What We Offer

The Wilderness Nursery is set within the grounds of Church Cowley St James Primary School, on the edge of our brilliant forest school. The beautiful shady grounds include our yurt, which we use for our storytelling and music space.

Being part of the school means that your child can expect to spend time with our Forest School Leader and Professional Sports Coach regularly as well as their own key worker.

A little bit about the day

Every day Wilderness Nursery will offer a range of educational activities for children. We will aim not to repeat activities to enable children to always have a variety of stimulating and educational activities to engage with.

Our Early Years curriculum involves indoor and outdoor education, and your child will learn various subjects, including: Science, Maths, Reading, Phonics, Design & Technology and Art.

We have a Sports Coach who provides physical education for the school and nursery. Your child will have indoor or outdoor PE lessons at least once weekly. This enables your child to have fun and develop a life-long positive attitude towards physical activity.

Nursery hours run as follows:

Time	Session	Charge
07:45 to 08:45	Morning Wraparound	£9.50
08:45 to 11:45	Morning Session	£19.00
11:45 to 12:30	Mid-day Session	£8.50
12:30 to 15:30	Afternoon Session	£19.00
15:30 to 17:45	Afternoon Session	£16.00

At Wilderness Nursery we like to keep our charges simple and transparent. We do not make additional charges for meals, snacks or drinks. We do not charge extra for anything else in nursery related to the curriculum or nursery; the cost of all activities are included in your child's funded sessions or paid for sessions.

We do ask that parents supply their own wipes and nappies/pull-ups if their child isn't completely toilet-trained.

We accept 15 hour funded places as well as 30-hour funded places and will do our best to accommodate parental preference of days and times; however, we must stick to the adult child ratio so at certain times of the year, parents may find we are unable to offer their exact requirement as we are over-subscribed and the session is full.

At Wilderness Nursery, all parents are required to complete the parental declaration form and to renew it when prompted. This is a requirement for funding and our setting. In addition, a copy of every child's birth certificate must be supplied.

If you are in receipt of a 30-hour working parent code, please be aware that it is the parent's responsibility to renew these codes when prompted by HMRC, and all offers of a place are provisional until the code has been validated by the nursery.

The website Best Start in Life may help with any questions you have about childcare for 3- and 4-year-old children.

Best Start in Life

If you are unsure about the criteria to obtain a 30-hour working parent code, we advise you to visit this website

30 hour code eligibility

Things to know

Meals are provided at Wilderness Nursery by our in-house catering team, who strive to provide healthy and nutritious hot meals for your child to enjoy at lunchtime if this is part of their planned sessions.

We find that when children are sat with their friends in a social environment, they will eat the exciting and lovely foods we provide that they may not eat at home. We will do our utmost to ensure that all medical or religious dietary requirements are met.

Wilderness Nursery is led by Steve Dew, the Head Teacher of the primary school next door, Church Cowley St James Primary School. The school's Governors are responsible for the strategic vision and aims of Wilderness Nursery.

It is anticipated that most children who attend Wilderness Nursery will apply for a place to attend our primary school.

Staff

We have a fantastic staff team at school and in the Wilderness Nursery. We employ staff who are professionally trained early years specialists, passionate about providing the best nursery education and care for your child.

Your child will have a special key worker: this person will know your child the best and work closest with you and your child.

At set times throughout the year, we also hold parent consultations where we welcome you into school to talk about your child, their progress and the next steps.

Communication

We use an online system called Tapestry that helps us keep parents informed about their child's learning journey. You can log on securely and see what your child has done each week.

We use a system called Arbour to email & text parents/carers key information. We ask that everyone utilise this system. Once your child starts with us, details on how to join the Arbour will be made available.