Thank you for visiting our page to find out more information about our fantastic Nursery at Saltburn Primary School.
Our Nursery Team
Mr Dalton
Reception Teacher
EYFS Lead
Mrs D Smith
Nursery Teacher
Mrs N Wood
Nursery Teacher
Miss Myers
LSA
Welcome
Welcome to our page! We hope you find the information or resources you are looking for. If you have any further questions or queries, please email our EYFS Lead, Mr Dalton, via our school email: office@saltburnprimaryschool.co.uk
Organisation of Nursery
Nursery is the first step for our children on their early years journey before they start full time education in Reception. Our Early Years consists of one nursery classroom and two Reception classrooms. There are also two shared areas; an outdoor area and a quiet/calming working room. Nursery caters for 78 children in total; 39 in the morning session 39 in the afternoon.
Children’s duration in nursery for different lengths of time, depending on when their birthday is. Some children will have as long as 6 terms in Nursery. The September before they turn five is when they will start Reception.
Please note that your child will not automatically be given a reception place at our school; you will need to apply prior to them starting school.
Starting our Nursery
Upon completing our school application form, which can be collected from our school office, you will be invited to an open event where we provide parents/carers and their child the opportunity to come and see our nursery, meet our fantastic staff and arrange a start date for your child. This event usually takes place afterschool (3:45pm-4:30pm). Our school office will contact you via telephone to arrange your visit upon receiving a completed application form.
We work very closely with all our parents/carers to ensure children have a smooth transition into our Nursery and pride ourselves on building strong and positive relationships with our families.
School Day
Morning Session
Welcoming Time – 8:45
Going Home Time – 11:45
Afternoon Session
Welcoming Time – 12:30
Going Home Time – 15:30
Curriculum Units
We provide our children with a two-year rolling programme of Unit/Topics to allow a wide range of learning opportunities for those children who attend Saltburn Primary School from Nursery.
All statutory Programmes of Study are covered in each year of the rolling programme.
Nursery and Reception will, for the most part, teach the same unit at the same time. With progressive texts used as a structure for weekly teaching across Nursery and Reception.
Year 1 of Rolling Programme
Autumn Term
Autumn 1: All About Me
Autumn 2: The Great Outdoors & Celebrations
Spring Term
Spring 1: Knights, Princesses and Dragons
Spring 2: New Life
Summer Term
Summer 1: Minibeasts
Summer 2: Dinosaurs
Year 2 of Rolling Programme
Autumn Term
Autumn 1: My Family, Home and Town
Autumn 2: Food Glorious Food and Seasons
Spring Term
Spring 1: Around the World
Spring 2: Space
Summer Term
Summer 1: Traditional Tales
Summer 2: Beside the Seaside
Provision Areas
Our Nursery is organised into provision areas to encourage the children to develop many different skills. The children are encouraged to explore the areas independently during child-initiated play. We offer the following areas to create a stimulating environment for them to use:
Reading Area
The book area allows children to explore a variety of fiction and non-fiction books.
Interactive Whiteboard
We have an interactive whiteboard in the Nursery to encourage children to develop basic computing skills. The computer programmes we use are fun, colourful and interactive. We also use the internet with the children to find out information about our topics. Saltburn Primary follows strict e-safety procedures to keep our children safe.
Construction Area
The construction area has a varied selection of building materials for the children to explore with. We also have large building materials that are used during outdoor play which support the development of both the children’s gross motor and balancing skills.
The Creative Area
Our creative area includes paints, glue, craft materials, glitter, boxes and much more! The children are encouraged to mix colours, explore materials and develop their use of tools such as scissors and glue spreaders. We always welcome donations of boxes, tubs, bottle lids and other craft materials. Please note that we cannot accept any food boxes that may contain traces of nuts.
Dressing Up Area
Our dressing up area changes regularly to match our current topic. We provide costumes, hats, accessories, props, and masks, to encourage the children to develop their role play and storytelling skills. We encourage our children to talk about their favourite characters from familiar stories.
Fine Motor Skills Area
The development of fine motor skills is important in young children and allows to build up the muscles that they will eventually use to write. We provide many stimulating activities such as threading, peg boards and cutting to support them with this development.
Mark Making Area
We encourage mark making in all areas of the nursery. We do however, have a specific area that has been designed to promote this. Our area is stocked with writing tools, handwriting patterns, pencil control sheets and whiteboards. These early mark making skills are the first stages in the progression of writing.
Maths Area
Our maths area includes games and activities that have been designed to develop counting, number recognition, shape recognition and differentiation of length, height and size.
Music Area
Music is an enjoyable activity that we engage the children in daily. We sing rhymes and songs, explore instruments and dance and create actions to different rhythms. The children are encouraged to create their own songs as well as sing and perform traditional ones.
