Riverside Battersea is a beautifully designed nursery with large and well equipped indoor and outdoor space, providing a stimulating and exciting environment for the children in our care. When working with our lower school babies and toddlers, independence, confidence and mobility are encouraged through a variety of activities using a sensory approach.
Activities such as: treasure baskets, heuristic play, cooking, singing songs and music times, outdoor play and co-ordination activities are included in the weekly timetable. Our children experience seven broad areas of learning: Personal, Social, and Emotional Development; Communication and Language Development; Literacy Skills; Mathematical Development; Understanding the World; Physical Development; Expressive Arts and Design.
Our Baby suite comprises of several rooms which are exclusively for babies and toddlers, from 3 months to 2 years of age.
The staffing ratio is never more than one carer to three children. We take great pride in our friendly, nurturing and happy baby suite which for the Babies is home from home. Each child is unique and we respect individual care routines that may have been established at home. Each child is allocated a named key person as a main carer building and maintaining effective relationships with children.
Lower school caters for children between 2 and 3 years. Children will have a gentle introduction to nursery routines during their daily play and learning activities.
Each day there are opportunities for children to socially interact with each other developing their understanding of sharing and turn-taking as part of a small group. Storytelling, music sessions and role-play activities all promote good language and listening skills.
At the age of three, children move into the preschool phase of their nursery education. Riverside Nursery uses the famous Montessori approach, aimed at achieving the correct balance of physical, social and intellectual stimulation for young children. Within a child centered environment, children can develop confidently at their own pace, and an equal opportunities policy is practised for all children.
In upper school the class sizes are kept to no more than eight children to one teacher.
The materials used by the children within our Montessori nursery are carefully designed to allow personal development through investigation and sensorial stimulation, encouraging analytical skills, which can be channeled into all areas of life. All children’s progress is monitored and recorded regularly and the Head of Nursery is available by appointment to meet with parents.
We believe in:
1. POTENTIAL
Realise their pure potential by embracing a proven approach to learning where teachers facilitate and encourage discovery, collaboration, present useful challenges and ensure that tasks are both challenging and appropriate for each child.
2. CURIOSITY
Develop a confident and enquiring mind, where they learn through discovery and play, at their own pace, individually and in groups.
3. HAPPINESS
Happy, polite, well mannered children enjoying a child centred environment, with exceptional learning facilities. Facilities that include outdoor gardens and the most stimulating and exciting learning spaces, reflecting the seven essential elements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, based on the Montessori approach to learning.
4. SAFETY
Feel loved, safe, secure and cared for as if they were at home. They blossom with our teachers common sense of purpose, real values and aspirations.
5. INVOLVEMENT
An ‘open door’ where parents and families are encouraged to be involved in the life and work of the nursery.
Our children's destinations
This is typical of the feedback and comments we receive from reception class teachers at local schools: