Welcome to Nursery and Preschool

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the Nursery and Preschool class page.

We hope you have had a restful and enjoyable time with your family over the half term break. We look forward to the exciting term ahead. Our aim in Preschool and Nursery is to provide all children with a happy and safe environment in which they can make an exceptional start to their early education.

The Preschool children’s day becomes structured as they carry out similarities of Reception, these involve register time with the encouraged self- registration, time table with academic activities and planned activities relating to current topics. We encourage independence as much as possible in all areas especially personal care, with support given when needed. 

All Preschool children should be toilet trained, this is very important for them to have achieved before starting school in Reception. Our staff are more than happy to help and provide advice on what you can do to support this at home.

Staffing in Nursery and Preschool is:

Miss Robinson (Class Teacher)

Mrs Ubaid (HLTA)

Mrs Sabar (TA)

Miss Sadia (TA)

Attendance and Prompt Arrival

Nursery gates open at 8:30am- 8:45am (morning session) and 12:15pm-12:30pm (afternoon session). Please ensure you arrive on time so that your child does not miss out on valuable learning time.

Regular attendance helps your child build good habits, getting them used to the idea of getting up and ready for learning each day, in preparation for school. It helps your child build and sustain relationships with staff and make friends.  It can also help to ensure continuity of learning, with staff being more easily able to assess your child’s progress and identify next steps for them in accessing the curriculum. 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

The gates open for home time from 11:15am - 11:30am (morning session) and 3:00pm - 3:15pm (afternoon session). We politely ask that you pick your child(ren) up on time to make sure that staff have adequate time to prepare between the morning and afternoon session.

Please make sure if someone we have not met before is collecting your child, that you have informed the school and they know the password. Without doing this we cannot let your child leave. We understand this can be frustrating, but we are always vigilant at home time to make sure pupils leave safely. With this in mind, we encourage all children to hold an adult’s hand all the way home, or all the way to the car.

Clothing, Uniform and Footwear

We encourage outdoor play in all types of weather, so please make sure your child(ren) is wearing suitable clothing (including a waterproof coat) and footwear. If you haven't yet 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 each day they come to Nursery. If you have any questions about uniform, please ask 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 ‘Snowy Days and Starry Nights’. 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 the rules, boundaries and expectations. All staff praise and encourage children who are able to follow the rules and play cooperatively together. Our staff will support all children in a personalised way as they learn to manage their feelings. The children will be encouraged to talk about their feelings using words like "happy", "sad", "angry" or "worried" and begin to understand how their friends are feeling.

We carefully plan the provisions and the learning environment to enable children to select and use resources with increasing independence. Staff model how to use resources in different ways and encourage the children to do the same. This helps children to achieve a goal they have chosen, or one which is suggested to them.

A target for this half term for the Nursery children is to notice and ask questions about differences, such as skin colour, types of hair, gender, special needs, disabilities, and to safely explore emotions beyond their normal range through play and stories.

The Preschool children targets for this half term include playing with one or more other children, extending and elaborating play ideas and to find solutions to conflicts and rivalries. For example, accepting that not everyone can be Spider-Man in the game, and suggesting other ideas.

We will be continuing the toothbrushing scheme in Preschool and Nursery, we will ensure your child is working hard to use the right pressure in order to clean their teeth and not damage their toothbrush. This is not intended to replace tooth brushing at home. Our aim is to help support and reinforce what you are already teaching your child. It is still important that your child’s tooth brushing is supervised by an adult at home, in the morning and last thing at night before bed. Brushing before bedtime is especially important, to prevent plaque and food particles remaining in contact with the teeth throughout the night. 

Communication and Language

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

We want pupils to know many rhymes, to be able to talk about familiar books, and to be able to tell a long story. We will provide lots of opportunities, both indoors and outdoors to retell familiar stories using masks, story props and puppets. Staff will encourage pupils to speak clearly and to take turns when having a conversation.

