Email: primary@selwyn.waltham.sch.uk | Telephone: 0208 527 3814
Nursery
Nursery Parent Handbook 
Dear Nursery Parents/Carers,
We aim to use our broad and robust curriculum to ensure our children acquire knowledge in a sequential way that allows them to become confident and resilient, 21st century learners.
Our curriculum layout clarifies the end points that all children should achieve at the end of the week, term and year. We know how important it is that children are able to see the big picture of whatever they are learning and have broken our curriculum into manageable composites and components of knowledge blocks. As a progress model, our curriculum is sequential and ensures cumulative layers of knowledge. This enables our children to develop the dispositions that allow them to confidentially approach and tackle problems.
Nursery Curriculum
| Subject | Term | 2-year-olds | Nursery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mathematics | Autumn | Developing counting behaviours | Number recognition and place value |
| Spring | Developing counting behaviours and recognising objects up to 3 | Develop number fluency including chanting and recognise shapes | |
| Summer | Developing counting behaviours and recognising objects up to 5 | Develop fluency, sort different shapes and compare different quantities | |
| Reading | Autumn | Sustain interest in stories | Develop pleasure and motivation to read |
| Spring | Sustain interest and begin to retell parts of stories | Being motivated to read and understand meaning | |
| Summer | Sustain interests in narratives and then join in | Develop pleasure to read | |
| Phonics | Autumn | Blend and segment orally | |
| Spring | Blend for reading | ||
| Summer | Blend for reading and segment for writing | ||
| Grammar | Autumn | Begin oral construction of simple sentences | Develop simple sentences orally |
| Spring | Speaking audibly | Increase understanding of standard English | |
| Summer | Oral construction of sentences with fluency | Speak with increased accuracy | |
| Understanding the World | Autumn | People, families and roles in society | People and families have roles in society |
| Spring | Language for food, materials and sustainability | People, culture and communities | |
| Summer | Explore and understand the natural world | Natural world, countries and continents of the world | |
| Expressive Arts and Design | Autumn | Be expressive, imaginative and curious | Expressive, imaginative and curious |
| Spring | Create and innovate | Create and innovate | |
| Summer | Expressive, imaginative and confident | Create and showcase art | |
| Communication and Language | Autumn | Listen with interest | Listen and contribute |
| Spring | Listen and respond | Build vocabulary, ask and answer questions | |
| Summer | Listen and respond in simple sentences | Use vocabulary to describe, explain and respond to questions | |
| Physical Development | Autumn | Develop strength with fine and gross motor skills | Develop motor skills |
| Spring | Strengthen motor skills and being active | Build strength and coordination | |
| Summer | Develop resilience and physical strength | Movement and coordination | |
| Personal, social and emotional development (PSED) | Autumn | Understanding self and others | Understanding own feeling and others |
| Spring | Being safe and healthy | Managing own feelings and being healthy | |
| Summer | Being considerate | Healthy relationships |
Healthy eating
We encourage our children to eat healthily, we have subscribed to Food for Life to work with us to ensure our food takes sustainability into account. We have designed our curriculum to ensure that we teach children how to grow, cook and eat seasonal food that are mostly locally sourced. Please join us in monitoring what children bring into school for their packed lunch.
Charity work
As we emerge from the pandemic, there has never been a time when supporting charities has been more relevant. We want to continue showing our support for cancer and heart charities to name a few. We have local soup kitchens, residential homes for the elderly, hospices and lots of our local community that need our support. We will appreciate your support in carrying out this vital work and highlighting the need to serve the community to our children.
Sustainability
Our world needs children who understand and share the passion to save it from the climate emergency it faces. We want to highlight reusing and recycling in all we do at school and beyond the school gates. The children will be learning a lot about the effects our actions on the earth. They will be looking at litter, water usage and energy use, please join us in this drive. The curriculum ensures our children understand the consequences of travel and the food they eat.
Remote learning
To ensure that children do not miss out on their learning during days off sick or isolating due to covd-19, we use google classroom as an online platform for remote learning. Over the next week, we will be giving your child their login details, if they do not already have it, so that they can access google classroom. We use this platform when teaching remotely, in the case of self-isolation, and to upload weekly homework. Your child will be able to access their homework on a Friday and will need to complete it by the following Thursday. Homework can be completed either in the homework book provided or online.
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum, we want our children to read widely for pleasure. Children will bring a book home each week as part of their homework. We ask that you please read with your children daily and record your comments in the reading record provided. Books are changed every Thursday. As there are opportunities for us to hear your child read at school, we ask that they bring their reading books in each day with them.
We look forward to working closely with you over the year to support your child’s progress. If you wish to contact your child’s teacher please do so using the email address below.
constance.amankwah@selwyn.arboracademytrust.co.uk
aisha.kaweesi@selwyn.arboracademytrust.co.uk
Regards,
Jason Cook
Executive Principal