Our Early Years Team (Nursery and Reception) consists of Lauren, Nicola and Hazel. To learn more about them please see our Meet The Staff page.
Nursery Long Term Overview 2024-2025
What we are learning in Nursery this term
Welcome to Nursery!
We are so excited to see some of our friends returning to Nursery after the Summer holidays and are really looking forward to welcoming and getting to know some new friends.
Our topic this term is all about Myself and my songs. We will be helping our new children to settle into Nursery and learn the rules and routines. There will be a big emphasis on our feelings and building relationships. Our new children will be getting to know the names of the adults and other children in Nursery and Early Years. Alongside this we will be singing and learning lots of Nursery rhymes, some which they might already know and possibly some new ones. We will be focusing on a different rhyme each week and singing it lots of times so that we know it off by heart. We will also be adding actions and instruments to them to help us to remember them. Lots of the activities in class will also be linked to our rhymes.
What will we be doing?
In Nursery, we provide lots of opportunities for children to develop their confidence, language and social skills. We spend time exploring both indoors and outdoors (regardless of the weather) to help us develop our learning.
Promoting confidence, self-help skills and independence: Children will separate from their parents/carers and learn to cope with this. They will be supported and comforted where necessary.
They will be supported and encouraged to take off their own coat and hang it up on their peg when they arrive. As well as this they will be supported and encouraged to put their own coat on, and dress/undress themselves for outdoor play. Staff will model what to do and how to do it and talk them through what they need to do. They will be given lots of time, support and encouragement to do these tasks.
Literacy: Children will begin to listen to a wide range of stories. They will be encouraged to look at the pictures (illustrations) in the books and make comments/ talk about them.
Writing: Children will be encouraged to experiment with mark making tools (for example: pens, pencils, crayons and chalks) on both a large and small scale (indoors and outdoors.) Adults will model ‘writing’ as they play alongside the children and will be talking about what they have written (giving meaning to their marks.)
Adults will be encouraging and supporting children to hold their pencil using the correct grip (between their thumb and 2 fingers-tripod grip) by modelling how to do it.
Phonics: Children will listen to a range of rhymes and songs, including lots of Nursery rhymes and will be encouraged to join in with them. They will develop their listening skills through games and during short carpet sessions. They will listen to sounds in the environment and try to identify them. They will develop their listening skills in 1-1, small group and whole class situations.
Mathematics: Number: Children will listen to and be encouraged to join in with lots of number songs and rhymes, such as, 2 little dickie birds or 5 little ducks. They will be given lots of opportunities to hear number names in the correct order. This will be done in lots of different ways throughout the day, for example, counting the children in Nursery that day, when counting each spoonful of flour used during a baking activity, rote counting to 10 as they stir the mixture when making playdough or when climbing the steps on the apparatus. They will begin to imitate these counting behaviours e.g. saying sequences of numbers (not necessarily in the correct order), pointing to objects and making sounds/ imitating counting.
Shape, Space and Measures: They will be given opportunities to fill and empty containers (e.g. during water play) and to investigate and explore moving themselves through spaces (both indoors and outdoors.) Access to inset boards or puzzles will allow them to push objects through different shaped holes and attempt to fit shapes into spaces.
Pattern: They will begin to become familiar with patterns in their daily routines (the routine of the day.)
PSED: As part of our personal, social and emotional development we will be following the SCARF (Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship) topic ‘Me and My Relationships.’ This includes thinking about: What makes me special and unique and people close to me.
Activities, games and circle time will also be used to help the children get to know the rules and routines of Nursery, the names of the other children and to learn about being a good friend.
Physical development: As part of our physical development children will be given daily opportunities to explore and use our outdoor environment. They will be supported and encouraged to climb up apparatus, using alternate feet.
They will have opportunities to use one handed tools, such as, scissors. They will be encouraged and supported to hold and use them correctly. They will explore different materials and tools. These will include messy materials, such as, shaving foam, gloop, playdough and mud, scissors, tweezers and mark-making tools.
They will develop large muscle movements (gross motor skills) by waving fabric squares painting, making large marks and by climbing up apparatus, outdoors.
They will have daily access to playdough as part of our whole class dough disco session and will be encouraged to squeeze, pat, pinch and flatten it with their hands and roll it into a ball shape and a sausage shape. They will also have daily access to playdough in our continuous provision (‘free play’), where they can practise our dough disco ‘moves’ and also use tools.
Things to remember:
-to bring your child’s water bottle every day and take it home when you pick them up so that it can be washed and refilled with WATER for the next day.
-to promote and support your child’s independence by having VELCRO shoes ONLY. Shoes with laces, trainers and lace up boots (even those that also have a zip) are too difficult for Nursery children to manage.
– to promote self-help skills by encouraging them to take off their shoes and socks themselves and to put them back on again. Support and give them lots of time to do this.
-support and encourage your child to put on their coat themselves.
-to pay your £1 a week school fund donation.
-to donate a box of tissues every half term.
-to bring your child’s red school book bag to school EVERY Monday. It will stay in school so that it can be filled with your child’s pictures throughout the week. Your child will bring it home on a Friday to be emptied and then returned to school on the Monday.
-develop your child’s health and self-care skills by establishing good toileting and handwashing routines. Encourage them to pull up their clothes after toileting. Talk about the importance of washing their hands using soap and warm water and do so regularly.
-regularly sing Nursery rhymes and number rhymes with your child, until they are familiar with them and can sing the of by heart (independently.)
-to regularly check your child’s Tapestry account to keep up to date with information. Tapestry should also be checked to see what they have been up to, make a comment on the observation and send observations in from home.
-to speak to any member of staff if you have any concerns, would like to discuss your child’s progress or would like to share any news from home.
-to CLEARLY LABEL ALL OF YOUR CHILD’S BELONGINGS including wellies, coats, shoes and all of their clothing.
-not to bring any toys to school.
-send non-urgent messages/queries to us on Tapestry.
We greatly appreciate your support. If you have any questions or want to find out any further information about our Nursery, then please do not hesitate to speak to us or send us a message on Tapestry. We will be happy to help you!
Your support is greatly appreciated.
Nicola
Useful Websites for Parents and Carers:
A Parents guide to EYFS
CBeebies – Alpha Blocks
CBeebies Get Squiggling
Crick Web Early Years Games and Activities
Dough disco
ICT Games
Number Formation Rhymes that we use in school
Teach your monster to read
Top Marks Maths Games
Phoneme pop! A fun interactive game to support letter recognition
Phonics Games
Have a look to see what we have been up to lately in Nursery…
Applying to join our Nursery
You can use the following form to apply for a place Nursery application form
You might find this document useful to find out more about the process: Nursery admissions process
