Nursery brochure
Contents
Page
Welcome to Furzedown Nursery 3
Our aims in the Nursery 4
Starting Nursery 5
Learning in the Nursery 6 & 7
Parental Involvement 8 & 9
Things to Remember 10 & 11
Preparation for the Reception Class 12
Furzedown Primary School
Beclands Road, SW17 9TJ
Tel. 020 8672 3480
Headmistress Mrs. M. Kitchlew-Wilson
Deputy Head Ms. C. Heywood
Nursery Teacher Mrs. S. Swan
Nursery Nurse Mrs. C. Tweedley
Welcome to Furzedown Nursery
Our Nursery class is situated at the end of the main school building and is a self-contained unit next to one of the Reception Classes
We have our own cloakroom and toilet facilities. A fenced off playground with fixed playhouse and climbing frame all on safety surfaces, for all of the children in the foundation stage, (nursery and reception.)
Although a self-contained unit we are very much a part of the School and join in most of the events that happen within School.
The Nursery operates in 2 sessions - morning and afternoon with 26 children attending each session. There are some full-time places offered each year to children and parents who fulfil the criteria. All full-time children have school dinners, which are delivered to and served in the Nursery.
Nursery times:
A.M. session P.M. session
Monday - Friday 8.30 – 11.30 12.00 - 3.00
Our Nursery is run by very experienced staff, a trained Teacher and two N.N.E.B. qualified Nursery Nurses. As well as these permanent staff we often have Student Teachers, NVQ students and Work Experience students joining us to work with the children.
Our registers are always full and we have a long application list for places. Names can be registered on the application list when a child is 2 years old. When registering parents are required to provide proof of address.
Children enter Nursery in the September of the school year when they are 4 years old.
Once you have been offered and accepted a Nursery place for your child, the Nursery Teacher will arrange a convenient time for a Home Visit to meet you and your child in your home environment.
Our Aims in the Nursery
The Nursery aims to help all children to develop and enjoy learning, through enquiry as well as direct teaching. To gain confidence and independence and to recognise their own importance as individuals and equally the importance of others including those of different gender, race and culture.
The Nursery aims to provide a stimulating and caring atmosphere where planned and monitored indoor and outdoor activities are provided.
We aim to provide a broad and balanced curriculum at a level appropriate to the age group. Each term we focus on a topic around which a lot of our work is based, i.e.: Myself, Growing, Transport. All areas of the curriculum are planned in detail on a termly forecast. A yearly overview is available for you to read on the Web site. fronter.com/wandsworth. Username=schoolparents Password=furzedown.
Nursery children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum based on the six areas of learning:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Communication, Language and Literacy
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
Physical Development
Creative Development
Knowledge and Understanding of the World.
Starting Nursery
It is impossible to gauge how quickly a child will settle at Nursery and occasionally it is can be an upsetting time for both child and parent alike. We want all children and adults to feel safe and comfortable as soon as possible and work towards this. We encourage parents to work with us to achieve this.
Please be flexible especially during the first week that your child is in the Nursery. Some children will need a parent to stay longer and some will settle quickly and then days and weeks later show some sort of reaction.
The law states that Nursery children and all children up to the age of 8 years must be brought to school and collected by an adult.
So please do not encourage older brothers and sisters attending Furzedown School to try and collect the nursery children. They will not be allowed to do this.
If you are unable to collect your child, please tell your child and introduce the adult collecting to a member of staff, if possible. If this is not possible please make sure that a member of the Nursery team knows who will pick your child up.
Arriving at Nursery on time is very important, as is prompt collection at the end of a session. At this age children are beginning to be aware of the passing of time and good habits are being formed. For the same reason it is important that good attendance is maintained. If you are unexpectedly held up and will be late to collect your child, please telephone school to warn us of your late arrival so we can prepare your child, as children worry and can get very upset when they see all their friends going home and they are left.
Full-time children are expected to bring their dinner money weekly on a Monday and hand into the office. Cheques can be paid in advance for a term or half-term at a time. Parents are encouraged to claim for Free School Meals if they are entitled to them.
It is Wandsworth’s policy that if school meals are not paid for then they are not provided. If there are problems please seek advice in the office.
Learning in the Nursery
Children arrive in the Nursery at very different stages of development, physically, linguistically and conceptually. When children arrive at school our first priority is to see that they settle and are happy and secure.
In the Nursery we aim to develop the whole child not just concentrating on the more formal skills, i.e.: language, mathematical and scientific skills, but to work on emotional, social, behavioural and physical skills which are often more difficult to monitor and record but at this age necessary to foster attitudes essential for future learning.
Children will develop in all areas at different rates and our activities are planned and differentiated to allow children to achieve their potential at their level. Some children may not reach very far along the continuum of more formal activities, i.e.: writing and reading, but are gaining the fine skills and pre-reading skills needed to tackle them.
