Rooms
Acorns Room (6 months – 2 years)
Our Acorns Room provides a calm, nurturing environment designed to support the earliest stages of development.
- Individualised Care: Our experienced team of Early Years Practitioners build strong bonds with each baby, working closely with families to follow their home routines for feeding, sleeping, and comfort.
- Sensory Exploration: Our soft play and sensory area, sensory toys, music, and textures encourage early curiosity and brain development.
- Safe, Cosy Spaces: We have a peaceful atmosphere with age appropriate equipment, and plenty of space for tummy time and early movement. Our safer sleeping routines allow each child to follow their own schedules.
- Early Communication: Our vocabulary rich environment alongside songs, stories, and simple sign language help babies begin to understand and express themselves.
- Strong Parent Partnership: At the beginning and end of the day your child's key worker will update you on activities enjoyed that day with any other information needing to be shared, alongside daily updates on feeding, nappies, sleep via the Famly app ensure parents feel connected and reassured.
Saplings Room (2 – 3 years)
Our Saplings Room supports growing independence, confidence, and social skills through playbased learning. Activities are child-led with adult guidance.
- Exploratory Play: Our team provide guidance in child led activities that encourage experimentation, problem solving, and discovering new interests.
- Language Development: Our love of books at Oakley Nursery means our story times alongside singing, role play, and conversations help expand vocabulary and communication.
- Physical Development: We encourage a lot of outdoor play to develop gross motor skills, which together with fine motor activities support coordination and strength.
- Early Self Help Skills: We work closely with families to encourage children with dressing, toileting, tidying, and making simple choices, building independence at a time that is right for the child.
- Social Learning: Group play helps toddlers learn to share, take turns, and build friendships.
- Strong Parent Partnership: At the beginning and end of the day your child's key worker will update you on activities enjoyed that day with any other information needing to be shared, alongside daily updates on feeding, nappies, sleep via the Family app, ensure parents feel connected and reassured.
Little Oaks Room (3–5 years)
Our Little Oaks Room prepares children for a confident transition to school through structured yet playful learning. We work very closely with Oakley Primary School, attending assemblies, age-appropriate activities and lunch times to further help this transition.
- School Readiness: The Little Oaks team create activities that build early literacy, numeracy, problem solving, and listening skills, building confidence in each of these key areas.
- Creative Learning: We explore art, music, imaginative play, and hands-on projects encourage creativity and critical thinking.
- Independence & Responsibility: Children are supported to manage their belongings, follow routines, and make decisions.
- Social & Emotional Growth: We work with children on understanding their emotions and engage in group activities to help children develop teamwork, empathy, and resilience.
- Outdoor Exploration: Regular outdoor learning supports physical development and a love of nature.
- Strong Parent Partnership: At the beginning and end of the day your child's key worker will update you on activities enjoyed that day with any other information needing to be shared, alongside daily updates on feeding, nappies, sleep via the Family app, ensure parents feel connected and reassured.
Oakley School Nursery
Values
At Oakley Nursery we are very much aligned with the Primary and Secondary School, and we share their core values of kindness, confidence, resilience, respectful, responsible and ready to learn. We believe that they set the foundations for every child to grow, learn and thrive, and we encourage families to share in these values with us.
Attendance
For your child to flourish we encourage regular, consistent attendance, whilst it is not compulsory at this age it will enable your child to get used to the routine and progress with their development, and if you are claiming any funding from the council regular attendance is required to continue to receive that.
Contact Us
To find out more about Oakley School Nursery please contact us using the information bellow:
Phone: 01926290663
Email: oakleynursery@stowevalley.com
Via Famly: Contact Form
Sessions
We are open all year round, for 51 weeks of the year, only closing for bank holidays and between Christmas and New Year. We will also have two inset days whereby staff will undertake important training; dates will be advised in advance.
Our opening hours are 8am - 6pm Monday to Friday.
In our Acorns room to ensure minimal disruptions to children’s routines we offer all day sessions 8am - 6pm.
In Saplings and Pre School, we offer either all day sessions 8am – 6pm; morning sessions 8am - 1pm or afternoon sessions 1pm - 6pm.
Nursery Curriculum
Oakley Nursery Curriculum Statement:
Core Principles:
- Play is central: learning through exploration, creativity and discovery.
- Child-led with adult guidance: Adult interactions are vital to help scaffold learning based on next steps from observations and the children’s interests.
- Holistic Development: supporting emotional, social, cognitive and physical growth.
- Inclusivity and individual needs: Culturally responsive and adaptable for all children.
- We prioritise a carefully planned, language-rich curriculum, committed to fostering strong communication skills in children.
