NURSERY
PARENTS’ BOOKLET
2008 – 2009
WELCOME TO ORCHARD NURSERY
At the beginning of your child's school life we welcome you to our Nursery. We hope that this will be the start of a happy and rewarding partnership, with home and school working together to provide a secure and stimulating environment for your child.
All of us at Orchard Infant School place great value on the importance of Nursery education and the foundations it lays for a child's all round development.
Our Nursery Booklet is designed to give you helpful information about the organisation, routines and procedures of the Nursery and to describe the learning activities your child will experience here.
The Nursery is part of Orchard Infant School and children are admitted to the Nursery in the Autumn Term following their third birthday.
It is a fifty two place unit, twenty six children in the morning session and twenty six children in the afternoon session.
Nursery Times:
Morning 9.00 a.m. to 11.30 a.m.
Afternoon 1.00 p.m. to 3.30 p.m.
The Nursery is open ten minutes before each session – 8.50 a.m. and 12.50 p.m. – to facilitate a calm and gradual start to the session.
Children must by law, be accompanied to and from the Nursery by an adult. In the interest of your child’s safety, we ask that you let the Nursery staff know whenever anyone other than yourself is going to collect your child.
We believe that working in close partnership with parents is the way to give children the best possible education. Parents play a vital role in school life and we are always pleased to welcome you into school. If you would like to help in Nursery, there is a parent rota. Please arrange a time and date with the Nursery Staff.
Please feel free to talk to the Nursery staff or the Headteacher at any time. (The best times for private access to the Nursery staff are 11.15 a.m. and 3.15 p.m.)
You and your child are invited for a short visit during the Summer Term prior to starting Nursery. We recommend that your child is left briefly in order to enjoy a realistic experience of Nursery activities.
During this visit you will be asked to complete the Essential Pupil Information and Admission Profile forms. It is important that the Pupil Information with contact telephone numbers is kept up to date.
A home visit will also be arranged to take place at the beginning of the Autumn Term. This is an opportunity for you to discuss your child’s development with the Nursery staff and ask any questions you may have. You will be notified of your child’s starting date before the end of the Summer Term to allow time for you to make any necessary arrangements.
At the beginning of the Autumn Term, you will be invited to an informal meeting in the Nursery. You will have the opportunity to raise any questions you may have and see a variety of Nursery activities.
The children are admitted to Nursery in small groups. This gives the Nursery staff the opportunity to introduce the children to Nursery routines and activities in a calm and personal way and allows them to get to know the children’s individual needs.
The above procedures help to ensure that the children settle happily and confidently into the Nursery. If your child shows any distress at being left, the Nursery staff will be pleased to offer advice and strategies which experience has proved to be successful.
The Nursery offers a wide range of activities which are designed to stimulate all areas of a child’s development – intellectual, physical, social and emotional.
Each Nursery session follows an ordered, regular routine and is carefully planned to include a variety of learning activities.
A typical day would include:
Looking at books Sewing
Poems/Rhymes Baking
Story Model making
Singing and music making Cutting and sticking
Construction toys Counting/Matching
Sand and water play Ordering/Sorting games
Home corner/Role play Clay
Painting and drawing Computer
Writing table Outdoor learning
The children are encouraged to make choices about how they spend their time and at the same time to take part in the full range of activities. Careful records on the children’s progress and future learning needs are kept.
Within the structured day we have a short teacher-led session in which the focus varies eg. Numeracy, Literacy, ICT, PE, French, P4C, Circle Time. These learning activities are planned by the teacher on a weekly basis.
In preparation for full time school, personal learning skills, such as the ability to concentrate and persevere, to listen and ask questions, to share and co-operate, to observe and describe, are developed alongside early mathematical and language skills.
The children are encouraged to choose a book to take home on a daily basis. The equipment the children use for mathematical learning (for example digit cards and number lines) and literacy work (for example alphabet cards) are the same as the children use in school. After Christmas the children will have weekly PE lessons in the school hall. At the beginning they will take off their shoes and socks and progress to fully undressed (ie. doing PE in vest and pants as they do in school) when the teacher judges they are ready.
We recommend the following:
We have a recommended school dress, consisting of Orchard sweatshirts, t-shirts/polo shirts in red, navy or jade which may be ordered through school. It is not compulsory but does make life easier for busy parents and the children enjoy wearing it. All the clothing items are easy for the children to manage.
If your child becomes unwell at Nursery, we will make them as comfortable as possible and contact you straight away so that you can collect them. Experience has told us that children can become very distressed when they are not well.
The Education Authority does not allow access to the school car park as it is used by heavy delivery vehicles and not safe for the general public. Parents using cars may park in the Sprotbrough Country Club Car Park on Cadeby Road.
The path around school leads to Nursery. We have very few school rules, but in the interest of safety we do request that parents and children use the path around school rather than walking over the grass under the windows, where there is a real danger of small children being injured on raised manholes and grates.
Your child will have a peg in the cloakroom which is named and has a special picture. You can help your child to be independent by encouraging him/her to take off and hang his/her own coat.
On the table just outside the cloakroom are the self registration cards. These are various shapes and colours and each one bears a child’s name. Once again, to promote independence, the children are encouraged to look for their own card and put it into a basket. This informs staff of those children who are present/absent.
The children will be actively encouraged to use Nursery library. When they return a book to the library they may choose another to take home. School book bags (available from the school office - £3.50) are ideal for taking books home and keep our books clean and dry.
At the end of the session the children will be sitting on the carpet with their coats and bags. The children will be told when they may go out - this is when the staff see the appropriate accompanying adult.
For safety reasons, no child may leave without an adult.
During the Nursery session a carton of milk is provided free of charge, so we ask parents not to send children with sweets or drinks.
We ask children not to bring toys from home as any breakages or lost toys can cause much distress.
We encourage children not to make guns and other violent toys with our equipment and would ask you not to bring these items into Nursery.
Please talk in positive terms about Nursery. Praise and encourage your child’s efforts when work is brought home at the end of each term.
Encourage your child to be independent. We develop independence in the Nursery by allowing the children to do as much as possible for themselves, for example, hanging up their own coat, finding their own self registration card, using the toilet by themselves and choosing and tidying their own activities.
We have a concert, held in the Nursery, at the end of the Summer Term. Your support is most welcome at this event, whether in a practical way (helping with refreshments or the raffle) or as a member of the audience. We are always pleased to see grandparents or other family members at our concert.
We hope that your association with Orchard Infant School Nursery will be enjoyable. If you have any concerns / problems, however small, please do not hesitate to come in and talk to us.
J.A. Ryf (Mrs.) S.A. Rebori (Mrs.) E. Rumary (Mrs.)
Headteacher Nursery Teacher Nursery Nurse
You will receive information and an application form from the Local Authority in the Autumn Term about applying for admission to Reception for September 2009
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