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Welcome to Heyes Lane Nursery

Meet the team

Meet Our Class Bears

Within the Nursery classrooms, you will find a class bear. It is Betty and Berties job to keep a careful eye out for the children within their class. Every Friday they will choose a child to go home with for reasons such as : following the Heyes Lane rules, working hard or perhaps accomplishing a personal goal. 

Each bear, their belongings and a diary will be sent home, so that over the weekend you can write and include photographs about the adventures that they had. Our class bears do not expect to be taken to see the Great Wall of China nor a five star stay, a family dinner and a story at bedtime is what they love the most. On Monday morning each bear and their belongings are to be returned to their class so that the class can learn about all the fun things that they did over the weekend. 

Betty Bear

Bertie Bear

  • Autumn

    “Today is a great day to grow” – Welcome to Autumn in nursery at Heyes Lane Primary School. Starting nursery is an exciting time for children (and their grown-ups too) but we recognize that it can also be a big change. Our mission for this term is to ensure that our little learners have a positive transition so that they are ready to learn! At the beginning of their journey, nursery children will become familiar with their teachers, their classrooms, our Heyes Lane rules and their daily routine. We learn all about the Colour Monster and his ability to change colour depending on his mood. Through the story and its colourful illustrations, the children learn about the different emotions and begin to understand that just like the forever changing Colour monster our feelings come and go. As the term progresses, it’s time to sparkle and shine! The children will focus on their families and what makes them unique. As the seasons change children will look for seasonal changes and learn about the different celebrations that happen at this time of year.

  • Spring

    At the beginning of this term nursery children will learn ‘how to catch a rainbow’. We explore the colourful world around us and the children will learn how to sort and mix colours. Our next topic will be ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’, where we become Explorers! We learn about the beauty of nature and learn about different lifecycles of animals. We will also explore the world around us and our school environment. We will learn where Nursery is at Heyes Lane! As we ‘spring’ into a new season the children look for signs of seasonal change and we will go on a seasonal walk to observe the changes all around us. We will become gardeners and scientists as we plant our very own flowers. We will care and look after the flowers giving them what they need to flourish and grow.

  • Summer

    ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star’ – At the beginning of Summer term, we enter a world of song! Children will learn a variety of nursery rhymes to help with their phonological awareness to help them get ready to embark into reception. “I wonder what you are?” A policeman, a teacher or maybe a nurse? We explore people who help us and the different occupations that help our communities. From the city and the suburbs and over to the farm! We will also look at what happens at night time and what happens in the day time! We will explore shadows and how they are affected by day time and night time! We will learn all about farms and we will learn about the different animals we might find there! “Please Miss I want some more!” The children will continue their learning through food, glorious food. Children will travel around the world learning about different countries and their cuisines! As we tease our tastebuds we learn about the importance of healthy eating and begin to understand where our food comes from. To round up our year we will focus on the transition to Reception and we will think about the similarities and differences we might experience!

Curriculum Overview

We know that your child’s first experiences of school will shape their life-long love of learning, so our tailored transition process (Mouse Club) allows for you and your child to visit our school in the summer term prior to your child starting nursery and become familiar with the setting and the members of staff who will be working with your child, it continues into the Autumn term, ensuring that your child is happy and settled within our nursery class.

Throughout their time with us, our aim is for your child to grow and flourish into a positive, active and creative learner who is happy to explore and take risks while learning within the areas of provision.  They are supported in this aim by our nursery teacher Mrs Tomlinson and the nursery teaching assistant Mrs Power, who are both skilled EYFS practitioners.

In our Nursery class, the children are supported and encouraged to follow their natural desire to explore, investigate, make links and succeed in their endeavours to learn through play.  Throughout the year the children will learn about their local community, the environment and the world around them, our bespoke ‘Ethical and Active Citizens’ curriculum helps us to shape the children to become citizens of the future who will become active in looking after the world in which they live.  Our structured routine supports the children to become experiential and independent learners who are willing to ‘have a go’ and take risks within their learning.  Our Heyes Lane ‘Be The Best Me’ bespoke curriculum supports the children in understanding their feelings and beginning to be aware and understand the feelings of others.

Stories, songs and the opportunity to talk and develop key communication skills are key parts of our nursery day.  Early number sense is explored through the areas of provision and forms part of our daily routine throughout the sessions.  Our shared snack times allow the children time to develop their communication and language skills, while also developing their skills of independence and their ability to make choices.  Leadership skills are developed through our daily choice of V.I.P (special helper) who is instrumental in organising snack time.

  • Summative Assessments

    In Nursery, we are continually making observations and informal assessments of the children to inform our future planning and ensure that progress is being made.  At the end of each term all children’s assessments are entered into INSIGHT, our online data tracking system, which allows us to track the progress of pupils across the year, this will inform our future planning to ensure that all children continue to make progress. 

  • Reading

    We love to read in Nursery, and picking up a book to share is a highlight of our day!  Apart from the planned story sessions each day, adults are often found in our Reading area, surrounded by small groups of children who all love listening to stories.  Within each area of provision, there are opportunities to engage with different types of books and explore different themes and stories.  There are ‘breakout’ reading areas in our outdoor area, to allow children to enjoy books wherever they feel most comfortable.

    In the Spring term the children will begin to bring home an emergent reading bookto share with you  each week which will help to develop their knowledge of how books work and develop their comprehension skills.

    If you don’t already have a story as part of your child’s bedtime routine, now is a good time to introduce this – what better way to end the day than snuggled up sharing a story together!

  • Phonics

    In Nursery, we teach the children how to listen to sounds, remember them and discriminate between them.  Throughout the year we work on listening and attention skills, keeping a steady beat, clapping rhythms, identifying rhyme and being able to hear sounds within words.  Our phonics sessions are practical, active and fun.  By the end of the year we will be consolidating the skills needed to orally blend and segment simple words, thus giving your children the foundations needed for continuing their phonics learning in Reception.

  • Helping your child

    Communication and Language is one of our prime areas for learning in Nursery and one of the most important things that you can do to help your child succeed in Nursery is talk to them…talk about everything you can see around you, introduce new vocabulary related to their interests and share books together, talking about what they can see in the pictures and what they have heard as you read. 

    During the Nursery year, we will also send our Home Learning Bags home with your child.  These bags have been created to support children with their acquisition of core physical development, phonic and maths skills.  We would ask that you devote a short period of time, without any background distractions such as mobile phones and TVs, to completing the activities within the bags with your child.  If you have any questions about any of the activities please speak to a member of the nursery staff.

  • Links to website

    There are many useful websites for parents of pre-school children, these are just a few that we feel might be of use to you:

    The following videos will show you how to use the Phonic Playbags that your child will be bringing home.

    Spiders

    Instruments

    Bathtime

    Bear Hunt

    Crazy Custard

    Party Tea

    Space

    Dance Time

    Online safety tips for parents

    BookTrust  – Tips for Reading with your child