Our Nursery Team
Nursery Teacher: Mrs D Smith (M,T,W) / Mrs N Wood(W,T,F)
Nursery Teaching Assistant AM & PM: Miss J Crow
Welcome
Thank you for choosing Saltburn Primary Nursery as your child’s introduction to school life. We hope that this will be the start of a happy and successful journey for your child.
Organisation of our Nursery
Our Nursery is part of an early year’s unit at Saltburn Primary School. This consists of one nursery classroom and two Reception classrooms. There are also two shared areas; an outdoor area and a quiet/sensory room. Nursery caters for 78 children in total; 39 in the morning session 39 in the afternoon Your child will be offered either a morning or an afternoon place and be given a date to start that will be sometime after their third birthday. Children stay 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 place at our school; you will need to apply prior to them starting school.
School Visit
Your child’s will visit the nursery for an hour, ideally the day before they start. You are invited to stay with them if you wish to, as an opportunity for you to see how your child handles the setting and other children, and to observe the process of our typical nursery day. The next day, your child can start nursery and attend the full session. We ask parents to bring children to the nursery door and they will be greeted by a member of the nursery team.
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
Ourselves
Autumn
Celebrations
Spring Term
Knights Princesses and Dragons
New Life
Summer Term
Minibeasts
Dinosaurs
Year 2 of Rolling Programme
Autumn Term
Circus
Food Glorious Food
Winter
Spring Term
Around the World
Space
Summer Term
Sports
Superheroes
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.
Children will be offered a snack (fruit or veg) and a drink (milk or water) each session. We also occasionally have other food when we bake or have food tasting activities. 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.
Your child will also receive their own personal ‘see-saw’ account. This works as a home/school communication link allowing you as parents/guardians to be able to feed into your child’s progress throughout the year, sharing experiences and achievements outside of school. You will receive tailored targets each term for your child to work on at home. We also provide an activity grid each half term linked to the topic with ideas about support your child’s learning outside of school.
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 busy changing children, this is taking them away from their main purpose which is teaching and learning. We will work alongside you to support this. You are encouraged to work with your child to make them as independent as possible. We ask that you provide your child with spare clothes and wipes. Obviously, some children have medical reasons for not being toilet trained and this is fully understood. Even children who are mostly independent with their self-care can have accidents at nursery; especially when they are engrossed in an activity. We ask that you complete a form to give us permission to change them, should they need it.
Finding Out What Is Going On In Nursery
Your child will be given a ‘Marvellous Me’ code when they have started Nursery. Information about what the children have been doing will be sent out weekly via the app. There is also copies of the long term and medium-term planning on the school website.
A weekly school newsletter is also sent out and you are encouraged to sign up to our online parent mail.
Topic previews are uploaded each half term via ‘See-Saw’.
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 nursey 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.
Other Useful Information
The aim of our nursery is to for every child to be happy and successful. We do however, have one or two rules to keep a calm and peaceful atmosphere.
- Please do not bring sweets or snacks into nursery. Cakes for birthdays or treats from holidays are not allowed I am afraid due to a large number of children suffering from serious allergies.
- Please do not bring toys into nursery. There are plenty of toys already here and things can easily get lost or broken.
- Please provide your own wet wipes, pull ups and spare clothes. We do have spares for emergencies but we ask that you please return any clothes that have been borrowed from us. Thank you! We hope your child has an enjoyable experience here at Saltburn Primary.
