St. Aidan’s Catholic Primary Academy

Our Early Years Foundation Stage (3-5yrs)

Nursery Tour

Reception Tour

Early Years Award!

St Aidan's achieved the Early Years Quality Mark Award in October 2021 for excellent provision in our Nursery and Reception.

We now offer full time Nursery places and afternoon sessions for rising 3s, please contact the school office for more details.

Nursery Information

Please read our Nursery Prospectus where you will find all the important information about what we offer. If you require any further information then please contact the school office.

0208 590 5223 or admin@st-aidans.redbridge.sch.uk

Early Years Lead & SENDCo- Miss Williamson

In the Moment Planning:

“Practitioners must consider the individual needs, interests, and development of each child in their care, and must use this information to plan a challenging and enjoyable experience for each child in all areas of learning and development.” (The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, DfE, September 2021).Our practitioners continually plan “in the moment”. Each time they interact with a child, they are observing, planning for, and responding to, that individual child.

By using this cycle on a moment-by-moment basis, the adult will be always alert to individual children (observation), always thinking about what it tells us about the child’s thinking (assessment), and always be ready to respond by using appropriate strategies at the right moment to support children’s well-being and learning (planning for the next moment).

The aim is to organise the setting – including the time, the resources and the adults – to ensure that the majority of the children display deep levels of engagement for the majority of the time.

From day one, the children are supported to explore the environment to see what is available, to select the resources they would like, to use them appropriately and to tidy when they have finished.

The sessions are organised to maximise the amount of ‘free-flow’ time available. Adult-Led learning takes place at specific times, for example; soon after arrival, just before the end of the session or lunch. These group times may be used for phonics, stories, maths, songs etc.

The weekly organisation is as follows; Each Friday 3-5 children are selected who will be the “focus children” for the following week. These children are given a form to take home for their parents to complete – asking about current interests of the child, any special events in the family and any questions the parents may have. Families are encouraged to add photos to Tapestry.

The Tapestry Learning Journey becomes a wonderful individual record, entries on Tapestry are often accompanied by a photo.

Teachers will have discussion with parents on regular basis and in particular during the week when their child is a ‘focus child’.

In almost all cases, the ‘next step’ is completed immediately.

“In the moment” planning is a very simple idea – observing and interacting with children as they pursue their own interests and also assessing and moving the learning on in that moment. The written account of these interactions becomes a learning journey. This approach leads to deep level learning and wonderful surprises occur daily.

St Aidans Nursery Prospectus