A Typical Day in Nursery

• Phonics
• Morning and afternoon playtime
• Morning and afternoon snack time
• Discovery Learning
• Stories and rhymes
• A literacy/maths or topic focus

Over the course of the week, the children will also have a focused lesson for music and PE.  To support their literacy and fine motor development, pupils have access to daily 'funky finger' activities as they come into school and have dedicated sessions following 'Squiggle Whilst you wiggle' and 'Dough Disco'.  More information on both these approaches can be found below:

• https://www.spreadthehappiness.co.uk/dough-disco/

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptFAL-eSvxU (Squiggle Whilst you Wiggle)

Phonics

In Nursery, we follow the Foundations in Phonics programme by Monster Phonics which develops speaking and listening skills. Children learn to become attuned to sounds and begin to develop oral blending and segmenting skills. This teaching lays the foundations for teaching of systematic synthetic phonics which the children will begin as they move into Reception.

The government Phase 1 curriculum consists of 7 aspects. Each aspect contains 3 strands:

1. Tuning into sounds (auditory discrimination)
2. Listening and remembering sounds (auditory memory and sequencing)
3. Talking about sounds (developing vocabulary and language comprehension

Aspect 1 – General sound discrimination – environmental sounds

The aim of this aspect is to raise children’s awareness of the sounds around them and to develop their listening skills.

Aspect 2 – General sound discrimination – instrumental sounds

This aspect aims to develop children’s awareness of sounds made by various instruments and noise makers.

Aspect 3 – General sound discrimination – body percussion

The aim of this aspect is to develop children’s awareness of sounds and rhythms.

Aspect 4 – Rhythm and rhyme

This aspect aims to develop children’s appreciation and experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech.

Aspect 5 – Alliteration

The focus is on the initial sounds of words.

Aspect 6 – Voice sounds

The aim is to distinguish between different vocal sounds and to begin oral blending and segmenting.

Aspect 7 – Oral blending and segmenting

The main aim is to develop oral blending and segmenting skills.

To find out more about our Foundations in Phonics programme, please click here.