Mrs Burke (EYFS Lead)
Mrs Kumar (Teacher)
Mrs Scorer (Teacher)

We are proud to have a dedicated and highly skilled Nursery team, including an Early Years Lead, two experienced and qualified teachers, and knowledgeable teaching assistants. Every member of our staff is passionate about Early Years education and committed to nurturing young minds in a supportive and stimulating environment. Their expertise, care, and enthusiasm ensure that each child receives the attention and encouragement they need to grow in confidence and develop a strong foundation for future learning.

Indoor 

Our nursery boasts a large, vibrant indoor space thoughtfully designed into distinct, zoned areas. These zones allow children to explore independently and engage in high-quality child-initiated play. Throughout the entire indoor environment, language prompts are strategically placed to ensure adults consistently interact with children in a way that enriches and widens their vocabulary. 

 

• Creative Area: A dynamic space dedicated to artistic expression and sensory exploration. It features facilities for painting, sand and water play, arts and crafts, and activities specifically designed to hone fine motor skills. 

• Construction & Small World Area: A collaborative zone equipped with a wide variety of building resources, including Lego, Duplo, and wooden blocks, allowing children to bring their imaginative worlds to life. 

• Maths Area: A targeted space filled with engaging mathematical resources, games, and manipulatives that introduce early numeracy concepts through play. 

• Role Play Area: This area features a permanent "home corner" alongside a rotating role-play space that changes in alignment with current topics (e.g. transforming into a shop, garden centre, holiday shop, or bakery) to spark imagination and social development. 

• Writing Area: A well-resourced mark-making zone supplied with chalk, whiteboards, colouring materials, and tracing activities to encourage early literacy. 

• Book Corner: A calm, inviting space stocked with a rich variety of texts to foster a love for reading and storytelling from an early age. 

• Music Corner: A vibrant, interactive space equipped with a wide range of musical instruments, encouraging children to explore sound, rhythm, and self-expression. 

Outdoor  

We believe that outdoor learning is just as vital as indoor play, which is why our timetable is carefully structured to ensure daily access to both environments. Our dedicated nursery playground includes: 

• Imaginative Play: Anchored by a large wooden boat that inspires creative, open-ended role-play scenarios. 

• Sensory & Messy Play: Featuring a fully equipped mud kitchen and dedicated water play resources. 

• Physical Development: A wide range of equipment, including bikes and balls, to develop gross motor skills, coordination, and physical confidence. 

• Large Construction: Equipped with large-scale building materials that encourage teamwork, problem-solving, and spatial awareness. 

 

We are incredibly fortunate to have access to the extensive grounds of the wider school, which we regularly utilise to enhance our early years provision. Our nursery children benefit from: 

• Nature Walks: Utilising the school's expansive green spaces to explore the natural world, observe seasonal changes, and build a connection with the environment. 

• Physical Play: Taking advantage of the school's larger outdoor facilities, including the tyre park and climbing frames, to challenge the children's physical abilities and risk-assess in a safe environment.  We also regularly use the large school hall for dedicated PE sessions, allowing the children to use the school's specialised facilities and larger equipment to develop their gross motor skills, spatial awareness, and physical confidence. 

Our nursery children benefit from weekly Forest School sessions, which offer invaluable opportunities for outdoor learning, resilience-building, and hands-on exploration. These sessions are a favourite among the children and involve: 

• Exploring the Woods: Navigating the natural woodland environment to build confidence, spatial awareness, and a sense of adventure. 

• Climbing Trees & Risk-Taking: Encouraging physical development, strength, and gross motor skills as children learn to safely test their limits and risk-assess. 

• Wildlife Observation: Observing and identifying local wildlife, fostering an early love for nature, science, and environmental awareness. 

• Imaginative & Sensory Play: Engaging with nature through our woodland mud kitchen and working collaboratively to build dens using natural materials. 

• Holistic Development: Above all, these sessions focus on having fun, boosting self-esteem, and developing teamwork in a unique outdoor setting. 

 

Educational Approaches & Key Schemes 

To ensure the highest quality of teaching, we follow evidence-based, structured schemes that blend seamlessly into our play-based environment: 

• Phonics: We deliver daily early phonics using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised scheme, focusing on oral blending, rhyme time and weekly sound recognition. 

• Physical Education: We utilise the Get Set for PE curriculum to deliver structured movement, dance, gymnastics, and ball skills. 

• Mathematics: We follow the Mastering the Curriculum scheme. This mastery approach ensures children develop a deep, secure understanding of mathematical concepts through daily targeted sessions and hands-on exploration. We utilise concrete resources and natural objects to embed sorting, patterning, spatial awareness, and number composition. 

Daily & Weekly Routines 

Our timetable carefully balances structured, adult-led sessions with high-quality, child-initiated indoor and outdoor play. A typical week at Giggles Nursery includes: 

• Daily Phonics (Little Wandle): Interactive sessions including "Rhyme Time" (syllables, rhyming words, and initial sounds), "What’s in the Box?" to introduce the weekly sound, voice games (e.g., Bertha the Bus), and oral blending games. 

