🌟 Welcome to our Early Years Unit! 🐝🌸

We are so excited to welcome all of our Nursery and Reception children to Early Years! Our day begins at 8:45am ⏰. Part-time Nursery children will be collected at 11:45am, and all other children will be collected at 3:15pm.

🐝 Arriving at school: All children should line up at the Nursery entrance doors. Nursery parents/carers, please bring your child inside, help them find their coat peg, which has their name and a special symbol representing their name, and encourage them to hang up their coat. Please place your child’s bag and lunch box (if applicable) in the boxes by the door. Your child should then take their name tag and give it to Miss Fleming. Reception parents/carers, please accompany your child to the outer doors and then encourage them to come into the classroom independently. They should put their bag in the box, hang their coat in the cloakroom and then find their carpet spot, where they can settle down and practise their handwriting ✏️.

🏃‍♀️ PE: During the first half term, the children will not be getting changed for PE, so they will not need to bring a PE kit initially. We will let you know when this changes.

🏠 Home time: All children will be collected from the Nursery entrance double doors. We will call children out one at a time, so please be patient with us as we get to know all of our grown-ups! 😊

📚 English: Our key text this half term is The Gingerbread Man 🍪, and we will be working hard on developing and practising letter formation ✏️. We will also be enjoying lots of traditional tales and developing our understanding of the concepts of print — including learning about the author and illustrator, understanding that we read from left to right and knowing how books work.

🔢 Maths: Reception children will be developing their subitising skills — recognising how many objects there are without needing to count them. Nursery children will initially recap their colours before moving on to matching and sorting by colour, shape and size 🌈.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Our Topic – Family: We will be thinking and talking about what makes each of us unique and the people who are special to us 💕. We will also be learning about emotions and developing our ability to recognise and talk about feelings such as happy, sad and worried 😊😢😟.

💪 Physical Development: We will be encouraging the children to become increasingly independent, including putting on their coats, using the toilet and washing their hands 🧥🚽🧼. We will also be developing our fine motor skills by using a variety of different-shaped and different-sized tools for painting, writing and mark making 🎨✏️.

🐝 As you can see, we are going to be very busy bees in Early Years! There will be lots of exploring, talking, playing, practising and, most importantly, lots of wonderful learning taking place. We can't wait to see the children grow in confidence, independence and curiosity throughout the year! 🌟🐝💛

Mrs Weilding, Mrs Brown, Miss Fleming & Miss Krakowiak

🌟🐝 A very warm welcome to all of our new Nursery and Reception children and families, and a big welcome back to the children who were with us last year! 🐝🌟 We are so excited to begin our new year together and can’t wait to see you all on Thursday at 8:45am! 🎉

Please see the information below regarding the drop off and collection of children: 

Part-time Nursery children will be collected at 11:45am, and all other children will be collected at 3:15pm. ⏰ 

Reception children should line up at the double doors leading into the Nursery area, while Nursery children should line up at the previous Nursery entrance—both entrances will be clearly signposted. 🚪✨

We have renamed the nursery class as The Hive - a place for busy bees where more active resources and activities will take place. 🐝😊

The reception classroom area is now called The Nest - a quieter space, with an opportunity for calmer, more focused activities. 🕊️😊

Nursery parents/carers, please come in with your child, help them find their coat peg (which has their name and a symbol representing their name), hang up their coat, place their bag and lunch box (if applicable) in the box by the door, then ask your child to take their name tag and give it to Miss Fleming. 🧥🎒 Once the children are settled, we will direct the children to tables where there will be activities for them.

Reception parents/carers, please accompany your child to the double doors where Mrs Brown will be there to greet them, and encourage them to come in independently, placing their bag in the box. 😊 Reception children will then sit on one of the carpet spots with their coats on and their lunchboxes if they have them, and we will help them hang their coats up in the cloakroom and put lunch boxes in the fridge. 🪑 

For PE which will be on Tuesdays, children will not be getting changed for the first half term, so there is no need to send PE kits initially. 🏃‍♀️ 

We ask for each child to have a spare set of clothes in school in a named carrier bag, in case of any accidents.👖👚🧦

Finally, at home time, all children will be collected from the Reception entrance double doors, one child at a time, so please be patient with us while we get to know all of our wonderful children and families. 💛🐝

We can't wait to get started and have a fantastic year together! 🌈✨

If you have any questions, please speak to us on the door (ideally at pick up time) or send a message via Dojo. 😊

Thank you,
Mrs Weilding

Phonics

Phonics is the foundation for children beginning their reading journey. In Reception we follow the scheme created by Read Write Inc. Through Read Write Inc children can build on letter formation while learning to read.

I will send links to the RWI phonics videos appropriate for your child's learning via messages on Class Dojo. These links do expire after a few weeks, so if you need further access, please let me know!

The Early Learning Goals (ELGs) are a set of important milestones that children work towards by the end of their Reception year 🎓. They come from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum and outline the key skills and knowledge children are expected to develop across areas such as communication and language 🗣️, physical development 🏃, literacy and maths 🔤🔢.

Throughout the year, we support the children in working towards these goals through a balance of play-based learning, adult-led activities and everyday classroom experiences 🎨📚. Learning is carefully planned to be engaging, practical and suited to each child’s needs.

We regularly observe and assess children’s learning to see how they are progressing towards the Early Learning Goals 👀. These observations help us to plan next steps and provide the right level of support and challenge for every child.

At the end of Reception, each child is assessed against the Early Learning Goals and will be described as either emerging or expected in each area of learning. This helps to give a clear picture of their development and readiness for Year 1.

We work closely with parents and carers 🤝, as your support at home plays a very important role in your child’s learning journey. If you ever have any questions about your child’s progress, please don’t hesitate to speak to us 😊.

Links to support your child in learning at home.

Arundale's H.E.A.R.T

Arundale is a unique school and we are proud of ourselves and each other. Within all we do we champion our H.E.A.R.T values:

HARDWORKING - to work with energy & commitment to be diligent.

EQUITY - to recognise everyone's individual needs and support these effectively in an inclusive environment.

ASPIRATIONAL - to develop lifeskills to achieve ones hopes and dreams.

RESILIENT - to show strength and determination even when things are difficult.

TEAMWORK - To work together with others to achieve shared goal