Starting at Nursery
Nursery Induction Process
Settling your child into Nursery is our main priority and building relationships with parents and carers is key to the success of their transition. Our Nursery teacher and teaching assistant will offer a home visit option for all new starters to the Nursery.
Aims of a Home Visit
- To build up a warm, caring, trusting relationship with your child and with parent/carers before the child starts Nursery.
- To ensure that the child has met staff on familiar territory. This can help the children feel more confident about making the transition from home to Nursery.
- To encourage parents to share with us as much information as possible about their child. This information will help us get to know the child’s needs and to plan an appropriate settling-in programme.
- To get a picture of what the child likes to do at home and what they may need some help with.
- To share the routines and opportunities at Nursery.
- To allow parents/carers to share things in private and without interruption.
Stay and Play sessions
To support transition, parents and carers are welcome to bring their child to visit the Nursery to become more familiar with the setting before commencing their Nursery sessions.
Come and join a ‘Stay and Play’ session!
Attachment boxes
These are special boxes that include items such as photographs of family members to help aid transition and talk of familiar things during Nursery.
What to bring to Nursery
Nursery is a very hands-on environment and at times will be messy! We strongly advise that you dress your child in clothes that are suitable to get a bit dirty. In Nursery we promote independence so please also consider how well your child can manage their own clothes- elasticated waists are ideal! Velcro shoes are much easier for children to do up themselves.
Clothing and toileting
We ask that all children are sent to Nursery with a bag containing a spare change of clothes and if relevant additional nappies and wipes. Bags will be sent home at the end of every session. Please make sure that you clearly label all your children’s clothes to ensure they come home with your child.
Nursery children are not required to wear school uniform; however, many do like to wear the school sweatshirt. All school uniform is available to purchase at the school office.
Please make sure that your child has suitable clothing to access our Outside Classroom in all weathers. We strongly advise applying sun cream on hot days, and providing a sun hat. Even in summer the weather can quickly change, so a light rain jacket in their bag is also a good idea. In cold weather your child needs to have a warm and preferably waterproof coat. Your child’s safety and comfort is always our highest priority.
During the sessions we often have physical activities and equipment, and so we ask that all children wear suitable shoes. Trainers or school shoes are ideal. In wet weather children often come to school in wellies- please provide another pair of shoes for them to change into when they arrive. We also advise that children should not wear any jewellery to Nursery that could get caught on dressing up clothes e.g. hoop earrings or necklaces.
Comforters
We advise that children leave their own toys at home as we cannot take responsibility for them but if young children need a comforter to support their transition into Nursery this can be arranged in discussion with the teacher.
Similarly, we discourage the use of dummies however, there is some flexibility for two-year-olds who depend upon these in times of upset and when needing a nap. We will discuss this with you and agree a plan in advance of your child’s start with us.
Absence from Nursery
If your child is not able to attend Nursery through illness we would appreciate if you could telephone the school office on 01305 783200 before 8.25am every day of the absence explaining the reason for the absence and the anticipated date of return.
If your child should become unwell during a nursery session, we may need to contact you. It is therefore very important that we have up-to-date telephone numbers, including mobiles. The school also sends important information to parents using email/text.
Positive Relationships
Parents and families are central to a child’s well-being, and we really value the importance of good working relationships with parents to ensure all children develop to their full potential.
Parental involvement is an important part of your child’s education and we run several schemes in which you can be involved, which will be explained once the children have settled into Nursery. These include:
- borrowing school library books
- borrowing Story and Rhyme sacks
- borrowing ‘Starting Out’ activity sacks