There are seven areas of learning and development that must shape our planning. All these areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, for building their capacity to learn and for forming relationships.

 These are called the prime areas:

• Communication and language

• Physical development

• Personal, social and emotional development

As providers, Hilden Oaks Nursery also supports children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied.

These areas are:

• Literacy

• Mathematics

• Understanding the world

• Expressive arts and design

By covering these seven areas in combination, through our curriculum, we are able to help our children grow and develop as individuals.

Nursery Day

At Hilden Oaks, we understand that family life is increasingly busy. Many of our parents work and need reliable and flexible childcare all year round so we ensure our Nursery is open 48 weeks of the year between 7.45 am and 6.30 pm, which gives our parents maximum flexibility. Our parents can choose between:

Daycare - Children attend for the same days/sessions all-year-round.

Term-time - Children attend for the same days/sessions term time only.

Hilden Oaks offers a choice of session times during the school day. Children can attend for full or part days.

All children in Nursery (term-time or all-year-round) may be booked for additional sessions into Holiday Club. The Holiday Club will only accept nursery aged children who already attend Hilden Oaks.

We also hold a Parent & Toddler Group every Friday morning, during term times and school holidays. Free of charge and open to all, we feel this is an ideal way to introduce your child to Hilden Oaks Preparatory School & Nursery. Please contact the School Office for more information.