Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage
Nursery Information
If you have any queries about Nursery or would like to reserve a place for your child, please visit our Nursery Information page or contact us.
- Nursery sessions run from 8.30am -11.30am for the morning session and 12.15pm – 3.15pm for the afternoon session. Full time sessions run from 8.30am – 3.15pm with provision provided for lunch. Please ensure your child arrives to school on time. This ensures they have the best start to the day and have more opportunities for learning.
- If your child is staying all day, please provide them with a packed lunch.
- PE is on a Monday afternoon. Nursery children do not need a full PE kit.
- Accidents happen! Whilst learning with us there may be times that your child needs a change of clothes. Please ensure that children have a spare change of clothes in school.
- We like to learn outside – in all weathers! We ask that you provide your child with a pair of wellies to keep in school and to ensure that they come into school with suitable clothing for all outside weather including coats, gloves and hats. Waterproof clothing is provided by school.
- Book Share books are changed on a Wednesday. Please make sure your child’s book is brought in on a Wednesday. Books will not be changed until the previous book is returned.
In the EYFS our curriculum is based on ‘Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage’ (EYFS).
There are 7 areas of learning – 3 prime areas (Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Physical Development) and 4 specific areas (Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, Expressive Arts and Design).
At Moorhouse, the 4 themes of the EYFS underpin all our planning, practice and provision – A Unique Child, Positive Relationships and Enabling Environments, which together equal Learning and Development.
We also plan for, observe and assess the way in which your child approaches learning. This is done through the ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’ and we report on this at the end of the Reception year.
The 3 characteristics are Playing and Exploring, Active Learning and Creating and Thinking Critically.
Children participate in daily Literacy, Maths, Phonics and Topic sessions. These sessions are interactive, multi-sensory and adapted to different learning styles.
Literacy sessions are a fun and engaging part of the day where children are introduced to the world of reading and writing. We explore a range of high-quality texts to spark curiosity and develop a love for stories. Through communication-based activities, children build their speaking and listening skills, while shared reading and writing experiences help them begin to understand how language works. These sessions lay the foundations for confident, enthusiastic early readers and writers.
For our Phonics sessions we currently use a scheme called ‘Read Write Inc’. In Nursery, we take part in lots of activities to develop our listening skills and phonological awareness, including developing our language and lots of exploration of stories. We then follow Read Write Inc in the summer term.
In our Maths sessions, children build early number confidence through hands-on learning. We sing songs, play games, and use a variety of practical resources to explore key mathematical concepts in a fun and meaningful way. These playful activities help children develop their understanding of numbers, shapes, patterns, and problem-solving, laying the groundwork for a positive attitude towards Maths as they grow.
Our Topic sessions are designed to engage children in hands-on learning experiences that cover all areas of the curriculum. These sessions focus especially on Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design, allowing children to explore, discover, and express themselves creatively. Through enquiry-based activities, open-ended discussions, and interactive projects, we encourage curiosity, critical thinking, and a love of learning. Children are encouraged to ask questions, investigate, and share their ideas, making learning an exciting and meaningful journey.
All our learning is showcased in our individual Learning Journey folders as well as our whole class digital Learning Journey. We post weekly to Tapestry on a Friday, highlighting some of things we get up to during the week.
Tapestry
When your child starts in EYFS you will be given a login for Tapestry. This is an online Learning Journey for your child. You will get updates with photos and videos of your child’s learning whilst they are at school. You can comment and react to these observations and can submit your own observations of your child’s learning and activities at home. We love to see what children are getting up to and every observation helps to build the whole picture of your child’s learning experience as well as their development.
Please ensure you complete the Tapestry permission form so we can set up your account as soon as possible. The Tapestry app is downloadable on iOS and Android.
Our Current Learning
Welcome back to Autumn 2 and our topic of:
We will discover the world beyond our doorstep as we take adventures into the forest and beyond, studying the world around us and the magic it can contain.
Communication and Language – This term, we will be having lots of fun building our communication and language skills! We will be enjoying longer stories, and working together to remember much of what happens and boost our comprehension. We will be encouraging everyone to actively talk about familiar books, discussing the characters and exciting events to build our vocabulary and descriptive language.
