Lower School FAQs

St George's Nursery stands out for its innovative curriculum, superb relationships, community engagement, and commitment to holistic education.

We particularly focus upon fostering curiosity in the curriculum through STEM. Our children delve into coding using robots and interactive games, setting the foundation for logical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. Given the under-representation of girls and women in STEM careers, we dispel stereotypes from an early age using positive role models and role play. One successful example of this has been our partnership with the National Art Galleries, with our staff and children helping to pilot the innovative "Maths in Motion" resource, which uses inter-disciplinary learning to introduce the children to mathematical concepts: maths-in-motion-slide-show-early-level.pptx (live.com) The outcome has been evident in the positive attitude of the children towards problem solving, experimentation and pattern-spotting.

An example of our holistic approach is the way we have embraced mindfulness and emotional well-being, utilising engaging tools such as the "Colour Monster" story, characters from "Inside Out", yoga, and mindfulness activities. Children explore a spectrum of emotions, learning valuable strategies to cope with difficult emotions, which fosters emotional intelligence that extends beyond the classroom. Techniques that have had an impact on the children is pretending to blow dandelions to practice calming breaths.

We provide a holistic and dynamic learning experience that nurtures academic growth, emotional intelligence, and a sense of community, preparing our children for the challenges and opportunities of the future.

Parents receive feedback about their child’s day and learning progress at the end of each nursery day. Teachers and practitioners provide informal information about activities, learning, progress, and development. The team also shares regular information each week using online Learning Journals, photos, and videos. We have an Instagram account that provides extra pictures of nursery activities in both Little Owls and Big Owls. Teachers track children’s learning each week and share progress and development with parents. We have two parent-teacher meetings during the year.

We offer a full range of wrap-around nursery care - a breakfast club in the morning from 7.45am to 8.30am and Nursery+ after-school care from 3.10pm to 6.00pm. Both services are staffed by members of the nursery team and include a light breakfast in the morning and a light snack at Nursery+. There is also a holiday club that runs during the holidays until 5pm. Parents can book these services as needed, and there is a small charge for each service. We offer a nursery package that included wraparound care, with or without holiday club. See our nursery fees page.

Children learn through play-based activities, both indoors and outdoors, with planned topics, including pre-literacy and numeracy learning and experiences, reading times, mark-making, focused teaching, social and communication skills, teamwork and cooperation, and self-care learning and independence skills. We run transition activities during the summer term, including information events for parents, an assessment morning, and discussions about the pathway into Junior School. We work together with the Junior School Leadership Team and Primary 1 staff to introduce activities and shared times with Junior School so that children get to know the Junior School teachers and learning areas.

We have a structure for the children each day with a focus in the morning and another in the afternoon that allows plenty of free playtime. Specialist teachers come for music, ballet, PE, and library classes. We have an outdoor day for each nursery room where we visit the Fantastical Forest. The practitioners lead the learning in the afternoon with fun clubs and activities such as drama, gardening, art, and cookery. Children play outside every day, and we encourage them to wear warmer, waterproof clothes on wet weather days.

Boys from our nursery are able to stay with us into the pre-prep years (up to the end of Primary 3) and enjoy the same great start to primary education as our girls. We support all our boys and their families to find the perfect Primary 4 destination school at the right time.

Being an integral part of the whole of St George’s School gives our nursery children access to extra facilities out-with the nursery’s dedicated wing. Throughout the day, children have plenty of space to move around indoors as well as outside. Our excellent environment both inside and outside the classrooms allows us to take advantage of outdoor learning, and our girls and boys are guaranteed to spend more of their time outside than children in most other nurseries.

• We offer specialist nursery accommodation housed within a wing of the Junior School 

• Facilities split across six playrooms over two floors with immediate access to spacious outdoor purpose-built play areas and landscaped garden. 
• Outstanding outdoor play areas with stimulating adventure playgroup equipment. In addition, we also make regular use of our extensive school outdoor areas such as our fantastical forest, wild woods, secret garden and fort, Junior School playground and school playing fields. 
• Use of whole school facilities: music centre with auditorium, purpose-built gymnasium, specialist music and art rooms, library, general-purpose hall for dance, PE and ballet. 
• Use of the St George’s Centre – our family whole school dining facilities where we encourage good table manners and healthy eating.

As a private nursery as part of a school, children enjoy sessions with our primary trained and specialist teaching staff, all included as part of the nursery fees. This is a special advantage of being part of our nursery, as it provides access for nursery children to junior teaching and coaching that they would not experience in a stand-alone setting. It also provides familiar faces when the children transition into P1.

Yes. We provide a broad and balanced nursery curriculum through a team of dedicated early-years practitioners who meet the needs of all our individual children. We have an experienced nursery teacher who ensures there is a strong focus on high standards, assessment and learning across all early level curricular areas. Outstanding outdoor play areas allow us also to take advantage of outdoor learning in our Fantastical Forest and our Wild Wood.

The children’s experiences are planned in consultation with them and their parents, building on advice from Scottish Government national guidelines: ‘Curriculum for Excellence 3-18’ and ‘Building the Ambition’.

We take girls and boys from 3 years old or from the start of the term of their third birthday in our Ante Preschool class. They will then progress to our Pre School class before joining Primary 1.

No. We take girls and boys from the start of the term of their third birthday. We focus on children learning through play, outdoor learning and laying a solid foundation in pre-literacy, writing and numeracy skills.