Children will not read just because adults tell them that it is important. They have to be convinced by being given access to books they like and seeing parents, other adults and other children reading for pleasure. In the Nursery, the book corner provides a book, a person and shared enjoyment. Stories and Nursery rhymes are an essential link between learning to talk and learning to read.
The child learns to take care of the books and how a book works, they learn to turn the pages and look on the left-hand side after the first page. They discover that the print represents the words just like the bricks in the brick corner can represent a car, or a junk model that they have made represents a rocket going to the moon.
Once this idea of one thing standing for another (a symbol) is established, the child is ready not only to begin to read, but to begin to understand mathematics.
Many of the day-to-day activities in the Nursery (puzzles, lotto games, crafts, etc.) are designed to aid visual and auditory discrimination - another pre-requisite necessary for reading.
Through play, children encounter many new ideas. Some of these ideas (or concepts) are essential for the later understanding of maths.
A simple example of a concept is matching. In the Nursery many opportunities are given to the children to absorb these ideas through play:
one carton of milk needs one straw
one blue cup needs one blue saucer
one person in the home corner having a pretend meal needs one plate, one knife, one fork and one spoon
one button needs one buttonhole, etc,
This is why matching is sometimes called one-to-one correspondence.
Without this concept, the business of counting becomes meaningless. Many children can count up to 10 when they first come to Nursery, but when asked to bring, for example, 5 aprons, 6 spoons or 3 straws, they are unable to produce the right number.
Much of our equipment (toys!) in the Nursery is designed to help the children progress through the stages leading to numeracy.
Writing is fostered through developing fine skills, i.e. modelling, painting, drawing, tracing, writing patterns and emergent writing. When writing their names, children are taught to form the letters correctly from the beginning and taught the ‘Simple Modern’ style of handwriting.
Parental Involvement
A parent is a child’s first and most important teacher. Here are a few examples of things that you can do with your child at home:
* Talk to your child.
* Listen to what your child has to say.
* Read stories, sing Nursery rhymes, go to the library, watch appropriate TV programmes with your child, and encourage them to talk about what you have been watching.
* When getting meals ready, let them count plates, knives, forks, etc.
* When shopping, count items in the basket, let them handle the money.
* Dressing and undressing - think about their clothes, can they put them on and take them off themselves? (Tight jeans and dungarees are very difficult for young children to manage themselves). Encourage your child to do as many of these tasks as possible.
* Let them play with water - at bath time - washing up.
* Let them help with cooking, watch you weighing and measuring - seeing the changes ingredients undergo when subjected to heat, cold, etc. (science).
* Encourage them to look at things inside and outside the home, to learn colour names, to notice and name shapes, to compare sizes (tall/short - wide/narrow, etc,) and to touch and express how things feel (hard/soft - smooth/rough, etc.)
* If encouraging them to write please do not teach them to write in capital letters. Once they have learnt to write their name in capitals it is hard to undo this.
Parents are encouraged to stay in the Nursery whenever they have time to work with the children. You might like to read to a small group, play table top games, to take a cookery session or be involved in a creative activity or simply be another adult for the children to relate to. All the children benefit from extra adults in the Nursery. Don’t worry if you have a toddler or baby, the Nursery children love having them around.
The important thing is that you feel we are a partnership and that we all want to give your child the best possible start to their school life.
PTA
All parents in the school automatically become members of the Parents Teachers Association.
The P.T.A. work hard to provide extras for the school by fund-raising whilst holding social events for the school throughout the year.
Please try to play and active part and support it.
Information for Parents
Throughout the year monthly parents newsletters are sent out informing parents of forthcoming events. These are also published on the website and displayed on the numerous notice-boards around the school
We have information and policy documents available in the School Foyer, you are very welcome to come and browse.
Things to remember
Please dress your child in practical, comfortable clothes. Remember they are coming to school to work and they don’t want to have to worry about spoiling best clothes.
We have aprons for painting activities and for water play, but children sometimes do manage to get paint or glue on themselves. Fortunately, we have a good supply of spare clothing, donated by parents, which we can use in an emergency. If your child uses them can you please wash and return them to us for future use.
Shoes should be practical and suitable for running and climbing. Please avoid shoes which may have slippery soles and others that may slip off easily.
If the shoes fasten with buckles or Velcro, rather than laces, then the children are more able to cope with fastening them themselves, thus giving a feeling of independence.
When buying winter coats, please avoid coats with hanging toggles as they are a danger on climbing apparatus and bikes.
By the time your child begins in the Nursery they should be able to toilet themselves and be able to clean themselves when using the toilet. In the weeks leading to admission, please ensure that this is the case, as it is very important for the child to feel confident in this area. Of course, we don’t worry about the occasional accident - they happen to the best of us! - and if you feel that your child will be able to manage but may need reminding to go to the lavatory, then please let us know and we will try to avoid accidents happening.
If your child is unwell or absent for any reason, please ring and leave a message with the School Office. All reasons for absence have to be recorded in the Nursery Registers, therefore a note is required for all periods of absence.
If your child needs any medication administered during the school day, please complete the medical forms in the nursery before it is to be administered.