Our Nursery

A very warm welcome to our Nursery! Through our website, we hope to share a little of the values and ethos that shape our principles and the care that we ensure for all our young learners.

We have been developing our curriculum rationale and our work so far is shown in the videoscribe on our homepage. We have chosen the symbol of a bridge as it demonstrates how our nursery provides a bridge within our community, bringing learners and families together and guiding them onwards towards a bright future.

Our Values

• Respect

• Responsibility

• Honesty

• Care

Our Aims

• To be an integral part of the local community fostering positive partnerships and respectful relationships with all stakeholders.

• We encourage and support positive emotional health and wellbeing of all stakeholders ensuring the development of confident individuals within meaningful relationships.

• We are committed to providing a safe, responsive and inspiring learning environment both indoors and outdoors which supports the holistic development of the individual child.

• We recognise and value children’s previous learning and further support their development as creative and independent learners.

• Children’s rights are embedded in our practice and we are committed to ensuring visibility of these rights.

• We continue to provide a wide range of challenging and stimulating learning experiences through responsive curriculum planning.

 A little about our setting...

Doune Nursery Class is situated within the grounds of Doune Primary School and is an extended day, extended year provision for children aged 2 to 5 years, open from 8:00 a.m. until 6.00 p.m. 45.6 weeks of the year. Core sessions are 8.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. and 1.00-6.00 p.m.  All eligible children are entitled to 5 funded sessions per week (1140 hours per year) from the Scottish Government.  Families who are looking for non-funded sessions may apply for these, these are limited as all children must receive the funded sessions before any non-funded are allocated.  Sessions are agreed with families before admission, and staffing levels are determined by children’s attendance patterns. To cover this extended day our staff rotate around a shift system.

We hope that children and families enjoy their time with us!

Educators at Doune Nursery thrive to provide high quality learning experiences for all children in our care.  To enable us to do that, we look at Child Led, Adult Led and Adult Initiated learning experiences.  

Child led is based on children's own interests which we support deeper learning off - all the fun stuff for children.

Adult led is things we know children need to learn, natural progression, i.e. self help skills.  These experiences are threaded through fun activities to support children at their own level.

Adult Initiated is all the other things.  Skills children would not know or learn unless they are exposed to them, for example, baking, sewing, play on pedals.

Educators and children utilise our amazing outdoor environment as much as possible.  From walks to the Ponds and Castle, to Picnics at the Park and Outdoor Learning Days.  We are outside in all weathers, so it is advised children have a change of clothes and suitable outdoor wear if possible.  "There is no such things as bad weather, only the wrong clothing" (Wainwright, 1973)

We operate an open door policy and love when families can join us for a Stay & Play or to support learning by sharing a particular skill.

Lunches...

All children who receive a Government funded morning session are eligible to a free school meal.  The nursery children access the same menu as the school.  On arrival to nursery, children select their lunch for that day (orders must be received by 9.30).  Alternatively, packed lunches can be provided form home.  Please note, we operate a nut free zone, this includes chocolate spreads.

We operate a rolling lunch from 12 noon.  Children are informed lunch is open, when they are ready they wash their hands and take a seat at one of the lunch tables.  The main part of their lunch is served to them by our lunch assistant, and children can top this up using the self-service salad bar on the middle of the table.  Once finished, children clear their space, leaving it for another child to attend lunch.  Educators ensure all children have had lunch before it is closed and tidied away.  A rolling lunch ensures children attend lunch when they are hungry and, most importantly, does not interrupt their play.