Moorland Nursery School, Trinity Court: overview

Moorland Nursery School

Moorland Nursery School is a small, family run early-years school located in the Staffordshire Moorlands. The school provides high quality education, development and care for children aged 3 to 5 years and forms an important part of Staffordshire's Early-Years Education Plan. With the benefit of an experienced full-time teacher, Moorland Nursery School is one of two private early- education providers in Staffordshire to have achieved status as a specialist early-years school.

The school operates from Trinity Court, an award winning restored Victorian chapel. Trinity Court was acquired derelict in 1996. Along with its school rooms the refurbished former chapel provides a warm, spacious and stimulating environment. Many features of the former chapel have been carefully preserved: stained glass and woodwork reflect the building's 120 year history. By contrast the main rooms are modern in decoration and design, providing a superb canvas for displaying the children’s art work. Despite its external appearance, Trinity Court has been carefully designed with young children in mind: infant toilets, glass panelled doors and a comprehensive security system are just some of the features that have adapted the building for its current use. Endon High School’s playing field adjoins the building and Moorland Nursery School benefits from uninhibited access to this outdoor facility.

Each year since 1982 we have succeeded in making early education accessible and fun for children, parents and staff alike. The experience, skill and dedication of our teacher has gained her widespread recognition in the early-education field. In addition to her role at Moorland Nursery School, she is a member of the Staffordshire Moorlands Early Years Forum (an organisation promoting good practise in early-years education and care). Our nursery nursing staff have achieved similar acclaim and, in December 2000 we were proud to become one of the first private early-education facilities in Staffordshire to achieve Investor in People recognition.

TC Tigers and TC Club

Moorland Nursery School incorporates a small unit which nurtures the early development of 2 to 3 year old children. The aim of the TC Tigers is to gently prepare children for the nursery school (which in turn paves the way for the transition to full-time primary education).

TC Club also operates from Trinity Court, providing high quality childcare before & after school and during the school holidays. The club operates within the secure, caring environment for which we are renowned and accommodates children attending four local primary schools.

Registration

To reserve a place please discuss session availability with a member of our Office Team and return a completed registration form. A registration fee is payable with your registration (see Fees). The return address for completed forms is towards the rear of this information pack.

TC Tigers

When we moved to Trinity Court in 1997, the increased space and facilities allowed us to open our expertise to a wider range of children. This saw the origin of our TC Tigers, an extension of the nursery school providing elementary education and care for children aged two to three years.

TC Tigers is designed primarily to help children take their first step towards early-years education. It also provides mums and dads with a safe, reliable and professional childcare facility that is open for 52 weeks of the year.

The unit benefits from sharing its facilities, resources and expertise with those of Moorland Nursery School. It occupies its own area within Trinity Court, the Rainbow Room, and accommodates an intimate group of eight children in any one session. The children enjoy a colourful, stimulating and secure environment which helps to develop their confidence.

The professionalism which characterises the nursery school applies to an equal degree with the TC Tigers and staff are selected for their warmth and ability to nurture a family atmosphere. As a result, children benefit greatly from professional guidance and peer contact during an important stage of their early development.

The children learn to socialise in a caring atmosphere and gain from the friendships they form. Within a gentle framework incorporating themes, and with an emphasis on play, children are guided socially, emotionally and educationally. They learn to share and to respect each other and adults. Development is encouraged through imaginative creative and physical activities and elementary concepts are introduced with games. Colours, counting and number recognition, sand and water play all take an important role. Familiarity with books is encouraged and listening to stories, poems and nursery rhymes helps the children to develop language skills. Children also delight in expressing themselves through music, movement and song. Potty training is an important part of development at this age and nursery nursing staff liaise closely with parents during this process.

TC Tigers children are guaranteed a place in the nursery school group and progress when ready for the transition. Introductory visits and the continuity of staff and peers allow this transition to occur virtually seamlessly.

Unfortunately, due to the small capacity of the unit, sessions are often heavily subscribed. For this reason early booking is strongly recommended.

Moorland Nursery School

At about three years old children begin to develop their skills of concentration. This is an ideal time for them to embark on their early-education “careers” and, although individual development is taken into consideration, TC Tigers children normally integrate into the nursery school group at this stage.

Although it is not always possible, children should, by preference, attend five or more sessions per week. This allows them to settle into the nursery school routine and cover a significant number of the topics offered. If it can be achieved, it is ideal for children to attend full-time in preparation for primary school. This is becoming increasingly important as children enter primary school at a younger age.

