I I’m I
Nursery
Welcome to our Nursery Class Page!
Meet the Nursery Team
Mrs Taylor
Hello, my name is Angela. The children know me as Mrs Taylor. I am looking forward to spending time with you and your family and I hope you have a fun packed time at Nursery.
When I am at Nursery, I look forward to spending time as a whole group, sharing our adventures, ideas and developing stories. One my personal favourite spaces is the home corner, where I can learn a little more about you and your family. I love that we can create lots of wonderful stories in this area too! One day we might start acting out a story which we may add to the next day and the day after. We have lots of other areas and spaces for you to play and develop your own stories and narratives. I can’t wait to hear the stories you will act out.
At home I have a Grand Puppy who I love to play with and take for long walks in the woods. I like to garden and have an allotment where I grow lots of vegetables. I love to visit gardens too! I wonder what you will like to play with or where might visit?
Mrs Lawrance
Hello, my name is Nicola. The children know me as Mrs Lawrance. I am looking forward to spending lots of fun times with you at Nursery and sharing your own unique and special learning journey with you.
At Nursery, one of my favourite spaces is the art area, as I love being creative as well as getting a little bit messy. Here you will find lots of interesting paints and materials which you can use in lots of different ways. One day we might explore an object, idea or concept, and then we revisit it, deepening our thoughts and ideas. We have a delightful mud kitchen where you can use your imagination and be as creative as you wish and, there are some magnificent muddy puddles that appear from time to time that you will enjoy discovering. I cannot wait for you to join in the fun.
While I am not at Nursery, I have two children, who keep me very busy. We spend lots of our time having adventures and visits lots of exciting places. We like to go on bike rides and I might see you at soft play!
Mrs Thurgood
My name is Vicky. I am really looking forward to spending time making memories with you and your family. Our days will be filled with fun and lots of new and exciting learning. You will make lots of new friends during your time in Nursery, so get ready for your new adventures!
At Nursery, I love to explore all areas watching you flourish and grow. You will often find me sat on the floor playing with you as I love to talk to the you and all the children in nursery. I am very interested in finding out about you and what you like to do at nursery as well as at home . I like to use this knowledge to develop enhancements to our provision that will really excite and engage you. I like the writing area as I enjoy supporting and helping you to write your name. I really enjoy watching you all grow and become more independent. One of my favourite times is during story time – we can share our experiences and what we love doing at home with our families.
Mrs Mortley
Hello, my name is Sarah.
I am looking forward to helping you make the best memories during your time in nursery where you will have lots of fun, making new friends and learning new things.
I really enjoy encouraging children’s creativity and curiosity both inside and outside. I love supporting the children to explore a range of materials and media working together to explore the different ways these can be used to create different effects. Giving children the freedom to explore their own creativity can promote all areas of their learning development in a fun and engaging and supports them in finding their own interests and passions. I am looking forward to seeing where your creativity takes you!
While I am not at nursery, I love to spend time with my husband and two children having days out to the seaside, parks and other fun places. I have a cat called Charlie who provides us with daily entertainment due to his unique character! I can’t wait to hear all about you and your family and listen to all of the stories that you would like to share with me.
A Parent's Guide to a Key Person Approach at St George's
INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
Nursery Curriculum Overview 2025 - 2026
EYFS Knowledge Organisers - Autumn 1
Curriculum Newsletter - Autumn 1
AUTUMN 2nd HALF TERM
Curriculum Newsletter - Autumn 2
SPRING 1st HALF TERM
Curriculum Newsletter - Spring 1
Spring 2nd Half Term
Curriculum Newsletter - Spring 2
Spring and Growing Curriculum Map
As well as Class DoJo, we will be keeping our parents informed of the learning and play that is happening in Nursery. So please keep checking back for all our up-to-date news.
Busy Doing Nothing!
You pick up your child up from Nursery eager to share in their news of what they have been busy doing that day and we are sure you will have heard this word - "NOTHING!". Well rest assure we will reveal the nothing right here!
I did nothing today!
Author - Unknown
When children come home at the end of the day,
The question they're asked as they run out to play
Is "Tell me what did you do today?"
And the answer they give makes you sigh with dismay,
"Nothing, I did nothing today?"
Perhaps "Nothing" means that I read a book,
Or ... with a teacher I got to cook.
Maybe I painted a picture of blue,
Or heard a story of a mouse that flew.
Maybe I wrote in my journal myself,
Or found a great book on the library shelf.
Maybe I helped a friend today,
Or went to my favourite area alone,
Maybe today was the very first time
That my scissors followed a very straight line,
Maybe I sang a song right to the end,
Or worked with a special brand new friend.