BBC Nursery Rhymes and Songs – click here for access to a wide range of rhymes to practise at home!
Personal, Social and Emotional Development – We will be having fun learning all about ourselves and how to be great friends! We will be exploring our emotions, learning to talk about our own feelings using words like ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘angry’, or ‘worried’, and discussing feelings in more elaborated ways. We will learn how to be a good friend by sharing and playing cooperatively. We will also be working to become increasingly independent in meeting our own care needs, such as dressing and hand washing. Finally, as part of keeping ourselves safe, we will be learning about road safety through games and discussions.
We will continue to enjoy our Think Equal texts, this term focusing on themes of resilience, self-regulation, self-awareness, emotional literacy and mindfulness.
We will also be continuing with our Jigsaw sessions with the topic of Celebrating Difference.
Physical Development – This term, we will be having a great time getting active and developing our bodies! We will be building core physical skills, including developing our large movement, balancing, riding (on bikes and scooters), and ball skills through structured play and games both indoors and outside. We’ll also be focusing on fine motor skills, learning to manipulate and use a range of tools and equipment in one hand, such as paintbrushes, scarves, ribbons, and scissors. It’s all about coordination, strength, and confidence in using our bodies!
We will continue to start every day with a Funky Fingers activity to help develop our fine motor skills and will take part in movement breaks across the day.
Please also start to support and help your child with putting their own shoes and coat on
In PE this term we will be working on Storybook Sports.
Literacy – Our focus texts for this term are We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton and Dear Santa by Rod Campbell.
This term, we will be becoming confident and careful book handlers! We will be practicing how to handle books carefully, focusing on turning pages individually and learning to hold them the correct way up with growing competence. A key focus will be understanding that print carries meaning, and in English, is read from top to bottom and left to right. This knowledge helps us get ready for reading! Finally, we’ll develop our pre-writing skills by practicing to draw simple shapes such as circles and lines and using these shapes in our independent drawings. We will also be acting out and exploring our key texts in a range of different ways to develop key Literacy and Physical skills.
In Phonics we will be working on body percussion and rhythm and rhyme
Maths – We will be having fun exploring numbers, patterns, and shapes! For Counting, we will be practicing our one-to-one correspondence by copying touch counting up to 3, showing these amounts on our fingers, and counting sounds up to 3. Subitising will be a key skill, as we learn to quickly recognise images of 1, 2, and 3 objects without counting, and identify if a group is ‘3 or not 3.’ In Pattern, we will be completing simple daily routines and learning to say what comes next. Finally, in Shape, Space and Measure, we will be exploring, describing, and sorting objects based on their attributes.
Understanding the World – This term, we will be becoming curious explorers as we learn about the world around us! We will be celebrating and recognising special times and events important to us, our families, and our friends by covering exciting themes like Bonfire Night (including firework safety) and Remembrance Day. We will also begin to talk about events that happened in the past as we discuss traditions. We’ll explore the season of autumn, observing changes in weather and the clothes we wear, and talking about what we can see using a wide vocabulary. We will end the term by exploring the festive celebration of Christmas. It’s all about observing, questioning, and making sense of our environment and community!
Expressive Arts and Design – We will be unleashing our creativity through music, art, and imagination! We will be building our colour knowledge by learning to explore and name different colours, and using this skill when creating a painting of an autumn leaf.
In music, we will be enjoying our new Sing Up topic of Travel and Movement as we join in with songs and rhymes and begin to follow the pitch and melody. We’ll also develop our musical skills by learning to play instruments with increasing control and rhythm. In addition, we will be starting to learn and practise songs from our Christmas nativity performance!
Upcoming Dates and Events
Please see the Key Dates document emailed to all parents.