Introductory visits are arranged before admission and these are not charged. The number needed varies from child to child and the head-teacher will provide advice about individual circumstances. Children attending TC Tigers sessions are, naturally, given the opportunity to integrate gradually into the School.

Moorland Nursery School is an approved early-education provider within the Department for Education & Skills (DfES) early-years education scheme. As such, government early-education funding may be claimed at Moorland Nursery School. Children resident in both Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are eligible for funding assistance at the age of three.

Moorland Nursery School aims to benefit your child by:

making your child's first school experience one of friendship and fun. This leads to successful education.
affording children attention as part of a small class group.
exercising mental powers with stimulating activities, helping to curb challenging behaviour.
laying the foundations of the fundamental academic and social concepts developed later at primary school.
preparing children for the transition to primary school in order that this occurs with anticipated pleasure not trauma!

Background Information

Since 1982 Moorland Nursery School has offered early-years education to children aged three to five years. During this time we have gained a reputation for excellence in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

The importance of Nursery Education is now recognised by the profession and the community in general. Nursery school provides the first challenge in life for many young children and allows an extension of the child's social setting to include those other than the parents. In this transition it is important that a personal relationship develops between child and teacher. A family atmosphere within the class helps to achieve this. Children learn to integrate with the group and to extend relationships beyond the confines of the home. The opportunity to meet other children of similar age in an intimate environment prepares for entry into primary school. This makes later contact with many children of varying ages and sizes a less awe-inspiring experience. Many psychologists agree that children benefit from early interaction with other children in a group situation.

We are proud of the achievements of our ex-pupils and feel that their early guidance at Moorland Nursery School has assisted many in gaining academic distinctions and University entrance. 50% of our first cohort gained degrees in 1999!

Children’s development varies greatly at this stage. Even where children are not ready to make perceptible academic progress (as will be the case for many) they will benefit significantly from other aspects of early-years education. Arguably the most important of these is in their personal and social development, namely encouraging successful relationships with others. This is an important quality in later life and fashions a child’s ability to cope with most situations. Nursery school helps prepare the child for society, emphasising the importance of successful social interaction. Such children are respected by society and command respect in adult life.

Nursery education is a prelude to the primary school and both of these form the basis of the child's future school career. Early educational ideas and concepts provide the foundations on which to extend and consolidate. A secure foundation gives a healthy and enthusiastic attitude to learning. Young children are at a stage of development where they become aware of their surroundings and what lies beyond. There is a natural stimulus from within giving a quest for knowledge. Children are mentally receptive and absorb a wealth of information appertaining to their environment and personal interests. This requires direction to mould, stimulate and inspire. The understanding and skills of the nursery school cultivates this natural interest.

Curriculum

Children benefit from stimulation and direction to exercise and activate their powers of thought. Interesting experiences provoke discussion and provide a source for knowledge. Moorland Nursery School works to a detailed early-education curriculum which comfortably fulfils the requirements of Ofsted and the DfES:

Personal, Social & Emotional Development
Communication
Language & Literacy
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Creative Development
Mathematical Development
Physical Development.

Through Poetry, Music, Drama, Physical Exercise, Creative Activities, Stories, Nursery Rhymes, Nature and Science the child is introduced to the stimulating experiences that education offers. Our children participate in all these activities along with those involving the elementary skills of reading, writing and mathematics.

Personal, Social & Emotional Development

Children are encouraged to become confident and to develop self esteem. They are encouraged to integrate with their friends, learning to share, show kindness and be polite. They learn to work together within the structure of a small group and that of the larger class group where participation in group discussion is encouraged. They learn to listen to members of staff working with them and are encouraged to listen to one another. Our children are encouraged to be sensitive to the needs and feelings of others and to respect the cultures and beliefs of their peers.

Communication, Language & Literacy

Interpretation and understanding of our language occurs at a very early stage in children’s development and continues throughout their education. It is important that children learn to use language with confidence in order to communicate their ideas and thoughts, and to relate with and to respond to each other. In the nursery school children are encouraged to extend their vocabulary to incorporate words which will express their feelings. As children develop they learn to enjoy the art of collecting new words. They explore sounds and syllables, discovering those which rhyme and they playfully put these together to form their personal poems and songs. Such creations may sound primitive to the adult ear but it is an important stage in the development of language and one which we encourage.

