Outside

At The Cottage Nursery, we firmly believe that children should have the opportunity to play outside every day, come rain or shine. These outdoor experiences play a big role in shaping children’s development and understanding of the world. That is why our nursery practitioners complete weekly planning for all our outdoor areas, providing activities and outdoor experiences that encourage learning in all areas of development.

Each of our pre-school rooms have free-flow gardens, allowing the children to freely move between indoor and outdoor activities. These gardens are set up with new activities each day following our weekly planning. Both free-flow gardens feature a planting patch where the children are given the opportunity to plant vegetables and watch them grow.

We have recently invested in the development of our main playground. This playground has been made much larger and resurfaced with artificial grass. This garden hosts a climbing frame, monkey bars and a wide range of climbing and obstacle course pieces, all of which can be moved to increase the challenge or adapt for different age group/abilities. More resources in this garden, also include a large mark making den with a blackboard, a cosy reading den, moveable whiteboard, chalkboard and painting board. Children are also able to play on balance bikes and scooters in this garden.

We also have a large grassed area with trees which provides shade in the summer and then plenty of fun in the leaves in Autumn before the leaf blower comes along to tidy them away! This garden features lots of natural resources and loose parts.

Our Cubs and Tigers’ garden is surfaces with ‘soft pour’, providing a safe surface for falls or crawling. This garden includes a water and sand tray, reading den, role play house, a tunnel and age-appropriate obstacle course.

In addition to enjoying playtime outside we also take the children on walks around the village visiting Maisie the local donkey, collecting conkers, counting how many dogs we can spot, checking out the Christmas lights, looking at the road signs and talking about what each one is telling us…. the activities are endless!

We also run a Forest School once a week with our Children in Lions. The children in Panthers are introduced to Forest School in the summer term. We have a fully qualified Forest School leader who leads the session.

We offer a sports class every Monday (term time only) for children in the Panthers and Lions rooms. TA Sport Stars provide an hour of sports to help children develop their listening and attention and gross motor skills. The children are given opportunities to take part in a wide range of sports and fun physical activities with the support of two coaches.

(Content updated 12.07.2024)