When you're three or four your heart has wings,
And "nothing" can mean so many things.
OUR NURSERY ENVIRONMENT
Our philosophy of teaching believes that children can show their learning in 100 different ways, a lot of which is through the arts, play and projects. We follow the seasons of the year and the interests and fascinations of our children. Our children take charge of their learning and we guide them as they use the skills we are learning about - both academic and higher level thinking skills while they play, create, explore and investigate.
We like to think of our classroom as our "third teacher". Parents and teachers are the first two teachers in our children's lives but we also believe that they learn from their environment, Our nursery room is set up so matter where they choose to go, learning will take place! Many areas of interest within our Nursery classroom are invitations to explore! Without any direction from their Nursery teachers, they learn skills through exploring their area. Our job, as Nursery Teachers is to guide and document so that we know what learning is taking place and what their and our next steps will be. Here are some photos of the different areas of interest/learning within our Nursery - both indoors and outside.
SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD'S LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Language Development
Ages and stages (speechandlanguage.org.uk)
Time to Talk - A Guide for Parents
Literacy Guides
Tuning into Sounds - A Guide for Parents
Learning About Print - A Guide for Parents
Toilet Training
A Parent's Guide to Toilet Training
We are aware that an increasing number of parents are struggling with their child suffering from constipation. Please find below a number of leaflets and booklets that you may find useful.
Constipation - Advice Sheet from ERIC
Advice Sheet - Children who will only Poo in a Nappy
When its Good to Go - A Wee/Poo Adventure
Dental Hygiene
Self Regulation
Self-regulation involves children’s developing ability to regulate their emotions, thoughts and behaviour to enable them to act in positive ways toward a goal. The rapid brain development which takes place in early childhood paves the way for the growth of self-regulation, which develops both through the maturing of the brain’s neural systems and through opportunities to practice. It continually develops through to adulthood, with further development of self-regulation taking place in adolescence. Self-regulation is now recognised as crucially important in young children’s development, strongly predicting children’s later success in relating to others and in their learning, while supporting lifelong mental and physical health.
A Parent' Guide to Self Regulation
Promoting Independence - I Can Do It!
Throughout our Nursery Year, we support and promote independence with our children. We will start small building on this to ensure the children are ready for full-time school in September. Each week or month we will be setting “I can do it challenges!”
Supporting Children’s Independence
Being independent has many benefits; the core of which is that it builds self-confidence and self-esteem.
Empowering children to be independent starts as early as Nursery and Pre-school. It also avoids over-reliance on adults, parents or even their more confident peers.
We always start to encourage children to start with something easy and small. We find their discovery of doing things for themselves, soon has a ripple effect. Children enjoy that their actions have an effect which encourages them to do more tasks for themselves.
The key is to forget perfection, as most will struggle with the tasks at first. Our practitioners refrain from criticising and will give positive follow-up such as ‘you’re getting there’. This praise is important as it will keep confidence levels high and encourage children to try again.
Below are different ways that our qualified team will try to encourage independence in young children; all of which can be mirrored at home.
Dressing themselves
We also encourage children to dress themselves. Across our Nursery we promote free flow between indoor and outdoor learning environments. Therefore, throughout the day children will be required to put on their coats and swap between their outdoor wellies and indoor shoes depending on the weather.
Most children struggle to begin with, such as putting their shoes on the wrong feet. Our childcare practitioners will offer encouragement and support to avoid this being stressful and reinforce practice makes perfect.
Washing Hands
Washing hands has always been important. We urge children to wash their own hands from a young age as it is an important independent habit they will practice for the rest of their lives. We make hand washing more appealing by encouraging children to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice, consequently teaching children about the importance of personal hygiene in a fun and constructive way.
Children respond positively to routine, so we encourage them to wash their hands before and after eating, after going to the toilet or playing outside or touching creepy crawlies. Once this routine has been implemented, it helps children use their initiative and in turn strengthens their independence.
Arts & Crafts
Children enjoy lots of arts and crafts-based activities whilst at Nursery. Not only are these activities fun but they also increase creativity in children.
Allowing the children to be creative strengthens decision making skills which are crucial for independence. The children use critical thinking when choosing what colours, shapes and materials to use. Not only does this give them a sense of independence but also a sense of pride, allowing the children to express themselves creatively.
Arts and crafts also help improve fine and gross motor skills, for example simple tasks such as using a pair of scissors or holding a paintbrush can strengthen co-ordination, control, and movement. These independent skills are then transferable to other areas of their life, for example children who mix and pour paint will become more confident in pouring their own drinks, therefore strengthening their independence.