Within the nursery setting children learn to enjoy books. They learn to handle them carefully and they learn to listen to stories. Moorland Nursery School has a “quiet area” where children may look at or read books.

Reading

Reading is the key to all learning and is the king pin around which education revolves. Learning to read is a gradual process which continues throughout primary school. The process begins in the nursery school and is consolidated over the years. Pre-reading activities include jig-saws, matching, alphabet recognition, and flash card recognition. Children must then understand the significance of the written word and relate it to their own lives and interests. Once there is understanding of words, recognition of shapes and a correlation between objects and the written word, the foundation has been established for introducing reading books. Upon transition to the Primary School many of our pupils have commenced the Ginn 360 reading scheme and several have progressed to levels 2 and 3.

Writing

In their early development children communicate their thoughts and ideas on paper using paint brushes, crayons and pencils. The fine motor skills required to produce controlled writing develop gradually and for some children at pre-school age they are not well defined. Writing activities may become frustrating with under developed fine motor skills. It is therefore important that nursery school children participate in activities which help the development of such skills. Plasticine and clay modelling, finger painting, painting, crayoning, cutting & gluing and bead threading all contribute to the development of the child's motor ability. As motor skills begin to develop children are introduced to activities involving tracing, dot to dot joining, writing patterns and over-writing. Some children progress to letter formation and learn to write their name using upper and lower case letters where appropriate.

Mathematical Development

A grasp of the fundamental concepts of number and mathematics is to be encouraged if the more complex aspects of mathematics are to be understood and consolidated in later life. Children can learn arithmetical skills by rote but their understanding of the subject may be superficial.

Nursery education provides the learning ground for the necessary concepts. Children learn the significance of numbers through directed play activities. Matching, sorting and counting activities provide the experience required for greater understanding. Numbers are meaningless to young children until they can relate them to their own arithmetical experience. Attaining the abstract concept of number is the prelude to understanding mathematics. This process is gradual and may vary with individual children depending upon their own interest in the subject. Moorland Nursery School provides the support to develop an interest.

Our children participate in activities involving sorting, matching, shape recognition, counting and number recognition, progressing to simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Further activities include time recognition, measuring, water play, symmetry and tessellation.

Ofsted Inspection

As a registered nursery school in receipt of Government funding we are inspected by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). Each of our Ofsted Inspections have led to extremely complimentary reports.

You are welcome to study our Ofsted Report and our Curriculum in the School Office. In addition, our most recent report is shown in the "External Links" area of the site.

TC Club (Out of School Club)

At Trinity Court we have tried to offer parents the freedom to cope with modern lifestyles. We offer a wide choice within our childcare regime to accommodate requirements of both parents and children.

TC Club allows us provide care beyond the normal operating times of the nursery school. The sessions offered maintain the stimulation of peer contact, professional guidance and structured activities. Children up to 11 years of age are accepted into TC Club sessions and, where appropriate, this may be extended up to 14 years of age.

TC Club During Term Time

TC Club runs outside Moorland Nursery School’s operating hours. During term time TC Club provides sessions before and after school hours. If your child is of pre-school age this enables us to provide a total package of education and care that extends from 8:00am to 5:45pm, Monday to Friday.

The benefits of TC Club are not restricted to Moorland Nursery School pupils. TC Club sessions accommodate primary school children up to 11 years of age. If you have children attending one of the primary schools we serve we can release you from the constraints associated with normal school hours. From TC Club we are ideally located to deliver for 9 o’clock and collect again at home time. Children may then be collected from TC Club any time between 3:15 and 5:45. As you would expect Moorland Nursery School and TC Club’s transport is appropriately insured & equipped for the safe carriage of children.

TC Holiday Club

Holiday Club operates from Trinity Court outside the normal term times. Session hours are the same as during the term. The same staff who have helped us achieve our reputation for excellence in early-years education and care supervise TC Holiday Club. Among the most popular attractions of the club are the frequent excursions during the holidays. TC Club's older children have enjoyed days out to the likes of Jodrell Bank, Churnet Valley Railway, Hack Green Bunker, Blackbrook Zoological Park...!

Since TC Club and Moorland Nursery School use the same premises, TC Holiday Club runs during Moorland Nursery School's holiday times only. Moorland Nursery School’s term and holiday times are set by information provided by Staffordshire's education department. While we make every effort to match our holiday dates with those of our local Primary Schools, sometimes primary schools' staff training days make this impossible.

