Nursery School

Welcome to Nursery School,

In Nursery school, we will start introducing concept based teaching which enables transferable knowledge and skills across subjects. This term our concept will be ‘Belonging’ and we will be basing our learning around our central enquiry question ‘What does it mean to belong?’ To begin, children will explore and learn about the themselves and their family. This concept will interweave with all seven areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

The Nursery class staff are:

Mrs Pollard - Nursery manager

Mrs Smout – Teaching assistant

Mrs Rogers – Learning support assistant

We value parental partnership and the contributions made in developing the education of young people, we believe parents / carers play a very important part in their child’s education. Please read to your child at least 3 times each week and sign their reading record. Looking at the pictures and discussing the story with them really helps your child’s development and makes a difference in their learning.

P.E. kits are required on a Monday. For safety reasons, children will need earrings to be removed on these days. All items of clothing will need to be labelled. Please could I ask that you provide your child with a bottle of water that has their name clearly written on. The children will have access to their bottles during the day and these will be sent home daily to be washed and refilled.

If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to come and talk to us. This can be done either by arranging an appointment after school or if necessary, an appointment can be made that day.

Dates to remember:
Monday– PE

I look forward to working with your children this Year, any questions please speak to Staff at drop off or collection time.

We have a Nursery which caters for a total of 32 children from 3 years of age on a part time basis. There are two part-time sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon; we can offer flexible arrangements on request. Fully trained and appropriately qualified staff deliver the Nursery education following the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.

Nursery Organisation

The nursery is well equipped and organised into different areas. Equipment, resources and materials are accessible to the children, and they are encouraged to get things out for themselves as well as helping to tidy up. The children have opportunities to initiate their own learning, work independently or with others and to work with the supporting adults.

Admission to Nursery

Children’s names can be registered for the nursery with the school office on or after the child’s second birthday. Admission to the Nursery is undertaken by the school following the Nursery Admission Policy and the award of a place DOES NOT GUARANTEE a place in the mainstream school for the following Reception year – admission to the main school follows the School Admission Policy and is a process controlled by Norfolk County Council.

Starting Nursery

Before your child starts nursery you will be given an appointment to come in and meet the nursery leader. The children start nursery in small groups which enables the staff to support each child as an individual and quickly establish routines and high expectations of good behaviour.

Behaviour in the Nursery

The school’s Behaviour Policy also applies to the Nursery children, staff and parents. It describes how we expect people to behave and what the consequences are when expectations are not met.

Attendance in Nursery

Although Nursery attendance is not statutory, once you have accepted a place in Nursery we expect good attendance and for children to be brought to school and collected from school on time. The school attendance policy also applies to the Nursery and if your child’s attendance falls to 85% or less over a specified period of time, your child’s place in Nursery may be withdrawn and reallocated to another child on the waiting list.

Mid-session snack in Nursery

The children in Nursery are provided with a free snack of milk and fruit during each session.

Personal Hygiene

ALL children who start Nursery (or Reception) are expected to be able to go to the toilet themselves and have a suitable level of independence in hygiene, including understanding the need for hand washing. Children who are still in nappies will not normally be admitted, unless there is a documented medical issue.

Autumn term one

The children have settled well into Nursey School and have become confident with the routines. We have introduced our concept ‘Belonging’ and have been exploring what it means to belong and the different groups that we belong to and are a part of. All the children contributed a self-portrait in order to create a class puzzle.

 We have shared lots of stories and had many discussions about ourselves, our families, homes and our feelings and have learnt that all families are different and live in lots of different types of homes.

The children are working on developing their pencil control by drawing pictures of their families and friends. They are also developing their independence skills by completing tasks on their own such as putting on their own coats and beginning to change for PE.

We have been learning how to be a good friend, to help develop our relationships and the children decided that being kind, sharing and being helpful are some of the good qualities in a friend. We have been thinking about how our feelings can affect others and ways we can change these feelings. The children have been exploring paint and colour mixing with a friend, where they mixed two colours using their hands, to see what happened.

Nursery took a tour of the school to see more of the school community that we belong to. We discussed other adults we see in the school and where they belong. The children walked around very well and listened to and followed directions given by the teacher.

During our discussions about belonging to the school community the children identified that their uniform shows that they belong to Nursery School but the teachers don't wear one. We said that the teachers wear ID cards instead so the children asked if they could have an ID card too. The children tried very hard to begin to write some or all of their name on their cards, concentrating on their pencil control. They have been wearing them proudly in the classroom.

We have also been learning some 2d shape names and properties and the children have created a picture by printing shapes to create people. The children have also been learning to make repeating patterns using shapes and created their own pattern picture using stamps. We had the opportunity to use the I pads, where the children were able to develop their computing skills completing a sorting activity program.

 

Further updates on what your child has been learning will be available on tapestry.

 

Autumn term 2