Nursery
Welcome to Dorridge Nursery
Our Nursery is a warm, nurturing and engaging environment where every child is supported to feel safe, valued and confident. We place a strong emphasis on building positive relationships, developing communication and encouraging a love of learning through play. Our carefully planned provision allows children to explore, create and discover, while skilled adults support and extend their thinking through high-quality interactions. We focus on developing independence, curiosity and confidence, ensuring that every child builds strong foundations for their future learning.
For all Nursery admissions, please visit our Admissions page for an application form and more information.
To find out more about your child's nursery year, please download the
Welcome to Nursery Induction Meeting 2025.
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As part of our curriculum, we place a strong emphasis on children’s wider development, independence and real-life experiences.
Children’s physical development is supported through a balance of indoor and outdoor learning, including fine motor activities to strengthen early writing skills and larger movements through active play. Our outdoor provision and Forest School sessions provide valuable opportunities for exploration, problem-solving and developing independence in a natural environment.
Throughout the term, we continue to support children’s personal, social and emotional development by helping them to build relationships, manage their feelings and develop confidence in new situations.
Our continuous provision is carefully planned to provide children with rich opportunities to play, explore and learn independently throughout the day. The environment is regularly enhanced to spark curiosity, develop communication and encourage children to revisit and deepen their learning through meaningful play experiences.
Children can access a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities, including construction, small world play, creative areas, sensory exploration, role play, mark-making and investigation areas. Through these experiences, children develop confidence, independence, problem-solving skills and positive relationships with others.
Adults carefully support and extend children’s interests through high-quality interactions, helping children to build new skills, vocabulary and understanding within their play.
Outdoor learning is an important part of life in Nursery and children access the outdoor environment every day in all weathers. Our outdoor provision provides exciting opportunities for children to explore, investigate, create and learn through active play and hands-on experiences.
Children take part in a wide range of outdoor activities including water play, sand play, climbing, construction, mud kitchen experiences, mark making, bike riding and nature exploration. These experiences support communication and language, physical development, problem-solving, creativity and children’s growing independence.
We encourage children to explore freely, take safe risks and develop confidence through play and discovery. Please ensure children come to Nursery with appropriate clothing, including a waterproof coat and wellies, so they can fully access outdoor learning throughout the year.
Messy play is a special part of learning in Nursery and provides children with exciting opportunities to explore, investigate and discover using all of their senses. Through hands-on experiences, children develop curiosity, confidence and independence while beginning to make sense of the world around them.
Children take part in a wide range of messy play experiences including water play, painting, sensory trays, mud kitchen activities, malleable materials and creative exploration. These experiences support communication and language, physical development, creativity, problem-solving and early social skills in meaningful and engaging ways.
We encourage children to explore freely, take safe risks and develop their imagination through play. Although messy play can sometimes look a little chaotic, it plays an important role in supporting children’s learning, wellbeing and development across all areas of the curriculum.
As part of our Physical Development curriculum, the children take part in weekly FootieBugs sessions, led by experienced coaches. Using fun, football-based activities, the children not only build their physical skills such as coordination, balance and control, but also develop important personal and social skills.
Through games and team challenges, children learn to listen carefully, share, take turns and work together, supporting the Early Learning Goals for Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. These sessions are active, engaging and designed to build confidence, teamwork and a love of being active.