Tidying up
We always encourage children to tidy up after playing with toys or making a mess. Simple tasks such as putting away toys makes them feel like they’re making a contribution to the classroom, which ultimately gives children a sense of importance and helps build their independence.
Making tidying up a routine teaches children responsibility which is also a crucial skill for strengthening independence. We communicate that they are responsible for tidying up their own mess and we give them positive reinforcement when they complete this task.
Furthermore, tidying up helps children understand where things belong so they can learn to independently access what they need during their nursery session
Promoting a Life-Long Love and a Joy of Reading
Learning to read is such an important skill to acquire, opening the door to future learning and success. At St George's Nursery, we are passionate about supporting all children to develop a love of reading books. Our Nursery has a wonderful calm book area with carefully chosen books and props to support storytelling. We also have books strategically placed throughout the nursery and if children are not interested in coming to the book area for a story, we bring the books to them! In this way children soon learn to appreciate the magic of books. These books are changed regularly in response to the children’s interests and learning needs. Each child will have the opportunity on a daily basis to enjoy stories in groups and individually with adults. Children then learn to “read” books by themselves, retelling the stories as they revisit their favourite books.
Sharing books with your child at home is one of the most powerful things you can do to support their learning. You can join a public library and borrow books to take home. We also have our “Bedtime Read” scheme, where your child will choose a book with their key person and bring it home on a Friday. You can enjoy the book together at home and then return it in exchange for another.
Reading at Home and at Nursery
Mystery Reader Programme - Nursery
We are looking for volunteers to help us promote a love of reading through our Mystery Reader Programme and wondered if any parents, grandparents or other members of our Nursery families would like to sign up for our Mystery Reader Programme. If you are already been a Mystery Reader you are more than welcome to volunteer. We would love to welcome you back.
Here's some more information about the programme.
On specific days we will welcome parents, grandparents, older siblings, aunts, uncles, neighbours, family friends to bring and read aloud your favourite picture book, nursery rhyme, poem or non-fiction book to the class. The children love it when their favourite family members are the Mystery Reader and all children benefit from an adult sharing their love of reading.
As this is a mystery, all information must be kept TOP SECRET from your child, including the date you are coming and the book or poem you will be reading. A week before you are scheduled to come in, we will send home a letter asking for five clues about yourself. These clues will be read to the class before your arrival to build up the surprise and keep the children guessing about who are Mystery Reader is. If you need help choosing a book, we are happy to help.
If you would like to take part in our Mystery Reader Programme or know somebody who would like to take part, please speak to your child’s class teacher so that a mutually convenient date and time can be arranged.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to your child’s class teacher.
We look forward to welcoming into our school for this very important mission.
We Recommend ...
Our Top 50 Recommended Reads for Nursery
Our January Book Pick
”The Snowflake” by Benji Davies
High, high up in the clouds a tiny snowflake is made. Perfectly small, fluffy, crystal and white, it tumbles and bounces inside the cloud. But then she begins to fall…
Exquisitely told and beautifully illustrated, The Snowflake tells the tale of one snowflake and one little girl – both longing for something and looking for their own special place in the world. The Snowflake is an utterly unforgettable and classic picture book from the multi-award winning and internationally bestselling picture-book creator, Benji Davies.
LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE BEEN LEARNING IN NURSERY!
Welcome to Spring Term 2025
Sending out Nursery families love, health and happiness for 2026!!
Welcome to Autumn Term 2025
Friday 12th December
Making Christingles
Today we have been making Christingles. We thought we would give you a little information about the Christingle we have made today.
Christingle means ‘Christ’s Light!’ and it is a symbol of the Christian faith. Lots of churches hold Christingle services around Christmas time. The custom of giving out lighted candles in these services began in Germany in 1747 but wasn’t introduced to the Anglican Church in England until 1968.
Christingles are made up of different parts, each one being there to remind us of something:
The orange represents the world.
The candle reminds Christians of Jesus who we believe to be the light of the world.
The red ribbon goes all around the ‘World’ and represents the love Jesus has for us.
The four cocktail sticks are the four seasons or the four corners of the world
The sweets remind Christians of God’s gifts to the world including kindness and love.
Your child’s Christingle has been placed in your child’s pigeon hole along with a Christingle prayer. X
Friday 5th December
Our Christmas Performance - A Wriggly Nativity
Today the children in Nursery joined together with their friends in Receotion for our annual Christmas production. I wonder if you can guess what our production was called. Here’s a clue.
We’re very excited
We can’t sit still.
Yes that is correct - A Wriggly Nativity.
