Hello! Welcome to Nursery, also known as Caterpillars. Your Nursery class teacher is Miss O’Toole. Our team of support staff consist of: Miss Perry, Mrs Charman and Miss Hennessey.
Our goal is to create a safe, secure and welcoming environment for each child so that they have the confidence to make friends, learn, play and explore. We can’t wait to get to know your child and we look forward to sharing many new learning experiences with you throughout the year! Please look over our Seesaw and Class dojo pages for regular updates about what we have been up to. It is important that you are connected to your child’s pages so that you can see their learning journey and we can share exciting opportunities with you.
Our time in Nursery is always spent having lots of fun, exploring the indoor and outdoor environments. We aim to help your child become inquisitive, engaged and enthusiastic in their learning. We work hard on developing our friendship skills and language development through carefully planned play based activities.
We invite parents to be a part of your child’s learning and development by providing a variety of different stay and play sessions for you to come along and enjoy your child’s learning with them. Our first stay and play session is around Communication and Language, taking place in Autumn two term. More information to follow.
Nursery Curriculum:
NELI Preschool – NELI Preschool is an evidence based oral language enrichment and intervention programme designed for children aged three to four years in the year before they begin formal education. Delivered within the nursery setting, the programme aims to strengthen children’s early communication and language skills, which are fundamental to their learning, social development, and future educational success.
The programme is centred on high quality shared book reading, structured conversations, and guided play activities that provide children with rich opportunities to develop their vocabulary, listening, understanding, and speaking skills. By embedding language learning into everyday nursery experiences, NELI Preschool creates an engaging and supportive environment in which children can build confidence in their communication abilities.
NELI Preschool adopts a universal approach by providing language enrichment opportunities for all children, while also offering targeted intervention for those identified as requiring additional support. This ensures that children with emerging language needs receive focused assistance to help close developmental gaps before they transition to school.
By enhancing children’s communication and language skills at an early stage, NELI Preschool helps to improve children’s readiness for school, supports positive social interactions, and lays the foundations for future learning and achievement.
Learning Journals:
Physical Development:
Fine Motor Skills: At Gwladys Street Nursery, children participate in the Pegs to Paper intervention to further develop the fine motor skills needed for early writing. Through a range of carefully planned activities, children strengthen their hand and finger muscles, improve hand-eye coordination, and develop greater control when using mark-making tools. The intervention supports the development of pencil grip, dexterity, and precision, helping children to build confidence and establish the strong foundations required for successful writing as they progress through their learning journey.
Gross Motor Skills: Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle is a movement based programme that supports children’s early writing development by combining music, physical activity, and mark-making. The programme helps children develop core strength, balance, coordination, and gross motor skills, which are essential foundations for successful writing. Through engaging and enjoyable sessions, children build confidence, improve body control, and develop the physical skills needed to support fine motor development and early handwriting.
Nursery Timetable: Please click the link below to see our Nursery timetable.
Important Dates:
Please see the table below regarding upcoming events and trips.
| Autumn 1: | Autumn 2: | Spring 1: | Spring 2: | Summer 1: | Summer 2: |
| Stay and play – communication and language. | Trip to the local home bargains. | Stay and play – communication and language. | Reptile visit. | Stay and play – Mathematics/ Literacy | New Brighton Beach trip. |
Behaviour and Expectations: In Nursery, we ensure to follow and adhere to classroom rules and expectations. We ensure to do this by having a structured routine to support everyone to feel happy, safe, and ready to learn. We use kind hands and kind words, listen carefully, take turns, and tidy up when we’re finished playing. By following our routines, we all work together to make Nursery a joyful place to grow and learn!
Attendance: Regular attendance is crucial in supporting your child to develop essential skills. We believe good attendance is essential if children are to be settled and take full advantage of the learning and development opportunities available to them. Our doors are open from 8:30am – 8:40am (morning and full time sessions) and 12:30pm – 12:40pm(afternoon sessions).
Morning sessions start at 8.30am. The gate will close at 8:40am, please arrive as close to this time as possible so no learning time is lost for your child. Your child should be collected at 11.30am promptly.
Afternoon sessions start at 12.30pm. The gate will close at 12:40pm, please arrive as close to this time as possible so no learning time is lost for your child. Your child should be collected at 3.30pm promptly.
Full day sessions start at 8.30am and finish at 3.30pm. Children are able to either bring a healthy packed lunch or purchase a school meal. All children receive either water or milk at lunch time.
