Autumn 1
Dear Parents/Carers,
We cannot wait for the exciting year ahead and are looking forward to a fantastic beginning to the school year for all of our nursery children! Welcome to your first half-termly letter of the year. Its purpose is to outline the areas we will cover over the next half term.
Our focus topic for the first half of the Autumn term is ‘I am special”. You will find within the overview what we will cover each week. This is a guide and gives you an idea about what your child will be learning. Each week the nursery team plan in detail responding to the children’s needs as their learning develops and their interests emerge. This ensures that the nursery activities are relevant and interesting for the children in each class.
Our main focus for this half term is that all children feel settled, happy and safe in nursery, whilst beginning to develop their independence. We will also be focusing on Phase 1 of the “Letters and Sounds” programme which is integral to the children’s understanding of sounds before they move onto the phonetic sounds. To support your child at home, please look at the overview for each of the different areas we will cover. We will also be carrying out assessments over the coming weeks to ensure we know exactly what the children already know about letters and sounds and also in their understanding and use of number. This will enable us to plan effectively to support and extend all the children in these key skills.
Books and Book bags
Please ensure that your child has a book bag that they bring to school every day. This can be used to take books home from our “Book Borrowing Library”. Please use the class book borrowing register to sign out your child’s book and then cross it off once it is returned.
Uniform and spare clothes
Please ensure all items of clothing are named clearly. Every child will also need a bag of weather appropriate spare clothes to hang on their peg as well as an empty carrier bag. If your child has had a toilet accident or becomes wet from playing in the water tray, we will change your child into their spare clothes and put the wet clothes into the plastic bag and put onto your child’s peg. If your child has had to borrow Nursery spare clothing, please wash them and return the clothes to us as soon as possible. As the weather is getting colder, please also send your child to school with a coat. On rainy days if your child comes to school wearing wellington boots, please also bring a pair of school shoes to change into once they are in the classroom.
Cloakroom
As we have two classes per day, one child from the Blue Class (morning children) will share their peg with a member of the Red Class (afternoon children).
Beginning of the sessions
Blue class children (morning children) are expected to enter the nursery via the nursery entrance. The nursery playground will be open from 9.00am for children and their parents. However, please ensure you bring your child to the nursery cloakroom door when dropping them at 9:00. Please be prompt when collecting your child at 12pm.
Red class children (afternoon children) are also expected to use the nursery buzzer to enter the nursery. The nursery team will be available on the intercom from 12:30pm. Please ensure you bring your child to the door of the nursery cloakroom when dropping them off at 12:30. Please be prompt when collecting your child at 3.30pm.
Communication between home and school
We use Tapestry as our learning journal system at Belleville. This allows a greater degree of communication between home and school and enables you to share what your child is doing at home as well as accessing their in-school observations and ‘WOW’ moments. Letters about Tapestry will be shared in the coming weeks.
Communicating with parent and carers is an important part of what we do, making sure you get the correct information about school news, activities and things that really matter is something we care about. We use ParentMail, a service used by over 6,000 schools, nurseries and children’s clubs to communicate with you. You should have received an invite to parent mail with instructions on how to register. Once registered, if you have an Android or Apple smartphone, we would highly recommend you download the ParentMail App for the best user experience. If you need any assistance, please visit the help site, contact the school office or email your queries to: parentmail@bellevilleschool.org
Things to bring in
To complement our “I am special” topic this term and to generate speech and language opportunities, please can you send in 3 photographs of your child.
1. A photo of them doing something they like to do 2. A photo of their family (including grandparents if possible) 3. A photo of their last birthday
These photos will be laminated so please only send in paper copies of the photos or non-precious photos.
We look forward to sharing a very exciting Autumn term with all the children from the Blue and Red classes. If you are concerned about anything, please come and have a chat with either of the Nursery Teachers: Lucy Cliff and Clare Trotter.
Yours faithfully,
Lucy Cliff and Clare Trotter
