Staff
- Evonne Williams – Assistant Head Early Years
- Michelle Flynn – Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA)
- 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 – Spring 2
| Topic |
In Nursery, our main theme is ‘Springtime’. We will be using the Spring season to learn new vocabulary related to the weather. We will learn a Spring poem with actions. We are continuing to learn about different celebrations enjoyed by people and their communities, such as Easter and Eid. This half term, the children will continue to learn to write their names. To encourage correct letter formation, the children will start by tracing over the letters in their names. This will become our morning activity that you can complete with your children before registration. |
Literacy |
We will continue to complete our work in Literacy through different texts. This half term, we will read the texts ‘Walter’s Wonderful Web’ by Tim Hopgood and ‘Daisy and the Egg’ by Jane Simmons and non-fiction texts about Easter. 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 continue 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. We will also upload the word for the week on the Tapestry app. We would like you to use the Tapestry app to upload photos or videos of your child completing these activities. The children will continue to learn to write their names. They will start by writing the first letter, then learn to order letters in their name and progress to writing their names with name cards. |
Maths |
This half term we will continue to develop our counting skills and explore the composition of numbers within and up to 6. We will do this in our Maths sessions, through our daily routines as well as learning through our play. We will continue to learn to recognise objects without counting them (subitising). We will also compare the height, length, mass and capacity of different objects. |
Other Curriculum Areas |
Personal, Social and Emotional Development – We will continue to use our ‘Think Equal’ scheme, focusing on friendship and naming emotions and feelings. We will continue to talk about the zones of regulation to support children in their self-regulation. Understanding the World – Learning about the season of Spring. Looking after living things, growing plants, caterpillars Expressive Arts and Design – Focussing on representational drawings and using a variety of media to create Spring scenes. We will learn songs and poems about Spring. Physical Development – Fine and gross motor activities including Letter Join and Dough Disco activities and taking part in City in the Community sports skills. This half term the children will brush their teeth daily in the nursery as part of our supervised toothbrushing programme. |
Important Dates |
| Thursday 6th March – World Book Day Friday 21st March – Red Nose Day Wednesday 19th and 26th March – Pupil Progress Meetings Wednesday 2nd April – Class Photograph Day Friday 4th April – Yellow Day Friday 4th April – End of Spring Term School finishes at 2pm. There will be no after school club on this date. Tuesday 22nd April – School reopens |
