Welcome to the Nursery Class at St. Anne’s School.  

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

Nursery is the first year of the Early Years Foundation Stage.  Introduced in 2008, it is the period of education from birth to 5 years.  This important part of children’s early development is divided into 6 learning areas:

·         Personal, social and emotional development.  This area focuses on relationships and how children develop a positive sense of themselves and of others that they come into contact with. 

·         Communication, language and literacy.  This area is divided into communication for thinking, linking sounds and letters and reading and writing skills. 

·        Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy.  Here, the children concentrate on developing skills such as; counting, matching, sorting, identifying and repeating patterns, number work and recognising different shapes and their properties. 

·        Knowledge and understanding of the world.  This area helps the children to develop an understanding of the world they live in and gives them a sense of why things are the way they are. 

·        Physical development.  The children develop skills such as coordination, movement, special awareness as well as pencil control and fine motor skills.

·        Creative development.  This area focuses on art, music, dance, role play and imaginative play. 

General objectives in Nursery:

·         To promote learning.  Young children learn principally through play both structured and unstructured activities and we make sure that we cover all aspects of play in our planning using both indoor and outdoor resources.

·         To promote the children’s intellectual, emotional, social, personal, physical and creative development through fun, daily activities which help them to develop a sense of the “whole child”.

·         To develop self-esteem, identity, confidence and self-awareness by talking about their emotions and feelings.

·         As each child is unique, we assess the children’s development on an on-going basis, enabling us to adjust the activities to each individual child’s needs and capabilities, encouraging development and avoiding frustrations. 

Parents as Partners:  Effective communication means there is a two-way flow of information, knowledge and expertise between parents and practitioners.  We believe in developing positive relationships between educators and parents.  This has a positive impact on the children’s learning, especially by highlighting the importance of good communication between home and school.  We have general parent’s meetings throughout the year, and also the parents are invited to make individual appointments with the teacher to discuss their child’s learning requirements.   

Learning through play:  One of our main aims for the children in Nursery Class is to create a positive and safe environment where they can enjoy learning through play.  We encourage curiosity and imagination inside and outside the classroom and believe that well planned play with the right level of structure and the right level of adult intervention is a key way for young children to progress and enjoy new challenges.   

Classroom organization:  In Nursery, the children learn in whole class, small groups and individual situations.  They also learn a lot from each other, especially the younger children who watch and learn from the older children, and therefore we believe in mixing older children with younger ones in small group activities.

Circle time.  Circle time is an important part of the morning. The children are encouraged to express ideas and to discuss, share ideas and take turns in talking and listening. It’s an opportunity for the children to learn new concepts and further develop their vocabulary.  During circle time we:

• Greet the children, by singing a welcome song/hello song.
• Home to school board where we discuss feelings.
• Talk about the day’s activities.
• Read stories.
• Talk about the weather and sing the days of the week song.
• Sing nursery rhymes and action songs.
• Birthday box-show and tell.
• Have general discussions.
• Listen to others.

Role-play area:  We have a “role-play area” in the classroom which changes theme on a regular basis along with the topics in the class.  Here the children are able to develop a variety of fundamental social and emotional skills such as; story telling, recounting events, exploring feelings, cooperation and negotiation with their peers, as well as providing them with an opportunity to enhance their learning and vocabulary.

Construction area: We provide the children with both small and large construction kits which they can use to explore their imagination in many ways, develop their hand-eye coordination, and construct freely. 

Outdoor play:  We provide the children with a safe outdoor play area that gives them the opportunity to explore, learn and extend their physical capabilities.   They are encouraged to travel in a variety of ways and to think about the well-being of others too. 

Creative area:  The children frequently paint, draw, cut, stick and model.  This encourages them to explore forms of self expression, handle and correctly use a variety of tools and use a range of materials and textures.  They learn about colour mixing and develop their fine and gross motor skills. 

Birthday box. Birthdays are very important days for children and at St. Anne’s, when a child has their birthday, we invite them to take home a special “Birthday Box” and put something inside that they treasure.  Then they bring it into school to share with the other children. 

Pre-writing.  The children are encouraged to experience the early stage of writing through the use of paintbrushes, crayons, and pencils.  They will learn how to hold a pencil correctly, whilst developing their hand-eye coordination.  They begin to understand that writing is about communicating ideas and feelings. 

Snack time.  It is a social occasion and an opportunity for the children to join in conversation with each other and develop vocabulary and listening skills.  It allows the children to take responsibility for themselves and encourages them to become more independent.  The children learn about different types of foods and it is a time when we encourage the children to be aware of personal hygiene.

Assessments.  As the children develop at different times, we assess their learning on an on-going basis and can therefore plan for activities that encourage the development of their skills. 

Displays.  It is important that the children are proud of their work and in Nursery, all their work is displayed within the classroom on a permanent basis. 

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