Starting Reception in September? Here is a link to some good information:

Starting primary school - BBC Parents' Toolkit - BBC Bitesize

Nursery - The Hedgehog class

All About Nursery

We are the Hedgehog class and come to nursery every morning from 8.45am until 11.45am and afternoons from 12.15pm until 3.15pm. Some of us come all day, having lunch in school. 

Before we started nursery we visited with our parents to see what nursery would be like. Then Mrs Griffiths and Mrs Newby came to see us at our homes to find out more about us so they could find out ideas of what we might like to do when we started.

Mrs Griffiths is our teacher and Mrs Newby, Mrs Milner, Mrs Parton and Miss Walker are our teaching assistants, but we call them all our teachers. Mrs Griffiths, Mrs Newby and Mrs Parton are also our key workers. We all have our own key worker who takes extra special care of us and lets everyone at home know how we are getting on. We sometimes also have students that join us every week and join in our fun. 

Mrs Griffiths and Mrs Newby know that we learn through play. They plan lots of exciting activities for us to do linked to our topic, using our super inside and outside areas. Our topics are always based upon our current interests. 

Our topics are also linked to stories or non-fiction books. This way we can learn through whatever interests us, and links to our hobbies and things we like to do at home. There is a plan in place so that during our journey through Hopscotch, Nursery and Reception we experience a range of songs and rhymes, and learn a number of Traditional and more modern stories. In nursery we focus on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Three Little Pigs and the Little Red Hen.

Sometimes we change what we’re doing when something exciting happens like when the fire engine came to school we went to see what the firemen were doing.

We can choose our own activities and all the resources are available to us. We quickly learn where things can be found and where to put them away at tidy up time. If there is something special or unusual we need, our teachers do their very best to find it for us. They also ask us to do some activities they have prepared that help us learn and practice the skills we need, ready for when we are in the Reception class. 

We love to be outside and our adults do too. They make sure that we learn about how our world changes at different times of the year. They take us on trips to crunch in the autumn leaves in the local woods, walk through the fields to see the baby animals in the spring and go to the forest or beach in the summer. We also go on trips as things arise. 

Each week we all take part in ‘Welly Wednesday’, putting on our waterproof suits and doing everything outside. We are now joined by Hopscotch and the Penguin reception class allowing us to work together, sometimes with our family members. We find out about the outside world, creatures and habitats, explore using all our senses, use natural materials to make pictures, paints, build dens etc. Generally, we just enjoy everything on a freer and larger scale.

We have a garden area where we plant vegetables such as potatoes, beans and onions and fruits like rhubarb, strawberries and tomatoes. When the vegetables and fruits are ready we pick them and eat them up.  

We also have a bug hotel, a mud kitchen, Fairy wood to disappear through, trees to climb, a low tree house with ladders and swings, and a wonderful developing woodland with long grass and hidey holes. We can explore and have adventures galore.

We all feel that the most important things to achieve in nursery are making new friends, learning to take turns and negotiate, to be good communicators and listeners, be confident and independent to try out our own ideas and the new experiences that come our way but most of all to be happy!