Welcome to Nursery

 Caterpillars

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to Warfield Nursery and our website.

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 staff to build secure relationships with both adults and their peers so they can become confident, independent and reflective learners. Children learn in different ways and develop at different rates and with different interests. Nursery staff support children’s learning through a balance of planned focus activities and child-led play, extending their spontaneous play opportunities in a stimulating learning environment. Children will be learning phonics, Phase 1, in dedicated teaching sessions.

Please see our Topic Map for further information and do ask if you have any questions about our curriculum and how you can support your child at home.

We are lucky at Nursery to have two outdoor learning spaces. We have the Meadow and the garden. These areas incorporate 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 for this second half of the term is Let’s Celebrate. Please read the Topic Map and Home Learning documents for further information and how to support your child with their learning. Children will be learning how to play with their new friends, share toys and use our 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.

This half term our main focus will include celebrating Bonfire Night, Diwali and Christmas. We shall also think about the many different People who Help Us such as the Emergency Services, Doctors & Nurses, Firemen, Teachers and The Jolly Christmas Postman. We are hoping that we will have a visit from the local fire station and their fire engine.

The children will be learning and singing the many Nursery Rhymes, to support pre-reading skills.

What does your child need to bring to Nursery?

Children need to wear a waterproof coat and 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 own 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, or pasta or rice with vegetables/meat in a plastic box, yoghurt, a piece of fruit, biscuit and a drink. All children will have fruit and milk, allergies permitting during their session too.

May we remind you we are a nut free Nursery so please do not pack peanut butter sandwiches, cereal bars or other products which may include nuts. Please remember to cut grapes, cherries or strawberries into small pieces and include a spoon or fork if needed for pasta.  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.

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 of course their wonderful achievements.

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

Miss Elaine Dick   

Nursery Teacher