Nursery 2024 - 2025

Nursery Class Teacher: Mrs Foran

Teaching Assistants: Mrs Hall and Miss Smith

Welcome to Nursery!

We have planned a curriculum and chosen topics for your child’s Nursery year which we are sure will spark curiosity and ignite a love of learning.

At our school, reading is at the heart of the curriculum and in Nursery we aim to promote a love of reading in each and every child. As a class, we will share and delight in stories and rhymes together every day. We encourage and support the children to read daily both in and out of school, recognising familiar logos is a great way to develop early literacy skills

We will begin the school year with the topic ‘Nursery Rhymes’, focusing on well-known rhymes that the children will already be familiar with, using these as a stimulus to learn new skills  and practice prime areas of your child’s development, such as fine and gross motor skills. During the year, we use stories to inspire learning across the curriculum.

Throughout the year, our topics will be led by the interests of the children, allowing them to take ownership and responsibility for their learning. Our open-ended topics include; I wonder where animals live, I wonder how things grow, and I wonder who can help us. These topics will enable the children to ask questions and discover the answers themselves, supporting them to become resilient and inquisitive learners.

Important information

• Please feel free to share any information with your child’s teacher, this could be a small message at the door (however trivial this may feel) or if you require a more in-depth conversation, then we will be happy to arrange a telephone appointment with you. We know that you are the experts on your own children and look forward to working together to best support them!
• We use a secure online platform called 'School Spider' to share key messages, alongside photographs and videos of your child's learning. We find that ongoing communications helps us to build and maintain strong partnerships with the parents of all our children in Nursery. It also enables you to gain a deeper insight into your child's learning and development, and provides you with ideas and tips on how to support your child further at home. 
• Throughout the school we use a reward system to celebrate and encourage a positive attitude towards learning. Children are awarded mission merits for showing desired learning behaviours and this is celebrated in class. On Friday in Nursery, the child/children who have earned the most mission merits during the week receive a prize from the class prize box.
• Rhyme Time, then moving onto Phase 1 Phonics, is a crucial part of your child’s learning in Foundation and each week you will receive a Tapestry message to inform you of what your child has been learning during their Rhyme time or Phonics sessions that week.
• We will open our class library the first week back after October half term. Your child will have the opportunity to borrow a bedtime story book for you to read and explore at home. The library will be open on Fridays so we ask that you bring in your child’s comment book and previous library book in a named bag so your child can take away their next book.
• Feel free to use the comments book to write down when you’ve shared stories at home too, even comment on what your child’s opinion of books were. You never know, you might come across a new family favourite!
• We would love your child to enjoy as many books as possible during their time in Nursery. We strongly recommend becoming a member of Failsworth library and there are also many books for you and your child to enjoy online at http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/
• Nursery has an ‘Everywhere Bear’ called Ted.  On Friday he will be sent home with one child. Ted comes with a little diary. We would love you to use this to add some pictures, a drawing or notes about the adventures that your child and Ted have enjoyed together. Please return Ted to school the following Wednesday to enable us to share your child’s ‘Everywhere Bear News’ with the class before sending it home with the next child.
• In January, ‘Stars of the Week’ will begin. Two children will be awarded with a special ‘Star of the week’ certificate to recognise and celebrate an incredible achievement within their learning. (A picture will be shared with you via Tapestry on a Friday afternoon.)

We hope your child has a wonderful time in Nursery!

Thank you in advance for your support.