We are super proud of all the children. They were brave and courageous. What lovely singing and acting . Super performances for both productions. We hope our EYFS families who attended had a lovely time and are now singing all those catchy songs.
Friday 28th November
Exploring Advent
This week in Nursery we are exploring Advent. We have been talking to the children about their own experiences of Christmas. The children have enjoyed talking about how their families get ready and about some of their own Christmas traditions. The children have made their own advent calendars. All you need to do is to add a puff of white (cotton wool, tissue paper or just paper) to make his beard by Christmas Day. We hope you enjoy using this advent calendar to help count the days down to Christmas. It also has the added benefit of supporting number recognition.
Friday 21st November
Small World Play
Monday 10th to Friday 14th December
Nursery Rhyme Week
Two Little Dickie Birds
Today we celebrated our last nursery rhyme of the week - Two Little Dickie Birds.
The children had the opportunity to feed the two little dickie birds some worms and explore different types of “beaks” as well as strengthening those all important finger muscles. (Please be assured no worms were harmed during this activity 😂😂) They also made some beautiful dickie birds. The final activity was for the children to construct a hide so they could quietly observe the birds. But things are never quite how their nursery teachers imagine as the children have their own ideas which are usually much better. So some children decided they want to build a safe and cosy home for the dickie birds, whilst others were eager to build a hide and Toby and Summer enthusiastically reacted the rhyme. 🥰😂🥰😂😘 As Nursery rhyme week draws to a close all that remains is for Nursery to get Pudsey ready. xXx
Sing a Song of Sixpence
Today’s Nursery Rhyme of the day was ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’ and in the words of the rhyme here is “Four and Twenty Blackbirds baked in a pie.” Our version, however, does not include a pie but we have making been pies - not with playdough but with pastry! We have also been hanging the nursery washing out and dancing like Blackbirds too!
I Hear Thunder!
Our Nursery Rhyme of the day was ‘I hear thunder.’ Although we didn’t hear thunder we certainly saw and felt the pitter patter of the raindrops. We enjoyed painting in the puddles, painting raindrops on the umbrellas, singing and tapping out the beat of the rhyme using buckets and beaters. We explored how to make loud noises for the thunder and quiet noises for the pitter patter of the rain.
Humpty Dumpty
The children have enjoyed singing Humpty Dumpty this afternoon. We have used body percussion to clap out the beat and enjoyed marching around the classroom. We also enjoyed acting out the rhyme of Humpty Dumpty by building a wall, letting Humpty have a great fall and trying to put him back together again. We also played a Humpty game too which is a little like Jenga!
Tuesday 11th November
Nursery Remembers!
Today, we marked Remembrance Day in Nursery. We talked about the people who help us and all the brave soldiers and why we use a poppy to say “we remember”.
We watched a short animation on CBeebies entitled ‘Poppies’ so the children could understand the meaning behind the poppies and then we looked at all the poppies that grew on the field after the war had finished. We looked carefully at the shape and colour of poppies and created our own poppies for remembrance. The children decided what media and materials they wanted to create. We are extremely proud of their artwork.
We observed 2 minutes silence (which is quite a long time for us) and listened to The Last Post. Some children said that the music make them sad, other said it made them happy while a few thought it sounded like “thinking music.” A grown up kind of day in Nursery.
“At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. “
Monday 10th October
Odd Sock Day
Our Lost Sock Posters. Helping our sad and lonely odd socks find a friend! X
Wednesday 5th November
Celebrating Bonfire Night
Friday 17th October - The Leaf Man
We have enjoyed reading “The Leaf Man” by Lois Elhert. We have used our autumn treasures to design, make and create our very own leaf men. They needed lots of glue to make autumn treasures stick. The story about the Leaf Man focuses on ‘Where does a leaf man go when the wind blows. Do you know?” Perhaps you might explore with your child where their leaf man goes when the wind blows. We would love to read your story.
Friday 10th October - Exploring Autumn
This week in Nursery, we started to explore the seasons. We explained to the children that there are four seasons in a year – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. By reading lots of books - both storybooks and information books - we have explored the season that we are currently in – Autumn. The children have enjoyed exploring their autumn treasures but were curious as to why the leaves were different colours not just green. We have used this wondering to explore why autumn leaves are different colours. We have discovered that the leaves change to red, yellow, pink, purple, orange, brown and gold. As the weather is getting colder and the days are getting shorter, the tree realises it needs to get ready for winter and stops producing food which changes the colour of the leaves.
The children have also explored the autumn objects that were collected at the weekend and we have made an investigation station for the children to explore this more fully with these objects during the forthcoming weeks.
