Nursery

Welcome to Nursery

Our Provision

Nursery at Howe Dell

Our Nursery offers 15 and 30 hour places. To find out more visit our admissions page.

Phonics

At Howe Dell we teach phonics using Little Wandle resources to teach early reading and writing. We begin teaching this within the third week of starting Nursery. The children begin by learning about environmental sounds and build up phonological awareness. By Autumn 2 the children will learn one sound a week, focussing on the pronounciation - phoneme. We teach phonics every session as part of our daily routines.

At Howe Dell we promote life long learning and value the importance in reading for pleasure. All children choose a sharing book weekly to take home. This book is one that the child has chosen themselves and is for adults and children to enjoy and read together; discussing pictures, predicting what might happen next, using different voices for characters or explore facts in a non-fiction book.

To find out more information please visit Little Wandle website for Parents.

Maths

Within Nursery we explore mathematical concepts daily, applying and discussing them within our everyday setting. We believe that it is important that children not only find out how to achieve the correct answer, but also fully understand what they have done and why. We teach Maths through learning sequences, focussing on small step progression throughout the year, deepening understanding and mastering concepts.

In Nursery, your child will learn to:

Make comparisons between objects relating to size, length, weight and capacity.
Select shapes appropriately: flat surfaces for building, a triangular prism for a roof etc.
Combine shapes to make new ones – an arch, a bigger triangle etc.
Extend and create ABAB patterns – stick, leaf, stick, leaf.
Notice and correct an error in a repeating pattern.
Begin to describe a sequence of events, real or fictional, using words such as ‘first’, ‘then.’

Develop fast recognition of up to 3 objects, without having to count them individually (‘subitising’).
Recite numbers past 5.
Say one number for each item in order: 1,2,3,4,5.

Literacy

As well as our daily phonics lessons, we also have weekly texts which drive and motivate our Literacy lessons. Within our lessons, we focus on applying our learnt phonic skills of reading and writing and begin applying these within a variety of different contexts. Within Nursery, we begin this by strengthening our fine motor skills and learning how to hold a pencil properly to aid the development of early mark making. By the end of the year they should be able to write some letters from their name with accuracy.

In Nursery, your child will learn to:

Understand the five key concepts about print: - print has meaning - print can have different purposes - we read English text from left to right and from top to bottom - the names of the different parts of a book - page sequencing
Develop their phonological awareness, so that they can: - spot and suggest rhymes - count or clap syllables in a word - recognise words with the same initial sound, such as money and mother.

Engage in extended conversations about stories, learning new vocabulary.

Use some of their print and letter knowledge in their early writing. For example: writing a pretend shopping list that starts at the top of the page; writing ‘m’ for mummy.
Write some or all of their name.
Write some letters accurately.

Our curriculum

At Howe Dell our curriculum begins in the foundation stage where children first join our journey into lifelong learning. We deliver a wide and varied curriculum. At Howe Dell we use CUSP resources to support the teaching and learning, as well as having ‘flexible weeks’ to ensure that we are able to follow the interests of the individual cohort. Our curriculum has been divided into half termly topics including opportunities for enrichment.

Our child-initiated learning allows children the freedom to explore and learn areas that they have natural interests within. Teachers plan and organise enhancements to ensure that children are constantly learning. The adults within our setting support learning by modelling and using targeted questions. Our curriculum is vocabulary rich and this is encouraged and extended through high quality adult interactions. We offer a free flow provision between both Reception classrooms and the outdoors.