- WB Monday 9th November – Anti Bullying Week
- Tuesday 10th November – Flu vaccinations catch up
- Friday 13th November – Children in Need day
- Friday 20th November – Non-uniform (chocolate donation)
- Wednesday 25th November – Individual and sibling photographs
- WB 30th November – Scholastic book fair
- Wednesday 2nd December – Christmas Fair (3.15pm)
- Wednesday 2nd December – Pantomime performance
- Friday 4th December – Christmas craft parent event
- Monday 7th December – EYFS nativity dress rehearsal (2.00pm-3.00pm)
- Monday 7th December – EYFS reading workshop (3.15pm)
- Tuesday 8th December – EYFS nativity performance (time tbc)
- Thursday 10th December – Learning Journey visit
- Wednesday 16th December – Christmas dinner & Christmas jumper day
- Thursday 17th December – Christmas party
- Friday 18th December – last day of term, children return on Monday 4th January
| Useful Websites | More Information |
|---|---|
| Learners From Birth | Starting Reception – Your child’s journey to school starts at home. |
| Best Start in Life | From pregnancy to childcare right through to starting school, get advice and support for your child’s development. |
| Tapestry | A parent guide for using Tapestry with information and support videos as well as links to download the app |
| What to Expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage | This guide is for parents of children from birth to five years old. It will help you find out more about your child’s learning and development in the EYFS. |
| EYFS Home | Fun, daily activities to try out at home, suitable for children up to 5 years old. |
| Tiny Happy People | Activities and ideas to try out at home with your child |
| Tiny Happy People – Nursery Rhymes | A book of nursery rhymes with a ‘Manchester twist’ to celebrate Nursery Rhyme Week 2020 – try them out at home! |
| Eric | Support for toilet training |
| Speech and Language UK | A site to help support and understand speech and language development |
| Words for Life | Quick and easy tips and activities to discover new ways you could boost your child’s literacy skills while having fun chatting, playing and reading together. |
| Topmarks | A wide range of Maths games covering lots of different areas. |
| Crickweb | A range of games to support different areas. |
| ICT Games | A range of games to support different areas. |
| Cbeebies | Games, activities, stories and more |
| Oxford Owl | A large range of free ebooks available to share together. |
| Blocks Universe | Explore, play, grow – one block at a time |
| RWI – How to say the Sounds | A Parent Guide on how to say the RWI Set 1 sounds |
| Parent’s Guide to RWI | All the information you may need to help support your child with RWI Phonics |
| QR Codes for Nursery Rhymes | A handy visual to find nursery rhymes using your device |
| Parent Guide to Phase 1 Phonics | A guide for parents to support your child in Phase 1 Phonics (Nursery) |
| Top Talking Tips for Parents | Some great ideas to help you get talking with your child. |
| Coram Pacey | Lots of support for parents including how to help support your child as they start school and beyond |
| Speaking Dadly | A superb video on support for Dads in talking to and engaging with their child |
| Rochdale Council Events | A list of all the events and sessions going on around Rochdale that you can take part in to help support your child |
| Early Movers | A website to help you support your child’s physical development |
| Time Together Booklets | The Time Together booklet is a colourful and easy-to-read guide that is full of suggestions for how parents can support their young child’s learning at home. It has been translated into 22 different languages |
| Top Ten Tips for Talking | Resources and support on how to support the development of your child’s communication and language |
| Little Oxford | An app to help support your child at home with games, activities and information about learning. Suitable for 3-5 years old |
| Early Reading Stars | A guide with tips on how to support your child with early reading skills |
| Taste ED at Home | Support with children who have food aversions or are picky eaters – Helping Children to Love New Foods (and Talk About Them Too). |
| Our Rochdale | A site providing information on health, social care, childcare and family services within the borough of Rochdale |
| Our Rochdale – Speech Language and Communication Toolkit | Rochdale’s Speech, Language, and Communication Pathway is a tool for parents and practitioners providing a range of services and strategies available to children pre-birth to 5 years old. |
| Rochdale Family Hubs | View locations, opening times, facilities and information about services on offer at Family Hubs across Rochdale |
| Essential Parent GM Family Hub app for Android | A free app that provides parenting and family support information, including advice on health, development, and local services. Articles and videos are approved by medical experts, and local activity notifications. For Android. |
| Essential Parent GM Family Hub app for iOS | A free app that provides parenting and family support information, including advice on health, development, and local services. Articles and videos are approved by medical experts, and local activity notifications. For iOS. |
