Welcome to our Nursery Class!

Mrs Clark - Nursery Teacher

Mrs Eaton - Nursery Nurse

We also work closely with the Reception children and staff

Times : 8.45am - 11.45am every morning

We are an educational setting and work as an Early Years Unit, this means that the Nursery children work alongside the Reception staff and children. We are qualified teachers and support staff with a wealth 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!

When the children arrive at nursery in the morning, we ask that you help them to change into their indoor plimsolls and hang their coat on their peg. They will find their picture on our self-register, and get busy with a wide range of activities. 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. 

Outdoor Learning

The children can choose to play inside or outside throughout the morning, whatever the weather. When they go outside, we will be encouraging them to change into wellie boots. Please ensure they have a suitable coat, e.g. a warm coat for cold, windy days or a waterproof coat for wet rainy days. 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 too, where the children will learn about the changing season, insects and nature. 

Nursery Routines

We encourage the children to wear aprons and waterproof clothing, but sometimes they get very messy, so please ensure they wear their old clothes. It is a good idea to write their names in their coats and shoes too. 

We work with small groups of children at specific, planned activities, for example; speech and language games, listening games, maths tasks and activities to develop turn taking and social skills. 

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. 

Library

Each Monday the children can choose a library book to bring home and share with you. We hope this will encourage the children to develop a love of books and learn how to use them carefully. Please help them by turning pages correctly, talking about the pictures, pointing to the words as you tell the story. You will be given a Library diary so that you can write about any other books your child enjoys and tell us if they enjoy particular stories and books. 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.

The children can have a drink and a snack when they are ready, it is available through the morning. They can choose milk or water, which they pour into a 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 snacks, including a biscuit, 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.

Autumn Term

Welcome back, we hope you had a lovely Summer break. Thank you for all your kind wishes and gifts. 

During the Autumn term we spend time observing the changes which take place, such as the leaves changing colour and falling from the trees, or the changes in the weather. We have lots of opportunities to explore natural objects, such as conkers and acorns, and we learn about the animals which come out at night. We spend lots of time outside and in the Autumn we experience lots of different weather conditions, including sunshine, wind and rain, providing lots of opportunities for learning.

Autumn celebrations include, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Diwali and Christmas. As well as these we will be learning about ourselves and how to be part of a group, learning about the needs and feelings of others too. We have lots of opportunities for story telling, through books, acting out stories, and using puppets and props to make up our own stories. We learn lots of songs and rhymes and in November we take part in Nursery Rhyme week. 

There are lots of opportunities for you to get involved with your child's learning at home too. If you would like more information, please contact Mrs Clark at Nursery. 

Spring Term

This term we have welcomed more new friends to Nursery and have been busy with lots of playing and exploring.

We have been looking at Spring flowers and learning about seeds and planting. We put some chit potatoes on the windowsill and watched the shoots grow, then we planted them in big garden sacks, we are now waiting for them to grow. 

We celebrated Pancake day with making and eating pancakes, and we had an egg hunt in the woods at Easter time. 

In PE we are learning to listen and follow instructions with Mr B, learning new skills such as Archery, throwing and catching as well as gaining confidence with our climbing and balancing. 

The children are very familiar with our routines now, including changing into wellie boots when playing outside and cleaning teeth. 

We have been listening to lots of different stories as well as making up some of our own, and learning lots of songs and rhymes. 

We have made lots of friendships and have spent time playing, talking and listening to each other. 

The children can choose where they would like to work and it might look like they are just playing, but this is how young children learn. As the adults, we observe and talk to the children, helping them to develop and learn new skills. 

The children will visit our woodland area each week, we will experience the changes through the different seasons. We talk about how the leaves change colour and fall from the trees, we look under logs to find centipedes and woodlice, we dig in the soil to find worms, plus many more experiences to help children learn about the natural world. 

It is really helpful if the children have their own warm and  waterproof clothing for the woodland days, as we visit in all weathers. The children are happy to play and don't notice the wet or the cold, if they are dressed appropriately.