Providing quality care and education for each unique child
in a safe, friendly and encouraging environment
Cromford Road - Ripley
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Clowns Nursery
12 Cromford Road
Ripley
Derbyshire
DE5 3FP
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Telephone: 01773 202119
Email: clownsripley@yahoo.com
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Opening hours:
7.30-6pm Monday to Friday
Closed Bank Holidays
Our Cromford Road Nursery was opened in 1990 as the beginning of Clowns and has always had a special place in our hearts and many others whose families have had many happy years here.
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In 2024 Cromford Road was re-opened after extensive modernising. We have installed solar panels, heat source pumps and underfloor heating throughout the building as well as creating a curriculum and everyday tasks such as ‘grow your own’ for the children to learn all about sustainability.
All rooms had extensive updating and decorative work to enhance the children’s environments. Our rooms are all spacious open plan rooms with lots of areas for the children to explore and develop.We have designed the nursery to have a calming, inviting and friendly atmosphere with muted tones, neutral fabrics, soft lighting and relaxing scents throughout the nursery.We feel this helps to settle the children, giving them an environment to feel comfortable and safe in a homely atmosphere.
The Garden
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We encourage outdoor play all year round no matter the weather. There's no such thing as bad weather when you have all the appropriate clothing!
Our outdoor area consists of a large soft play area that the children from the age of 2 can access on the ground level throughout the day.
We also have an extensive natural garden area on a second level that has been carefully designed to cover all the areas of learning in a natural environment.
These areas include, arts and craft, imagination, construction, growing beds, mud kitchens, sand and water.
This area is also where we have our Forest School sessions.
Investigate
Grow
Climb
Build
Under 2's (Baby Room)
Our main Baby Room is an open plan area that is a spacious, calming and friendly environment in which the babies can thrive. The babies are able to move around freely and investigate with all the activities as well as having access to the lower level baskets to explore for themselves.Our Baby Room is equipped with everything your baby needs to develop and grow.
Our baby room is equipped with it's own kitchen to prepare bottles and organise meals.
Discover
We also have a sensory room for the babies to be able to access all day long, giving them the opportunity to explore their senses.
Grow
Absorb
Our Baby Room also has its own roof garden where the babies can enjoy the outdoors in a safe and secure environment.
Toddler Room - (2 - 3 years olds)
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This is a time of big changes, including increased independence and more curious minds. We welcome each child’s curiosity and individuality and offer our two - threes a stimulating environment to explore and learn at an individual pace.
Our Toddler room invites the children to explore a selection of materials and resources, colour palettes, utensils and textures throughout the day.
The room is equipped with low level furniture for the children to access all areas of development.
As well as all the areas we have available throughout the day we also introduce group activities, baking and lots of outdoor play into the children’s daily routine in Toddlers.
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Flourish
Develop
Explore
Learn
Our Pre-school Room - (over 3years)
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Our Pre-school room is a large spacious open plan room, where we have many different areas to cover all the stages of development. We introduce more literacy, numbers, shapes and sorting in our Pre-school room to get them ready for school, as well as maintaining the stages of development in all the other areas as well.
We encourage free flow play in our Pre-school so the children can explore and investigate with their chosen areas and equipment. As well as always having access to the equipment and activities we have out all the time they also have group activity time, forest school, one to one with key workers and outdoor investigating.
Construct
The children are encouraged to become a lot more independent in Pre-school and our staff help with the following;
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Telling adults what they need
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Taking turns and sharing when playing
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Going to the toilet on their own and washing their hands
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Putting on their own coat and shoes and feeding themselves
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Telling an adult if they are happy, sad or cross
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Knowing that what they do and say can make others happy or unhappy
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Being curious and want to learn and play
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Stopping what they are doing, listen and follow simple instructions
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Enjoying sharing books with each other and adults
Create
Our Sensory and Sleep Room
We will be creating a room that will be perfect for our children to take their naps on bamboo stackable beds, and also turn into a magical sensory room for all ages to enjoy. With a starry night ceiling, dark navy walls and sensory lighting throughout as well as all the sensory equipment to help our children grow and develop.
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Our Garden Room
Our Garden room is equipped with resources to help your child’s development in understanding of the world.
Learning all about nature, weather, creatures, habitats, trees, leaves, lifecycles and the seasons.
This room is situated in our Forest School area and is surrounded by nature, this means the children have the opportunity to sit at our bird watching tables and use our child binoculars to look for birds, bees and butterflies. The children can go on a nature hunt or bug hunt, cuddle up in one of our teepee dens with a book, use their imaginations with the bugs, animals and birds or simply create some art work with natural resources.
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