Nursery
Starting School at St. Clement’s C. of E. Primary Academy
Hello!
Welcome to St. Clement’s C. of E. Primary Academy. This booklet is for you and your family. It tells you all about the different things that happen at School. We hope that you enjoy looking through it, and we look forward to seeing you soon when you start school!
Your Teachers are: Miss Peedell and Ms Turek
Your Things
You will have your own coat peg with your name on it. You can hang your coat here.
We will give you a plastic book bag. You will get a St Clements’ book bag when you start Reception. In the classroom you will have a drawer to put your book bag / hat in.
Letters for home will go in your book bag together with your library book when you have one.
Arriving in the morning
When you come to school you will wait on the playground with your grown-up. Your teacher will be in the classroom from 8:30am if your grown-up wants to talk to them. A bell will go at 8:45am and your teacher will open the door.
Morning Snack
During the morning you will be able to have a drink of milk or water and eat your snack at the snack time cafe.
We all have a piece of fruit to eat. This might be an apple, pear, banana or satsuma. The fruit is provided free.
Lunch Time
Nursery will need to bring in a packed lunch from home. We are a healthy school which means children cannot bring chocolate, crisps or things like chicken nuggets/ burgers. We are also a nut free school so nothing with nuts is allowed.
You will eat your lunch in the main school hall, with the rest of your class.
Please make sure your lunch box/bag has your name on.
What will you do at school?
Reading
We hope you enjoy sharing books with your friends and families and are getting to know lots of rhymes.
At school you hear stories every day. The book corner in your classroom is a special place to sit while you are looking at and reading books. There are books about everything- dinosaurs, pirates and trains, fairy tales and super heroes and lots more besides. You can also use stick puppets to retell the stories you know.
Phonics/reading
In Nursery we practise listening carefully to sounds to help when you learn to read. We do lots of rhyming activities and you will start to recognise your name and signs around you. These are the first stages of learning to read. At school we use Read Write Inc to help you learn your letter sounds and names. In Nursery we will learn the picture that goes with each sound and start to identify words that start with the same sound. We also read a story every day.
Suggested game and ideas to do at home:
- Sound walks – what sounds can you hear?
- Sing lots of Nursery Rhymes
- Listen to lots of stories
- Look at and talk about the pictures in the books
Writing
Writing is FUN! In Nursery you will do lots of mark making. We encourage you to explain what your marks are. This is the first stage of writing. We mark make in lots of different ways. We will also help you start to write your name, trying to form the letters correctly.
We write while we play all of the time; in role play, outside and on the writing table.
You will be able to do lots of other activities at school to help with your writing. These include outdoor games, drawing patterns, colouring, making models with plasticine, cutting and drawing. We use playdough to help strengthen our fingers. You may want to practise at home and can use the recipe below to make your own playdough.
Mathematics
Maths is all around us. You can do lots of things at home with your family that will help you with your maths:
- sort blocks by colour and size
- fit jigsaw puzzles together
- learn nursery rhymes and number songs such as "Five currant buns"
- play lots of games where you have to throw a dice and move along a board
- cooking – talk about which things are heavy and light, how much you need, counting and sharing
- talking about your family – who is the youngest, oldest, tallest or shortest
- talk about time using words such as morning, night, yesterday, tomorrow and next week
- at bath time look at which things float or sink; is the bath full or empty?
- when you are getting dressed look at which things you put on first and last, which is the back and front, how many buttons have you got?
- at meal times you can lay the table and make sure you have enough knives and forks.
- when you go shopping you can look at the numbers and look at coins. You can look at the shape, size and colour of the boxes.
In Nursery we practise our early maths skills in lots of ways. You will do lots of exciting things such as singing number songs, counting, comparing, measuring, talking about shapes, making models and describing positions (under, on top etc).
Can you practise reciting numbers to 10?
Can you count four toys when you tidy up?
Physical Development
Nursery and Reception are active every day in the outside area, climbing, and building, riding bikes and using other large equipment.
We also practise fine motor skills by playing with playdough, threading beads and using pencils, crayons and scissors.
Activity Time
At school there are lots of things for you to play with. Here are some of the things you will find:
- dressing up clothes so that you can be a doctor, a princess, a policeman or policewoman or a fire-fighter or even a superhero!
- construction kits to make large models using nuts and bolts
- large and small building blocks and lots of other things to make models
- toy dinosaurs and other animals
- games and jigsaws
- playdough
- a sand tray and a water tray
- a dolls’ house and a garage with play people
- iPads with lots of interesting programmes
- bikes, tunnels and a climbing equipment
- digging area and vegetable patch.
Messy Activities
At school you will be able to do lots of "messy" things. You can paint, stick, make models, use clay and play in the sand and the water. We also have a mud kitchen.
We have aprons and waterproofs at school to try and keep your uniform clean and dry. But sometimes your uniform will get dirty and wet. Don’t worry, this shows that you have been having fun!
Please bring a change of clothes then we can help you change if needed.
All your clothes should have your name in so that they don't get lost or mixed up with someone else’s, as everyone’s uniform looks the same!
Assemblies
The rest of the school have an assembly everyday. Nursery attend special assemblies and have our own prayer and celebration times in class.
Home Time
After a fun day at school, we will share a story and sing some songs. The end of the school day will be at 3:15pm. Your Mum, Dad or someone else you know should wait for you in the playground. Your teacher will make sure they see your grown-up before you can go. You can tell your grown-ups what a great day you have had and look forward to more exciting things to do at school the next day!
Uniform
uniform is dark grey trousers/ skirt/ dress, white polo shirt or shirt/blouse, navy jumper and black shoes (no trainers). Hair accessories should be small and preferably navy blue. You can purchase uniform from most supermarkets. If you would like a jumper with the school logo on you can buy it from Trutex on Erdington High Street.
Please consider whether your child can go to the toilet independently in their uniform (it may be better to avoid buttons on trousers and dresses if possible). Shoes with velcro are easier for the children to manage themselves than shoes with laces.
Please remember to label everything with your child’s name.
Please send in a full spare set of clothes that your child can keep at Nursery in case we need to change them for any reason.
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile
We will take lots of photographs of you and write about all of the great things you do in school. These will go in your very special online Learning Journey. Your parents will have their very own log in to see all of your amazing learning at school and parents will be able to upload photos and information from home too!
We hope this booklet has helped you and your family to know what will happen when you start school.
Remember, when you come to school you will learn lots of new things and have lots of fun with your teachers and your new friends.
See below for ways to contact us and keep up to date with arrangements in the current circumstances.
St. Clement’s Academy, Butlin Street, Nechells, Birmingham, B7 5NS
0121 – 464 – 4652
nursery@stclemce.bham.sch.uk