Welcome to Nursery and Preschool

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the Nursery and Preschool class page.

We hope you have had a restful and enjoyable half-term break with your families. We are looking forward to an exciting term ahead. In Nursery and Preschool, our aim is to provide all children with a happy and safe environment where they can make an exceptional start to their early education.

The Preschool children’s day becomes more structured as they begin to follow routines similar to those in Reception. This includes register time with encouraged self-registration, a daily timetable with academic activities, and planned activities linked to our current topics. We strongly encourage independence in all areas, particularly personal care, while providing support whenever needed.

All Preschool children should be toilet trained, as this is an important step in preparation for starting Reception. Our staff are more than happy to offer support and advice on how you can help with this at home.

Staffing in Nursery and Preschool is:

Miss Robinson (Class Teacher)

Mrs Ubaid (HLTA)

Mrs Sabar (TA)

Attendance and Prompt Arrival

Nursery gates open from 8:30am–8:45am for the morning session and 12:15pm–12:30pm for the afternoon session. Please ensure that you arrive on time so your child does not miss out on valuable learning opportunities.

Regular attendance is extremely important as it helps children develop good routines and habits, preparing them for the expectations of school. Attending consistently supports your child in building strong relationships with staff and forming friendships with their peers. It also helps to ensure continuity in learning, allowing staff to accurately assess your child’s progress and identify next steps in their development.

The higher a child’s attendance, the more learning opportunities they access, helping them to feel confident, settled, and well prepared for starting school.

Home Time

The gates will open for home time from 11:15am–11:30am for the morning session and 3:00pm–3:15pm for the afternoon session. We kindly ask that children are collected promptly so that staff have adequate time to prepare between the morning and afternoon sessions.

If someone we have not met before is collecting your child, please ensure that the school has been informed in advance and that the named adult knows the correct password. Without this information, we will not be able to release your child. We understand that this may occasionally feel inconvenient, but safeguarding our pupils is always our highest priority.

To support children’s safety further, we encourage all children to hold an adult’s hand all the way home or to the car.

Clothing, Uniform and Footwear

We encourage outdoor play in all types of weather, so please ensure your child is dressed appropriately, including a waterproof coat and suitable footwear. If you have not already done so, please send your child with a spare pair of wellington boots (wellies) to keep at Nursery.

Preschool pupils and Nursery pupils who are already three years old should wear the Brookhouse uniform on each day they attend Nursery. If you have any questions regarding uniform requirements, please do not hesitate to speak to a member of staff.

 Curriculum and Learning

If you would like more detailed information about the early year’s curriculum at Brookhouse for the 2-year-old, 3-year-old and 4-year-old children please visit the Early Years section on the curriculum page.

This half term our topic is ‘Step in to Spring’. Please see the knowledge organiser to see the stories, songs and rhymes we will be using to support our learning.  Below we have summarised this half term’s learning objectives for each area of the curriculum.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

All Nursery staff remain consistent with rules, boundaries and expectations. Children are praised and encouraged when they are able to follow rules and play cooperatively with others. Staff support each child in a personalised way as they learn to recognise and manage their feelings. Children are encouraged to talk about their emotions using words such as happy, sad, angry and worried, and to begin to understand how their friends may be feeling.

We carefully plan our provision and learning environment to enable children to select and use resources with increasing independence. Staff model how resources can be used in different ways and encourage children to do the same. This supports children in working towards goals they have chosen themselves or that have been suggested to them.

A focus for this half term for Nursery children is to notice and ask questions about differences, such as skin colour, types of hair, gender, special educational needs and disabilities. Children will also be supported to safely explore emotions beyond their usual range through play and stories.

Preschool children’s targets for this half term include playing with one or more other children, extending and developing play ideas, and finding solutions to conflicts and rivalries. For example, understanding that not everyone can be Spider-Man in a game and suggesting alternative roles or ideas.

We will continue the toothbrushing scheme in both Nursery and Preschool. Staff will support children to use the correct pressure to clean their teeth effectively without damaging their toothbrush. This scheme is not intended to replace toothbrushing at home, but to support and reinforce the routines you already have in place. It remains important that toothbrushing at home is supervised by an adult, both in the morning and especially last thing at night before bed. Brushing before bedtime is particularly important to prevent plaque and food particles remaining on the teeth overnight.

Communication and Language

Our curriculum is language rich and centred around books, stories and rhymes. Please refer to the knowledge organiser for a list of the stories, songs and rhymes we will be using this half term.

We aim for pupils to learn and enjoy a wide range of rhymes, talk confidently about familiar books, and begin to retell longer stories. Children will have many opportunities, both indoors and outdoors, to retell familiar stories using masks, story props and puppets. Staff will encourage children to speak clearly and take turns when engaging in conversations.