Friday 3rd October - Our House
Today we read ‘This is our House’ by Michael Rosen and then worked into small groups to create our very own cardboard box house just like in the story. We are continuing to encourage the children to work together. Today the children created their own cardboard house, sharing resources, listening to one another, taking on board their friends ideas. It was interesting to see the different approaches the groups took. One group was very concerned about the structural elements of building a house, while another group was very focused about the colour scheme, another was focused on the interior design of the kitchen, another on the gadgets found in our homes while the last group took a very realistic approach. At the end of the afternoon, we had created our very own cardboard street. We would love to hear your thoughts. xXx
Friday 26th September - We are Blockitects
We have taken a little side step from our current topic ‘All About Me’ to follow the childrens’ interests in Nursery and to spend some time getting to know the children, developing those all important relationships that will last their time in Nursery and hopefully, beyond. During the last few weeks, we have noticed they have a passion for constructing with the wooden blocks or with our small construction kits. At the start of the week we have been playing, talking and documenting the children’s creative experiences and we promise to share these with you but today we decided to take this learning a little step further and build a large scale collaborative piece. We wanted the children to play together on the same play experience rather than playing alongside each other. We wanted the children to start to learn the following skills - the importance of listening to each other, the importance of sharing and taking tuns, exchanging ideas and to talk to one another taking on board what they’re friends are saying. Some very bug and important skills. We started by reading the stories ‘Not a Box’ and ‘Not a Box City’, and then we decided to create our very own city creation with all of wooden blocks we have in Nursery.
Friday 19th September - It’s my Birthday!
We have been using our blackberry playdough to make birthday cakes. The children thought they were just playing but it was a lovely opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the children’s knowledge of the number system. Through this activity we learnt all about the following mathematical skills - can the children rote count, are they able to recognise numbers and which numbers do they recognise, can they use one to one correspondence, are they able to talk about numbers that are important to them, are they able to match objects to numbers. As the children enjoyed this activity we will continue tomorrow. xXx
Friday 12th September - This is Me!
This week we have begun to explore our theme “All About Me”. We have begun by exploring our faces and what beautiful faces they are. We began by looking at the features on our face. Our nursery teachers introduced some new vocabulary - foreheads, eyelashes, eyebrows, nostrils as well as learning the location of these features. Our nursery teachers cut up our photos and we had to put them back together. It was a lovely opportunity to look at our faces and explore them in greater detail.
Friday 5th September, 2025
What a wonderful start to another exciting year!!
It has been a joy to start and welcome new families into our Nursery class, at St George’s
The children are coming into nursery for their first day with bravery and courage. We are amazed at their strength of character and are extremely proud of them all. They are settling into nursery life well and it is fantastic to see how they are already building relationships with their peers and their nursery teachers. We have already seen how our children’s natural curiosity have led them to explore both indoors and outdoor spaces, discovering exciting corners, their willingness to try new things and becoming familiar with routines.
We know that some children will struggle to settle into a new nursery environment and it is important to let the settling-in process go at the speed of the child, we ensure all children settle into their new environment as smoothly and as quickly as possible.
We have the most creative and caring staff to help your child blossom in the early years of development and you have entrusted us the big responsibility of educating your children, nurturing and supporting them, and we feel very proud that we can be part of this big step in your child’s life.
A huge thanks to all our families for your patience and understanding. We know this transition can be difficult for parents and can be upsetting seeing your child in distress during settling process. Our team is here to support you and your child during this process.
Our First Few Days in Nursery
Photos to follow
A very big and warm welcome to the Nursery Class 25 to 26
First Day of Nursery - 3rd September, 2025
The first day of Nursery,
Can be hard for Mom and Dad,
Part of you feels excited.
The other part feels sad.
For many years you've held their hand,
And have been their loving side.
Now you know the time has come,
to leave them by our sides.
But it is only for a little while,
As your child will learn and grow.
And at the end of everyday,
They will share with you what they know.
So as you walk away,
Don't worry anymore.
We'll take care of all those precious gifts,
When you leave them at my door.
We realise that the time has come for many grown ups around the world to trust their most treasured gift with complete strangers and you are no different as over the next week many of you will be trusting your special loved ones to us. We promise that we won’t be strangers for long and our nursery classroom will be flooded with 26 besties. We are so excited to make memories, learn lots and giggle the days away.
Our Promise to you is ….
To let them be little
Fill their hearts with laughter
Help them to grow their wings
Nurture their sense of awe and wonder
Inspire them to believe
Teach them to be kind
Care for them like they were our own
We have got this, we really have!
Lots of love from
Nursery xxxx
