Exploring the new nursery building
The new Nursery building at The Ryde School opened on Friday 6th January 2023. It has already had a huge impact on teaching and learning in the Nursery as the children explore the new areas and use the new resources. We are encouraging the children to become independent learners especially during ‘Explore and learn’ time and the Nursery is set up so children can choose and uses resources and then put them away in the right place. Everything is clearly labelled with pictures or with a shadow to support the children to do this.

The photo above shows the small world area with resources clearly labelled so that the children can ‘Choose it. Use it then put it away’.
Our new creative area is the perfect space for play dough, sand, water and paint and these resources are always available for the children to use.
We love books in Nursery and we have a wide variety to choose from.
Our daily Busy Fingers activities build up our fine motor skills including scissor skills and mark making.

The new role play area provides lots of opportunities to talk and explore in a homely setting.

- Exploring and learning in the mud kitchen
- Exploring natural resources in Forest School
- Exploring the school grounds with our friends.
- Investigating and exploring our own ideas during ‘Explore and Learn’ time.
- Snack time takes place in small groups in our home corner.
- Busy Fingers activity strengthen our finger muscles.
- Strengthening and building upper body core muscles.
Remote learning e-mail address – classnremotelearning@ryde.herts.sch.uk
- Curriculum Information Nursery Summer 2023 (552.11KB)
- Curriculum Information Nursery Spring 2023 (540.19KB)
- Curriculum Information Nursery Autumn 2022 (558.70KB)
- Nursery Curriculum Overview 2022 (544.38KB)
- Nursery Parent Activity (350.29KB)
- Early Years Reading Information for Parents (499.68KB)
May 182023
Learning Outside the Classroom Day
The children have had a wonderful time outside in the Nursery garden looking for mini-beasts and planting seeds.
When we rolled up the artificial grass we found lots of worms of all different sizes. The children were fascinated as they watched the worms burrow into the ground.
We have been learning about mini-beasts this half term and the children, regularly and independently, search for insects and bugs in our garden.The children found lots of woodlice and centipedes hiding in the logs.
They looked under the logs and found a tiny snail and some interesting eggs.
We found some very big slugs!
We want to attract bees and butterflies to our garden so we planted some wild flower seeds.
We had to fill a big pot.
The children sprinkled the seeds onto the soil and then watered them.
We made sure that our beans are still growing. The children regularly water the beans in the Nursery garden. They also took a bean plant home to grow.
Mar 072023
Fun in the snow
The Nursery children had a wonderful time in the snow. They put on their waterproof clothes and their boots and we went out to explore. The children made lots of footprints in the snow.
We made patterns in the snow with our fingers and noticed that the snow melted in our warm hands.
We couldn’t walk across the bridge because it was too slippery.
We followed our footsteps.
The children used brushes to clear a path in the snow.
Oct 192022
Parent Activity
On Wednesday 19th October 2022, we invited our Nursery parents into school to see how we ‘Explore and Learn.’ Parents and children experienced a variety of ‘Busy Finger’ activities to strengthen finger muscles. For example, the children squeezed, rolled and flattened the play dough into a variety of interesting shapes.
We have a wide variety of construction kits in the Nursery for the children to explore.
During the session the children demonstrated to the adults how to tread pasta onto pipe cleaners, how to squeeze and attach pegs to plates and cups and how to pick up small objects with the tongs and tweezers.
Everyone, including the adults, joined in with our ‘Action Song ‘time at the end of the session.
The children often use bean bags or tapping sticks during song time.
Jul 112022
Nursery children exploring the grounds
Mar 242021
World Book Day Potatoes
Here at the Ryde School, we celebrated World Book day on the 22nd March with children bringing in potato book characters from their favourite stories. The children created an array of characters from well-known stories, and these were displayed for everyone in school to see.
We are constantly encouraging a love of books in school. Did you know that reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success? We hope that the children can use their book vouchers to buy a book online and we look forward to them sharing their choices with us.
Mar 182020
Nursery Rhymes and Parent Sessions
The Nursery children have been learning about lots of different Nursery Rhymes; Humpty Dumpty, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I’m a Little Tea Pot, The Grand Old Duke of York, 5 Little Ducks and Mary had a little Lamb.
During one of our parent sessions the children and their grown-ups made 5 duck puppets. The children had lots of fun using their puppets when singing the ‘5 Little Ducks’ Nursery Rhyme.
During the last week of our Nursery Rhyme topic the children performed the Nursery Rhymes to their grown-ups!
We have had lots of fun in our parent sessions this term; the grown-ups and the children have been doing some observational drawing and counting using pom poms.
Mar 032020
Nursery Trip to the Garden Centre
The Nursery children had a wonderful time on their first Nursery School trip to the Dutch Nurseries Garden Centre.
A lovely lady called Julia from the garden centre did a talk about growing and how we can look after our flowers/plants. She also talked to us about how we can attract wildlife into our gardens.
The Nursery children had lots of fun planting their own sunflower seed/bean into a plant pot. We shall be watching them grow back at Nursery. The children then went on a flower hunt with their grown-ups to see if they could find lots of different coloured flowers and if they could find a plant/flower that was taller than them.
To finish our trip, we all warmed up in the café and had a lovely drink and biscuit.Feb 042020
Shapes
The Nursery children have been learning about different shapes and how to use them to create pictures.
They used sponges in different shapes such as circles and a triangle to create a flower picture. The children chose what colour they wanted their flower to be and mixed different paint colours together to get the colour they wanted.
Jan 292020
Road Safety and Scooterbility
The Nursery children have been learning how to be safe on the road. We learnt that before we cross the road we must ‘Stop, look, listen, think’. When the road is clear we walk across the road safely holding our grown-ups hand.
The Nursery children have also completed their Scooterbility training. They learnt how to ride their scooter safely. They learnt how to stop when they get to a kerb; step off of their scooter and walk across the road with their scooter.
Nov 212019
Science
The Nursery children have become Scientists this week. We discussed which item/objects would be the best to get the toy animals out of the block of ice. Most of the children predicted that the hammer and ball would be the most effective at breaking away the ice.
We then decided to test our theories. The children were shocked that the ball and the hammer didn’t work very well at breaking away the ice. An adult poured warm water of the block of ice and the children were very excited when they saw that the ice was melting. We managed to set the toys free from the ice!