Our learning environment is carefully designed to encourage children to follow their own interests and express their ideas. A wide variety of resources, both indoors and outdoors, provides opportunities for children to practice new vocabulary and develop their communication skills. Staff support this by modelling language, extending interactions and asking open-ended questions. Visual cues are also used to support language development and communication.

A target for Preschool pupils this half term is to begin to understand and respond to “why” questions, such as, “Why do you think the caterpillar got so fat?”

Nursery targets for this half term include identifying familiar objects and their properties, for example “blue car” or “big teddy”, and listening with interest to what others are saying.

Physical Development

Staff provide a wide range of resources for children to grasp, hold and explore, such as playdough, collage materials, finger paints, spoons, brushes, tweezers, pegs, threading activities and more. These activities help to develop and strengthen fine motor skills in preparation for writing. Children also have daily opportunities to develop their gross motor skills through activities like riding bikes and scooters, large-scale mark-making, and using outdoor equipment.

Nursery targets for this half term include developing manipulation and control, as well as learning to fit themselves into spaces such as tunnels, dens, and large boxes, and move safely around them.

Preschool targets for this half term include showing a preference for a dominant hand, becoming increasingly independent when dressing and undressing (for example, putting on coats and doing up zips), and collaborating with others to manage large items safely, such as moving a long plank together.

These activities support both physical development and confidence, helping children gain the skills they need for everyday tasks and future learning.

Literacy

Early literacy skills are closely linked to communication and language development. Children need to communicate effectively to develop reading and writing skills. Stories are shared daily and are also available for children to access independently in our cosy and inviting reading areas. The books, stories and rhymes are carefully selected to introduce a wide range of vocabulary. Resources within the learning environment provide children with opportunities to use this vocabulary in their play and conversations with others.

We strongly encourage you to share stories regularly with your child at home. This is key to supporting their communication, language, and speech development, and it is also a wonderful bonding experience that supports personal, social and emotional development.

Preschool targets for this half term include writing some letters accurately, developing phonological awareness, and understanding that print can have different purposes.

Nursery targets for this half term include developing play around favourite stories using props, repeating words and phrases from familiar stories, and enjoying songs and rhymes by listening attentively and tuning in. Engaging with stories and rhymes both at school and at home helps children develop a lifelong love of literacy.

Mathematics

Children will be supported to explore maths in exciting and practical ways. We use number and finger rhymes to help pupils become familiar with numbers 1 to 5, counting forwards and backwards, and encouraging them to join in. These concepts are reinforced through games and activities, such as playing hide-and-seek or doing rocket-launch countdowns.

Nursery targets for this half term include:

• Comparing amounts using terms such as lots, more or same
• Developing counting-like behaviours, such as making sounds, pointing, or saying some numbers in sequence

Preschool targets for this half term include:

• Making comparisons between objects in terms of length and weight
• Creating ABAB repeating patterns
• Linking numerals and amounts, for example matching objects to numerals up to 5

Practical, hands-on experiences help children develop an understanding of early mathematical concepts while having fun and building confidence.

Understanding the World

Children will have many opportunities to explore interesting and natural environments outdoors. Staff will support their investigations of natural materials, introducing related vocabulary to develop their understanding.

Our Religious Education topic for the Spring term is “How do you celebrate special times?” Preschool pupils will discuss what makes certain days special and how remembering these occasions makes them feel. They will explore celebrations such as birthdays, the arrival of a new baby, and weddings, as well as learning about Chinese New Year, Jewish New Year, and Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day).

In addition to the RE topic, Preschool children will:

• Plant seeds and learn how to care for growing plants
• Explore collections of materials with similar or different properties
• Discuss differences between materials and observe changes over time
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Nursery targets for this half term include:

• Exploring and responding to different natural phenomena in their environment
• Making connections between features of their own family and other families
• Repeating actions that have a noticeable effect

These activities help children develop curiosity, observation skills, and a growing understanding of the world around them.

Expressive Arts and Design

Children are provided with a variety of opportunities to develop their imagination, with staff encouraging creativity both indoors and outdoors. Resources include drawing and painting materials, role play areas, songs, musical instruments, construction toys, and junk modelling.

Nursery targets for this half term include:

• Making rhythmical and repetitive sounds
• Noticing patterns with strong contrasts
• Expressing ideas and feelings through making marks, and sometimes giving meaning to the marks they make

Preschool targets for this half term include:

• Creating closed shapes with continuous lines and beginning to use these shapes to represent objects
• Showing different emotions in drawings and paintings, such as happiness, sadness, or fear
• Drawing with increasing complexity and detail, for example representing a face with a circle and adding details

These activities support children’s creativity, self-expression, and fine motor development, while encouraging them to explore ideas, feelings, and imaginative play.

Further Information

We very much look forward to working with your child(ren) this half term. We hope you find the information on this class page helpful.

If you have any questions or would like further support, please do not hesitate to speak to a member of our team.

Thank you for your continued support.

Kind regards,

Miss Robinson, Mrs Ubaid and Mrs Sabar