Welcome to Nursery and Preschool

Autumn 2

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the Nursery and Preschool class page!

We hope you have had a restful and enjoyable half-term break with your family. We are looking forward to an exciting term ahead. Our aim in Nursery and Preschool is to provide every child with a happy, nurturing, and safe environment where they can make an exceptional start to their early education.

As the Preschool children’s day becomes more structured, they begin to experience similarities with Reception. These include registration time (with encouraged self-registration), a set timetable, and academic and planned activities linked to current topics. We continue to promote independence in all areas, particularly in personal care, while providing support as needed.

All Preschool children should be toilet trained before starting Reception. This is an important milestone for them to achieve, and our staff are more than happy to offer advice and support on how you can help at home.

Staffing in Nursery and Preschool

• Miss Robinson – Class Teacher
• Mrs Ubaid – HLTA
• Mrs Sabar – TA

Attendance and Prompt Arrival

Nursery gates open from 8:30am to 8:45am (morning session) and 12:15pm to 12:30pm (afternoon session). Please ensure your child arrives on time so they don’t miss valuable learning opportunities.

Regular attendance helps children establish good routines, preparing them for school life. It allows them to build and sustain relationships with staff and friends, ensures continuity in their learning, and enables staff to effectively assess progress and plan next steps. The higher a pupil’s attendance, the more they are likely to learn and the better prepared they will be for starting school.

Home Time

Gates open for collection from 11:15am to 11:30am (morning session) and 3:00pm to 3:15pm (afternoon session). Please collect your child promptly so that staff have adequate time to prepare between sessions.

If someone new will be collecting your child, please inform the school and ensure they know your family’s collection password. Without this, we cannot release your child. While we understand this may sometimes cause delays, pupil safety is always our top priority.

We also ask that all children hold an adult’s hand all the way home or to the car for their safety.

Clothing, Uniform, and Footwear

We encourage outdoor play in all types of weather, so please ensure your child wears suitable clothing, including a waterproof coat and appropriate footwear.

If you haven’t already, please send a spare pair of wellington boots (“wellies”) for your child to keep at Nursery.

Preschool pupils, and Nursery pupils who are already three years old, should wear the Brookhouse uniform each day. If you have any questions about uniform, please speak to a member of staff.

Curriculum and Learning

For detailed information about the Early Years curriculum at Brookhouse for 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds, please visit the Early Years section on our curriculum page.

This half term, our topic is “Snowy Days and Starry Nights.” Please see the Knowledge Organiser for the stories, songs, and rhymes that will support our learning. Below is a summary of this half term’s learning objectives across the different curriculum areas.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

We maintain consistency in rules, boundaries, and expectations. Staff praise and encourage children who follow the rules and play cooperatively. We provide personalised support to help each child learn to manage their feelings. Children are encouraged to talk about emotions using words such as happy, sad, angry, and worried, and to begin recognising how their friends may feel.

We plan our learning environment carefully to promote independence, enabling children to select and use resources confidently. Staff model how to use materials creatively and effectively to help children achieve self-chosen or suggested goals.

A target for this half term is for children to show increased confidence in new social situations. To support this, Nursery and Preschool pupils will visit the main school to participate in the Christmas performance in December. We will make several visits beforehand so the children feel comfortable and secure.

We are also introducing a toothbrushing scheme in Nursery and Preschool. Children will learn to use the correct pressure when brushing to clean their teeth effectively without damaging their toothbrushes. This will reinforce, not replace, brushing at home. Please continue to supervise your child’s toothbrushing morning and night—especially before bedtime—to prevent plaque and food from remaining on the teeth overnight

Communication and Language

Our curriculum is language-rich and centred around books and rhymes. Please see the Knowledge Organiser for a list of the stories, songs, and rhymes we will be exploring this half term.

We want pupils to learn many rhymes, talk confidently about familiar books, and retell stories in detail. There will be plenty of opportunities, both indoors and outdoors, for children to retell well-known stories using masks, props, and puppets. Staff will encourage pupils to speak clearly and take turns during conversations.

