Nursery

Mrs Palmer's Nursery Transition Booklet

Mrs Price's NurseryTransition Booklet

Herts for Learning Early Year’s team have produced activity cards that have been designed to support children starting Reception as part of their Supporting Smooth Transition procedures. Parents and carers can easily keep these cards on their digital devices, making them accessible for use during activities at home or on the go. These cards are a great way to introduce new ideas and help children develop skills that will benefit their learning journey at school.

Poster with QR code to easily access a digital version of the transition cards.

Downloadable transition cards

Nursery Long Term Plan

EYFS Reforms

After reading the reforms information above you might like to find out more about one of the Educational Programmes we used as guidance to create our own curriculum. Click here.

Curriculum Progression of Knowledge and Skills

The Department for Education has published a guide for parents, produced by Sheringham Nursery School and Children's Centre - 'What to Expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage' (formally called 'What to Expect When') which guides parents and carers through what to expect in their child's development. It aligns with guidance given to schools to help practitioners and parents. Please click to view the document.

British Values in the Early Years

Cultural Capital in the Early Years

Maths in Nursery

Please read the attached document to find out more.

Maths can be found across of areas of our curriculum and in many of the activities and areas in our Nursery environment, both indoors and out.

To see more images of Maths in Nursery click here and select the Nursery button.

Numbers through rhyme

Shapes around us

Mark making and Literacy

Nursery Rhyme guide for parents

Twinkl Nursery Rhyme Booklet

Phonics in Nursery Before reading

Writing letters at Flamstead End

Read Write Inc. Handwriting phrases

Ideas to help with pencil control

Fred games in Nursery

How to say letter sounds

Literacy elements can be found across of areas of our curriculum and in many of the activities and areas in our Nursery environment, both indoors and out. At the beginning of the academic year, a focus is placed on early marking, listening skills and developing communication skills. As the year moves on we begin exploring phonics through games and activities that include elements of ‘Read, Write, Inc’ (the phonics programme used in the main school).

To see more photos of our mark making, click here and select the Nursery gallery. 

Being Creative in Nursery

In Nursery we love to explore the mark making table, the craft area and use the painting easels.

Children are encouraged to plan out ideas, select resources and adapt their work to achieve their desired outcomes, all independently. We love to see how children take the skills we teach and come up with their own creative ideas.

See more images here.

Out and About in Nursery

See more images here 

In Nursery, and at Flamstead End, we try our hardest to ensure the children have a love of reading and being read to. Through the story time, games, role-play and other activities within the Nursery that children have access to, we hope we show children how fun and rewarding and informative books can be.

As you are aware, there are points throughout the school year where reading is highlighted more than usual – Book Day, Reading Week are examples.

We have another element to our reading within the Nursery – a Nursery Book Swap Library.

How it works…

Outside our Nursery, each day will be a trolley full of books that have already been donated to the school by kind families and members of staff.

The children can freely take a book from the trolley to share with you at home and return as and when they have finished sharing it at home. This could be the next day, the next week. If your child would like to keep the book as it becomes a favourite to their collation please feel free to do so and leave a book in exchange.

It would work similarly to going to a local library but with no library card needed and more convenient as it is right outside our door.

We hope our little trolley library becomes a success and is well used. I, along with the other Nursery staff love books and reading with the children. We would love for the children to share this love of books with you at home too.

The trolley will be available daily.

We offer a Games and Puzzle Trolley outside our Nursery for you to use. 

This trolley will be available daily. 

The children can freely take a game or puzzle from the trolley to share with you at home and return as and when they have finished sharing it at home. Please can we ask that you sign out the game or puzzle you take to play and date when you return it so we can monitor how well the trolley is being used.

50 Things is an exciting initiative that supports children’s learning at home. It is inspired by parents and carers with each activity developed by Early Years experts and language specialists to create a fabulous resource for families.

More information can be found here 50-things-intrroduction-letter-pdf.pdf

In Nursery we support the understanding of good oral hygiene. Throughout the year children will take part in adult led tasks, child initiated play activities and hear stories based on visiting the dentist and cleaning their teeth.

Oral Health Poster

AUTUMN

In Nursery we love to explore the seasons and find out what is happening around us. We have used 'Autumn' to support a variety of our curriculum objectives.

Autumn colour hunt

Colour mixing pumpkin painting

TALES TOOLKIT

This term we have joined the Tales Toolkit Team. The scheme encourages communication, vocabulary development, imagination, story telling, problem solving and a whole array of early skills needed for children. 

In Nursery we have used familiar nursery rhymes as an introduction to the scheme. Children have been exploring the four elements of story telling - character, setting, problem and solution using Humpty Dumpty, Hickory Dickory, Jack and Jill and Incy Wincy as inspiration. 

Humpty Dumpty

Hickory Dickory

Incy Wincy

To end this term we had a visit from Vickie, a fabulous storyteller. She performed three interactive stories for the children that included the Three Little Pigs, Rudolph and the Gingerbread Man. The children sang and joined in actions as they were entertained for the session.

Shapes in Art

As part of a maths week in Nursery, the children explored the use of 2D shapes in art. They shared their thoughts on the work of various artists including Mondrian, Miro, Kandinsky and Klee. They were inspired to create their own works of art using various media.

In the community

We have been exploring our local community, the buildings, the natural environment and the people who make a community.

Solve the crime

As part of our look at our community we focused on the emergency services. The children turned detectives themselves as they had to solve a crime taking place right in our class!

During March we went on a local walk. Children were encouraged to look for familiar places and buildings, for people who help us in the community and we spoke about the impotance of road safety.