We are very proud of our ‘outstanding’ nursery. We feel privileged to be able to play a part in supporting children during their precious early years.

One of the first nursery schools in Slough to open, in 1937; Slough Centre Nursery was established to support the working families of the then new Slough Trading Estate. Still housed in its original, spacious wooden building; which was opened by Lady Astor, Slough Centre Nursery has grown to meet the needs of the ever changing local community across the last eighty years! We have supported multi generations of many families here at the nursery. The school continues to develop and has been part of the TLC nursery federation alongside Chalvey Nursery since 2012. Through this we have been able to share expertise and good practice, further strengthening the nursery.

The school caters for up to 163 children in total. We have children accessing our 2yr old, 3 & 4yr old and our ASD resource provision. The majority of our children attend part time (15hrs a week) with some children accessing full time or 30hrs places.

We are an experienced, skilled and committed team. The classroom staff includes qualified teachers, early years practitioners and teaching assistants. We firmly believe a child’s well-being and happiness is vital to their learning success and this is at the heart of everything we do. We endeavour to ensure all children have the best possible experiences within our engaging learning environment. It is a nurturing place that fosters positive relationships and partnership working, leading to the best possible outcomes for all our children. The atmosphere is one of family and we believe in ‘sharing, caring and learning together.’ Our curriculum is planned to equip the children with the knowledge, understanding and skills needed not only for the next stage in learning, but for life.

We are a maintained nursery school. Maintained nursery schools are unique and should be treated as treasured resource hubs within the community and wider education system. There are approximately 400 maintained nursery schools across the country. Many of which were set up just under a century ago to bring better health and education opportunities to young children and their families.

They adopted pioneering approaches that are just as relevant today with a focus on play, outdoor learning and the holistic development of the child. Maintained nursery schools are state funded and specialise in the 3-5 yr old age range (although many have now expanded to also accept 2yr olds). This means that just like nursery classes in primary schools, we employ fully qualified teachers. However, we differ in that we also have a headteacher who is an early years specialist. This means that the focus can be on delivering play-based age-appropriate education to children at a crucial stage of development, which requires a quite different set of approaches to later primary school. We also have a SENDCo who holds the national SENCo qualification in addition to being a qualified teacher. The rest of our staff team are also well qualified and highly experienced, with level 3 or level 2 qualifications. Together, this enables us to deliver high quality care and specialised teaching. We are inspected under the same rigorous Ofsted criteria as primary schools, rather than those used for early years settings in the private and voluntary sector. Nursery schools also tend to have a far higher proportion of ‘outstanding’ judgements than primary schools or the rest of the early years sector.

We all work together to ensure we offer the children at Slough Centre Nursery the very best start possible. We do this by having respect for and appreciation of others and valuing the uniqueness of each child, their circumstances and what they contribute in order to promote a positive self image; by developing trusting relationships and partnerships between children, parents and staff; by nurturing the foundations for life-long learning through careful observations and supportive interactions with each child, encouraging them to extend their thinking and engagement with different learning opportunities and to become independent thinkers and learners; by focusing on how children learn and not only on what they learn; and by offering a safe and secure learning space within a rich environment offering meaningful and relevant experiences. This is underpinned by a culture of continuing professional development and reflection on our own practice to ensure continued excellence in early education.