Welcome back after the Summer holiday. The following information will be useful to you for this term. 

Ideas for planning will continue to be lead by the children. From observation and assessment we are able to pick out topics and themes that the children are interested in and we will continue to use questioning to develop their interests and thoughts. Last year, with the older children, this was such a fantastic motivator as the children became involved in the fruits of their own good ideas! Please read our planning board to share with what is happening.

The children, this last week, have focussed on ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and we will develop this further.

We will continue to send home details of the children’s learning on a weekly planning sheet. This gives broad objectives for learning and will help you to share with your child our topics and also develop, at home, any skills we are working on. We recognise the importance of parents and staff working together for the benefit of the children and hope you will continue to share the learning with us.

We will soon re-introduce the system of the children, after self -registration, using the signs to go to a group activity. This may be staff lead, an independent set activity which parents can help the child settle to, or a free choice of activities. Some of our part time children may be reluctant to be directed to activities and still need to have ‘free choice’. This is relevant to their stage of development and not a concern. Please if this is the case, just help your child to choose for themselves.

These groups will be flexible and may change according to the interests of the children or their learning needs. Staff will encourage children to at least come and look at what is on offer!

PE day will continue to be Tuesday mornings. Children will continue to change for PE and put their clothes in the PE baskets. We welcome you to stay and help your child, and wish to work towards children being able to undress and dress themselves. Please guide your child,

 with questions such as ‘What do you need to take off first?, what comes next?.... rather than do it for them!

‘Roald Dahl Day’, celebrating the author, is this Friday in school. Please dress your child as a character from one of his stories.

Our garden continues to be such a valuable resource.The children experience  planting, growing, harvesting and eating(!!) the fruit and vegetables that we grow. It is amazing to see young children trying 

and  eating vegetables, just because they have grown them. Small children running around eating handfuls of lettuce leaves was a treat 

My PPA day (Planning, Preparation and Assessment) will be alternate Monday mornings. Mrs Chester and Miss Wood will work with the children during these sessions.

Thank you for the time in sharing our news. 

Donna Makepeace                Tracey Wood   

Please have a browse through our Nursery Booklet:

This is a short booklet that will give you some information about the nursery. We hope to answer most of the queries you may have but if not we are always available to answer individual questions.

‘’Parents are children’s first and most enduring educators. When parents and practitioners work together in early years settings, the results have a positive impact on children’s development and learning’. (EYFS 2007)

At Kirby Hill C of E Primary School we recognise the huge part parents play in the education of their children and we hope to develop a partnership between home and school.

Who Are We?

The nursery is a Local Authority maintained early years unit, which is part of Kirby Hill C of E Primary School. The nursery is able to offer free early years education to children from the age of three. Children from the age of three will be offered a part time place to attend five mornings, during term time. A part time place in the nursery does not guarantee an automatic full time place in school. Admission to full time school must follow usual LEA procedures

  

Staff

 

The nursery staff consists of:

Mrs Donna Makepeace, the foundation stage co-ordinator and early years teacher, graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Education Honours Degree. She has spent seventeen years teaching in the early year’s sector. This has included in a nursery, teaching in a reception class, a year 1 class and previously lead teacher in a reception unit. She is qualified to teach children in the 3 – 11 age range. Mrs Makepeace has two sons.

Miss Tracey Wood is an advanced teaching assistant. She qualified in 1991 as a NNEB, and followed this with Montessori teacher training. She has worked in nurseries and independent schools in London , before returning to North Yorkshire . She has also worked as a nanny, both in England and abroad.

Registering for a place.

All parents need to fill in an application form to register for a place in the nursery. A part time nursery place does not automatically give admission to a full time school place. Full time admissions will follow the county admissions policy. Please contact Mrs Gudgeon in the school office. 

Visits to the school and the nursery are most welcome.

Nursery

The nursery is situated in a purpose built classroom with an adjoining large outdoor space. All children will register together in the nursery, each morning. Parents and children are to come into the nursery via the back door adjoining the outdoor space. During the session all children, will have access to the outdoors, every day.

What is the Foundation Stage?

This is the curriculum offered to all children of 5 years and under. The Foundation Stage curriculum aims to lay a secure foundation for future learning.