Our learning environment is designed carefully to encourage pupils to follow their own interests and express their own ideas. The variety of resources both indoors and outdoors provide ample opportunities for children to practise new vocabulary and develop their language and communication skills. Staff model, stimulate and extend children’s interactions by asking open-ended questions. Alongside this, visual cues are used to aid language development and communication.

A target for the Preschool pupils this half term will be to understand ‘why’ questions, like: “Why do you think the caterpillar got so fat?” Nursery targets for this half term will be to identify familiar objects and their properties for example:  ‘blue car’, ‘big teddy’ and to listen to other people’s talk with interest.

Physical Development

Staff provide lots of resources for pupils to grasp, hold and explore such as playdough, collage, finger paint, spoons, brushes, tweezers, pegs, threading games, etc, to develop and strengthen their fine motor skills in preparation for writing. Pupils also have daily opportunities to develop their gross motor skills using bikes, scooters, large mark making and outdoor equipment.

 Targets for this half term for the Nursery children will be to develop manipulation and control, to fit themselves into spaces, like tunnels, dens and large boxes, and move around in them.

Targets for the Preschool pupils will be to show a preference for a dominant hand, to be increasingly independent as they get dressed and undressed, for example, putting coats on and doing up zips and to collaborate with others to manage large items, such as moving a long plank safely.

Literacy

Early Literacy skills are very closely linked to communication and language skills. Children need to communicate effectively if they are going to read and write. Stories are shared daily and left for children to access independently within our cosy and inviting reading areas. The books, stories and rhymes are carefully chosen to expose pupils to a wide range of vocabulary. Resources within provision provide pupils with opportunities to use this vocabulary in their play and conversations with others.

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

This half term targets for the Preschool children will be to write some letters accurately, to develop phonological awareness and to understand the concept that print can have different purposes.

 Nursery targets will be to develop play around favourite stories using props, to repeat words and phrases from familiar stories and to enjoy songs and rhymes, tuning in and paying attention.

Maths

The children will be supported to access maths in lots of exciting and practical ways. We will use number and finger rhymes in maths as a way to familiarise pupils with the numbers 1 to 5, when counting both forwards and backwards, and encouraging pupils to join in. This will then be supported through the use of games and activities such as playing hide and seek, or rocket-launch countdowns.

This half terms Nursery children’s targets include; comparing amounts, saying ‘lots’, ‘more’ or ‘same’ and developing counting-like behaviour, such as making sounds, pointing or saying some numbers in sequence.

Preschool pupils will be making comparisons between objects relating to length and weight, creating ABAB repeating patterns and linking numerals and amounts: e.g. matching objects to numerals, up to 5.              

Understanding the World

We will provide lots of interesting and natural environments for the children to explore freely outdoors. Our staff will support children with the exploration of natural materials, providing them with related vocabulary. 

Our religious education topic for the Spring term is ‘How do you celebrate special times?’ As part of this, the Preschool pupils will discuss what makes particular days special and how remembering these times makes them feel. Pupils will explore how occasions like birthdays, the arrival of a new baby or a wedding are celebrated. They will also learn about Chinese and Jewish New Year, as well as Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day).

In addition to the religious education topic the Preschool children will also be planting seeds and learning how to care for growing plants, they will be exploring a collection of materials with similar and/or different properties and will be encouraged to talk and discuss the differences between materials and changes they notice.

The Nursery children’s targets are to explore and respond to different natural phenomena in their setting, to make connections between features of their family and other families and to repeat actions that have an effect.

Expressive Art and Design

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

This half term, Nursery pupils’ targets include; to make rhythmical and repetitive sounds, to notice patterns with strong contrasts and to express ideas and feelings through making marks, and sometimes give meaning to the marks they make.

Targets for the Preschool pupils’ include: creating closed shapes with continuous lines, and begin to use these shapes to represent objects, showing different emotions in their drawings and paintings, like happiness, sadness, fear etc and to draw with increasing complexity and detail, such as representing a face with a circle and including details. 

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, please do not hesitate to talk to one of our team.

Kind regards,

Miss Robinson, Mrs Ubaid, Mrs Sabar and Miss Sadia.