Erdington Hall Primary School Nursery Review

Play-dough, coloured sand and familiar rhymes give Erdington Hall’s nursery learning a practical starting point. This is the nursery class within Erdington Hall Primary School on Ryland Road, Birmingham, for children starting in September of the academic year in which they turn four. Part-time attendance follows five mornings or five afternoons, giving children a repeated pattern across the week.

Early learning connects communication, emotions, movement and number. The autumn 2025 nursery work brought these together through activities children could handle, repeat and discuss. In the first half-term, children explored family relationships, identified facial features and practised recognising feelings. That gives early conversation a subject children already know: themselves and the people around them.

Hands had plenty to do. Painting, manipulating play-dough and making marks in coloured sand developed small movements, while activities involving shoulders, wrists and elbows addressed larger movements. Maths included building with shapes and objects, comparing quantities and exploring repeated patterns through songs. These are concrete ways to approach early ideas before relying on written symbols.

Rhyme Time, the second autumn 2025 project, focused on expressive arts and design. A different nursery rhyme each week prompted themed activities and singing for performance. Little Wandle games included Name Play and Voice Sounds; number work involved recognising small quantities up to three immediately, rather than counting each item. Repetition gave children opportunities to practise listening, language and number together.

In January 2025, Ofsted found that early-years activities supported curriculum learning and that staff developed vocabulary through discussion, checking whether children understood new words. The useful detail is the checking: hearing a word was followed by talking about its meaning.

Settling begins before the first session. Nursery children receive a teacher’s home visit, and families can visit the nursery and meet its staff before starting. Children begin in groups. The home conversation gives parents time to explain their child’s needs in familiar surroundings, rather than saving everything for the first nursery day.

For additional needs, the school’s Inclusion Team and SEND coordinator organise assessment, planned support and regular review. Parents contribute through meetings, communication logs and support-plan reviews. The school also has weekly access to a speech and language therapist, with parental consent required for assessment and targeted support. These arrangements give families a route to discuss language or developmental concerns.

Caterlink Ltd supplies the school’s pupil meals. Toileting expectations. Children are expected to be fully toilet trained before starting nursery, so this is a practical consideration when planning their start.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate application through their home local authority during the normal admissions round, meeting that round’s deadline. The 2025–2026 admission arrangements did not include nursery attendance among the priority criteria; nursery membership should therefore never be treated as securing the next place.

Transition support is a separate matter. For children with SEND moving between year groups, support includes an individual introduction to the next teacher and, where needed, a photograph book showing staff and school areas. Families can discuss the change with staff, helping make unfamiliar people and places more recognisable.

Morning nursery runs from 8:30am to 11:30am; afternoon nursery runs from 12:20pm to 3:20pm. Part-time attendance totals 15 hours a week. Full-time places are also advertised subject to availability, so families should register their interest directly with the school.

The 2025–2026 arrangements described eligibility-dependent funded childcare of 30 hours weekly across 38 term-time weeks. Eligibility depended on work or leave circumstances, income and immigration status. Treat the attendance pattern and funding eligibility as separate decisions.

Apply for nursery through the school office. Visits can be arranged by appointment, and enquiries can be made on 0121 464 3122. Nursery children use the Ryland Road main gate and are handed to staff; collection is from the KS1 playground. Written permission must reach the office if someone else will collect.