NURSERY DEPARTMENT
Email: hobrien@ryhill.wakefield.sch.uk
Mrs. H. O'Brien Foundation Stage Teacher Miss J. Ludvigsen Nursery Nurse
NURSERY CLASS
We have produced this information in the hope that it will be informative and helpful
Our Nursery school offers part-time education for up to 20 children per session, 40 in total. Children can start after their third birthday, when places become available.
The staff are trained and experienced professionals who will understand your child’s needs and extend their learning through structured play experiences.
Nursery
Aims for the Children
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To Provide a warm secure and happy atmosphere in which children can learn effectively
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To help the children to develop lively, enquiring minds and the ability to question.
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To help the children to develop self-discipline and become self-motivated learners with the ability to apply themselves to tasks and physical skills.
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To help children to develop as moral, caring individuals, sensitive to the needs of others and without prejudice to creed, colour, home-background, gender, race or disability.
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To encourage good relationships.
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To help the children to enjoy, explore, express and appreciate creative aesthetic activities.
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To help the children to develop a high self-esteem and positive attitudes.
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To recognise that children have different starting points from which they develop their learning and to build on what they already can do.
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To help children to engage in activities planned by adults and provide opportunities for them to initiate activities for themselves.
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To encourage the children to be independent and to make choices for themselves thus developing responsibility.
BEFORE YOUR CHILD STARTS NURSERY
You will receive a letter from nursery inviting you to a visit, a pupil’s information form and a questionnaire about what your child can do.
On the visit to school you will meet the nursery staff and we will need to check your child’s birth certificate and confirm the starting date.
When your child starts nursery and is happy to stay with us, feel free to leave them on the first day. Some children take longer to settle and may need your support for several days. We respond to each child’s individual needs.
The session times may be slightly shorter at the beginning of term for new starters until they become settled.
Starting Date (to be completed on the nursery school visit)
SESSION TIMES
Mornings:
Afternoons: 12.30 p.m. to 3.00 p.m.
Please try not to arrive before the starting times as prior to each session the staff are very busy preparing the activities. We do also need to have time for our lunch between sessions.
The library and story sack day is
Friday at
To avoid distress to your child please be on time when collecting them. The staff need to know if anyone other than yourself is collecting your child for safety’s sake. Children should be brought and collected by a responsible adult, never a child.
WHAT WILL MY CHILD LEARN AT NURSERY ?
To socialise with both adults and children.
To share and take turns.
To become increasingly more independent.
To develop skills and ideas.
To enjoy and participate in new experiences.
To experiment and discover.
But most of all to have fun!
MEETING THE NEEDS OF EVERY CHILD
Each child is unique and we hope to meet individual needs by offering a broad and balanced curriculum.
Careful thought is always given to providing equal opportunities and multicultural education.
RECORD OF PROGRESS
Key workers keep records of progress on each child. These records can be seen in nursery on request and they are then sent on to the reception class teacher. Key workers also keep a record of each child’s progress in what we call their ‘Special Book’. Photographs, pieces of work, comments by the key workers and comments from the children are all kept in these books. When the children leave Ryhill nursery they are given their ‘Special Books’ to remember their time at nursery.
YOU HELP YOUR CHILD BY:
Dressing them in clothes suitable for messy activities.
Being prepared to stay until they have settled.
Talking about things they will enjoy doing at school.
Making sure they have shoes with non-slip soles.
Making sure they have clothes which are easy to manage at the toilet.
Putting their name in their coat, jumpers, cardigans etc.
Letting us know if your child cannot attend for any reason.
Volunteering to help with library or other nursery activities.
Saving cereal boxes, egg boxes, kitchen roll tubes, (but not toilet roll tubes) yoghurt pots for use in the workshop.
Supporting fund raising efforts and giving a weekly contribution of 20p to school funds on Fridays.
These pay for: Baking ingredients. Seasonal celebrations. Play dough. Visits and special events.
Read the half-termly newsletters which give parents information about the curriculum for the following half-term and how parents can enhance the school curriculum at home.
