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Rathvilly (Northfield) Nursery and Pre-School 

Choosing the right nursery for your child is a big decision. That’s why our nursery puts parents’ priorities and children’s happiness front of mind. From the airy indoor space to the adventure garden, the handpicked teachers, nutritious meals, exciting resources, helpful opening hours and more – we’ve got all bases covered. So when you choose Your Co-op Little Pioneers you can feel reassured you’re making the best choice for them – and you too.

We believe that a nursery should be as welcoming for children (and parents) as possible. That’s why we have an open door policy, creating a home away from home for your child. By making our nursery as welcoming for our parents as we do for our children, our team give each family the support they need.

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Funded Sessions Available

Funded Sessions Available

We have flexible, funded spaces available at all our Your Co-op Little Pioneers nurseries to suit everyone. Find out more about your funding options below. 

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Pioneering Great Futures

Pioneering Great Futures

We believe that every child deserves access to quality early years education. That's why we're here to help nurture the next generation of Little Pioneers. 

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Learn with your child at Rathvilly...

You’re your child’s number 1 teacher. That’s why we have lots of parents’ evenings to help you understand the Early Years Foundation Stages and how we teach these skills to your child. It’s also why we run regular parent panel meetings. We’re proud to have a great relationship with our parents and to give them a say in how our nursery is run.

Questions to ask when choosing a nursery

Choosing the right nursery for you and your family is a big decision.  So to help, we've put together some tips and advice on questions to ask and things to look for at your showaround.

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See more reviews on
daynurseries.co.uk

This is an excellent nursery, I would recommend to anybody.

The staff are great and my child is very happy here.

Tamara

With up to 110 children in our nursery, there are lots of different stages and needs to meet. Our enthusiastic team are experts at getting the best from each child. By following the Early Years Foundation Stage guidelines and encouraging our children to engage with learning in different ways (including lots of play time), we make sure that they’re developing the skills that they need and having fun too!

Little Pioneer programmes

All Little Pioneer nurseries care about the development of our children. We run a wide range of activities to help them explore and interact with the world around them. Here are a few examples of programmes that every nursery runs…

Starting to communicate

Smart Sign is an interactive daily signing activity that makes communication fun, not frustrating, so your child can express their needs and thoughts clearly to our caregivers (and to you at home too). It also increases their understanding and speech development from an early age, giving them the head start they deserve.

Based on Makaton and British Sign Language curriculum, our nursery practitioners are trained to use the latest content and instruction methods, because encouraging new ideas and communication is one of our top priorities. 

We like to boogie!

Your child will love our fun filled music and movement programme, Boogie Mites. Led by our nursery team (who have almost as much fun as the children!) we will learn language, maths and social skills through creative music, dance and play, plus discover how much fun exercise can be in the process!

Read, Write Inc.

Is your child ready to dive into the magical world of books and reading? Our pre-school children take part in our highly successful phonics programme called Read, Write Inc. Our knowledgeable, caring nursery practitioners guide our children as they begin this new, eye-opening journey, starting with phonetics and moving to blending sounds once they are ready. Creating literary skills that will take them into their school years and sparking a lifelong love of reading and learning. 

Ready Steady Pedal

Your child can also learn how to ride a bike at nursery through our Ready Steady Pedal programme, with professional guidance and support from Isla Bikes.
Once our nursery practitioners identify a child is ready, they’ll provide support and help build confidence on a balance bike until they can advance to a pedal bike. This exciting programme helps our children develop motor skills and independence whilst contributing to overall wellbeing. Because who isn’t happy whilst riding a bike?

You couldn’t ask for a better garden. With an outdoor kitchen and allotment area, your child can dig their fingers into soil and experience cooking (and eating) outdoors. They’ll also have plenty of different areas to explore. Making castles in the sand pit, climbing up frames and sliding down again, see-sawing in our wildlife garden and running through our willow tunnel trail are just a few of the things they can get up to.

We never let the weather stop us either. With rain-proof suits and wellies always ready for our children to head out in rain or snow.

Our children regularly visit the local eco centre, where they can see how the produce grows that we then use in their meals. By showing them where their food comes from, we help our children to understand the importance of caring for our environment and living healthily.

We encourage them to look after those in our community too. With weekly visits to a nearby care home where our children chat and play games with the residents. We also support Edward's Trust, a local charity that helps families through grief. We hold a range of fundraising activities and the children love getting involved.

Making a difference

All Little Pioneer nurseries run community-based activities to help our children make their own choices, express their feelings and make a difference in the world. Here are a few examples of projects that every nursery gets involved with…

Caring for the environment with Eco-Schools

Your child can learn all about the environment and our community in this global programme millions of children participate across 64 different countries! The children’s interests lead the learning, which is centred around nine topics: energy, litter, global citizenship, healthy living, school grounds, transport, waste and water. They’ll become a real environmental advocate! 

The nursery holds the silver award in the prestigious Green Flag Eco-schools programme which is an internationally recognised award for excellence in environmental action and learning. They have worked up to this achievement after gaining the bronze award and completing the steps necessary to get the silver award.

Involving Older Generations

Just launched, your child now has the special opportunity to enjoy intergenerational play. This is shown to positively impact both your child’s and the elderly’s health and happiness. Want to learn how? Have a watch of the recent Channel 4 programme ‘Old people’s home for 4 year olds’.

Whether it be visits from grandparents in the nursery for stay and play sessions or weekly visits to a local care home (with your permission, of course), your child will learn empathy and build confidence and social skills through creative play, singing and movement, physical games and storytelling. So we can create a community of caring, confident individuals, no matter what age.

We believe that eating local produce is better for us (and the environment). That's why we team up with a greengrocer and butcher in our community to create fresh, tasty meals for our children on-site every day.

Our menus

Our menus change regularly, they are based on the season and also on a 3 week rotation so there's plenty of variety. Here’s a little taste of what’s on offer… For breakfast, our children enjoy a selection of cereals with warm or cold milk, toast and butter, with milk or water to drink. Fruit is also available for breakfast and throughout the day as a snack, along with vegetable crudités and bread sticks. Lunch could be tuna and broccoli pasta bake, quorn shepherd’s pie or sausage and butter bean bake. Followed up with fruit salad, strawberry mousse or bananas and custard. We also serve ‘afternoon tea’ which may be beans on toast, sandwiches or fishcakes. We make sure our children have a balanced diet so they’ll be strong and healthy.

Click below for examples of our menus:

Our entire team are fully first aid trained with Millie’s Mark. We offer peace of mind with Millie’s Mark, a special certification that demonstrates our entire nursery team are paediatric first aid trained. This award shows our commitment to keeping all of our children safe and sound.

Wendi

Wendi

Nursery Manager

Aimee

Aimee

Deputy Manager

Beth

Beth

Room Manager

Claire

Claire

Room Manager

Bec

Bec

Admin

Estimate what you could be paying per week with this simple fee calculator

Understanding funded childcare and fees can be overwhelming at times. We want to change that by being transparent, upfront and most importantly – making things easy to understand.  

Use our simple fee calculator to estimate what you'll be paying per week, and how any funded childcare hours could reduce your weekly fees. If you're not sure what funding you might be eligible for, take a look at our funding videos here or arrange a visit to speak to your nursery manager.  

Whilst we work hard on making sure everything is up to date, these figures are estimates only.  For the most accurate figure we recommend speaking with your local nursery manager. 

Download Fee Sheet