Nursery

We offer 30 places each day, (8:35am - 2:35pm) for 3 - 5 year olds during term time (1140 hours).

We are a feeder nursery for Blackhall Primary School and all places are free and funded by the The City of Edinburgh Council.

The Nursery works in partnership with the Council, and is run by qualified childcare professionals with support from a voluntary Board of Directors and a Parent Committee. We conform to the national care standards of the Care Inspectorate, and our staff are registered with the The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) as appropriate. We have a higher than required ratio of staff to children as research has indicated that this is the most important factor in Early Years education.

How to apply...

Please see bit.ly/3qM761f.

Starting at Nursery...

Each year we hold an Open Day so that children and parents/carers have the opportunity to come and see what our Nursery is all about. We also organise an Induction Session in June to give the children an opportunity to meet the staff and their fellow classmates before the start of the new session.

In August, children new to Nursery are 'stagger-started' over several days to ease the settling in process. Parents/carers are welcome to stay with a child until he/she is settled, or may leave a child for shorter periods initially to get him/her used to Nursery gradually. Staff are happy to advise on settling-in strategies for each child as appropriate.

What to wear

Painting, gluing, cooking, gardening and wet play all feature at Nursery, so no best clothes, please, except at party time!alt

For hygiene reasons we require that all children keep soft indoor shoes (labelled, please) at the Nursery, which they change into on arrival.

Each child will have his/her own named peg with shoe storage underneath.

Staff are very grateful when children are helped to recognise their own shoes and coats before they start at Nursery!

What to bring (or not!)

We ask parents to discourage children from bringing items from home as children can become upset if their toys get lost.

The exception is on Show and Tell Day. This is an opportunity for each child to bring in to Nursery something that is particularly interesting and meaningful for him/her and which they would like to talk about and show to the rest of the class - and has some relevance to the current curricular theme.

How much does it cost and what is included?

Nursery places are free to all and include a balanced meal, snacks and milk.

Snacks are provided by the Nursery and support our Health & Wellbeing initiative. Often, our own home baking features on the menu!

We do not use nuts at Nursery and would ask parents not to bring them into the building.

Additional Hour

We offer an optional 'additional hour', extending the nursery day by one hour each day from 8:35am - 2:35pm to 8:35am - 3:35pm. This is billed at £6 per day and is paid monthly by parents using the service. Spaces are limited!

What happens on a typical day at Nursery?

Please see bit.ly/3qLR6ME.