IF YOUR CHILD IS ILL OR ABSENT
School should be informed about any absence, preferably on the first day. Registers have to be coded with a reason for each absence. If the school is not informed, then this is regarded as an unauthorised absence.
Children should only return to school after an illness when they have been completely well and eaten normal meals for a 24 hour period, particularly in cases of sickness/diarrhoea.
LIBRARY AND STORY SACKS
Sharing books with your child is a very valuable experience. Research has shown that children who regularly have books read to them can become successful readers themselves often at quite an early age.
By joining our library, you can offer your child a wider variety of books and story sacks. Details of the school library and story sack lending system will be given when your child starts school.
It is important to take care of our books as they are very expensive to replace, so we do ask you to always provide a bag to protect the book on its journey to and from school.
BEHAVIOUR POLICY
Our school is happy, friendly place where children are encouraged to be kind to everyone. “We’re all friends at nursery – we don’t hurt each other” is our most basic rule.
Children learn more from observing what we do rather than listening to what we say, therefore we try to teach tolerance, patience, generosity and respect for people and property by example.
Until children learn to love and respect themselves they cannot care for others and be supportive of them, so we aim to develop their self-esteem by offering opportunities for success. We always reinforce good behaviour by praise.
We aim to teach children to co-operate and take turns thus avoiding conflict.
As a last resort, for persistent unacceptable behaviour children will be made to sit for ‘time out’ for a short while.
We hope to foster a partnership with parents to achieve our aims.
The nursery staff aim to provide a happy, safe, secure environment, in for what some children will be their first experience of separation from home for a prolonged period of time, as well as a broad and balanced curriculum which fosters the needs of the physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, moral, social and cultural developments of our children. We endeavour to provide these facilities and opportunities in an atmosphere, which is not prejudiced towards creeds, colour, home-background, gender, race or disability. We will also have regard for the linguistic, religious and cultural needs of all our children.
THE CURRICULUM
We aim to provide continuity and progression for each individual child’s stage of learning, to offer a differentiated curriculum, providing sufficient challenge to motivate pupils in a relevant and meaningful way. We aim to develop our children’s attitudes, values, knowledge, educational and social manner.
We aim to provide all our children with the opportunity to take part in conversations, communicate with others in imaginative play, listen to stories, sing songs and enjoy poems. We give them the opportunity to handle, look at and enjoy books, share reading, write, draw and paint and write their own name. Talking is a vital everyday experience, all our children have the opportunity to speak and to be listened to as well as listen attentively. We always take into consideration the needs of the children who speak English as a second language.
We aim to develop each child’s mathematical understanding, their creative and physical abilities as well as their knowledge and understanding of the world.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Social development is a central feature of the child’s whole education particularly in the early years. The quality of relationships is critical in forming children’s attitudes of co-operation, good social behaviour and self-discipline. We endeavour to teach the respect of different cultures and customs and beliefs of all our children, with the assistance and co-operation of the child’s family, artefacts, photographs, food, clothes and pictures.
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
We endeavour to foster good relationships with all our parents offering a partnership to work together with our main aim being the happiness, security, safety as well as the social and educational welfare of children. In working in partnership with the parents we hope to enable each child to make an effective and happy transition from home to school.
THE FUTURE
All our children are special people in their own way and are treated as such. We respect our children and build upon the experiences which they bring into the nursery, we nurture them as individuals and not as a group of children. The nursery staff are laying the foundations for the children’s social and educational futures, we are totally committed to ensuring that the foundations are solid.
TRANSITION POLICY TO SCHOOL
The term before children enter into full time education, they are encouraged to visit the reception class during the nursery sessions and participate in activities and have the opportunity to go to assemblies.
Parents will have the opportunity to meet their child’s new reception teacher to discuss any issues they may have.
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FINALLY
The staff are here to help you, so please feel free to ask questions if you are unsure about anything.
We enjoy coming to our nursery and we hope you and your child will too.