• Daily Maths Sessions (Mastering the Curriculum): Focused short sessions that introduce a single concept using the mastery approach, followed by practical application, games, and challenges in the indoor and outdoor maths zones. 

• Daily Story & Rhyme Time: Dedicated sessions to foster vocabulary, language comprehension, and a love for reading. 

• Daily Child-Initiated Play:  Rich indoor zones and outdoor playground. 

• Weekly School Library Visits: Children visit the main school library to choose and check out books, promoting early literacy and independence. 

• Weekly Dudley Performing Arts Music Sessions: A music specialist leads high-energy, fun-filled sessions where children dive into music and movement—clapping to the beat, dancing, and singing along! 

• Community Visitors:  we invite local community figures—such as the school nurse, emergency services, and representatives from the local church—to engage with and inspire the children. 

We promote strong, positive relationships with families through our welcoming and approachable ethos. Parents and carers are encouraged to connect with staff, ask questions, and take an active role in their child’s nursery experience. We value the importance of working in close partnership, recognising that your knowledge of your child is vital in supporting their development. By maintaining clear and consistent communication, we ensure a shared approach to care and learning. From the initial settling-in sessions through to transition into school, we keep you fully informed and involved at every stage of your child’s journey.

We ensure that parents are kept fully informed and involved in their child’s learning journey throughout the year: 

• Tapestry Online Learning Journal: We use Tapestry to bridge the gap between home and school. It allows us to capture and share "milestone moments" and achievements with you. We also warmly encourage parents to upload photos and videos of milestones achieved at home so we can celebrate them in the setting. 

• Parents' Evenings: We hold two formal Parents' Evenings a year. One in the Autumn term and one in the Spring term. These meetings offer a dedicated, face-to-face space to discuss your child's progress, review their developmental targets, and outline their next steps. 

• Annual Reports: In the Summer term, every child receives a comprehensive annual report summarising their achievements, growth, and readiness for the upcoming academic year. 

We love welcoming families into our school community and host a variety of events throughout the year to celebrate the children's achievements and create lasting memories: 

• Home visits & Stay and Play sessions: We host both stay-and-play sessions and home visits to all new starters giving you the opportunity to share information and ask questions.  

• Christmas Workshop: A special festive event where parents are invited into school to work alongside their children on Christmas-themed crafts and activities, celebrating the festive season together. 

• Nursery Sports Day: Parents are invited into school to cheer on the children as they take part in fun physical challenges, showcasing the gross motor skills and teamwork they have developed throughout the year. 

We bring our nursery community together for major school events, festive celebrations, and seasonal family gatherings. 

Universal 15 Hours
All children aged 3 and 4 are entitled to 15 hours of free childcare per week during term time, regardless of family income.

Extended 30 Hours
Eligible working parents can access up to 30 hours per week (term time only). Eligibility generally requires that each parent earns under £100,000 per year

How to apply for the Extended 30 Hours

Check eligibility:  Use the government’s Childcare Choices website or your local council’s portal to confirm entitlement. Best Start In Life — Childcare Checker

 

Apply online: For extended hours, parents receive an 11-digit eligibility code from HMRC, which must be provided to the childcare provider 

Gig Mill will validate your eligibility code before your child starts. Codes must be reconfirmed every three months to maintain entitlement.

EYPP stands for Early Years Pupil Premium. It is a UK government funding initiative that provides extra money to childcare providers (such as nurseries, pre-schools, and childminders) to support the early education and development of eligible children.  

This extra funding can be used in lots of ways to give them the best start in life and prepare them for full time school.

For example, the funding can be used to provide: 

• Specialist training for staff e.g. speech and language development 

• Extra or individual support in a particular learning area 

• Extra equipment to support particular development 

• Additional staffing or staff hours to enable further support for your child 

You can check if you are eligible to apply for EYPP here:  

https://www.dudley.gov.uk/residents/early-years-and-childcare/for-parents-and-carers/early-years-pupil-premium/  

or complete the form here and return to the school office.  

Choosing the right nursery is one of the most important decisions you will make for your child's early development. At Gig Mill, we offer the unique advantage of a fully maintained on-site nursery integrated directly into our wider primary school community. This ensures a seamless, stress-free transition when it comes time for your child to step up to Reception. By blending expert, teacher-led curriculum pathways like Little Wandle and Mastering the Curriculum with rich, adventurous play, including weekly Forest School and specialist music sessions, we provide a wonderfully balanced foundation. Here, your child isn't just cared for; they are encouraged to discover, create, and thrive in an environment that treats them as an individual from day one.

To register your child for a Nursery place, please complete our online booking form by clicking here

Alternatively, if you would like to visit our Nursery and see our setting in action before making your decision, we warmly welcome you to book a tour through the school office. Please contact us on 01384 818600 or email info@gig-mill.dudley.sch.uk to arrange a convenient time.