Welcome to Nursery
We want your child to be safe, happy and secure
Our nursery is the start of your child’s journey into education.
Curriculum
The areas of learning are:
- Communication and language.
- Physical development.
- Personal, social and emotional development.
- Literacy.
- Mathematics.
- Understanding the world.
- Expressive arts and design.
Communication and Language
It is important that each child learns how to express themselves effectively during their time in the nursery.
We provide an environment rich with language opportunities where each child is encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences in small groups and in one-to-one discussions, offering their own ideas and developing their own narratives.
We share stories, songs and rhymes developing listening skills, where children begin to anticipate key events and respond to what they hear, commenting with relevant vocabulary, questions or actions.
Each child will develop understanding of more complex questions and will be able to follow instructions involving multiple requests or actions.
Physical Development
Children will continue to develop their gross and fine motor skills during their time in the nursery.
Our outdoor area is used to develop skills such as balancing, climbing, hopping and skipping. Children will learn how to move with confidence and negotiate spaces safely and with more control.
We encourage children to handle tools and equipment safely and effectively, gaining the ability to hold cutlery, scissors and pencils for writing.
We learn the importance of a healthy lifestyle and diet, and how to keep ourselves healthy and safe.
Children are encouraged to manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs independently, including brushing their teeth, getting dressed and toileting.
Personal, social and emotional development
It is important that each child has the confidence to be the best that they can be.
We provide a safe and inviting environment that enables each child to explore, investigate and discover the world around them while forming positive relationships with adults and other children.
Children will learn how to be confident within different situations, and to be able to speak and talk about their feelings and ideas within a familiar group.
They will develop an understanding of the need for expectations and boundaries within the nursery, and how to adjust their behaviour within different situations.
Literacy
Our initial focus in Nursery is to develop each child’s listening skills using the Letters and Sounds programme of activities. These activities include songs, rhymes, exploration of musical instruments and hearing and saying the initial sounds of words.
As the year progresses, we introduce the Jolly Phonics learning programme, and the children will then begin to learn a letter sound each week.
Activities are focused on this sound and we provide lots of opportunities for your child to recognise and explore these letters within their environment.
The children will continue their learning and will begin to segment and blend words using the sounds that they have learnt.
Our nursery is a ‘Reading Rich’ environment, with books found throughout. In the classroom, there is always a variety of story books for you and your child explore and enjoy. This will familiarise your child with print found in the environment, sparking a love for reading in the future.
Children are always encouraged to be expressive with their mark making, using chalks, pencils, crayons and brushes, as we begin to embed a love for writing in the future.
Children are encouraged to write their names, and to use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds.
Mathematics
In the nursery, children will develop an understanding of numbers from 1 to 10 and how to count them reliably.
They will learn to recognise and sequence the numerals from 1 to 10 correctly and to make some comparisons about quantity.
Children will learn, and be able to use language about size, shape, colour, position and capacity. Activities within our provision such as water, sand and dough will be used to embed this learning.
Understanding the World
We make regular visits to our school woodland area and field to make observations of animals and plants. We then talk about and explain why some of these things have occurred, talking about the changes observed.
A strong sense of community is important within our school and we often take the children out into the local area. We can be seen in the park exploring our environment, or doing some shopping in the local shops.
We are lucky enough to areas of natural beauty around us such as Apedale Country Park and The Brampton, where we have a teddy bear’s picnic, sharing special times with our family.
Expressive Arts and Design
In the nursery we provide opportunities that enable children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials.
Each child is given the opportunity to share their thoughts, ideas and feelings through art, music, movement, dance, role-play, design and technology.
