Carterton Primary School Nursery

Den building outdoors and daily work with letter sounds give Carterton Primary School's on-site nursery two distinct strands: practical exploration and an organised introduction to reading. It sits within the school on Burford Road in Carterton. For families, the useful distinction is between the nursery's activities and the arrangements offered to older children elsewhere in the school.

No Ofsted graded rating yet.

Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) includes Nursery children, with phonics taught daily. Children learn to connect sounds with written letters and combine sounds to read words. The sequence starts with individual letter sounds before introducing combinations. This gives early reading a defined teaching structure rather than leaving it solely to incidental encounters with books.

Practice extends beyond the phonics lesson. Reading opportunities include working individually with an adult, reading alongside another child and reading together as a class. ELS also introduces vocabulary, connecting the mechanics of reading with children's developing use of language. These are teaching arrangements, rather than a claim about children's eventual attainment.

Outside, the school's Forest School site provides a different kind of learning space. Early years children have regular sessions led by the Forest School Leader. Activities include searching for mini beasts, making dens, hide-and-seek and imaginative adventures; an outdoor mud kitchen adds messy play. Children can explore natural surroundings and take part in hands-on activities alongside their work with sounds and words.

Support with phonics can begin within the lesson, when a teacher identifies a child struggling with new learning. Additional individual interventions are used when needed. That provides a route for addressing a specific difficulty alongside the main teaching sequence.

For children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), the school describes personalised support developed with families, specialists and outside agencies. A SENDCo and Home School Link Worker provide distinct contact roles: one for additional educational needs, the other linking home and school.

Allergy arrangements need careful attention. The Trust's approach uses awareness and individual care planning rather than blanket allergen bans. Families and medical professionals contribute to plans tailored to a child's needs. Special diet procedures support severe allergies, and staff training includes AllergyWise for Schools. Food prepared at school does not contain nuts, but bought-in products cannot be guaranteed to come from nut-free production. Families managing allergies should keep that distinction in mind.

Attending the nursery does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal admissions process and meet the applicable deadline. Choosing the nursery should therefore be a decision about the nursery experience, with the later school application treated as a separate step.

Contact the school office at office@carterton.school or telephone 01993 842502 for enquiries. School visits can also be arranged through the office.

Wraparound eligibility. Around School Provision (ASP) serves children from Reception to Year 6 during term time. Nursery children fall outside that stated eligibility, so families should not build their nursery childcare plans around ASP.