Hovingham Primary School Nursery

Stories, rhymes and outdoor play give Hovingham’s nursery its shape, with language development woven through the learning. Children join in the term following their third birthday. This is the nursery within Hovingham Primary School on Hovingham Avenue in Leeds, with an EYFS leader overseeing the early years team.

The school’s overall Ofsted judgement is Requires Improvement. That is a whole-school judgement, rather than a separate nursery inspection grade.

Play sits alongside activities directed by adults. Children also choose their own learning, using resources indoors and outside that can be rearranged and combined. That gives them opportunities to explore their ideas rather than follow only a fixed task. Outdoor activities include opportunities to develop movement and social skills.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) brings together seven areas of development. For parents, that means attention to talking and listening, physical development and relationships, alongside early mathematics, literacy, creative expression and understanding the world. Planning takes account of children’s interests and experiences. Fiction and non-fiction texts provide starting points for learning and introducing vocabulary.

Early reading has a named approach: Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Nursery children use its Foundations for Phonics guidance, with oral blending each day and language activities built around rhymes and stories. Oral blending means listening to sounds and joining them into words. Foundations for a Love of reading stories also feature.

Classroom book areas contain selected titles, including work by a focus author. Storytime, singing and rhyme time give children repeated opportunities to listen and join in. The emphasis is on spoken language as well as books.

An early years supervisor works across EYFS in an additional staffing role, supporting children with high and complex needs. This gives the team a specific role focused on additional needs, alongside the nursery teachers and early years practitioners.

For families considering SEND support, the school’s 2024/2025 arrangements included a full-time SENCo with the NaSENCO award. Individual Support Plans were reviewed with parents each term, giving families a regular opportunity to discuss progress and agree the next steps.

Those arrangements also included adapted equipment such as pencil grips and writing slopes, and a disabled toilet within the school. Communication could include an agreed home-school contact book. These are practical points for families whose child needs adjustments or closer sharing of information between home and staff.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal local-authority route and meet the deadline for their child’s admission year. For Leeds families, the application route is leeds.gov.uk/apply. Treat that application as a separate task from joining nursery.

Transition support is a different question from admission. For children with SEND, the school’s 2024/2025 arrangements included passing information and support plans to the next teacher. Children spent time in their next classroom towards the summer term’s end; an individual transition plan, or a book or video to explain the change, could be prepared where needed.

Two session patterns run from Monday to Friday: mornings from 8.30am to 11.30am, or afternoons from 12.15pm to 3.15pm. Either morning-only or afternoon-only attendance amounts to 15 hours each week. These are three-hour sessions, so the choice affects which part of the day families need to organise around nursery.

For afternoon collection, parents can wait in the welcome area from 3.05pm. The nursery gate opens at 3.15pm, with parents queuing for teachers to hand children over. Nursery enquiries can be made by calling 0113 248 9537 or emailing hovingham@hovingham.org.