Marner Primary School Nursery

A racetrack, water play and canopies with coloured flowers give Marner’s Early Roots nursery a distinctive outdoor focus. This is the school’s own provision on Devas Street in Bow, taking children from age three within an early-years phase for ages three to five. Nursery and Reception share the early-years playground, making outdoor learning a substantial part of the setting’s character.

There are up to 26 full-time places and up to 52 part-time places. Those are different attendance options, rather than a promise of a full-time place for every child.

Play and planned teaching sit together in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), the framework guiding Marner’s early-years learning. For parents, that means children develop skills through practical exploration as well as activities with an adult’s teaching focus. In November 2022, inspectors found that planned activities and direct teaching gave early-years children access to the full curriculum.

The playground supplies plenty of concrete ways to explore. A sandpit and water-play section support hands-on discovery; slides, climbing frames and a climbing wall provide opportunities for physical activity. There is also a kitchen area for play. Coloured flower canopies cast rainbow light across the space, adding an unusual visual feature to an environment designed around movement, communication and social development.

Early reading starts with Phase 1 of the Tower Hamlets Education Partnership (THEP) phonics programme. Nursery children explore different sounds to develop the listening awareness that prepares them for reading and writing. Scientific learning is similarly practical: through Understanding the World, children investigate materials, notice seasonal changes and explore animals and habitats. Questions and conversation accompany the play.

Familiar experiences provide starting points elsewhere. Early-years geography explores home, school and the surrounding area, while history begins with children’s lives and family stories. These give young children something recognisable to talk about before their understanding extends further.

Curriculum consistency. In November 2022, some subjects needed clearer teaching steps that built from early years, including history and geography. School early-reading teaching also had inconsistencies in correcting sounds, affecting a minority of pupils’ fluency. These are relevant cautions alongside the practical learning opportunities.

Emotional learning has named tools. Jigsaw extends from Early Years across the school, with themes including Celebrating Difference and Healthy Me. The school also uses Zones of Regulation: classroom colour displays help children indicate how they feel, while adults model ways to describe and manage emotions. This gives feelings a concrete language.

A SENDCo covers Nursery as well as the other school phases. School support includes individual and small-group language work, and personalised programmes developed with families and external professionals for complex needs. Parents have routes into discussion through start-of-term teacher meetings and weekly coffee mornings; Class Dojo and email carry information about activities for families.

Lunch is cooked on site. The school kitchen uses halal products, and menus rotate over two weeks, with a hot option each day. For a child with special dietary requirements, families should provide GP confirmation and discuss the requirements with school; catering adjustments are approached on a best-efforts basis.

Attending Marner’s nursery does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal admissions process. Marner’s admissions page explicitly requires an online application even for children already in its nursery, although its birth-date example concerns an earlier admissions cycle.

The shared early-years playground provides a familiar physical setting across Nursery and Reception. That continuity is separate from the allocation of school places.

Full-time consideration requires an existing nursery offer and either eligibility for the extra 15 funded hours for working parents, supported by an eligibility code, or a medical, social or educational reason deemed strong enough to justify a full-time place, with supporting evidence required. Eligibility and an available full-time place are separate questions.

Visits can be arranged by appointment. Contact the school office at enquiries@marner.towerhamlets.sch.uk or on 020 7987 2938. The school’s uniform is a blue Marner-logo sweatshirt, a white polo shirt and black bottoms, with enclosed black footwear. Plain items can come from supermarkets or other uniform suppliers.