    ‘It is crucial to their future success that children’s earliest experiences help to build a secure foundation for learning throughout their school years and beyond. Practitioners must be sensitive to the individual development of each child to ensure that the activities they undertake are suitable for the stage they have reached. Children need to be stretched but not pushed beyond their capabilities so that they can continue to enjoy learning’. EYFS(2007)

The foundation stage curriculum is undergoing changes – to become the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) This must be implemented by all early years settings by September 2008. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) will bring together:

 

      Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (2000),

 

     Birth to Three Matters (2002) framework

 

    National Standards for Under 8s Daycare and Childminding (2003)

 

This will build a coherent and flexible approach to care and learning. All providers are required to use the EYFS to ensure that whatever setting parents choose, they can be confident that their child will receive a quality experience that supports their development and learning.

 

Every Child Matters

 

Every Child Matters (2003) is the government agenda, which focuses on bringing together services to support children and families. It sets out five major outcomes for children:

 

n                  being healthy;

 

n                  staying safe;

 

n                  enjoying and achieving;

 

n                  making a positive contribution;

 

n                  economic well-being.

 

EYFS will address these five outcomes.

 

Four themes run through the EYFS

These are:

a unique child

positive relationships

enabling environments

learning and development

Play

‘Play underpins the delivery of all the EYFS.

‘Children must have opportunities to play indoors and outdoors. Play underpins all development and learning for young children Most children play spontaneously….and it is through this play that they develop intellectually, creatively, physically, socially and emotionally’.

‘Well planned experiences based on children’s spontaneous play, both indoors and outdoors is an important way in which practitioners support young children to learn with enjoyment and challenge’. (EYFS 2007)

n      Explore, develop, and represent learning experiences that help them to make sense of the world

n      Practise and build up ideas, concepts and skills

n      Learn how to understand the need for rules

n      Take risks and make mistakes

n      Think creatively and imaginatively

n      Communicate with others as they investigate or solve problems

 The curriculum in the nursery will offer learning through play  

Areas of Learning and Development

 

The EYFS is made up of six areas of Learning and Development. All areas of Learning and Development are connected to one another and are equally important. All areas of Learning and Development are underpinned by the principles of the EYFS.

 

    The areas of Learning and Development are:

 

                      Personal, Social and Emotional Development

 

                      Communication, Language and Literacy

 

                      Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy

 

                      Knowledge and Understanding of the World

 

                      Physical Development

 

                      Creative Development.

 

The six areas together make up the skills, knowledge and experiences appropriate for children as they grow.

 

For children everything links and nothing is compartmentalised.

 

Children's learning and development occur as an outcome of their individual interests and abilities and that planning for learning and development takes account of these.

 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Aspects include:

Dispositions and Attitudes - children become interested, excited and motivated about their learning.

Self-confidence and Self-esteem - children having a sense of their own value and understanding the need for sensitivity to significant events in their own and other people's lives.

Making Relationships - the importance of children forming good relationships with others and working alongside others companionably.

Self-care - children gain a sense of self-respect and concern for their own personal hygiene and care and how they develop independence.

Sense of Community - children understand and respect their own needs, views, cultures and beliefs and those of other people.

Communication, Language and Literacy

Aspects include:

Language for Communication - children become communicators. Learning to listen and speak. These skills develop as children interact with others, listen to and use language, extend their vocabulary and experience stories, songs, poems and rhymes.

Language for Thinking - children use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences and how they use talk to clarify their thinking and ideas or to refer to events they have observed or are curious about.

Linking Sounds and Letters - children develop the ability to distinguish between sounds and become familiar with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration. They develop understanding of the correspondence between spoken and written sounds and learn to link sounds and letters and use their knowledge to read and write simple words by sounding out and blending.

Reading - children understanding and enjoying stories, books and rhymes, recognising that print carries meaning, both fiction and fact, and reading a range of familiar words and simple sentences.

Writing - children build an understanding of the relationship between the spoken and written word and how through making marks, drawing and personal writing children ascribe meaning to text and attempt to write for various purposes.

Handwriting - ways in which children's random marks, lines and drawings develop and form the basis of recognisable letters.

Aspects are:

Numbers as Labels and for Counting - children gradually know and use numbers and counting in play, and eventually recognise and use numbers reliably, to develop mathematical ideas and to solve problems.

Calculating - children develop an

 awareness of the relationship between numbers

 and amounts and know that numbers can be

 combined to be 'added together' and can be

 separated by 'taking away' and that two or more

Shape, Space and Measures – children develop

 through talking about shapes and quantities,

 and developing appropriate vocabulary, children

 use their knowledge to develop ideas and to

 solve mathematical problems.