Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to Warfield Nursery and our website.

The whole team are so excited to get to know all our new children and families. The children will be making lots of new friends as they play alongside each other learning our new routines.  

Nursery Curriculum

In Nursery we provide a stimulating, child-centred curriculum, which ignites children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. Our curriculum encompasses the seven areas of Learning of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. The three prime areas are Communication and Language, Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development and these are strengthened and applied through play and active learning, in four further specific areas; Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. 

The children are encouraged by the structure of the Nursery environment and by the very experienced staff to build secure relationships with both adults and their peers so they can become confident, independent, capable, resilient and reflective learners. Children learn in so many different ways and develop at different rates and of course have so many different interests. Within Nursery staff will support children’s learning through a balance of planned focus activities and child-led play. We extend their spontaneous play opportunities in a stimulating learning environment. 

The Nursery outdoor learning space is a large area incorporating a gardening area and a mark making area, as well as dedicated areas for music, construction, sand play and water investigation. Children can access the outside area throughout the day and much of our learning takes place outside. 

Our Topic this half term is All About Me. Please take some time to read the Topic Map and Home Learning documents below for further information and how to support your child with their learning. In the first few weeks children will be learning how to play and make with new friends, share equipment and use resources, learning lots of new and exciting things. We will then move our learning on talking about our families and naming the people who are important to them. We would be grateful; if your child could bring in a photograph, of their family to talk about and for our Family Display. 

We enjoy sharing many stories in Nursery and this half-term our focus stories will include Harry & the Dinosaurs Start School, Alfie goes to Nursery and Emily starts Playgroup. Our learning then focuses on Families and all the many different types of families there are.

We will then read the story Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. During this half-term we will also learn about Autumn and Harvest, including where food comes from and new vocabulary about nature and world around us. We shall celebrate Harvest time and share the story The Enormous Turnip and The Little Red Hen and Handa’s Surprise.

When they are ready children will be learning phonics and different letter sounds within Phase 1. Please see our Topic Map for further information and do ask if you have any questions about our curriculum and how you can support at home. 

The children will be learning and singing many nursery rhymes, to support their prereading skills including Head Shoulders Knees & Toes, 1,2,3,4,5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive, Tommy Thumb and Teddy Bear Teddy Bear and many others.

What does your child need to bring to Nursery?

Children need to have a waterproof coat and wear waterproof shoes as outdoor learning is an important part of our curriculum. Please bring a bag of named spare clothes for your child, including socks and shoes which they can leave on their peg for the week. Please write your child’s name on the labels on all children’s clothing especially coats and jumpers. 

All children should have a named water-bottle and a named lunch box, if they are staying for lunch. When packing your child’s lunch box please do not overfill it as this can overwhelm them. An ideal lunchbox would be a sandwich, crackers, or pasta or rice with vegetables/meat in a plastic box, yoghurt, a piece of fruit, biscuit and a drink. 

We are a nut free Nursery so please do not pack peanut butter sandwiches, cereal bars or other products which may contain nuts. Please remember to cut grapes, cherries or strawberries into small pieces and include a spoon or fork if needed. We encourage children to drink water at school to support children’s dental health. We find that this helps children develop healthy habits of drinking water. 

As September can be warm, please send your child with a named sunhat if we do have hot weather. We ask if you can apply sun cream to your child before their session starts. Thank you.

All children have a Learning Journey which we keep at Nursery. This is a record of their learning during their time with us. If you would like to complete a Proud Cloud for your child’s Learning Journey, please do write one and hand this to one of the team. We love to hear what your child gets up to at home and their wonderful achievements.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask one of the Nursery team.

Miss Elaine Dick

Nursery Class Teacher