Early Years - Nursery and Reception
Who we are
Mr Edwards is our EYFS Leader alongside, Mrs Dixon, Mrs Butler and Mrs Hart.
This page provides information about our Early Years Unit which includes nursery and reception classes, formed as one. Children can attend our nursery school from the day they turn 3 years old.
We have 10 spaces in Nursery and 20 in Reception for the academic year 2025-2026. This may change each year.
There are a range of key documents for you to view/download at the end of this page.
For the most up to date fees for nursery sessions, please speak to our office team via email or phone.
If you need any other information or want to book a tour, please call the school office on 01977 557758or email office@lehledston.co.uk
Our Philosophy
Can I go and play now?
Continuous Provision is at the heart of Early Years practice. Getting it right is the key to success. Get it wrong and we open the door to stagnation, lack of engagement, challenging behaviour and low attainment.
Our continuous provision is open-ended, accessible, flexible, large scale and skills driven. It is planned but only in a loose sense. An adult's plan isn't a child's plan. Children don't have to reach a specific outcome determined by the adult. Instead continuous provision should offer an index of possibilities. It should enable children to bring their magic with them into the environment and shape it. Equally it should create the conditions for collaboration and self-chosen purpose.
As soon as we apply adult thinking to continuous provision we are in danger of fencing in its possibilities. Crossing the line into an ineffective environment usually happens when we think 'children will achieve this...' in a specific area. The more flexible we are, the more magic we will witness, and the more magic we witness, the more we will be able to use it to move learning forward.
Adult thinking should address the skills that children need to grow. It should focus on process as a means for rehearsing or strengthening these skills. Plan for skills rather than activity. 'Can I Go and Play Now...?' has created an effective approach to continuous provision that embraces child-centered play and open-endedness.
Children are born with magic inside them. They live in a world of exploration, connections, dreams and imagination. They are trying to tell us about this world all the time. They want us to join them in it. Their whole being is yearning for us to cross over into their Narnia. They offer their hand each day and they can lead us there if only we would take it.
Once upon a time we lived in that world. But now we are 'grown up'. We probably don't believe in that world. We don't think that the child's world is for us. But it is. We just need to have faith and follow. Once we do that then we will find several things happen:
Our children will flourish. They will bring their light to our setting. They will engage more.
Lady Hastings adults will flourish. We will bring our light to the Ark. We will engage more.
Allowing children to be at the centre of their own learning, giving them the freedom to BE is our passport both to their magical world and to effective early years practice. Don't let play just be a daydream. Live it, embrace it, make the most of the magic.
Nursery information
Starting nursery is the beginning of your child's journey in school. It's our aim to make sure that they're happy and settled and develop a love of learning that will carry them throughout their entire lives.
At Lady Elizabeth Hastings C of E Primary School, we will focus strongly on developing the children's communication and language skills, their physical skills and their personal, social and emotional skills. These are called the prime areas of development and we believe that these skills are essential in order for other learning and development to take place.
We will provide an inclusive, fun and safe environment for our children to begin their school journey. We offer both inside and outdoor space where children have he opportunity to enhance their learning through a wide range of provision. During a typical day, the children will also partake in small group sessions and phonics through the Read, Write, Inc programme.
We offer both full time and part time places and have three intakes of new starters; one in September, one in January and again in April.
We kindly welcome you to come and visit our school and are happy to answer any questions you may have.
Everything we do is underpinned by the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning
The characteristics of effective teaching and learning are statutory and are referenced in the EYFS (2023).
They are referred to in the Overarching Principles section on page 6 and section 1.15 states that:
‘In planning and guiding what children learn, practitioners must reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and adjust their practice appropriately. Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:
- playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
- active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
- creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things’
This is what we do at Lady Elizabeth Hastings under God’s guidance and love.
Mrs Bishop, Headteacher and Mr Edwards, EYFS lead and Assistant Headteacher
Key Documents