Nestlings
The Nest
Beddington Centre
Nestlings are our youngest children (6 months to 2 years) who have their own building and garden that we affectionate call ‘The Nest’, The Nest is located at The Beddington Centre, Old Basing and is a short stroll across the field from our Village Hall setting.
A dedicated space
The Nest is a home from home with a child-initiated approach that places communication and language, physical development and personal and social development at the forefront.
The large open plan space, includes a rhyme and story zone,, sensory play, home corner and plenty of space for physical exploration. Babies and toddlers enjoy snack time in age appropriate chairs and transition from self-feeding in high-chairs to washing their own hands and selecting a snack when they are ready to become a little more independent in their health and self care.
Our dedicated sleep area is well-utilised at naps times and our children love to remove their slippers, find their blanket and settle down for a nap when they are ready. Our Nestlings team plan care routines in conjunction with parents and other care givens (such as childminders). We understand that leaving your little on in our care for the first time is a big step as a parents and our experienced team (most of whom are parents themselves) are always on hand to offer support where needed or listen to any worries you may have.
The Nest offers a large exclusive outdoor garden patio and grassed garden complete with picnic tables, a wooden outdoor play house, an equipped mud kitchen and sand pit. These simple components come to life when the children utilise the space and our team work harder to ensure that children are challenged at an age appropriate level outdoors. Local walks range from a wander over to visit our friends at the Old Basing Allotments to a longer trip into Chineham for rhyme time. These short outings help the children to develop an awareness of their locality and offer a range of new sights, sounds and experiences.
Our Nestlings also enjoy regular visits to and from our Owlets, Little Owls and Fledglings at the village hall..
Personalised care
For our Nestling children, this may well be the first venture away from parents or grandparents and the familiarity of home. We will work together with parents providing stay and play sessions and shorter unaccompanied visits where our team will learn all about your child and their likes, dislikes and routines. We take time to establish positive relationships with other children and love seeing them start to explore the environment with increasing independence.
Our curriculum
The curriculum at the Nest follows the same format as the rest of OBVNS with the main focus on the prime areas of the EYFS. Our team adopt a thematic approach to planning a range of open ended learning experiences throughout the week and our little ones love to explore the environment and engage in imaginative play, singing and dancing as well as construction, small world play and arts and craft. The basic setup of the room stays the same so that children are able to navigate the environment at their own pace and also allows for the allows for plenty of crawling and cruising with soft play as well a Pikler Frame for climbers.
Preparing for independence
Children are encouraged to be as independent as possible in their use of the environment and when accessing resources. Key workers use observation to determine an appropriate level of challenge and independence at each phase. For example, noticing a child attempting to put their own wellies on and placing a shoe rack nearer to the door in order for children to help themselves to their boots when they are ready.
Old Basing Village Nursery School has two sets of policies and procedures - one for our older cohort groups located at the main village hall and a separate set of policies for our youngest children located at The Nest.
All of our policies and procedures for The Nest can be found and viewed below.
To view our policies and procedures for the main village hall please click here.
Policy and procedure documents
Please find below a list of PDF documents that are used within the OBVNS setting at The Nest.
Please note: All of our policy and procedure documents are original versions at the time of publication. They are reviewed and updated systematically and a working copy is kept and maintained in the setting.
These documents and their contents are exclusively owned by Old Basing Village Nursery School and should not be shared, copied, or reproduced without prior permission, as doing so would be a copy infringement.