Water bottles: Please ensure your child brings their water bottle to school every day, filled with fresh water. All the hard work and learning in Nursery is thirsty work and therefore it is essential the children stay hydrated! Juice is not permitted in school and all water bottles must have a sports screw lid and clearly labelled with your child’s name.
Uniform: At Gwladys Street Nursery children wear a blue tracksuit, consisting of a blue jumper, white polo and blue tracksuit bottoms. These can be purchased on the school website and main office. Alternatively, you can purchase these items from the local shops such as ASDA; they do not have to have the school logo. Alongside their uniform, the children wear black shoes, ideally slip on or velcro shoes are best – this way your child can become more independent when getting changed. Please ensure all your child’s clothing is clearly labelled with your child’s name. At Gwladys Street Nursery, we constantly promote independence. Please continue this at home by encouraging your child to dress and undress by themselves and support them to independently fasten their zip.
Remember to send your child to Nursery with spare sets of clothes (socks, underwear, trousers, top, shoes etc.), especially if they are still learning to use the toilet independently. These spare clothes can be left in a bag on their peg until needed.
Snack: Children have the opportunity to access snack daily. Snack consists of a range of healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables and bagels. Children are provided with access to milk and water throughout the day. Throughout the year, we take part in different baking opportunities and encourage the children to explore new foods.
Outdoor Learning: Outdoor learning is a fundamental part of our curriculum. Children will have the maximum opportunities to develop their exploration and critical thinking skills. At Gwladys Street Nursery, we believe that children should have access to indoor and outdoor learning to help strength their skills and learning. In Nursery we spent lots of time outside developing our exploration and problem-solving skills. We encourage you to please make sure your child comes dressed appropriately for the weather, with warm waterproof coats and suitable footwear (wellies for wet days).
During winter months, please ensure your child has a hat, scarf and a pair of gloves which are clearly labelled with your child’s name. Nursery children have access to waterproof wetsuits and wellies which they can wear when exploring the mud kitchen and wet weather.
Reading: Your child will be issued a ‘reading for pleasure’ book. If you do read the book please make a comment and update this in their reading record. Once issued with a school reading book and record we expect that children bring their books to school every Wednesday, so that the book can be changed to go back out with your child on Friday. If you misplace your reading record or book, we please ask that you speak with your class teacher, additionally you can purchase a reading record for a cost of £5 at our school office.
Toilet Training: By three years old, children should be communicating their toileting needs. We would like to support your child to use the toilet independently if they are ready for do so. If you need any support with toileting, please speak to a member of staff.
Please click on the links below to access more information about Nursery. On this class page you can find essential information, as well as ideas to support your child’s learning at home.
Useful Links for Nursery and Reception Parents
Pegs to Paper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU0MkDspQM8
Squiggle While you Wiggle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptFAL-eSvxU
Liverpool Early Reading Pathway PowerPoint Presentation
NELI Pre-School https://oxedandassessment.com/uk/neli-preschool/
Words for Life by the National Literacy Trust Words for Life | National Literacy Trust | Words for Life
Bladder and Bowl Support Home – ERIC
Top Tips for Ditching the Dummy Tips for ditching the dummy | Toddler | Health for Under 5s
https://ican.org.uk/i-cans-talking-point/progress-checker-home/
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/look-say-sing-play/
Contact information:
If you need anything at all please do not hesitate to contact Miss O’Toole.
Use of social media platforms as communications tools
- Where staff use social media platforms (such as Seesaw. Class Dojo and others), we will expect a professional, courteous and productive dialogue between staff and parents.
- Parents/carers are encouraged to use Class Dojo to message teachers and open a positive dialogue or contact the school office or meet class teachers at class doors.
- Staff reserve the right NOT to respond to messages which are received out of normal school hours, which are sent via Class Dojo
- Staff reserve the right NOT to respond to messages which are inappropriate, offensive, threatening or abusive.
- Parents/carers MUST only message using polite, courteous and respectful language
- Photos may be shared between parents and staff through school’s approved social media platforms – if they are appropriate, non-offensive and celebratory
- Staff reserve the right to log out of school approved social media platforms after school hours.
- Staff will use our platforms to share news, learning, updates, key notices and to share achievements and celebrations with parents/ carers.
- Parents are encouraged to ONLY message on Class Dojo between the hours of 30 and 16.30 on school days.
- Parents must be aware that responses on Class Dojo may be delayed whilst teachers conduct their daily duties and statutory tasks.
- Parents are discouraged from messaging staff on Class Dojo on weekends, after 16.30 and on school holidays. Messages received within these times may not be responded to.
- Teachers may choose to reply to messages outside of school hours, but these decisions rest with individual teachers and may change.