Kirkby Stephen Primary School Nursery

Bear hunts in the Environmental Area, porridge-making and a picnic with favourite teddies give Kirkby Stephen Primary School’s nursery a character rooted in stories and practical activity. Children explore an idea through play, food and the outdoors. Familiar experiences become starting points for learning.

This is the school’s own Nursery class on Nateby Road, with an EYFS lead teacher, a higher level teaching assistant and a teaching assistant listed as its team. Its curriculum topics include All About Me, Colours and People Who Help Us, giving families concrete starting points for conversations about their child’s day.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the nursery’s curriculum framework. Here, the activities make its early learning tangible: children practise independence through play, learn vocabulary through books and explore the world through topics. The Nursery Curriculum and Nursery Progression of Skills sit alongside topic overviews, connecting activities with developing skills.

Teddy Bears brings several kinds of learning together. Children have explored the Environmental Area on a bear hunt, prepared porridge while learning about milk and oats, and made sandwiches for a teddy bears picnic. Stories extend beyond listening time into outdoor exploration and making things to eat.

Under the Sea combines information books and stories about sea animals with painting and colour mixing. Children have also tended planted seeds and observed tadpoles and ducklings while learning about life cycles. On the Farm introduces animal young, machinery and farming jobs. In March 2026, Nursery learning included the chicken life cycle and where food originates, alongside Chinese New Year celebrations, World Book Day dressing up and Easter card-making.

At the July 2022 inspection, Ofsted identified phonics beginning on entry to early years and children sharing materials and taking turns. These are useful foundations for learning alongside others. Across the school, assessment needed greater consistency in a small minority of subjects because some gaps in learning went undetected; this was a school-wide concern rather than a separate nursery judgement.

Settling includes opportunities to play independently. The February 2025 Nursery update describes children using activities for themselves as they became familiar with the class, making independence part of the settling experience.

Food also appears within learning: porridge preparation and sandwich-making connect ingredients with something children can taste. These are classroom activities, rather than a description of the everyday meal service.

For additional needs, parents have a school SENDCo contact route, and the SEND page links to the Westmorland and Furness Local Offer and Tiny Happy People for early communication development. Nursery news and home-learning links, including Topmarks and Family Learning, give parents ways to follow topics beyond the session. In July 2022, safeguarding arrangements included systems for recognising concerns affecting children and pupils, with agencies involved to help families access services.

Attending this nursery does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal admissions process and meet its deadline. Treat choosing Nursery and applying for Reception as two decisions, even when the intended school is the same.

Nursery provision runs from 9am to 3.30pm, Monday to Friday. The school office handles nursery enquiries, and the provision page includes a Nursery Booking link and a Free Childcare Entitlements parental declaration form. Contact the office about booking and current charges.

The school is on Nateby Road, Kirkby Stephen, CA17 4AE. Enquiries can go to office@ksps.cumbria.sch.uk or 017683 71387. Keeping the booking conversation with the office gives families a direct route into the nursery’s administrative arrangements.