Welcome to Nursery (Bees)

Welcome to our class page. Here you can find information about what are key books are and some of the exciting things we have been doing throughout the half term. We also send regular updates on Class Dojo so if you are a parent of a child in nursery, then make sure you download the app and ask for your joining code so you don't miss our updates. 

Important information

Timings - The nursery door opens from 8:30 and closes at 8:50. If you arrive after this time, please go round to the side gate and buzz the office. We open the gate at the end of the day at 3pm to allow parents with other children at school to speak to nursery staff if they need to. 

Lunches - If your child qualifies for Pupil Premium funding, then their school meal is free. If not, you will need to pay for their school meal via the office. Alternatively, you can send them with a healthy packed lunch.

School uniform - Our school colour is navy and there is no requirement to wear our branded jumper. However if you would like a branded jumper or cardigan then please ask a member of staff. As you know, children in nursery often require a change of clothing throughout the day so it would be great if you could send a spare set with their name in to ensure that we don't run out of the nursery supply. 

Drinks bottles - Children are encouraged to bring a bottle with either water or diluted squash to nursery.

Milk and fruit - All children are entitled to milk and fruit in nursery and we encourage the children to try new things (dairy free alternatives are available to let a member of staff know if your child requires this).

What does a week look like in Bees?

In the Early Years at Westglade, we follow a book-based curriculum which allows us to expose children to a wide range of texts throughout the year and support them with language development which is a vital building block to key literacy skills.

In nursery, we use continuous provision inside to support the development of our children using the Statutory EYFS Framework created by the DFE along with documents including Birth to 5 and Development Matters (see links below to these documents). We plan the provision to support the needs of the children in the class and use enhancements to focus on particular skills, interests and themes we are working on.

In addition to the continuous provision, we use small group sessions to directly teach a maths skill and share our key text. We use the principals of Phase 1 phonics when children first join us to develop listening and attention skills, preparing them for early phonics. Moving on from Phase 1, we follow the Read, Write Inc. programme inline with the rest of the school where our focus is on sound knowledge and blending. 

We are incredibly lucky to have Singing Jane join us on Tuesday afternoons where we enjoy a group singing sessions with instruments. 

In the Early Years, outdoor learning is a vital part of our provision and children can experience a mud kitchen, water, sand, a large construction area, climbing, potions station and large mark making. This often means we can get quite messy but the learning opportunities outside are truly endless. 

The Summer Term

This term we will be spending even more time outside and enjoying the weather (fingers crossed). The children have been working hard at developing their independent skills and many of them can now zip up their coats and put their shoes and socks on without help from the adults. We will be working on this further this term at part of getting ready for our dance and gymnastics lessons. 

Our books this term are:

The Little Red Hen (Traditional Tale)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle)

10 Little Pirates (Michael Brownlow)

Sharing a Shell (Julia Donaldson)

As we explore new books, we will spend time learning the new words and Makaton signs to go along with them. Our aim with our books is to build children's confidence and enjoyment with reading. We link some areas of learning to our texts as well as planning activities linked to the children's current targets and their areas of interest. 

We will be doing some planting and looking after some growing caterpillars as well as noticing what changes are happening to our environment as the season changes from Spring to Summer. 

We have singing on Mondays and gymnastics on Tuesdays during the first half of the summer term. 

In maths, we will covering the following topics through short group sessions and exploration within the provision:

Sequencing

Position: on, under, in, out, in front, behind

Comparing groups: more than, fewer than

2D shapes: circles, triangles, rectangles, squares

3D shapes: cubes, cuboids, cylinders, spheres

Composition of 1,2,3,4,5

What comes after and after? (using a number line)