New Stockport Grammar School Nursery and Outdoor Learning Delights Youngsters
Stockport Grammar School’s youngest pupils are over the moon with their brand new Nursery building. The single storey Nursery is within the grounds of the Junior School. With large bi-fold doors, the new development links the inside and the outside enabling the children to fully embrace outdoor learning whilst at the same time benefitting from high quality teaching from fully qualified teachers and Nursery assistants.
The exciting and varied programme for the pupils includes reading, writing and numeracy along with specialist Music, Modern Foreign Languages and PE sessions, as well as weekly swimming lessons in the school pool, again taken by specialist teachers.
During the first week of the move, our pupils enjoyed the spring weather and headed outside to discover the wide range of activities on offer. They built sand castles, mixed mud, shared stories, splashed around with the water equipment, ran up the mini-hill and made their way through the tunnel with delight.
It was an exhilarating experience for the children as they went on to explore the brilliant bike track, discovered the tree trunks and enjoyed sharing the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ amongst their very own tall trees. Infant pupils have been pleased to be able to use their new outdoor classroom and playground over the past few months.
The Reception outdoor classroom is subdivided into specific play zones. The active play zone features an introductory Pinnacle Hill climbing frame and 15 interchangeable ‘Get, Set, Go!’ blocks to create a mini assault course. These help to build children’s climbing confidence and develop gross and fine motor skills, balance, core stability and upper and lower body strength.
The sand play area has a large sand-pit box with weighing scales so that children can explore, dig, build and investigate different weights, measurements and metrics.
The water play zone – denoted with a blue splash floor surface – features a water wall with a spinning wheel, movable channels and plunge and dam stations to enable the children to learn about gravity, water flow, water recycling, kinetic energy and investigate mass volume and weight.
A mini performance stage with chalkboards also has integrated den-making posts, so it can be used for traditional Drama and Literacy lessons and also converted into an imaginative play-den with holes and grooves to thread and weave materials through to improve tactile and fine motor skills.
Lastly, there is a ‘Jackanory’ corner for storytelling by children and adults alike, with a storyteller chair and artificial grass-topped stools for the audience.
The Infants playground has purposely been designed without play equipment to promote creative and imaginative play.
Stockport Grammar Junior School’s Headmaster, Mr Matthew Copping said: “The move into the new Nursery building has created a great deal of excitement amongst the children and staff. Our youngest children in the school have delighted in exploring both their new outdoor environment and also their classroom. Highlights have included the opportunity to explore the wooded area, covered sand pit and the water play area.”
