Owlets Nursery Class

Welcome to Owlets Class

Miss Pritchard will be teaching Owlets Class everyday. Ms Tolley will be supporting every day.

We will use this page to share important information with you. You can find out what your child is learning in school, what they need to bring, and any special dates to remember.

Please check this page often to help you stay up to date. If you have any questions, you can always talk to us at the classroom door, or contact us through the school office.

 

What do you need to bring to school?

            

                                         Water Bottle              Coat                                   Spare Clothes

 

Our Week:

Monday	Cooking
Tuesday	Gardening
Wednesday	PE
Thursday	Forest Area
Friday	Music

 

Dates to remember:

Thursday 25^th June- 1:45-2:45 Parents Open Afternoon (Parents are invited to come in to school to celebrate their child’s learning) 

Thursday 2^nd July- Sports Day 

Friday 17^th July- Leaver’s Service in Church 

Friday 17^th July- Last day of term 

 

How can you help your child at home?

Parents can support their nursery child's learning and development at home in many simple ways through everyday activities. Reading together regularly helps to develop language, communication, and a love of books, while talking about daily experiences encourages children to express their thoughts and build their vocabulary. Children can develop early maths skills by counting objects, recognising shapes and colours, and spotting patterns during play and routine activities. Providing opportunities for active play, drawing, colouring, and building helps to strengthen both gross and fine motor skills. Parents can also encourage independence by allowing children to dress themselves, tidy up their toys, and help with simple household tasks. Creative activities such as painting, singing, dancing, and imaginative play support children's confidence and self-expression. Exploring the local environment, visiting parks and libraries, and following children's interests helps them learn about the world around them. Establishing positive routines for sleep, meals, and daily activities provides security and consistency. Most importantly, spending quality time together, playing, talking, and showing interest in a child's learning helps them feel valued and supports their overall development.

What have we been learning in Nursery?

The children in Nursery have had lots of creepy crawly fun this half term exploring the fascinating world of minibeasts. From spiders to ladybirds, caterpillars to worms and many, many more the children have loved the wide range of hands-on minibeast activities linked to our topic. Highlights were cooking up tasty minibeast inspired bakes, collecting wiggly worms for our wormery and the many bug hunts around the forest area and in the garden. Our classroom display is bursting with colourful minibeast art created by the children. The garden has given us such enjoyment as we have grown and cared for our flowers and vegetables with Dr Bob - we are excited to continue observing their growth throughout the rest of the Summer term.

 

Beautiful work – mark making:

Mark making is an important part of learning and development in Nursery, as it helps children begin to understand that marks, symbols, and drawings can represent meaning. Through activities such as drawing, painting, scribbling, and making patterns, children develop the fine motor skills needed for later writing. Mark making also encourages creativity, communication, and self-expression, allowing children to share their ideas, experiences, and imagination. By providing a range of opportunities and resources for mark making, adults support children's confidence and lay the foundations for early literacy and writing skills.

 

Maths-Key Instant Recall Facts:

Subitising is the ability to recognise the number of objects in a small group without needing to count them individually. For example, when a child sees three dots on a dice and instantly knows there are three, they are subitising. This important early maths skill helps children develop number sense, understand quantity, and build strong foundations for counting, addition, and subtraction. In Nursery, children develop subitising through games, songs, dot patterns, dice activities, and everyday opportunities to notice and talk about small groups of objects. By encouraging children to recognise amounts quickly, adults support their confidence and fluency with numbers.

Our Owlets Nursery Class is a teacher-led setting, taking children from the age of 2 years old up until they join Reception Class.  Funded hours for 2 year olds (if eligible) can be used from the term following their 2nd birthday and funded hours for 3 year olds (15 or 30 hours per week, dependent on eligibility) can be used from the term following their 3rd birthday.  Parents / carers can also pay privately for additional top-up hours, or for their child to attend after their 2nd or 3rd birthday, prior to their funded hours activating at the start of the following term.

Our Nursery children are also able to take advantage of our fabulous Wraparound provision, Lindkidz.  They are open before school from 7.30am and after school until 5.30pm.  Funded hours can be used for wraparound care, or this can be paid for privately. 

Children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, learning in our Nursery classroom ‘Owlets’, the dedicated outside area, and Forest School.  Learning opportunities focus on the children’s interests and balance the chances to collaborate, explore, discuss, investigate and create independently, with teacher-led specific teaching sessions to support the acquisition of new skills and knowledge.  We teach our children to have a sense of responsibility for themselves, other people and the environment.  We know every child as an individual and the creation of strong and positive relationships with parents, carers and families is a central part of this.

Please telephone 01584 881466 or email office@lindridge.worcs.sch.uk for up to date information on place availability.  We welcome visits to our setting, and offer taster sessions to make the transition to Nursery class as smooth as possible.  Please call or email if you would like to arrange a visit; we’d love to see you.

Early Years Curriculum

At Lindridge St Lawrence CE VA Primary we believe that a high-quality teaching within the early years setting should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to participate, play and learn. As children progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of the 7 main areas of learning.

• Personal, social and emotional development (prime area)
• Communication and language (prime area)
• Physical development (prime area)
• Literacy (specific area)
• Mathematics (specific area)
• Understanding of the world (specific area)
• Expressive arts and design (specific area)

The 3 prime areas of learning are particularly important for learning and forming relationships and building a foundation for children to thrive and providing the basis for learning in all areas. The 4 specific areas help strengthen and develop the three prime areas, and ignite children’s curiosity and enthusiasm. All areas of learning are interconnected.

The Early Years department is divided into two classes. Owlets is a Teacher Led Nursery class and teaches children from the age of two until they start Reception. Hedgehogs is the Reception class for children aged four and five years old. Both classes have an outdoor classroom where the children can learn and have meaningful interactions with trained staff.

Our curriculum which encourages the children to Discover Life in all its Fullness is delivered through a range of different approaches. These include: learning through play; modelling by adults; collaborative learning through children working together and observing each other and through adult-guided learning. Continuous provision allows the children to take ownership of their own learning and gives them opportunity to enter deeper learning. In planning and guiding what children learn, teachers reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and adjust their practice appropriately. Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:

• Playing and exploring (children investigate and experience things and “have a go”) 
• Active learning (children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy achievements) 
• Thinking critically (children have develop their own ideas, make links between ideas and develop strategies for doing things) 

Each class has an indoor classroom and a dedicated outside early years classroom and the focus is on allowing the children to develop through positive interactions with staff in a secure environment. We also make use of our beautiful school grounds with weekly outdoor learning sessions.

Adult-led teaching activities are also an integral feature of our EYFS curriculum.  In Owlets the children are taught both the prime and specific areas during carpet time and during meaningful interactions during play. In Hedgehogs the children are taught phonics, writing and mathematics daily and have structured RE, PE, music, humanities, science and PSHE lessons throughout the week.