Nursery 2024 - 2025
Welcome to Nursery!
September 2024
Dear Parents and Carers
Hello and welcome to Nursery. Myself (Miss Lohan) and Miss Ibrahim hope that you all had relaxing holiday and ready to start an exciting year. We are looking forward to seeing our returning Nursery children and welcoming our new additions to the Holy Name family. We hope they settle and make new friends quickly with the support of all the staff and the children’s friendly personalities.
As the Nursery and Reception classes are part of the Foundation team, we work very closely together. Miss Lohan is the lead teacher for Nursery and Mrs Nolan lead teacher for Reception.
Nursery is a very important phase in the Foundation Stage. We establish routines, rules and begin to support your child’s learning through practical activities. In Nursery, we like to work in small groups which help us to share, take turns and build positive relationships with our friends and adults. We role model and join in children’s learning so that they can build upon their experiences. There will be two key groups led by Miss Lohan and Miss Ibrahim.
Our Curriculum:
The Foundation Stage Curriculum is based around the Characteristics of Effective Learning. These are pertinent in observing how your child learns and to plan their next steps of learning. These underpin the seven areas of learning and development.
Characteristics of Effective Learning demonstrate:
· playing and exploring
· active learning
· creating and thinking critically
In our Foundation Stage, we start to use our ‘Learning powers’ of confidence, happiness, resilience, independence, safety and tolerance. We will support the children to develop their learning style and to encourage them to think about how they learn within the environment.
This year our main topics will be:
Autumn: Me and the world around me
Spring: Weather and the Seasons
Summer: Animals and their environments
As part of our day, we meet in groups for Story, Phonics, Number and our topic. 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 recognize 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.
We share stories as often as possible so that children can hear and repeat words and relate stories to their own experiences. At home you can help your child by sharing a book and talking about what they can see in the different pictures. It is also useful to discuss the different types of print you can see around the environment. Sharing a story everyday will really support and develop your child’s learning. We have book share that takes place every Friday morning where you can borrow a story to share with your child at home and return the following week.
Number time is very practical and enjoyable. We support their learning through songs, and rhymes, counting everyday objects, movable and non - movable actions.
Topic time is covered by exploring the world around us, through creative activities and physical activities.
All children follow the Religious Education curriculum and learn new prayers and songs throughout the year. We work hard to teach children the sign of the cross and the school prayers. 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.
On entry into the Foundation Stage children require a period of time to settle and the transition time varies with each child to ensure that their individual needs are met. We will monitor this on a daily basis.
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 Holy Name 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
· A rain mac and wellington boots
Please ensure that your child’s jumper, coat and clothes have their names on so they can be returned to you.
PARENTAL SUPPORT
We welcome and value any feedback from you regarding your child and value our partnership with you. Please do not hesitate to ask questions to any member of the Foundation Stage Team and we look forward to discussing your child’s progress regularly.
Throughout the year we carry out workshops with parents where you are invited in to join in with group sessions and to take away activities which you and your child can enjoy at home.
We are happy to celebrate birthdays and your child’s special day in school but ask that you please provide just a cake which has already been cut and wrapped as party bags and other foods can cause upset amongst the children.
It would be very useful if your child is toilet trained before they come to school. We will support you through this process. If you are experiencing difficulties or would like advice please contact a health professional.
We have an open door policy so do not hesitate to contact myself or any member of the Foundation Staff.
House Points:
Throughout the school the children are all placed into house teams and remain in this team throughout their time at Holy Name. They work together to earn house points. These can be for excellent work, excellent behaviour, being kind and helpful. Each week we count how many house points have been rewarded and celebrate the winning team in the Foundation Stage. Throughout the year outside agencies are brought in for the winning team to carry out activities.
The houses are:
- Joseph (blue),
- Therese (yellow),
- Don Bosco (red)
- Martin (green)
Car Park: Please note the Car Park is a Staff Car Park, you will need to park your car, outside the school, taking into account the parking restrictions that are in place.
Thank you for your support. We are always happy to see you, especially if you have any needs or concerns about anything at all.
We look forward to working with you throughout the year. Please check our school website (www.holyname.manchester.sch.uk) regularly as most of the information you will need will be there, however any concerns please approach a member of staff.
Miss Lohan
Miss Ibrahim.
c.lohan@holyname.manchester.sch.uk