IKB Bright Sparks Nursery

Bright Sparks Nursery opened in January 2021. We are an exciting early years setting which is located in the grounds of and is an integral part of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Primary School.

We aim to offer children the best education and care possible. To do this we like to make sure our children feel happy and secure, enjoy spending time at nursery, that they make friends and explore an exciting, engaging and interesting environment with challenging activities that inspire them and give them the confidence to achieve their full potential. 

Bright Sparks Nursery benefits from two purpose built rooms, with free flow access to a designated outdoor area, this is also inclusive of our own mud kitchen and gardening area.

We also able to use the wider facilities of the IKB grounds, which include a playground, forest school, library and a range of outdoor play equipment. Our large outdoor area is used daily by all children for a wide range of activities covering all areas of learning and development, all year round. The nursery is reflective of children’s ages and stages of development with routines, activities and learning experiences meeting each child’s individual needs.

We are committed to making sure the setting and our children are part of the community, we enjoy accessing the local amenities in our area such as park visits, train spotting and local walks.

Bright Sparks, along with IKB Primary School, are part of the Blackdown Education Partnership and our highly skilled staff work together to ensure all the children have a wealth of opportunities and experiences.

Bright Sparks is open Monday to Friday 7:45am – 6pm for 52 weeks of the year (excluding bank holidays, one week at Christmas, one week at Easter and inset days).

If you would like to express your interest please complete and Registration form and email it to: brightsparks@ikb.bep.ac or to ask any questions please call: 01823 795999.

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

At Bright Sparks Nursery, we know that each child who joins us is unique and have their own way of learning. Our highly skilled staff create enabling environments to inspire learning and language, meets the needs of all children and stimulate the children’s interests. We encourage them to explore, investigate and find out answers to their questions for themselves. We aim to scaffold and extend their knowledge and understanding, their vocabulary, ways of thinking and more.

Involvement of parents in our nursery life is an integral part of our ethos and values. We use an online platform call Famly where we share learning and suggest future opportunities and experiences. In addition to this, staff regularly meet with parents and carers to maintain working partnerships and open discussions about their child’s development as this is fundamental for ensuring the best possible outcomes for the children. 

There is a drive to continuously develop communication and language skills as a secure foundation for other aspects of the curriculum. The balance between child-led and adult-led is carefully considered to enable other aspects of the curriculum to be delivered such as early literary and math skills. At Bright Sparks, we believe ‘every child a reader’ where we promote opportunities for stories to be read, heard and told in a variety of ways with an environment rich with high quality text.

We offer a free flow style provision where both indoors and outdoors is a vital part of the curriculum. Both areas carefully planned and open ended to promote learning and accessible to all. We love learning in the Early Years and we believe with the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum that children learn through playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically.

There are seven areas of learning and development which shape the way we teach the children at Bright Sparks Nursery. Although the areas are broken into the three prime areas and four specific they are all interconnected.

Prime Areas:

  • Communication & Language

  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development

  • Physical Development

Specific Areas:

  • Mathematics

  • Literacy

  • Understanding the World

  • Expressive Arts & Design

The Prime areas are fundamental to the EYFS and the specific areas include the skills and knowledge, which provide important context for learning, and they develop more fully towards the end of the early years. The children are provided with lots of practical experiences through which they are encouraged to explore and experiment.