If your child attends primary school please ask the school for a copy of their holiday list and for details of any training days they may be planning. This will then allow you to co-ordinate necessary childcare arrangements well in advance.

TC Club has a separate information pack if you would like additional details (see TC Club's pages of the site).

Trinity Court’s Staff

Our Team

Head Teacher:

Mrs MA Shadforth - Cert. Ed. (St Hild's College, Durham)

Nursery Nurse:

Mrs E Parton - NNEB (Nursery Nursing).
Mrs D Chadwick - NVQ 3 (Childcare & Education), NVQ 3 (Playwork)
Miss Jayne Townley - NNEB (Nursery Nursing).

Childcare Assistant:

Mrs J Simpson - NVQ 3 (Childcare & Education)
Mrs D Sellers
Miss C Simcock - NVQ 2 Childcare & Education), NVQ3 Student

Business Manager:

Mr MF Shadforth B.Sc. (Hons) University of Sheffield, Dip.M.

Secretary:

Mrs M Tomlinson

Trainees:

Moorland Nursery School trains students who may be in place as supernumerary staff.

Staff Development Policy

As a registered school, we take issues of staff quality, training and development very seriously.

The School employs staff with appropriate training and encourages staff to further their training for the benefit of the children and themselves.
Staff are encouraged to gain further qualifications in appropriate areas when possible.
Staff meetings are held regularly, allowing sharing of ideas and experiences for the benefit of the Educational and Childcare programme.
In-house teaching of staff members is ongoing and informal.
Staff development reviews are held regularly and staff are encouraged to formulate a personal development plan to address their needs and aspirations.
Our library is constantly developed and expanded for staff education and reference.
Staff are encouraged to attend lectures delivered at the Early Years Forum to help their understanding of current thinking and theories regarding Early Years Development.
We develop and maintain educational links with local primary schools.
The school is committed to assist staff in their personal development and will attempt to facilitate this, calling upon other agencies as appropriate.

General Information

Operational Policies

Moorland Nursery School has detailed written policies. The main areas covered are noted in the Parental Information Pack towards the rear of this booklet. You are welcome to study our Operational Policies in the School Office.

Session Structure

Guaranteed Sessions

Sessions at any of our facilities are booked in advance on a termly basis. This enables us to Guarantee your child's place with us for the duration of the term(s) booked. We arrange our staff timetables and other resources according to academic term times and require six weeks' notice (half a term) before we can reduce your Guaranteed Session requirements. Because sessions are pre-booked, holidays and other absences do incur session charges.

Occasional Sessions

The flexibility of our service means that we are often able to accommodate requests for Occasional Sessions at short notice. You will appreciate that although these sessions are for your convenience they are subject to availability. Occasional Sessions cannot be booked more than two weeks in advance. Occasional Sessions are time consuming to administer and an administrative charge of 10% is applied to sessions booked in this way (see section Fees).

Session Hours

The nursery school adheres to the academic convention of three terms per annum. The Before & After School Care service provided by TC Club operates outside of school hours. TC Holiday Club operates outside of school terms from Monday to Friday, except Bank Holidays. Our operating hours Monday - Friday are:

Before School Session:- 08:00 to 09:15
Morning Session:- 09:15 to 11:45
Lunch:- 11:45 to 12:45
Afternoon Session:- 12:45 to 15:15
After School Session 1:- 15:15 to 16:30
After School Session 2:- 16:30 to 17:45

The main morning and afternoon sessions are 2 hours 30 minutes and may not be divided. Before and After School sessions are 1 hour 15 minutes. Parents may select any combination to suit the needs of their children and themselves.

Children attending morning or afternoon sessions educational sessions at the nursery school (age 3 – 5) may be delivered up to fifteen minutes before the session without incurring additional charges.

PLEASE NOTE: This concession does not apply to sessions with TC Tigers or TC Club. Children attending these must be delivered and collected within the sessional times. Children delivered before or collected outside the session times will be deemed to have availed themselves of the adjacent session with an occasional session charge attached.

Meals

Milk and biscuits are provided during the main morning and afternoon sessions in the nursery school. Children attending TC Club sessions before school will be offered a light breakfast, and those attending after school, a light tea. These are all free of additional charges.

