Nursery
Class Name: Julia Donaldson
Welcome to Nursery!
Teaching Team 2024-2025
- Miss Leigh - Class Teacher
- Miss Macnab - Teaching Assistant
- Miss Chittim - Teaching Assistant (currently on maternity leave)
Reading
To promote a love of reading and to inspire our children, Nursery’s class author is: Julia Donaldson.
At Five Spires we recognise that reading is the key to unlocking so much for our children. We encourage all of our children to read a variety of texts and authors.
Suggested texts for Nursery:
- The Colour Monster
- We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- The Enormous Turnip
- Stick Man
- The Three Little Pigs
- Goldilocks and The Three Bears
- The Three Billy Goats Gruff
- The Very Busy Spider
- Pirates in the Supermarket
- Oliver’s Fruit Salad
- Don’t Put Your Finger in the Jelly, Nelly!
- The Tiger Who Came to Tea
- A Superhero Like You
- The Rainbow Fish
- Smiley Shark
- The Wide, Wide Sea
PE
PE is on a Tuesday. Please ensure that your child has the appropriate clothing, that earrings are removed and long hair is tied up for these sessions. We kindly ask that all clothing and footwear is clearly labelled.
Our Learning
To find out what we are learning, please see below our yearly overview. The overview shows how the year is broken into six exciting mini missions to develop a sense of awe and wonder, with the skills and knowledge detailed which the children will be developing at each point in the year.
Yearly Overview - Long Term Plan
White Rose Maths
We follow the ‘Master the Curriculum’ scheme of learning for Nursery. Each block is broken into smaller steps of learning where children develop their knowledge and understanding of key concepts in a variety of contexts.
Read Write Inc.
In Nursery, we initiate the children’s phonics
journey by exploring environmental sounds and working on sound discrimination. This involves ‘listening walks’ and various exciting listening games, developing the children’s listening, focus and attention skills and building the foundations for learning phonics. We then follow the literacy programme Read Write Inc., which teaches reading and writing through a systematic approach rooted in phonics. We begin this programme in the Spring Term, when we introduce one Set 1 sound each week, from the speed sound chart to the right. The children will take part in hands-on activities where they are exposed to the sound, so they can practise saying, recognising and writing it.
Home Learning
We believe home learning plays an important role in consolidation, revision and practise of skills learnt in school. In Nursery, we share ‘Home Learning’ documents for each mini-mission, with practical activities that can be completed by the children at home, developing their skills in each area of learning. We encourage parents to upload home learning onto the online learning journey, Tapestry, as we enjoy sharing these achievements in class. We also share knowledge organisers for each mini-mission, which provide information for parents about the knowledge and skills that will be taught during the half-term, alongside keywords and suggestions of appropriate texts and rhymes linked to the learning.
Daily Reading
Please encourage your child to read regularly in order to foster a love of reading. Any books, magazines, newspapers they explore should be noted in their Reading Record. Within the Early Years, it is very important for children to be exposed to a variety of texts, enabling them to develop their listening, storytelling and comprehension skills. Each child will have the opportunity to select a library book to take home, which will be changed each week in Nursery.
Tapestry
We use the secure online learning journal Tapestry to celebrate children’s learning and development, both at home and in school. We encourage parents to upload photographs and observations of home learning, special events and milestones onto Tapestry each week.
Class News
To keep up to date with our news and key dates, please click the link to our Padlet newsletter.
Parent Relationships
At Five Spires Academy we develop strong and respectful partnerships with parents and carers. We strive to develop ways to support your child both at home and in school. At the beginning of the school year, each child will be assigned a ‘key person’ who will help ensure your child’s learning and care is tailored to their individual needs.
Throughout the year parents and carers will be invited into school for parent consultations, Stay and Play events, celebrations and seasonal performances.