Nursery / Early Years

It is our intention that children in nursery will have a love of books and be excited about reading and learning new stories.

We use the Little Wandle letters and sounds programme to plan and deliver high quality daily phonics sessions that ensure our children are able to sing a range of familiar nursery rhymes and begin to understand rhythmic and rhyming patterns in words, songs and stories.

Writing is integrated in all areas of the provision and children are encouraged to mark make in all areas.  Children are immersed in print and any language that the children independently use is written down and celebrated with the class.   Children in Nursery are exposed to their name on a daily basis, and after Autumn 1 children are encouraged to write their name on entry to their session as a form of self-registration.   Name writing is also encouraged when children are taking part in creative and independent activities.

All staff have received quality CPD around integrating writing into their provision and they all understand the difference between girls and boys writing ability.  We therefore give opportunities for both girls and boys to explore, with more boys enjoying gross motor movements (large boxes to mark make on, paper on the floor) and often girls enjoying smaller scale mark making (clipboards, note pads etc).  Mark making opportunities are available in the outdoor and indoor provision.

Language is an essential part of Nursery life and skilled staff are encourage to challenge learning through questioning and conversation.

Each week we ensure we are teaching children new vocabulary through our chosen topics and stories. We aim to immerse our room in language and use this language within the provision as much as possible. All adults lead by example and use grammatically correct language when speaking to the children and lots of training has been centred on our verbal interactions with children.

Language from stories is continually promoted and this is an integral part of our nursery day.  A story is often read each day linked to our theme, this book is then put into the continuous provision for children to explore independently and at the end of each day, children are chosen to choose a book to read for pleasure that they think other children might like to hear.  Children are used to listening to stories and a core book system is used throughout Nursery so that children become familiar in 5/6 books throughout the year.

During the year in Nursery story scribing is also introduced, where children are encouraged to tell an adult a story, this may be linked to their play, or a story that they have made up themselves.  The adult then scribes this story exactly as it is spoken and then they are given the opportunity to act this out at the end of the session.  The children then become an author, which they find exciting.

In our Nursery, we have adopted the White Rose approach to teaching Maths, where children are exposed to each numeral for a longer period, and are taught everything that is associated with that numeral.

This includes the recognition of the numeral, how to represent it and be able to explain their reasons for this, shapes and coins linked to the numeral and how that quantity is made up.  These activities are taught as part of a focussed session with all children; a smaller group focussed session and are encouraged within the provision at the Maths Station.  All staff are aware of the progression in Maths and the end point to which children need to be by the time they transition into Reception and again skilful interaction and questioning is used to challenge mathematical knowledge and problem solving.  Maths is being developed through the outdoor provision to encourage the use of natural resources to problem solve and extend the skills developed within the classroom.

We aim to achieve this by providing children with a large period each day where they are able to select and choose their own activities to engage in.

During this time, adults skilfully interact with children in a hope to create a two way learning process, where children can be challenged through conversation in their learning and adults can learn about children’s own abilities.  Weekly circle time is planned in where friendship, kindness and peer relationships are discussed and promoted.  This is often based on issues that have arisen in the classroom.  From early on in the year Nursery, children are introduced to different parts of the school and behavioural expectations are made explicit.  During the Summer Term Nursery, children will begin to attend phase assemblies and celebration assemblies, again learning different behavioural expectations.

In Nursery, we provide children with lots of physical activities to promote gross and fine motor skills.

Our outdoor environment promotes children to take risks by providing lots of different opportunities for children to practise their gross motor skills, this can include football, throwing, catching, and climbing and where possible adults will encourage safely taking risks.  There is one session of big moves each week, which promotes the strength of the core muscles, alongside one session of ‘balance-ability’, which again promotes the strengthening of the core muscles and balance.  Each day in Nursery there is a ‘funky fingers’ activity that will promote fine motor skills, alongside a message centre that allows children to experiment with different mark making tools.  After Autumn 1 children are expected to copy their name when they arrive for the session and this is done as a focussed activity at least once a week.  For those children who are struggling with fine motor skills an adult is allocated to encourage them to participate in a fine motor activity during continuous provision and a pencil grip is provided for those children who are still using a palmer grip.

Children are encouraged to use the toilet independently from the start of Nursery, however help is on hand if required and children are reminded each day about how to take control of their own hygiene.  Children are also encouraged from the start of the year to put on their own coats and attempt to do their zips up.

Within the Nursery, children are constantly exposed to an exciting natural environment in their outdoor area.

Each day children from the Nursery have the opportunity to go and explore their outdoor environment and staff skilfully plan exciting and engaging activities that promote the exploration of their surroundings.  Again, through skilful interactions with the children staff constantly encourage them to be inquisitive and ask questions about what they can see.  Many local walks around the area occur throughout the year, this may be as part of a listening activity, or investigating the local area and looking for natural resources.

Children are exposed and taught about different religions and information about different festivals is taught through videos and artefacts.  Obviously, children of this age may struggle to understand events when they do not directly affect them or they have no real life experience of, therefore these are often taught through stories, resources and videos.

Technology is available throughout the provision at all times for children to explore and during the summer months, this is available in the outside provision.  Most of the time children enter nursery with a sound knowledge about Technology and how to work various pieces of equipment.

Children in our nursery are provided with daily opportunities to develop their creative skills.

This can include painting using different materials (cotton buds, small and large paintbrushes, fingers).  These are often modelled to begin with to teach the skill to the children, and then they will be encouraged to complete the activity independently to practise the skill.  Through the skilful communications of all staff children are encouraged to discuss their creations and through this discussion are challenged to progress further.  Children are exposed to music and nursery rhymes every day throughout both the indoor and outdoor environment and through phonics children regularly experience playing musical instruments to a beat and creating a variety of rhythms.  Throughout our outdoor environment, children can access a stage area where there is music, instruments and a chance to perform to their peers.  This is intended to develop their confidence when performing and to use music and rhythms in their role-play.