Children staying for lunch may purchase a cooked meal from the school, or may bring a packed lunch.

Packed lunches should be brought in a rigid container, labelled with the child's full name. Drink containers routinely spill sticky contents over staff, children and premises alike! For this reason drinks are provided and should not be brought to school.

Hot food is prepared daily on the premises and every effort is made to respect individual dietary requirements within these meals.

When children are accommodated over lunch time a supervision charge applies.

Fees

Moorland Nursery School has no retainer fees for holidays when children attend term only, or for term when children attend for TC Holiday Club only. Such retainers can represent a substantial cost and should be considered when assessing your childcare budget.

Fees are not returnable for absence but, at the discretion of the head teacher and subject to availability, an alternative session may be offered in lieu where sessions have been missed.

Afternoon Sessions at Moorland Nursery School, the TC Tigers and TC Club are charged at discounted rates.

Fees for Occasional Sessions

A 10% administrative charge is applied to all Occasional Session fees. This charge is in addition to quoted session charges. With the exception of the 10% Sibling Discount, discounts do not apply to occasional session charges.

Transport Charges for TC Club Sessions

Relocation between local schools and TC Club may be pedestrian with an escort, or vehicular with a member of staff as driver. Moorland Nursery School and TC Club's transport is appropriately insured & equipped for the safe carriage of children. When a child attending a local Primary School is relocated to or from TC Club there is a charge:

Relocation Charge, per trip:- £0.70

Relocation charges are eligible for both advance payment and sibling discounts.

Meal charges

Hot lunch, per lunch (in addition to the sessional fee):- £1.45

Meal charges, but not session fees, are refunded if cancelled by 8:30am on the day.

Financial Assistance from the DfES

Funding from the DfES is administered by the Local Education Authority. Moorland Nursery School is approved by the DfES to provide Nursery Education as Provider Number 109543. Since the LEA took over administration of funding from the DfES parents seem less likely to be informed when their children become eligible. If your child already attends Moorland Nursery School we will write to you at the appropriate time to advise you regarding funding. Funding is available for all children beginning in the second term following their third birthday.

Rules regarding DfES funding include:

Funding may only be used for Educational sessions.
You may opt for morning or afternoon sessions, or a combination.
Funding is available for up to five sessions. You do not have to utilise all five, nor do you need to utilise all in one establishment, unless you wish to do so.
You may not claim funding in a private establishment if your child is attending five sessions in a maintained establishment.
Providers are required to offer five 2.5 hour educational sessions for 11 weeks per term at no cost to parents. If your child attends Moorland Nursery School for five afternoon sessions for 11 weeks per term no invoice will be raised.
If you wish to take advantage of other facilities which Moorland Nursery School offers then other educational sessions, lunch-time sessions and care sessions may be included in your requirement. If you elect to do that then an account will be raised as normal and the value of the funding appertaining to the charged period will appear as a credit. You are then only responsible for the difference.

Funding from the DfES is not paid termly in advance and thus does not qualify for the advance payment discount. If you are utilising other sessions and wish to pay termly then the discount will be applied to the portion for which you are responsible.

Government funding is presently of the order of £425 per term. The funding provides assistance for 11 weeks of education at five sessions per week.

Discounts

When fees are paid termly in advance a 5% Advance Payment discount applies. When children attend during school holidays the fees due for the holiday period must be paid at the beginning of term to qualify for this discount.

A 10% Sibling Discount applies to the fee rate for a second or subsequent child attending concurrently. Relocation charges attract this discount as well as sessional fees. If fees are not equal this discount applies to the lower fees.

Educational fee discounts

Part-time attendance as 5 morning or 5 afternoon sessions per week attracts 15% discount.

Full-time educational attendance (10 sessions) attracts a further 5% discount.

Full-time attendance at the establishment (8am - 5:45pm, five days) attracts another 10% discount.

TC Tigers and TC Holiday Club fee discounts

A 10% Discount applies to full day attendance (8am - 5:45pm).

An additional 10% discount applies to full week attendance (five days).

Registration

A registration fee is due with registration with Moorland Nursery School or our TC Tigers. This is payable once for each child, or for the family when more than one child is registered at the same time. The registration fee is returned if we cannot accommodate your request but is otherwise non-returnable. Registration with TC Club is free of charge.

Registration Fee £36.00.

Moorland Nursery School, Trinity Court: overview