Time to get growing!

Welcome to Meltham Moor Nursery

Start your child’s learning journey in a school nursery setting with teacher-led input and early integration into primary school routines.

At Meltham Moor Nursery we provide a stimulating yet nurturing environment to help children build their early learning skills and give them the best possible foundation for starting school.

Free places available for children aged 3-4
Term time school nursery hours from 8.50am - 3pm

What we offer

Meltham Moor Nursery is the first step in your child’s school journey. Our nursery and reception classes use our lovely early years space, with two classrooms and an extensive outdoor play area.

Our school nursery is open from 8.50am-3pm, offering a gentle introduction to school life, before applying for a full time reception place at age 4.

Funded places

From the term following their 3rd birthday, all children are entitled to 15 hours of free childcare, funded by the government. Most working families are eligible for 30 hours, which can be used in our Nursery setting.

We also offer paid places to enable families to access additional hours beyond their free entitlement. Details of fees are available on request.

Children are able to start in our nursery from the term after they turn 3, but occasionally we offer free places to children as soon as they turn 3, depending on our numbers. These places are offered on a first come, first served basis from our waiting list.

Find out more and check your eligibility

A day in the life of our nursery

Our days are full of fun and rich experiences, but each has a familiar rhythm.

8.50am-9am

Children arrive at nursery for a slow and calm start to the day. They follow their morning routine of hanging up their coat and adding their name to the display, before choosing their area to play.

9:30am

The children come together to begin the day with a group activity led by a teacher. This could be phonics, maths, singing or a story. Our bespoke curriculum is personal to the children at Meltham Moor - it was written by us, for our children.

9.45am

Yum! It's snack time. We enjoy a free carton of milk and a piece of fruit, because all this learning and play is thirsty work!

10am

Inside or out, independent play is what it's all about. We ensure our children have lots of time for extended play, and a variety of stimulating activities on offer across the six well planned, broad and balanced themes that are taught across the early years.

11.30am

We come back together for another planned activity. On Tuesdays that's Music and Movement and on Thursdays its PE in the Sports Court. We also love reading together, joining in with actions and learning the language of story telling. Listening and rhythm form the foundation for early phonics learning.

12pm

It is lunchtime! Some of our children go home at lunchtime, whilst others stay for the afternoon. The children bring a healthy packed from home and are encouraged to sit and chat with their friends whilst they eat.

1pm

The afternoon starts with an activity together such as 'dough disco' or a singing session. Then there is more chance for free flow independent play. Children are free to play outside come rain or shine, and most love to spend lots of time in our fantastic outdoor area. Sometimes we visit the school woodland area or the ponds which we love to explore.

3pm

Time to go home after a busy, happy day. We have strong relationships with our nursery parents and love to share our explorations with you.

What do we learn in nursery and reception?

At the core of nursery is children laying down strong foundations that will support them in their future learning, things like developing practical skills, practising the building blocks of language or understanding the world around them, and we carefully plan our activities to support the seven areas of learning. We also build up their emotional foundations, nurturing confident, resilient children who care about others.

Learning to play

When you visit our nursery, you will find a calm and purposeful environment with much of the time, the children all busily engaged in independent play. But there’s no such thing as ‘just playing’ - they are actually working hard experimenting, exploring and learning. They are developing the social skills they need to play and interact with others and the independence to confidently accomplish day to day routines or speak in front of others.

Learning through play

When they move on to reception, children start to tackle some of the skills and knowledge they will need in school, such as grasping the concepts underlying phonics and maths, and gradually increasing their attention span. It’s still very much about playing though, there’s plenty of time later for sitting at a desk.

Because we’re part of Meltham Moor Primary School, we have a big advantage in being able to gradually integrate our youngest children into school life. We give them opportunities to get to know other teachers and older pupils and involve them in events like Sports Day. This means that starting school follows gently as they become ready.