Nursery News 19th January 2026

NURSERY NEWS

19th January 2026 – Edition 396

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A: Progress so far…

B. What are the children learning about this week?

C. School Rules.

 

A. Progress so far…..

We have been back at school now for almost two weeks. Usually by this time, all enrolments for the Spring Term have happened, and we are well on the way to settling everyone. We do seem to have a number of the very youngest children off with various illnesses, so I cannot say that we are all settled in yet.

We are all really enjoying getting to know all our new pupils. We want the children to learn that all the adults here are friendly adults who are here to help them. We begin by smiling at the children and displaying positive body language, to make them feel welcome. We try to be interested in the children and what they are choosing to play with. We join them in their play and talk gently to them, encouraging children to begin to trust the staff.

These transitions are challenging for children. Before they start nursery, children are used to their family routines, where interactions and organisations are on a much smaller scale. Suddenly, in Nursery, children are surrounded with all these people they do not know, without their familiar toys and surroundings, the noise can be loud sometimes and their familiar grown ups are not around to help them!

Our new starters are looking for their familiar grown ups to come back and collect them. The first few days can be hard, because the children have not yet learnt that their carers will return. When a little time has passed they begin to understand the routine and learn that grown-ups do come back and collect them.

“Is my Mummy coming yet?”

We know parents can find it hard too when your child joins nursery for the first time. It is natural to miss your child and worry how they are doing. We are always happy to take a phone call, and go and find your child in the classrooms and update you about how they appear to be feeling. There is no ‘One size fits all’ solution to settling in children. Each family has individual needs and we do try to support our families individually.

Ultimately, we would like children to feel happy with good well-being when they are in nursery as this is when children become settled and receptive to learning.

 

B. What are the children are learning about this week?

The theme this week is Nursery Rhymes

The children will be learning lots of nursery rhymes this week and they will share their knowledge by making nursery rhyme pages. As the children work they will be taught the words and actions to the song they have chosen. Each page will be collected up and made into a very special book for the children to bring home. This activity will support the children with our learning intention, to recognise rhythm in spoken words, songs, poems and rhymes, increasing phonological and phonemic awareness. Staff will observe and support the children as they make their nursery rhyme pages, focussing on pencil grip and control when making marks.

Our 7C’s learning intention this week if for the children to be able to participate and feel confident in following nursery rules and routines. We have been reminding the children of the school rules and praising the children as they remember that the rules are to keep them safe and help them learn.

 

C. School rules:

We encourage our pupils to be independent children. We introduce 5 simple rules very early on, which we use with all the children. We use positive words for our rules, to remind children what they should be doing.

*Walking feet – We say this to remind children that they should walk carefully inside. We have a long interior corridor, that links our classrooms. It is so tempting for the children to run along the corridor. Other children may exit from a classroom into the corridor and that is when we see a ‘Bump!’. We suggest to children that there is more space outside, including a track. If you want to run, choose to go outside!

*Looking eyes –We remind children to use their ‘Looking eyes’ when we gather for a story time and look at one big book together. We encourage children to look at the pictures and at the adult who is teaching. We teach the children to look this way, to encourage paying attention as they get older.

*Listening ears– Sometimes we need children to listen carefully, for example at going home time, when each child must listen for their name to be called out when we try to match adults to children at the front gate.  We also use the term ‘Listening ears’ if we are encouraging children to pay attention to what is being taught.

*Little voices–  We use this rule to reduce the volume in a workspace. Sometimes at lunchtime the background noise of children chatting together can become quite loud. We remind children to use Little voices so the staff do not have to raise their voices over the children. Children that become excited when taking part in an activity can become loud. Asking for ‘Little voices’ can calm the group.

*Kind hands– Small children who have few words will often use their hands to shove a friend, to make a space to sit on the bench at register time. Some children take part in rough and tumble play at home with family members, but we have to teach them that at school this rough play is not appropriate. We talk about using ‘Kind hands’ as we do not want one child to hurt another.