Little Acorns Nursery blog: news articles, information & updates for parents

Childcare, Chorley, Clayton-le-Woods, Food & Drink, Healthy Eating, Nurseries, Nursery, Nutrition, Parenting, Pre-Schools

Healthy Eating for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Eating a healthy, balanced diet is important at any age. However, during their formative years when they’re still growing, it’s even more important for under-fives. Their young bodies and brains are still developing, so getting the right balance of food types, vitamins and nutrients is essential in order to maintain optimum health, cognitive function and even sufficient energy levels. (Regular exercise is also essential, of course – however, we’ll cover that separately in a future post).

The Benefits of a Healthy Diet

The benefits of maintaining a healthy eating regime are far-reaching and important, especially for young children. At this age, it’s important for them to get into good eating habits rather than bad ones. So, setting them on the right path at an early age is essential. As well as feeding their bodies and brains with everything they need to properly develop, some of the significant benefits of healthy eating include:

Improved cognitive function and attention, with all the leaning benefits that these will bring;
Sufficient energy levels to undertake all their daily tasks;
A greater chance of avoiding certain diseases in later life, potentially including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems and even cancer;
Maintaining more even moods;
Maintaining a more healthy body weight and, through so doing, avoiding potential obesity. Avoiding becoming obese also leaves them less prone to bullying;
A greater sense of self-image and self-esteem, leading to greater self-confidence;
Overall, improved mental and physical wellbeing.

That’s a huge and important list of benefits. Advice from Public Health England also suggests that

15th July 2021/by Mark

Chorley, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Lancashire, Nurseries, Nursery, Pre-School

Days Out Near Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley

Little Acorns Nursery School is located in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley. This is a wonderful location with great amenities, attractions, outdoor spaces and leisure facilities all within a short distance. In today’s guide, we explore some of the more interesting places that local families can visit nearby, perhaps for a day out. There are some great ideas below and every one of them receives top reviews from previous visitors:

Cuerden Valley Park

Right alongside Clayton is the lovely Cuerden Valley Park, an award-winning natural open space. Just over a mile away from the nursery, it covers 650 acres. Its wonderful beauty includes parkland, farmland, natural open spaces, flower meadows, lakes, woodlands, the River Lostock, a huge variety of wildlife and even orienteering trails. The park also boasts its own modern visitor centre with a lovely café offering indoor and outdoor seating with hot and cold food and refreshments. Cuerden Valley Park is well worth a visit!

Kem Mill Ruins

Just 1.4 miles to the South of Clayton and our nursery, also along the edge of River Lostock, are the ruins of Kem Mill. These are just North of Whittle-le-Woods. These are well worth a visit if you like walking in the natural world, enjoy local history or are a dog-walker. The old mill’s footprints are still clearly visible and the history of it can be learned via information signs.

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum is another high quality place to visit if you live near Clayton-le-Woods or the Chorley area. It’s located just 2.3 miles from Little Acorns Nursery over at Leyland. As one recent visitor explained in a review, it’s a “fascinating museum with lots of informative display material and immaculately maintained vehicles.” These include early fire engines and vintage commercial vehicles, buses, lorries and suchlike. There are interactive displays and games, including an area for younger children and helpful, knowledgeable staff. The museum also has a nice little gift shop and also a café. It gets great reviews, so is well worth a visit.

Worden Park

Worden Park is 3.4 miles west of our nursery in Clayton-le-Woods, in the southern outskirts of Leyland. It’s an

15th June 2021/by Mark

Childcare, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Education, Nurseries, Nursery, Pre-School

Our EYFS Nursery Curriculum

The curriculum at our Clayton-le-Woods nursery adheres to what’s known as the Early Years Foundation Stage (‘EYFS’) framework. This educational framework is specified by the UK Government and its implementation is overseen and appraised by Ofsted. It’s down to individual nurseries like Little Acorns to implement the framework and we strive to do so in the optimum way. This is all achieved in a stress-free, relaxed way, almost entirely through active play. This approach makes learning natural — and immense fun!

“Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play which is guided by adults.” (Department for Education).

The EYFS curriculum covers all the critically important areas of learning and development for babies (from birth) up to children aged 5. As such, it’s a perfect fit for children at Little Acorns Nursery.

The 3 Prime Areas of the Curriculum

There are 7 key areas within the early years curriculum. These include 3 ‘prime’ areas which, in turn, interconnect and enhance the remaining four — each helping to improve the other.

Communication & Language is the first of the three prime areas of our EYFS-based curriculum. Without good communication and language skills, all other areas of learning could suffer, so these are critically important skills for children to master in their early years. Staff at the nursery therefore encourage rich communications between staff and children — and from peer to peer — from the very first day they join the nursery. Language and communication skills grow naturally to children through engaging, fun activities like role-play, story-telling and question-and-answer games. High quality books and other rich reading materials are also employed by staff to read with children in an interactive way. Using these kind of approaches helps children to learn new vocabulary and grammar, to improve reading and comprehension and to almost effortlessly broaden their language and communication skills as they grow.
Physical Development is the second of the prime areas of the nursery’s EYFS-based curriculum. At this formative age, the …
Read more

19th May 2021/by Mark

Childcare, Chorley, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Education, Nurseries, Nursery, Parenting

Why Every Parent Should Be Involved in Their Child’s Education

Compelling evidence shows that there are enormous benefits for children when parents are closely and proactively involved in their education. Indeed, parents can be thought of as key to their children’s success, if they support children’s education in the right ways. We’ll go through exactly what that means, along with some of the many benefits, in this article.

During the earliest years of schooling … students with active parents are almost twice as likely to succeed. (Pinantoan)

Additional research also concluded that children are statistically far more successful in school when their parents “invest time and place value on their children’s education.”

