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About Us

We’re a maintained nursery school for children aged 2, 3 and 4 in the Manor Park and Little Ilford neighbourhoods of Newham. We are rated Outstanding by Ofsted.

We offer free, part-time places for 200 children aged two, three and four years old. You can find out if your two-year old is eligible online by clicking the button below, or drop in and ask our friendly receptionist between 8.30am and 4pm.

All three and four year olds are entitled to free nursery education. We have a small number of full-time places which are prioritised for children with disabilities and special educational needs.

A safe place for your child.
A great place for your child to play and learn with their friends.

We take lot of steps to make sure Sheringham is a safe place for your child.

  • All of our staff are trained in paediatric first aid
  • We have achieved Millie’s Mark

Sheringham is also a great place for your child to play, learn and make new friends. We offer our staff exceptional professional development focused on children’s learning, health and wellbeing. We never stand still: we’re always trying to improve.

Our Vision and Aims

Our vision: happy, healthy, enquiring and active childhoods

Our aim is to work in partnership with you: together, we can give your child the best start to life.

We’re open every day and one Saturday a month for families to drop in for Stay and Play or other services – check out our Children’s Centre pages using the link button below for more details.

If you would like to put your child’s name on our waiting list, then please drop in any day between 9am and 4pm and speak to our friendly receptionists.

Our Team

The Nursery School’s staff team consists of specialist teachers working with qualified early years educators. 

Our Headteacher is Lindsey Foster, NPQH and SENDCo.

Our Deputy Headteacher is Melissa Prendergast NPQSL. Melissa is the Strategic Lead for the East London Research School and A Brighter Start: London’s Stronger Practice Hub.

Our governing body works to ensure that Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre sets high standards by ensuring continuous improvement. Governors help us to work closely with parents and the local community.

Judged Outstanding

Sheringham is judged outstanding by Ofsted. Our 2018 inspection letter says:

  • Leaders are extremely knowledgeable and passionate about early years education.
  • All staff are well trained and have a thorough understanding of how young children learn and develop.
  • The nursery is a calm, orderly and well-organised environment.
  • Children’s behaviour is outstanding.
  • Children learn how to share resources, join in activities and make decisions.
  • The safe learning environment and an excellent range of resources stimulate, as well as extend, children’s experiences. Activities are extremely well matched to their needs.
  • The exciting and rich curriculum follows children’s interests. It enables them to make excellent progress in developing their skills, knowledge and understanding across all areas of learning.

Our Curriculum

We offer a high quality broad and balanced curriculum which has four main elements as shown in the diagram on the right.

Learning is play-based and takes place indoors and outside. 

● There is a balance between adult-initiated experiences (guided learning) and child-initiated experiences. 

● Adults take children’s interests and strengths as a starting point, seeing each child as a competent learner. 

● Parent involvement is crucial. We learn a great deal about each child from their parents. Parental support and a high-quality home learning environment make a huge difference to children. 

You can read our Curriculum Overview and Goals to find out more.

We’re Inclusive

We believe that every local child should feel welcomed and that their individual needs should be met. 

We are a fully inclusive nursery school in the London Borough of Newham and we follow the inclusive policy of all Newham schools.

This means that all staff work with children who have special educational needs and disabilities. It’s everyone’s job to support every child so that they progress educationally, emotionally and physically.

We’re a Forest School

Every three and four-year old gets to take part in Forest School.

“Forest School is an inspirational process, that offers ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees Forest School Association

Our Forest School leaders are trained by Bridgwater College, and they run sessions one morning or afternoon per week every half a term. 

Forest School gives your child an opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors and to take part in exciting and challenging activities like bug-hunting, building shelters and enjoying a hot chocolate around the camp-fire. Forest School is one of the ways that we help children to grow in confidence.

Working with parents

  • We work closely with parents and carers to support every child as an individual. We help every child to grow up feeling confident about their identity, in a spirit of friendship.
  • We value the diversity in our local community.
  • We provide a range of publications and leaflets to support parents and families

We are always interested in feedback from parents, to help us know how well we are doing and how we need to improve.

Parents can fill in feedback cards in Reception, contact the headteacher or deputy any time, and give views during the formal consultation run every year by the Governing Body.

We also encourage parents to use Ofsted’s ParentView. 

Improving air quality

  • We have been funded by the Mayor of London to improve air quality in our nursery school.
  • We have a ‘Green Screen’ which runs all the way along the front of the building and the children’s garden to absorb harmful pollutants.
  • It’s important that families walk, cycle or scoot to nursery.
  • Please don’t drive here.
  • Air pollution can cause long-lasting harm to children’s health and well-being.
  • Children who grow up in areas with high pollution levels are likely to have smaller lung capacity than those living with cleaner air.
  • We are seeing the impact of poor respiratory health in Newham during the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Read more about the Mayor of London’s nursery air quality programme

East London Research School

In Summer 2019 we were designated as a Research School.

Research Schools develop evidence-based practice and bring research closer to early years settings and schools.

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