The Start of Their Journey

We Are At The Start Of Our Craigclowan Adventure

Here at Craigclowan Nursery, learning is fun and every day brings a new adventure under the guidance of our experienced, committed and caring staff.

Aims and Ethos

• To give the children in our care the best possible start in life
• To be a caring family community where childhood is cherished
• To create a welcome and happy atmosphere with planned activities to stimulate children
• To encourage each child to develop as an individual and to fulfil his or her potential
• To provide an extensive Pre-school curriculum which caters for the child's individual needs
• To encourage children to respect their peers, teachers and property
• To maintain a balance between free choice and teacher directed learning
• To develop confidence and self-esteem in each child
• To work co-operatively with parents and the community
• To motivate all children to develop their capacities as successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors to society

Our Professional Objective

To ensure children are safe, nurtured, healthy, achieving, active, respected, responsible and included

Craigclowan Nursery staff encourage children to explore their environment and provide active experiences which develop skills in problem solving, enquiry and creativity. They are given the time and freedom to learn through quality play, both indoors and outdoors.

Within our Nursery we emphasise and value the following core teaching approaches:

• play based learning
• active learning
• use of natural objects
• a wide variety of loose parts accessible inside and outside
• opportunities for free flow play
• play that allows for creativity, invention and problem solving
• opportunity for sustained play
• choice and self-selection
• opportunities for schematic play
• child centred approach
• a literacy and numeracy rich environment
• the health and wellbeing of all children is at the heart of our environment
• assessment and tracking of each individual child
• individual work on core learning through Home Link tasks
• group sessions
• links to home and community are highly valued

"Play is the highest expression of human development in children for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul"   

Frederich Froebel

Loose Parts Play

Providing opportunities for loose parts play is a key part of our pedagogy.

Loose parts play involves the use of natural and man-made objects. Those objects can be used to extend and further ideas in children's play. They are open ended materials that can be moved, combined, lined up, and used in any way an imagination can explore. There is no previously planned outcome. Loose parts are open to a child's interpretation and creative thinking. A loose part can become anything.

Loose parts was a term created by Simon Nicholson. He looked at environments and how they formed connections. He believed that loose parts were an important component of creativity and higher order thinking. 

We have spent time embedding this within our Nursery environment.