A huge warm welcome to you all to Nursery class! We welcome back our older children and are so pleased to get to know all of our new children. Mrs Mulai and myself are so excited about the year ahead. Your child will learn so much and contribute to the learning and social development of the whole class.

They will be very busy every day, working through the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, learning through play, and through our termly topics.

The areas of learning in the EYFS are:
• Personal, Social and Emotional
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

We also work on our Characteristics of Effective Learning. These are where children are able to use and apply what they have learnt and use it in different areas. In the characteristics of effective learning we focus on the teaching and learning through:
• Playing and Exploring – where they engage and explore as well as being able to have a go at activities and learning.
• Active Learning – where the children are motivated, as well as showing enjoyment in what they achieve.
• Creative and Critical Thinking – where the children work on having their own ideas, make links and work with others to achieve their goals.

We will provide an environment to ensure every child makes progress in each of these areas. We will ensure each child is happy, keen to learn, and plays well with others. Our class is a positive environment where respect for all and inclusivity are top priority. We look forward to having a wonderful year, filled with learning and laughter.

We have our class reward charts where we work to achieve 10 stickers to receive a prize from our prize box. The children receive stickers for great work, helping, being a good friend and following instructions. We love to give stickers to children for their great effort and work.

As a Catholic school we have a great emphasis on how we develop the faith of children through our religion lessons. Here the children will learn through discussions, passages from the Bible and activities how they can place Jesus at the heart of all we do and to show love to one another. We work hard to teach children the sign of the cross, school prayers and hymns and songs. As a class we carry out circle times to discuss the work of Jesus and the world around us. We take time to reflect upon what we are thankful for and to say thank you to God for creating everything around us as well as thinking about how we can help to look after our world.

Our learning
As part of our day, we meet in groups for Phonics, Number and Story. During these group times we are encouraging the children to listen, speak, take turns and participate in the activities. These are times where we work on speaking and listening skills and build upon having confidence to speak out in a small group and whole class. These group times also encourage children to develop their personal, social and emotional skills which are very important skills to enhance so that children can reach their full potential.
Phonic sessions take place every morning. We learn through exploring and listening to a range of sounds. Children have lots of fun finding, playing and describing the sounds they hear. They access a range of ring games to build on following instructions and taking turns with other children. We listen for our names, beginning to recognise and read our name and our friends names. There is a strong focus on helping the children to hear initial sounds and orally blend and segment words, recognise and read familiar letters using their robot arms. We work really hard to be able to tune into listening for sounds around us in the environment, in readiness to clap and create syllables for names, objects, animals and foods.
Number time is very practical and enjoyable where the children learn through songs, rhymes, counting everyday objects, movable and non - movable actions. The group times work on number recognition and beginning to form numbers through drawing in the air and singing of rhymes to help us to remember. Within our continuous provision we work on using our number skills to count out different amounts, discuss colours we are using as well as the everyday shapes which we can see. The children will also work on recognising their colours by naming and sorting them before developing their skills of making a repeating pattern. They also have fun exploring with a range of shapes to learn their names and to create a range of pictures using shapes.
In Nursery, we focus on a range of books and stories, and encourage children to join in with the actions and repetitive phrases. We share stories as often as possible so that children can hear and repeat words and relate stories to their own experiences. Your child will work on sequencing a story as well as having opportunities to discuss what has happened in a familiar story and how the characters are feeling.
Throughout the day, we carry out continuous provision both indoors and outdoors where the children access learning activities which are linked to our EYFS curriculum. They are encouraged to learn through the range of resources to develop their skills in all areas of learning. We have provision to be able to be indoors and outdoors throughout the day. It is great to see how the children develop their relationships with other children and to enhance their social and conversational skills alongside their learning through play.

Morning routine
Each morning you will be greeted by the Nursery staff at the door who will welcome you and your child into the classroom. It is important that your child becomes increasingly confident at writing their own name and settling into class first thing in the morning. Therefore, we recommend that you let your child come in and put their coats / bags away independently, then after their self-registration find their name and begin to write it in their morning books alongside their pre-writing patterns. We will then help your child to find a learning area to begin their learning and to develop their learning and skills.
Please ensure your child is in school for 8.55am. This is to make sure they settle into their day comfortably with their Nursery friends and they do not miss their story group learning activities.
Please come and speak to us if you have any concerns or questions, we are always available to chat on either side of the day.

Nursery
As a part of our Early Years curriculum, children take part in messy activities such as painting and using corn flour. They also have access to the water tray and can become wet during the day.
All Our Lady’s children wear school uniform. Children are asked to bring with them:
· A spare set of clothes (trousers, jumper, shoes, socks and underwear)
· A coat with a hood on
Please ensure that your child’s jumper, coat and clothes have their names on so they can be returned to you.

Library
We will be going to our school library each Tuesday morning. In this session your child will enjoy listening and joining in with a story alongside taking time to choose a book they would like to read. Your child can borrow a book and we ask that this is returned each week in order for a new book to be issued. This book is to promote reading for pleasure, so please read this book to your child, rather than them read to you.

Reading books
As the year progresses your child will be given a reading book to share with you at home alongside some tricky words and sounds which they can practise at home. They will also work on recognising their rhyming words. We will also send home initial sounds with rhymes and songs to help to learn our sounds and then words.

P.E.
Your child will have P.E. every Tuesday and Thursday. Please come to school dressed in a P.E. kit that day. As the weather gets cooler, please wear jogging bottoms or leggings instead of shorts. A typical P.E. kit:
• Navy blue jogging bottoms / leggings / shorts
• A plain white T shirt
• Your usual school jumper or cardigan
• Trainers
Please ensure that they have appropriate foot wear to help them to carry out the session safely.

Learning Journeys
Your child will have a Tapestry account where we will be inputting a snapshot of their learning. You will be given parent log in details soon. On here, there will be photographs of your child, as well as their work with an explanation of their learning. You will be invited to access and add information and pictures from home to show us the different things that you do while not in school. It is a great way to build up information and demonstrate the learning and progress of your child.

How you can help your child at home
In Nursery, it would be great if you can work with your child at home to develop their recognition of their name, colours, numbers, letters, stories and words.
Activities you can carry out at home are:
• Colours – naming and recognising colours and using colours to create a pattern
• Numbers – counting up to 10 forwards and backwards. Looking for numbers to recognise and say the number names.
• Numbers – making marks for the numbers up to 10
• Counting – counting out a given amount, saying how many up to 10.
• Reading – sharing stories with your child everyday – discuss what is happening in the story, and what they like about the story.
• Name – showing your child their name and beginning to make marks to write their name
• Mark making – encourage your child to make a range of marks and begin to discuss their pictures and mark making.
These are some ideas to help us to work together to develop your child’s learning.

If you have any questions or queries, we are always available for an informal chat before or after school. Or if you ever want a more in-depth conversation, just let us know any time and we can schedule a meeting.

Thank you for being our partners in your child’s early education. We wish to support your child’s development within a loving and caring Catholic environment. Together, we can give your children the opportunity to show their best whilst being happy.

Do you want to see more of what we are doing in our class and in school.  Have a look at our facebook and Instagram pages!

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