So, How Can Parents Help?

Children will benefit in a multitude of ways when parents involve themselves in the child’s education. That involvement can take many forms …

15th April 2021/by Mark

Childcare, Chorley, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Forest School, Nurseries, Nursery, Pre-School

Ultimate Guide To Forest School

Little Acorns Nursery offers Forest School sessions* and, indeed, was the first childcare setting in the Chorley area to offer them. Many parents understand that ‘Forest School’ offers children outdoor discovery sessions where they can explore nature and all that the Great Outdoors has to offer. However, what’s it really about? What is the ethos behind it? How did it come about and what is its history? Perhaps most importantly, what are its benefits to children? Here we’ll answer all those questions and more, in our Ultimate Guide to Forest School.

9th March 2021/by Mark

Childcare, Chorley, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Education, Lancashire, Nurseries, Nursery, Ofsted Report, Pre-School, Pre-Schools

Ofsted Report: “Outstanding Childcare Provision” from Little Acorns Nursery

Last month we reported on Little Acorns Nursery winning best ‘Individual Nursery’ award at the National NMT Nursery Awards. When you consider that the nursery was selected from all the other possible nurseries from across the entire UK, that’s an incredible feat! It should now come as no surprise, then, to learn that Ofsted’s most recent report also scored the nursery as ‘Outstanding‘ — in every category.

In this post, we’ll go through Ofsted’s report to see what they said about the nursery and why they were so impressed during their inspection.

The Ofsted Report Concludes that Little Acorns Nursery Provides …

Outstanding quality and standards of the early years provision.
Outstanding effectiveness of leadership and management. (Learn more here).
Outstanding quality of teaching, learning and assessment. (Learn more here).
Outstanding personal development, behaviour and welfare. (Learn more here).
Outstanding outcomes for children. (Learn more here).

So, “Outstanding” — right across the board! Click the report image to download/view it in full (Acrobat PDF format) or read the highlights below.

We’ll cover each of those areas in more detail below. First, though, we’ll highlight some general comments received in the Ofsted Report. Every one of them is extremely positive; indeed Ofsted had literally nothing negative to say about this outstanding Chorley nursery anywhere in their report …

Continuous Improvement “to the Highest Possible Levels”

In the Ofsted Report, the inspector recognised the culture of continuous improvement at the nursery, saying …

5th February 2021/by Mark

Chorley Nursery, Education, Nursery News

Our Spring 2021 Newsletter.

Our Spring 2021 Newsletter. The newsletter is also downloadable as a pdf here

29th January 2021/by Little Acorns

Awards, Childcare, Chorley, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Lancashire, Nurseries, Nursery, Nursery News, Pre-School, Pre-Schools

Little Acorns Wins the UK’s Best Individual Nursery Award

Little Acorns Nursery is delighted to confirm that we WON the Best Individual Nursery Award at the 18th National NMT Nursery Awards towards the end of 2020. To win this unique award is an incredible achievement, particularly in the face of such strong competition from many other high quality nurseries from around the entire UK. We are extremely pleased and incredibly proud to have won this award.

Excellent Feedback from the Judges

The NMT Nursery Awards are run by Nursery Management Today (‘NMT’) magazine. They are designed to “discover, reward and celebrate the very best people in the nursery sector,” from across the whole of the UK. The judges were really impressed by Little Acorns’ entry, particularly liking the Little Acorns Forest School, the high level of staff qualifications and the nursery’s strong involvement with the local community. They also thought the fundraiser for a nursery defibrillator was excellent. The judges felt that it was a close competition, however Little Acorns truly “deserved this award”.

Little Acorns truly “deserved this award”.

Thank you to everyone who made this award possible. At the nursery, we are so happy that everyone’s hard work, professionalism and dedication to our children, families and community has been recognised.

Why we won …

Below is a transcript of the video that supported Little Acorns Nursery’s winning entry into the 18th National NMT Nursery Awards for 2020. Presented to the judging panel by Sarah Smith, our nursery manager, it will also give parents and carers a real insight into why the nursery won the award and what makes Little Acorns so special. As you’ll see from the transcript below, Little Acorns really does go the extra mile for their children under their care — and for the families of those children. Sarah explains …

13th January 2021/by Mark

Awards, Chorley, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Nurseries, Nursery, Nursery News, Pre-School, Pre-Schools

Finalists for Best Independent Nursery in the UK 2020

This video presented by our nursery manager supports the National Nursery Management Today award for Best Independent Nursery in the UK and answers questions about the quality of care and education we provide here at Little Acorns. [UPDATE JANUARY 2021: We won! Check out the full details here!]

13th November 2020/by Little Acorns

Nursery news and interesting information

Nursery news and interesting information

Our Little Acorns Nursery Blog

Our Little Acorns Nursery Blog

Healthy Eating for Toddlers & Preschoolers

The Benefits of a Healthy Diet

Days Out Near Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley

Cuerden Valley Park

Kem Mill Ruins

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum

Worden Park

Our EYFS Nursery Curriculum

The 3 Prime Areas of the Curriculum

Why Every Parent Should Be Involved in Their Child’s Education

So, How Can Parents Help?

Ultimate Guide To Forest School

Ofsted Report: “Outstanding Childcare Provision” from Little Acorns Nursery

The Ofsted Report Concludes that Little Acorns Nursery Provides …

Continuous Improvement “to the Highest Possible Levels”

Our Spring 2021 Newsletter.

Little Acorns Wins the UK’s Best Individual Nursery Award

Excellent Feedback from the Judges

Why we won …

Finalists for Best Independent Nursery in the UK 2020

Our Autumn 2020 Newsletter

Latest News

Little Acorns Nursery

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