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Nursery

Welcome to our Nursery

September 2021

We are really excited about our first term working together. We hope that you are excited too! This page gives you lots of information about us and about what we do in the Nursery, here, at St Mary's. If you have any questions please feel free to telephone school and leave us a message. We will phone you back as soon as we can (usually when the school day is over) or we will make an appointment to see you. It can be tricky to answer queries when the children are being dropped off or collected as the priority at that time is the safety of the children but we can sometimes answer short questions at the end of the day if you can wait until all the children have safely gone home.

About us - the Nursery team

The staff in Nursery are as follows:

Mrs Searle - Class Teacher

Ms McEntee - Keyworker and Learning Support

Ms Young - Learning Support

Ms Bailey - Learning Support

Ms Casey - Learning Support

Dropping Off And Collecting Your Child

The Early Years gate opens at 8.30am and closes at 8.40am. If your child has a full-time place or and afternoon place you can collect him/her at the Early Years gate at 2.40pm each day. If your child has a morning place then you should collect him/her outside the main school door at 11.30am. If your child has an afternoon place please bring him/her to the main school door at 12 noon where we will meet you and take your child in to school.

What Your Child Needs In School

Your child should have in school the following

a waterproof coat which can be brought in each day
a pair of wellies which should stay in school
a drawstring bag containing a few changes of clothes which will be sent home when your child has been changed during the day

Outdoor Learning

Learning outdoors is a very important part of the curriculum here at St Mary's, offering the children so many valuable opportunities to explore, talk, create. develop their physical skills and build their confidence. The nursery children have access to the outdoors for most of the day every day and so it is important that your child brings a waterproof coat into school each day. It is also vital that they have a pair of wellies in school to use when accessing our Let's Explore area which can become very wet and muddy.

This term we will be looking at some of the Autumn changes taking place outside and we will be taking walks around the school grounds, especially in the forest, to observe closely some of those changes.

Reading

This term we will begin sending home book bags each Friday in which you will find two books to share with your child. Please enjoy reading these books together and note in your child's reading record how s/he responded to the books. We want all our children to develop a life long love of reading and this begins with sharing and discussing books with adults.

Tapestry Online Learning Journal

Tapestry is an online learning journal with photos and comments which is a lovely way of sharing some of your child's experiences in nursery with you. It is also a way for you to show us some of the things your child has been doing at home as you can post your own comments and photos in the journal too. Once the children have settled in to school we will send you an email with a link to your child's learning journal.

This Term's Topic

This term's topic is All About Me and we are reading the book Happy To Be Me. To support your child's learning you could look at this book together at home or find it being read aloud on You Tube and listen to it together. We will also be reading Happy In Our Skin as part of our work during Black History Month. During this topic we will be learning to name our body parts, singing Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and creating pictures of our faces. You can help your child by talking with them about the different parts of their body. looking at their skin and their facial features together and discussing their shape, size and colour. You could also try singing Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes together!

Phonics

Phonics helps children to develop their awareness of sounds in words. You can support your child's developing phonological awareness by spotting rhymes in books and nursery rhymes, by clapping syllables in words and by talking about the first sound in words eg. playing I Spy or just noting when words begin with the same sound. In school this term we will be developing the children's awareness of environmental sounds by going on listening walks outside, listening to the sounds made by musical instruments and by reading and joining in with Peace At Last and Wake Up Do Lydia Lou which are stories about environmental sounds. You can help your child by listening to the sounds you hear when you are outside or by reading these stories together and making the different sounds from the story.

Maths

This term we will be focusing on reciting numbers to 10 both forwards and backwards and on counting objects. We will be helping the children with their counting using the following rhymes which you can practise together at home:

1,2 Buckle My Shoe

1,2,3,4,5 Once I Caught A Fish Alive

This Old Man

and by we will reading the Three Little Pigs and using it to help us count out 3 .

Names

The children will begin to recognise their names this term by looking at their names on their coat pegs and we will also begin helping the children to write their names by tracing over the letters of their name. Some of the children are already writing their names and we will be helping them to form the letters correctly.

Religious Education

The children are learning that God knows and loves them. We will be making hearts to represent God's love for us, finding out that God knows us all by name and that our names are very special as well as celebrating how beautiful we all are. We will be ;learning the story of Creation and finding out that God created us out of love and for love.

Welcome to St Mary's -Tour of Nursery Classroom

The Early Years Framework

As you may already be aware, the DFE (Department for Education) have introduced a new EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) framework, commencing September 2021. Your child will follow the updated EYFS framework and will work towards the final assessment at the end of the Reception year, using the new ELGs (Early Learning Goals). These goals are short statements that teachers assess your child against at the end of the year. During the nursery year your child will be learning within the '3 to 4 year old' stage. The 7 main areas of learning remain the same. These are;

Communication and Language
Physical Development
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Literacy
Mathematics
Expressive Arts and Design
Understanding the World

As part of the changes to the new framework, it also means that there is less emphasis on recording paperwork, meaning we, as adults, can spend more time with your child getting to know them and having those quality interactions. The new framework is also more aligned with the KS1 curriculum, further ensuring your child’s educational journey from nursery, then reception and into KS1 is building upon previous knowledge. See the attached link below for the statements that your child will be assessed against at the end of the early years. We have also provide a link below to the Development Matters 2021 document, which outlines the principles behind the new framework.

Early Learning Goals

eyfs-elg-one-page-document.pdf

Development Matters 2021New EYFS Framework

What to expect in the Early YearsA guide for parents/carers

Partnership with Parents

It is important for parents and early years settings to have a strong and respectful partnership. This sets the scene for children to thrive in the early years.
This includes listening regularly to parents and giving parents clear information about their child's progress.
The help that parents give their children at home has a very significant impact on their learning.
Some children get less support for their learning at home than others. By knowing and understanding all children and their families, we will offer extra help to those who need it most.
It is important to encourage all parents to chat, play and read with their children.

Useful Information for parents from the NSPCC

Positive parenting (nspcc.org.uk)

Look Say Sing Play: to build your baby’s brain every day (nspcc.org.uk)

Handle with care: How to keep your baby safe (nspcc.org.uk)

Talking about difficult topics | NSPCC

Helping Your Child Cope with Your Divorce or Separation | NSPCC

Online Safety for Children - Tips & Guides | NSPCC

Useful Information for parents from Early Education

Babies - learning starts from the first day.pdf (early-education.org.uk)

Children as artists.pdf (early-education.org.uk)

Going out to play and learn (3).pdf (early-education.org.uk)

Helping children cope with change.pdf (early-education.org.uk)