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Acorns Nursery
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Hello and thank you for showing an interest in Acorns Nursery! We are the nursery class of Woodmansterne Primary School and we enjoy busy days full of learning and fun.
In our Acorns Nursery class, we aim to provide a happy, nurturing environment where your child can learn, develop and have fun. We offer 15 or 30 hour places plus optional half day top up sessions and wraparound care from 7.30am to 6pm. We offer fully funded spaces or parents can pay fees if their child is not yet eligible for the funded hours.
We cater for 3 and 4 year olds and have a fantastic, experienced and well-qualified team overseen by the school's Early Years Leader. The team are specialists in early years education and ensuring your child is ready for Reception when they move on.
Acorns is in our Early Years unit with access to a large, enclosed garden set in the 5.5 acres of school grounds. Acorns pupils have full use of all school facilities (astroturf pitch, outdoor classroom, library, all-weather track, animals, specialist Music Teacher etc) and regularly visit our Reception classes which means children have an excellent transition to school as well as learning experiences that are tailored to each child.
The school was Ofsted inspected in July 2023 and has retained its 'Good' rating. 
* Please note we have limited availability for immediate starts. Please call or email the school office for information. Tel: 01737 353120 or email school@wps.org.uk *
Session Options, Funding & Payments from September 2024
Our Nursery is open term time only. We offer 15 or 30 hour places plus optional top up sessions and wraparound care (for 3 years+) from 7.30am to 6pm. We offer fully funded spaces or parents can pay fees if their child is not yet eligible for the funded hours.
Nursery Session Options
- 15 hours - Monday 8.50am-3.20pm, Tuesday 8.50am-3.20pm, Wednesday 8.50am-11.30am
- 15 hours - Wednesday 8.50am-3.20pm, Thursday 8.50am-3.20pm, Friday 8.50am-11.30am
- 30 hours - Monday to Thursday 8.50am-3.20pm, Fridays 8.50am to 1.00pm
We also offer optional payable top up sessions, subject to availability, payable in half-termly blocks in advance:
Wednesday afternoons 11.30am to 3.20pm - £23 a week
Friday afternoons for 15 hours pupils 11.30am to 3.20pm - £23 a week
Friday afternoons for 30 hours pupils 1.00pm to 3.20pm - £14 a week
Funding and payments
Your options:
- 15 hours funded for all 3 and 4 year olds* (Click here for more information on Free Early Education funding)
- 30 hours funded for eligible 3 and 4 year olds (Click here for more information on 30 hour funding)
- 30 hours - 15 funded hours with a top up 15 hours paid for by the parent.
- Optional top up sessions as detailed above
We are registered with multiple childcare voucher providers as well as the government's Tax-Free Childcare scheme.
**When will my child be eligible to receive funded early education?
From April 2024 the government is changing the age at which children receive funded hours. Please have a look at the Childcare Choices website for more information: click here Eligible families may be able to claim 15 funded hours from the term after their child turns 2. At Acorns, we take pupils from age 3.
A Day at Acorns Nursery
A typical day at Acorns Nursery...
Applications and Visits for Prospective Parents
To request a visit, please contact us on school@wps.org.uk.
We accept applications on a rolling basis. If we have space available, your child is welcome to start at other times. For example, if you move into the area in October 2024 and would like your child to start straight away, as long as we have space available they could start mid-term.
The admissions criteria can be found here.
Open Events & Visits
Come and see us in action at one of our Open Morning events. You can book for the following dates by clicking on this link: www.ticketsource.co.uk/woodmansterne-primary-school
- Thursday 26 September 2024
- Tuesday 15 October 2024
- Friday 8 November 2024
- Friday 10 January 2025
If you have any queries please contact us on 01737 353120 or email school@wps.org.uk.
To apply for a place, please complete this application form. If you have any queries please contact us on school@wps.org.uk or call 01737 353120.
Starting at Acorns Nursery?
Reading and singing are vital to developing a child’s vocabulary and listening skills. Try to do some every day! Our nursery teachers have recorded lots of stories and songs for the nursery children to watch and join in with at home. You can find a list of links here.
Here are some independence skills that will be particularly important when your child starts in Reception, but it is never too early to start practising! Below is one of our children practising the coat 'flip trick' to put their own coat on.
We don’t expect children to start nursery with all of these skills, but they are very good things to start practising at home now. We will continue working on these skills with them once they start nursery and will celebrate every little independence milestone they meet!
Suggested Resources, Activities & Games
Fine motor skills games
Small toys and toys / games that require concentrated work with the hands are a great way to prepare your child’s hands for writing. Some examples could be shape sorters, threading activities, lego, puzzles and small world toys such as dolls houses.
Manipulating playdough helps to strengthen hand muscles and develop control over the fingers. Snipping playdough sausages helps develop scissor cutting skills.
I Spy!
I Spy doesn’t have to be played with just letters, you can insert shapes, colours, objects in the environment for example: “I Spy with my little eye, something the colour Red!”
Bug Hunt
There’s no better way to learn about nature than to go looking for it! Here is a handy Scavenger Hunt sheet you can tick off while you go on your bug hunt!
Water Painting
The clean way to practise mark making skills! Give your child a paint brush or paint roller and a bucket of water and let them paint the walls, fences, concrete etc around your garden. They’ll see the marks they make, gain confidence in their mark making skills and you won’t be left with permanent reminders! For added fun, let your child draw with chalk and then use the water as “magic paint” to make the drawings disappear!
Numbers and Shapes
You can incorporate maths skills into everyday activities. Why not count how many jumps your child can make from one side of the garden to the other? How many birds can they see? Is that a big bird or a small bird? Is your plate a square or a circle?