Outdoor Area
The outdoor area is equipped with resources to give the children the opportunity to practise gross motor skills such as climbing, cycling, throwing, catching and building. The
children are encouraged to share and take turns as well as work cooperatively together.
Playdough Area
Play dough is made with the children weekly, allowing them to follow instructions and measure out ingredients. Once the play dough is made, the children can use their hands and tools to roll, pinch, squash, and mould their dough.
Roleplay Area
Our main role play area is a home corner that is equipped with items that most children will be familiar with. This area is enhanced according to our theme. This is to give them a comforting surrounding away from home. We find that the home corner is always a popular choice. We do however have smaller role play areas which we change according to our topics.
Snack Area
The children have a formal snack time where they sit down together to eat their fruit or veg along with milk. They are invited to bring a water bottle which the children have access to throughout the session.
Curiosity Area
Our topic-based investigation area supports children with their development of understanding of the world. We encourage them to ask questions and explain their own knowledge and thoughts.
Sand and Water Areas
Our water and sand areas aim to support children in using mathematical language and knowledge. They are encouraged to pour, fill and empty various sized containers and tubs.
PE
The children will take part in a weekly PE session which will take part in the school hall or the outdoor area. The children will be taught various skills which promote the development of their gross motor movements.
Activities
Each term a different topic is covered. Activities are planned and areas are enhanced to support the changing themes. During each session, the children work independently in the areas and with an adult. We support child-initiated learning and encourage them to lead their play based on their own interests and experiences.
Snack Time
Children will be offered a snack (fruit or veg) and a drink (milk or water) each session. You have the option to provide a snack for your child but we ask that this is only fruit or veg.
We also occasionally have other food when we bake or have food tasting activities, therefore, we ask that you inform a member of staff of any allergies your child suffers from or any food that your child is not to eat prior to them starting nursery.
Toileting
We appreciate that some children may not be fully toilet trained by the time they start nursery, but this would be our preferred choice. If staff are occupied changing a large number of children, this can take away valuable teaching and learning opportunities from our children. We strongly encourage our parents/carer to work with their child to make them as independent as possible when using the toilet before starting nursery. We will of course work alongside parents/carers to support with any toileting issues that could arise or if there are medical reasons involved.
Remember – Accidents can happen! Therefore, we ask that you provide your child with spare clothes and wipes. Even children who are mostly independent with their self-care can have accidents at nursery; especially when they are engrossed in an activity.
What to Wear
Although we do not have a set dress code for nursery, we do have some suggestions:
- Please provide your child with suitable outdoor wear (coats etc for the winter and sunhats etc for the summer)
- Please do not bring your child to nursery in open toed sandals as we have many vehicles that we use during outdoor play.
- Please do not bring your child to nursery in the very best clothes as they will get messy
- A school uniform is acceptable but not compulsory. This is down to personal choice.
- In line with school policy, we ask that hair styles are sensible, no dyed hair or art work cut into the style in forms of lines or squiggles. Long hair must be tied back. We discourage the wearing of jewellery, if children wear earrings then only small studs are allowed.
Rainbow Challenges and Rainbow Targets
In Nursery, we provide our children with a wide range of learning opportunities and experiences. As part of our curriculum coverage, we have different activities called ‘Rainbow Challenges’ for different days of the week,
These are:
Mark Making Monday
Teamwork Tuesday
We Can Do It Wednesday
Ten Town Thursday
Fun Fact Friday
Children who have a second year in our nursery, will receive a range of rainbow targets at different points during their time in nursery, depending on the time of year they start. These targets are to inform parents/carers of how they can further support their child at home with their learning.
Evidence Me! (See what your child has been learning)
In Early Years at Saltburn Primary, we use an online system which will allows us to track and share what your
child is doing in school. This online system is called Evidence Me. This is a free app that you can download via your phone app store. Parents/Carers will receive a sign up email on their child’s start date.
As part of this app, there is a ‘Parent Share’ feature that enables you to view your child’s observations (complete with photos and/or videos) showing you what your child has been learning and the new skills they are developing. You also have the opportunity to upload ‘Parent Postcards’ where you can upload pictures or videos of any learning at home or special moments as a talking point for your child.
Nursery Activity Grids
As part of our curriculum, for each topic we provide an activity grid with suggestions for all areas of learning for our children to complete at home to consolidate learning. In order to complete the correct activity grid at the right time, please ask our nursery staff what our current topics are when starting our nursery.
Autumn
Spring
Summer
Nursery Topic Overview
In addition to our activity grids, we provide a topic overview with the objectives for all areas of learning that will be covered during each topic.
Autumn
Spring
Summer
We are very proud of our Early Years here at Saltburn Primary School and look forward to meeting you!