Blennerhasset School Nursery Review

Wet sand, a construction area and a place for making music give Blennerhasset’s nursery day its character: children choose resources and spend substantial stretches learning through play. The nursery belongs to the school’s Early Years Unit, where nursery children learn alongside Reception children. Shared indoor and outdoor spaces are part of that everyday experience.

Choice shapes much of the day. Resources stay in organised areas that children can use independently, with familiar places for returning them afterwards. The Investigation Station, Domestic Role Play and Mark Making Area give children different starting points for exploring, pretending and expressing ideas. Water, dough and small-world resources add further possibilities. Choosing materials and putting them away makes independence something children practise.

Longer periods of indoor and outdoor activity sit alongside brief sessions led by adults, covering mathematics, reading, PSHE and phonics. Speaking, listening, cooperation and relationships receive explicit attention. This gives the day a mixture of individual choices and shared learning, rather than a succession of adult-led lessons.

Birth to Five Matters guides the curriculum within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). In parent terms, this brings care and development together with learning: communication, physical development and personal development sit alongside literacy, mathematics, creative expression and understanding the world. Furniture and learning materials have been selected with children’s interests and independent use in mind.

Music has specific activities, too. Younger children take part in Music Makers, and the EYFS song work explores speed, volume, pitch and movement. In A Rocket is Fast, scarves and a prop bag prompt questions and choices while children explore contrasting rhythms. These activities give listening and speaking a practical purpose.

The EYFS team includes a class teacher and a teaching assistant. The teacher also holds a deputy safeguarding role, while the headteacher combines the SENDCo and designated safeguarding lead responsibilities. Families can raise concerns about additional needs directly with the SENDCo; the school’s approach includes working with families and outside agencies.

Personal development also has a named programme. JIGSAW includes learning about feelings, friendships, kindness, hygiene and healthy eating. Those topics connect classroom learning with children’s everyday relationships and care routines.

Meals are prepared at Beacon Hill School in Aspatria and transported to Blennerhasset in hot boxes. The school menu offers sandwiches, jacket potatoes and hot meals, with orders placed the preceding week. That advance ordering gives families a practical decision to build into their routine.

Attending the nursery does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal admissions process and meet its deadline.

Learning alongside Reception children means the older group and shared learning spaces are already part of nursery life. That familiarity is distinct from admission: it does not secure a place for the following stage.

EYFS families can choose a morning drop-off slot at 8:30am, 8:45am or 9am. Staff collect children at the gate, and morning activities run before lessons begin. The school day has collection points at 3pm and 3:15pm; these are school timetable arrangements rather than a nursery session package.

For nursery enquiries, contact the school office at office@blennerhasset.cumbria.sch.uk or call 016973 20677. The school encourages families to visit.

The school uniform combines grey or black bottoms with a white or royal blue polo shirt and royal blue knitwear. A sweatshirt can be plain or carry the school logo. Stitch and Print in Wigton supplies uniform, while families can also use unbranded items or obtain items through the school’s free pre-loved uniform shop.