Teacher Information

The Nursery staff at Ulverley are Mrs Fell, Mrs Marson, Mrs Tovey, Mrs Taylor and Ms Holmes.

 

Early Years Foundation Stage

Welcome to Ulverley School. We are a community, multi-faith school and aim to provide a safe and happy environment to stimulate learning and confidence. Each child is valued as an individual and we endeavour to cater for the differing needs of each child. The Early Years Foundation Stage focuses on the needs and learning for children from birth until the end of Reception in primary school. It is delivered through planned play activities to help ensure all children have the opportunity to reach their full

potential and experience the best possible start to their education. The EYFS also provides the foundations for life long learning. 

 

Learning through Play

Purposeful play is an essential tool for learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Activities are based on a theme with a balance between adult directed activities and independent learning. These will encompass a balance between indoors and outdoors. In the Foundation Stage the curriculum is delivered across all rooms and the outdoor classroom. Therefore children are expected to free flow to all areas to ensure they access all areas of learning. In Nursery and Reception we organise the classrooms into zones.

 

EYFS Principles

A Unique Child: Every child is a unique child who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self assured.

Positive Relationships: Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

Enabling Environments: Children learn and develop well in enabling environments in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and carers.

Learning and Development: Children develop and learn in different ways. Practitioners teach children by ensuring challenging, playful opportunities across the prime and specific areas of learning and development.

 

Personal Social and Emotional Development

• Children play co-operatively, taking turns with others

• Children show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings and form positive

• Relationships with adults and other children

• Children are confident to try new activities

• Children to be confident to speak in a familiar group

• Children are to understand behavior boundaries and the consequences if they make a wrong choice

•  Children can communicate about themselves and their family and friends

 

Communication and Language

• Children can listen attentively to stories, accurately anticipating key events and respond to what they hear with relevant comments, questions or actions

• They give their attention to what others say and respond appropriately, while engaged in another activity

• Children follow instructions involving several ideas or actions

• They answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events

• Children express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs

• They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future

• They develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events

 

Physical Development

• Children show good control and co-ordination

• They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space.

• They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils and scissors

• Children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe

• They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently

 

Literacy

• Children read and understand simple sentences They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately

• They also read some common irregular words

• They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read

• Children use their phonic knowledge to write

• Words in ways which match their spoken sounds

• They also write some irregular common words

• They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others

• Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible

 

Mathematics

• Children count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number

• Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer

• They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing

• Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems

• They recognise, create and describe patterns

• They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them

 

Understanding the World

• Children talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members

• They know about  similarities and differences between  themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions

• Children recognise and use a range of technology is used in  places such as homes and schools

• Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things

• They talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another

• They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes

 

Expressive Arts and Design

• Children sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them

• They safely use and explore a variety of materials tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function

• Children use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes

• They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music ,dance, role play and stories

 

Forest School

• To build self-esteem

• To work as a team

• To explore the seasons and environment around us

 

Assessment

• We collect evidence of the children's learning in the form of photos, observations and adult directed activities which feed into their individual learning journals

• All this information allows us to track progress and form the next steps for children’s learning

• This information will be shared at parents consultations in October and February but we operate an ‘open door’ policy so please feel free to chat about your child’s progress at the end of the day

• Parents/ Carers hold a vital role in assessment to gain a holistic approach to learning 

• Reception children are assessed through the age related bands plus the Early Learning Goals. This is a statutory requirement to be completed by the end of the Reception year.

 

Uniform

Blue polo shirt, school jumper, grey trousers/ skirt and sensible black shoes.

 

PE Kit

On PE day, children can come in tracksuits. Please ensure your child has a pumpbag with a  spare set of clothes and a bookbag for reading books and letters. This can all be purchased with Mrs Hill in the office.

 

Attendance

We encourage children to come to school everyday to ensure they do not miss out on a vital piece of learning. However, if your child is too sick to come to school, please inform us on the day they cannot attend. Advance notice of hospital and clinic appointments is also helpful.

 

Picking up

Please wait outside Nursery to collect your child. If you have been delayed, please phone the school to let us know. If you have arranged for someone different to the person who normally picks up your child, please let us know at the beginning of the session.

 

Parents as Partners

• As a parent/ carer, we recognise that you are the children’s first teacher and really value working together to have a positive impact on your child’s learning and development

• We welcome volunteers to come and help us

• Additional opportunities to come in (workshops, reading, Nativity production)

• We send home a newsletter at the end of each week to inform you of the next week’s learning theme and activities. Any relevant information will also be placed on here.

• Please do not hesitate to speak to staff at the beginning or end of the day or make an appointment to discuss any queries in more detail

• Mrs Byrne (Ulverley’s Family Support Worker) offers confidential advice and support to families should any issues arise

• Also based at Ulverley is a Children’s Centre offering a multitude of services and facilities to families. Friends of Ulverley School are always keen to recruit new members and they play such a  vital role in supporting the school, raising money and organising events such as the Christmas Disco.

• Please see a member of staff if you have any further questions of queries about the above points.

 

What if your child has an accident?

We will endeavour to create a safe environment in the Foundation Stage. If there is an accident it will be dealt with appropriately. There is always a ‘First Aider’ available. Please encourage your child to tell us if they are ever hurt. We will inform you of any incidents, especially bumps on the head. It is vital that emergency phone numbers are correct in case we need to contact you. If your child has a toilet accident we will encourage them to clean themselves but will intervene where appropriate with parental permission. We recommend that your child has a spare change of clothes kept at school in case of accidents.

 

Key Workers

Each child is assigned to a Key Worker for the whole year. As the year progresses they will spend time with their key worker in small group activities.

 

Nursery Routines

 

• If your child is attending Morning Nursery, the morning session runs from 8.30am-11.30am, with drop off time between  8.30am and 8.45am and pick up between 11.15am and 11.30am.

• If your child is attending Afternoon Nursery, the afternoon session runs from 12.30pm-3.30pm, with drop off time between  12.30pm and 12.45pm and pick up between 3.15pm and 3.30pm. 

• 8.30am/12.30pm Children greeted by the Nursery staff as they come into Nursery and independently put their coat on their peg and book bag in their tray.

• They then have the opportunity to independently choose an activity which interests them.

• 8.45am/12.45pm Children sit on the carpet for the register and adult led introduction to the days learning

• 9.05am/1.05pm Children are sent into independently learning time where they again choose an activity that interests them. Activities are linked to the learning theme and cover all areas of learning within the EYFS.

• During this time, the adults either deliver an adult guided learning group session to develop a particular skill or support the children’s play

• 10.30am/2.30pm Children have their snack time in their Family groups. Your child will either be in the Marvellous Monkeys, Terrific Tigers or Super Snakes.

• This is a time when we run circle times, practise counting and name writing.

• 10.45am/2.45pm Phonics (children will develop hearing sounds in words and distinguishing rhyme and different sounds in the environment)

• 11.00am/3.00pm Whole class story or song session. We will also reflect on the day’s learning.

• 11.15am-11.30am (Morning) or 3.15pm-3.30pm (Afternoon) Home time!