Our learning environment is thoughtfully designed to encourage children to follow their own interests and express their ideas. A variety of indoor and outdoor resources provide ample opportunities to practise new vocabulary and develop communication skills. Staff model and extend children’s language by asking open-ended questions and providing visual cues to support understanding.

Key targets for this half term:

Preschool pupils will focus on listening to longer stories and recalling key events, using a wider range of vocabulary, and understanding questions or instructions that have two parts.

Nursery pupils will focus on copying gestures and words from familiar adults. Staff will support this by commenting on what children are doing (e.g. “You are building.”) and may use gestures such as Makaton signs to accompany language. Children are encouraged to try to talk and are praised when they do so.

Physical Development

Staff provide a wide range of resources for pupils to grasp, hold, and explore — such as playdough, collage materials, finger paint, spoons, brushes, tweezers, pegs, and threading games — to help develop and strengthen fine motor skills in preparation for writing.

Children also have daily opportunities to develop their gross motor skills through activities such as riding bikes and scooters, large-scale mark making, and using outdoor play equipment.

Key targets for this half term:

Nursery pupils -To walk, run, jump, and climb confidently using the play equipment and to use the stairs independently when visiting the main school.

Preschool pupils – To use alternate feet when going up and down steps or when climbing on apparatus.

Literacy

Early literacy skills are closely linked to communication and language development. Children need to communicate effectively in order to read and write. Stories are shared daily and are also available for children to access independently within our cosy and inviting reading areas.

The books, stories, and rhymes we choose are carefully selected to expose pupils to a rich and varied vocabulary. Resources within the provision provide opportunities for children to use this new language naturally in their play and conversations with others.

We strongly encourage you to share stories regularly with your child at home. This not only supports their communication, language, and speech development but also creates a special bonding experience that nurtures their personal, social, and emotional growth.

Key targets for this half term:

Preschool pupils: To understand that print has meaning, to recognise that English is read from left to right and from top to bottom, and to engage in extended conversations about stories while learning new vocabulary.

Nursery pupils: To pay attention and respond to pictures or words, to develop favourite books, and to seek them out to share with others or enjoy independently.

Mathematics

Children will explore mathematics in many exciting and practical ways. We will use number rhymes and finger rhymes to help pupils become familiar with the numbers 1 to 5, counting both forwards and backwards, and encouraging them to join in. These skills will be reinforced through fun games and activities such as hide and seek or rocket-launch countdowns.

Targets for this half term:

Nursery pupils: To complete inset puzzles, join in with number rhymes, and begin to understand and use simple positional language (e.g. “Stand behind the chair”, “The teddy is under the table.”)

Preschool pupils: To explore numbers and patterns by matching quantities up to 5, counting in order up to 5, and showing finger numbers to represent quantities. They will also focus on understanding positional language through spoken instructions alone (e.g. “The bag is under the table” without visual cues).

Understanding the World

Children will have plenty of opportunities to explore interesting and natural environments outdoors. Staff will support this by introducing a range of natural materials and teaching related vocabulary to extend the children’s understanding.

Preschool pupils will begin a new Religious Education topic on ‘Christmas’. Through exploring the Nativity story in a variety of engaging ways, children will learn about the celebration of Jesus’s birth.

Nursery pupils will focus on exploring materials with different properties, investigating natural materials both indoors and outdoors.

Expressive Arts and Design

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

Nursery pupils will be encouraged to explore a range of sound makers and instruments, discovering different ways to play them. They will begin to make intentional marks and explore paint using their fingers, brushes, and other tools — experimenting freely with colour and texture.

Preschool pupils will be encouraged to take part in simple pretend play and to develop more complex storylines using small-world equipment. They will also explore different materials freely, experimenting with how to use them and developing their own creative ideas.

Further Information

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

If you have any questions or would like to discuss any aspect of your child’s learning or development, please do not hesitate to speak to a member of our team. We are always happy to help and support you in any way we can.

Kind regards,

Miss Robinson, Mrs Ubaid, and Mrs Sabar