EYFS: The 7 Areas of Learning and Development
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We help children develop strong speaking and listening skills through conversations, stories, songs and play. This builds confidence, expands vocabulary and supports their ability to express themselves clearly.
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Children learn to understand their feelings, build friendships, develop independence and gain confidence. We support them in learning to share, take turns and manage emotions in a safe, caring environment.
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Through indoor and outdoor play, children develop coordination, balance and control. We also encourage healthy habits such as selfcare, hygiene and making good food choices.
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We foster a love of books, stories and mark making. Children learn early reading and writing skills through storytelling, drawing and exploring print in their environment.
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Children explore numbers, shapes, patterns and problem solving through hands-on activities. We introduce counting, comparing quantities, measuring and simple calculations in playful, meaningful ways.
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We help children make sense of the world around them by exploring nature, technology, communities and different cultures. This builds curiosity and helps them understand how things work.
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Children express themselves through art, music, dance, role play and imaginative activities. We encourage creativity, experimentation and the confidence to try new ideas.
Curriculum Structure
At Oakley Nursery, our curriculum is thoughtfully designed around seven rich and engaging themes across the academic year. These themes provide a broad and balanced framework through which we plan and deliver progressive learning experiences, carefully tailored to meet the developmental needs of children in the Baby Room, Toddlers, and Pre-School. Our curriculum fully aligns with the statutory requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
Central to everything we do are the Prime Areas of Learning:
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
These areas are the foundation upon which all other learning is built. We place a strong emphasis on developing children’s communication and language skills, supporting them to express themselves clearly and confidently. We nurture their physical development to ensure they have the strength, coordination, and health needed for active learning and independence. We also prioritise children's personal, social, and emotional well-being, helping them to build secure relationships, develop self-awareness, regulate their emotions, and begin to understand how to meet their own needs effectively.
Curriculum theme-based approach
Through our theme-based approach, we ensure a clear progression of knowledge and skills, so that learning builds securely over time as children move through the different age groups. Our goal is to ensure that every child is well-prepared for their next stage of learning and leaves us with the foundations they need to flourish in school and beyond.
Term 1: Me and my world
Themes: Families, Feelings, Senses, Daily Routines.
Focus Areas: PSED, Communication, Physical.
Term 2: Winter
Themes: Weather, Natural Changes, Winter Animals.
Focus areas: Understanding the World, Literacy, Mathematics.
Term 3: Nursery rhymes and traditional tales
Themes: All familiar songs and stories.
Focus areas: Communication and Language, Literacy, Expressive Arts and Design.
Term 4: Animals
Themes: Pets, Zoo, Farm, Jungle, Dinosaurs, Underwater.
Focus areas: Understanding the World, Communication and Language, Expressive Arts and Design.
Term 5: Growth
Themes: Plants, Vegetables & Fruit, New Baby Animals, How we Grow.
Focus areas: Understanding the World, Mathematics, Communication and Language.
Term 6: Exploration
Themes: Around the World, Our Holidays, Transport, Space and Exploring Materials
Focus areas: Understanding the World, Communication and Language, Literacy.
Term 7: Community and beyond
Themes: Roles around our Community and Transitions for School Leavers to Primary School.
Focus Areas: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Understanding the World.
Information sharing
We follow the Development Matters curriculum which follows the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework.
- After the first six weeks of your child joining us, we will conduct a baseline assessment using Development Matters to establish a starting point and will be used as a progress measure.
- There will be weekly snapshots of your child on the Famly app, which will give a weekly, short update on where they are in their journey.
- You will also receive monthly observations, which will include a more detailed look at the areas of development.
- There will be on going information shared regarding your child’s next steps and what we are working on with them and how you can support this development at home.
- For children in the Saplings room, you will receive a two-year check before their 3rd birthday.
- There will be termly parents' evenings, dates to be confirmed, prior to which you will receive an assessment which will cover the key areas of development in greater detail.
Funding
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1 January
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1 April
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1 September
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You (and your partner, if applicable) are working or about to start work
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You each earn at least the minimum income threshold set by the government
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You live in England
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Your child is aged 9 months to 4 years
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Up to 30 funded hours per week during term time*
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Funding covers childcare only — additional charges apply for meals, consumables, and extra activities
Fees
At Oakley Nursery we are open Monday to Friday and provide all year-round care for children aged 6 months to starting school. We offer full day or half-day sessions. We are closed for the Christmas break (open Christmas Eve morning session), bank holidays, and training days. Details of closures will be advised to parents in advance and will be on our website.
Our full day sessions are from 8:00-18:00; morning sessions are 8:00-13:00 and afternoon sessions are 13:00-18:00.
