In our Nursery, the children enjoy a rich variety of challenging play activities and other experiences in a stimulating environment. The children have opportunities to investigate, satisfy their curiosity, explore the environment inside and outside, extend their sense of wonder, experience success and develop a positive attitude towards learning.

Our Nursery teacher is Mrs Loughridge and the Nursery Assistants are Ruth, William & Sandy.

Nursery Session - 8:45am-1:15pm

• 8:45am-10:45am PLAY TIME AND SNACK
• 10:45am-11:30am STORY TIME, CIRCLE TIME AND OUTDOOR PLAY
• 11:30am-12:30pm LUNCH ROUTINE
• 12:30pm-12:55pm OUTDOOR PLAY
• 12:55pm-1:00pm SINGING CIRCLE
• 1:00pm -1:15pm TABLE TOP PLAY & HOME TIME

The staff of Ballykelly Nursery Unit aim to: 

· Provide a safe, caring and nurturing environment in which the children can develop respect for themselves and others, confidence, self-esteem, wellbeing, independence and resilience

· Provide an environment inside and outside the classroom, which extends the children's sense of wonder, lets them experience success and develop a positive attitude to learning & life

· Provide experiences that meet the children's physical, social, emotional and cognitive needs at their particular stage of development

· Develop and maintain a close partnership with parents/guardians where there is a respectful sharing of relevant information, which can be used to promote the development of individual children

· Value children as individuals and promote their welfare

· Provide the opportunity to discover that learning is fun

· Extend children's abilities to communicate ideas and feelings in a variety of ways

The Nursery Pre-School Curriculum

Nursery education is about focussing on the development of the individual child and during your child’s time in Nursery he/she will experience a great variety of activities based opportunities.

The Nursery curriculum your child will be following has been laid down by CCEA (a body with responsibility for the curriculum, examinations and assessment in schools). Its document, “Curricular Guidance for Pre-School Education”, identifies six areas of learning:

The six areas of learning are:

• Physical Development & Movement
• Personal, Social & Emotional Development
• Language Development
• The Arts
• Early Mathematical Experiences
• The World Around Us

•  Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Coping with change/ well-being/ behaviour/ turn taking/ respect for self/ others/ responsibility/ attitude to learning

• Language Development

Conversational skills/attention and listening/ early reading- aware of print-story, rhyme, song/early writing skills-mark making

• Physical Development and Movement

Self help skills, safety/ gross motor skills/ fine motor skills

•  Early Mathematical Experiences

Awareness of number, shape, pattern, colour, sorting; understanding of language- size, quantity, position; awareness of the passage of time

• The World Around Us

Early exploration, construction

IT; curiosity /understanding of natural environment/ Eco aware

•  The Arts

Create, imagine, explore, discover art/craft/Design experiences; Drama/Role Play: Music Dance and Movement