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 – Summer 2
| Topic |
| In Nursery, our main theme is Transport. We will also be learning about things that grow. We will plant seeds in pots and planters and discuss what plants need to grow. The children will continue to learn to write their names using correct letter formation. This will continue to be our morning activity for you to complete with your children before registration. |
Literacy |
| We will complete our work in Literacy through different texts. This half term, we will read the texts ‘I’m the bus driver’ by David Semple and ‘Oh! Look a boat!’ by Andrew Ross. 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 use Dough Disco to develop our fine motor skills. Phonics is taught daily and we will learn to listen to, remember and talk about different sounds. The children will develop an awareness of words that sound the same and identify initial sounds in words. 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 to 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 at home. |
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 also learn about numbers that come before and after a given number. We will do this in our Maths sessions, through our daily routines as well as learning through our play. We will revisit our learning on shape patterns and identifying more or fewer out of two sets of objects. |
Other Curriculum Areas |
Personal, Social and Emotional Development – We will continue to use our ‘Think Equal’ scheme, focusing on the importance of respecting everyone’s ideas, thoughts and feelings and being kind to others who might be different to us. We will talk about the zones of regulation to support children in their self-regulation. Understanding the World – Learning about animals, transport and journeys. Expressive Arts and Design – Focussing on drawing, painting and college using a variety of media and making models. We will learn songs and poems about Summer. Physical Development – Fine and gross motor activities including Letter Join and Dough Disco activities and taking part in City in the Community sports skills. The children will continue to brush their teeth daily in the nursery as part of our supervised toothbrushing programme. |
Important Dates |
Wednesday 11th, 18th and 25th June – Nursery to Reception transition sessions Monday 30th June – Farm Trip to Smithills Farm Thursday 26th June – Early Years Sports Day Wednesday 2nd July – Whole School Transition Morning Thursday 17th July – Nursery Party Day Friday 18th July – End of Summer Term School finishes at 2pm. There will be no after school club on this date. |