We offer government-funded spaces. As we are open all year round, the funding is stretched over 51 weeks which, depending on your entitlement, equates to either 11 or 22 hours per week fully funded. Funding can be accessed over the duration of a session: either 5 hours for a morning or afternoon session, or 10 hours for a full day session. Depending on your entitlement, a fully funded place would be for 10 or up to 20 hours, and this can be used for either full or half day sessions.
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Description
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Unit
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Unit Price
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Hourly Rate*
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Free entitlement hours:
depending on eligibility we offer up to either 11 or 22 hours per week these hours are free of charge.
To check eligibility please use the following link
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Weekly
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£0.00
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£0.00
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Additional hours purchased by session:
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Pre School
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Daily
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£84.00
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£8.40
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Morning
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£45.00
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£9.00
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Afternoon
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£38.50
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£7.70
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Toddler
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Daily
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£88.00
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£8.80
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Morning
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£50.00
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£10.00
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Afternoon
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£42.00
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£8.40
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Under 2’s
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Daily
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£88.00
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£8.80
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Morning
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Afternoon
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Meals / snacks
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Full day which includes breakfast, lunch, tea and two snacks
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Daily
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£7.20
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Morning session will include breakfast, a morning snack and a hot lunch
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Morning
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£4.10
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Afternoon session will include an afternoon snack and tea
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Afternoon
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£3.10
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Lunch will be a variety of different hot and cold meals. Please see the website for this term’s options. Snack will be a mixture of fruit, vegetable sticks and breadsticks
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Consumables
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Nappies, wipes and creams are to be provided by parents.
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Suncream will be a one off charge in the summer term
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Summer term
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£1.50
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Additional voluntary services – if there are any extra activities such as forest school, we will advise and these will be on a voluntary basis
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Ad Hoc
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*we do not offer care by the hour
Inclusion
To achieve this, the following principles govern the inclusive way in which we work:
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All children are valued equally i.e. children of all abilities and disabilities, from all cultures, races and gender identity.
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All children have an entitlement to the full curriculum and, whenever possible, are integrated into mainstream classes.
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All Early Years Practitioners are committed to ensuring that the individual needs of children are met by adapting aspects of the curriculum and employing developmental strategies to ensure all pupils achieve their full potential.
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All Early Years Practitioners accept and understand their responsibility within the overall school policy for meeting Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Primary SENDCo
- Head of Nursery - Sian Stevens
- Who's Who
- Newsletters
- What Our Parents and Carers Say
- Safeguarding
- Terms and Conditions
Head of Nursery - Sian Stevens
With 30 years of teaching experience across Early Years Foundation Stage and primary education, I bring a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and dedication to the interim role as Head of Nursery. My extensive career has included senior leadership positions playing a key role in shaping high-quality teaching and learning, supporting staff development, and driving positive outcomes for children.
Passionate about early childhood education, I believe that the foundation for lifelong learning is built through curiosity, creativity, and strong, nurturing relationships. I am deeply committed to fostering the core values of resilience, confidence, and kindness in every child, ensuring that each child develops the emotional strength to persevere, the self-belief to embrace new challenges, and the compassion to build positive relationships with others.
I am dedicated to creating a warm, inclusive, and stimulating nursery environment where every child feels safe, valued, and inspired to explore. My approach combines a play-based curriculum with a clear focus on children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development, encouraging independence, celebrating achievement, and supporting children to learn from every experience.
I believe in working collaboratively with staff, parents, and the wider school community to maintain the highest standards of care and education. I believe in building a culture where resilience is nurtured, confidence is developed, and kindness is embedded in daily interactions.
Outside of the nursery, I enjoy reading, keeping fit and love to play the piano, reflecting my belief in the importance of wellbeing, balance, and a lifelong love of learning.
Who's Who
Newsletters
What Our Parents and Carers Say
“I am writing to share some feedback regarding Ella, who has been Elsie’s key worker during her time in the Baby Room.
As Elsie prepares to move up to the Toddler Room, we wanted to take a moment to express our sincere gratitude for everything Ella has done. She has been an absolutely amazing key worker, providing a level of care and warmth that made leaving Elsie each morning so much easier.
We are particularly grateful for how Ella has managed Elsie’s transition. She ensured the move was smooth and handled with such care, which has given us a lot of confidence during this big step.
While we are very excited to see Elsie progress and take on new challenges in the Toddler Room, we are genuinely sad to be moving on from Ella’s care. She is a credit to your team, and we will miss her presence daily!
Well done Ella and thank you!”
“We love the nursery and feel our child has come on so much since starting! It is lovely to see her confidence and development grow. All the staff are lovely and so caring.”
“The staff are really friendly, approachable and really listen to any comments we make.”
“Staff and setting have been great.”
“Nursery is excellent.”
“Very informative … They love attending nursery.”