Staff
- Evonne Williams – Assistant Head Early Years
- Hayley Doyle – SEN TA
- Michelle Knott – Classroom support
What happens in Nursery
The Nursery classroom is set up so that children can choose where they want to play and they access the resources independently. There are different areas of the classroom which have specific intended learning experiences. These are called Continuous Provision areas such as reading, maths, writing/ mark making, role play, sand, water, playdough, small world and creative.
This encourages independence and allows children to approach challenges at their own level. Resources for independent play are carefully planned so that there is appropriate challenge at all levels.
The children in Nursery follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Development Matters curriculum. We aim for a seamless transition from Nursery to Reception and the same areas of learning are taught. Nursery and Reception children share the outdoor learning and play area and also eat their lunch together.
Seven areas of learning
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development: a continuous process with a lot of nurturing, discussion and modelling talk and behaviour. The focus is on relationships and being confident, responsible and independent.
- Communication and Language: the focus is on speaking, listening and understanding. Children will be actively taught speaking and listening skills through guided talk and news discussions.
- Physical Development: includes fine and gross motor skills both indoors and outdoors. Nursery children will have hall time for dance activities. Cutting, playdough, small construction, bikes and the climbing frame are all activities which develop motor skills. Children will also learn about health and self care.
- Literacy: includes Reading and Writing. In Nursery the focus for Reading is rhythm and rhyme, enjoyment of stories and noticing print in the environment. Daily Phonics teaching underpins reading in Nursery and Reception. Writing begins as mark making in Nursery on a small or large scale with a variety of tools and resources.
- Maths: the emphasis in Nursery is on practical activities, counting and problem solving within the children’s own contexts and interests
- Understanding the World: children will be encouraged to investigate, explore and talk about what they find out in their own environments, within their family life and school visits. This also includes technology such as using cameras, microphones, CD players, programmable toys, ipads and laptops.
- Expressive Arts and Design: This includes music, art, dance, design, construction and role play.
Nursery Baseine Screening
Parent partnerships
Parents and Carers are regularly invited to a variety of activities and workshops in the classroom alongside their children and are encouraged to support home learning through activities such as Play Club phonics bags.
Outdoor learning
The outdoor learning area is set up to ensure that children have learning experiences on a larger scale. For example mark making might be twirling large ribbons, chalking on the floor, painting with brushes and rollers. Outdoor learning also supports different learning styles. Our Mud Kitchen has a surprisingly calming effect on children and is a contented hive of harmonious and cooperative activity.
Curriculum overview – Autumn 2
Topic |
In Nursery, we will be learning about ‘Celebrations’. We will be learning about the different celebrations enjoyed by people and their communities, such as Bonfire Night and Christmas. We will continue to learn about the season of Autumn. |
Literacy |
We will complete our work in Literacy through different texts. This half term, we will read the texts ‘Percy the Park Keeper: Hide and Seek, ‘Wow said the Owl’ and the Christmas Story. Using these stories and non-fiction texts, we will complete short mark making, drawing and writing activities, comprehension and concepts-about-print activities. We will be using warm up gross motor activities and will continue to enjoy dough disco developing our fine motor skills. Phonics is taught daily and we will learn through playing with Beat Babies, rhyming games such as ‘silly soup’ and nursery rhymes. We will be learning new vocabulary using Concept Cat stories and songs. The word for each week will be displayed on a poster in the Nursery classroom window together with activities you can complete with your child at home. You can use the Tapestry app to upload photos or videos of your child completing these activities. |
Maths |
This half term we will develop our counting skills and practise counting objects by touching them. We will do this through our daily routines such as well as learning through our play. We will learn to recognise 2 objects in different patterns without counting. We will sort objects by size, colour and shape. |
Other Curriculum Areas |
Personal, social and emotional development – We will continue to use our ‘Think Equal’ scheme, focusing on being kind. We have started to talk about the zones of regulation so children can learn to label their feelings. Understanding the World – Learning about the season of Autumn Expressive arts and design – focus on representational drawings of ourselves and our family. Physical Development – fine and gross motor activities and taking part in City in the Community sports skills |
