Mrs Wilkinson is the teacher and will be at school every morning.

We are lucky enough to have lots of adults helping us.  On Mondays and Tuesdays we will have Mrs Begum. On Wednesdays and Thursdays we will have Mrs Thomas.  And on Fridays we will have Mrs Cole.

 

When we are in the Early Years garden, there will also be the Squirrels Class adults, Mrs Robinson and Mrs Skeels.

 

At Ranelagh Primary School, we work as an Early Years Unit of nursery and reception.  We are qualified teachers and support staff with lots of experience. The children have access to an environment rich in resources and opportunities. We work hard to settle the children and help them learn and develop into happy, confident individuals, eager to learn about the world!

 

 What to expect

When the children arrive at nursery in the morning, they hang up their coats and put their bags away. They then choose one of the prepared activities, while we wait for everyone to get settled.  

At nursery, the children learn about being part of a group, how to share and take turns, and their first steps to being independent. Velcro shoes, easy pull-up trousers, and loose clothing will all help the children to be independent. 

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Nursery Routines

During the session there are times for child-initiated play and we also work with small groups of children at specific, planned activities.  

At the end of each morning we come together as a group to listen to a story and join in with a variety of songs and rhymes. 

We encourage the children to wear aprons and waterproof clothing, but sometimes they get very messy, so it’s a good idea to dress them in old clothes and to send spare clothes to school with them.  Please ensure that all clothes and shoes are named.  This makes it much easier to work out who something belongs to and helps to stop things getting lost.

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Learning

The children can choose where they would like to spend time during continuous provision sessions and it might look like they are just playing, but this is how young children learn. During continuous provision, the adults will be observing and supporting the children in many ways including:

Asking questions

Setting a challenge

Demonstrating and explaining

Offering further resources to support their play or ideas

Scaffolding their language to help develop their vocabulary

Encouraging some mark-making or maths 

Modelling communication and interaction e.g. how to ask for a turn with something

We have Focus Children each week and during this time, we spend more time observing and engaging with that child and building up a picture of the child's current interests and learning and development skills. We share our observations with parents on Tapestry and meet with parents too.

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Clothing

As the children can choose to play inside or outside throughout the morning, whatever the weather, they need to be dressed appropriately and they will need to keep at school a pair of wellies and a puddle suit. It is very helpful if you encourage and help your child to be more independent at home too, especially with things like putting on their own coat and shoes. We will also be visiting our woodland area regularly, where the children will learn about the changing seasons, insects and nature. 

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 Reading

The children will choose a book to take home and share with you every week.  Please ensure that the book is returned to school every Friday so that it can be changed for a different one.  We hope this will encourage the children to develop a love of books and learn how to use them carefully. Please help them by sharing the books at home. This will support them to know how to turn pages, talk about the pictures, and point to the words as you tell the story. Sharing books with children from a very early age can really help them with their vocabulary and  learning. To help the children learn to keep school books safe and look after them, you can buy a school book bag for £6.00, from the school office. These are very hard-wearing and will last for a long time.

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Snack

The children will have a drink and a snack during the morning. They can choose milk or water, which they pour into an open topped cup to drink. They are encouraged to be independent, choosing fruit or vegetables, such as bananas, apples, carrot sticks, cucumber etc. We also provide a range of other healthy snacks, including cheese and crackers, breadsticks or toast. Sometimes we will cook with the children, making soup, cakes, pizzas etc.

To cover the costs of these additional snacks, ingredients for cooking and making play dough etc., we ask for a contribution of £5 each half-term or £10 per term.