Latchmere School

Nursery

Autumn Term

We hope that you had a lovely Summer and would like to welcome you all to Rainbow Nursery at Latchmere school. We are getting to know your children as we support them in settling into nursery and learning about all the exciting activities they can explore.  They will learn important routines and where everything belongs, to help them settle into nursery life.  The children have already received a Headteacher’s award for learning some of our routines.  We look forward to learning about their interests and fascinations and to building a partnership with you to make the children’s nursery experience the best it can be.   

Talking and Reading Together

Developing children’s talk is an important foundation for their later learning and this is one of our main priorities during the nursery year.  We use all opportunities through play, sharing stories, singing songs, rhymes and poems, for example, to help children to pay attention, listen, follow instructions, learn new words and speak in longer sentences. This term, we are planning exciting story-based opportunities to promote a love of stories and to make them irresistible to children.   We strive to encourage conversations about the stories we explore with the children and for them to learn a selection of ‘wonderful words’ particularly from our ‘inside out’ stories. We will use these words in other situations which will help children to eventually use them in their own talk.  We will make you aware of these words so that you can also use them at home with the family. 


This is a selection of stories that we will explore this term: 

  • All Are Welcome
  • The Very Busy Spider
  • Aaaarrgghh Spider! 
  • Whatever Next! 
  • The Leaf Thief
  • The Enormous Turnip
  • Shark in the Park

Maths

Our curriculum aligns with the ‘Mathematics educational programme’ in the ‘Statutory Framework for the EYFS 2025’ and draws on the ‘White Rose Maths Programme’. The children will have opportunities to match, sort and count using real objects, counters and Numicon in their play and will have a short, active maths activity each day.  Children will also be learning to recognise groups of up to 3 objects instantly, which is known as ‘subitising’ and will be learning to count.

We will be singing lots of number rhymes.

Curriculum Highlights

This term the children will be learning about themselves and each other through  our topics of ‘Marvellous Me!’ and ‘Let’s Celebrate!’.   The children will begin by learning about their environment and how to select and use the resources available to them.  They will be building relationships with each other and finding out how we all celebrate events and occasions that are special to us and our families.  They will also be celebrating the similarities between themselves and others and finding out what makes us all special. You can find out more information about the Autumn term learning by looking at the Nursery Medium Term Plans and programmes of study on the website. Weekly ‘Curriculum Highlights’ will be posted each Monday on the nursery class noticeboard, which is on the wall at the front of the nursery building.  These will give a brief overview of the learning that is planned for the coming week. 


Best wishes from Mrs Booth, Ms Leung and the nursery team

Key Dates

Last day of the first half term

Thursday 22nd October 2026

Inset Day

Friday 23rd October 2026

Children return to school

Monday 2nd November

Post Box visit on Latchmere Road to post letters to Santa

Early December


Updates and Reminders  

Attendance

As you may be aware, we closely monitor the attendance of pupils at our school as there is clear evidence which shows the correlation between attainment and attendance and pupil well-being.

We believe working with families is very important, therefore when a child’s attendance falls below 96% we intervene quickly to work with parents to identify any barriers to regular school attendance and identify how we can support further.

Session Routine

We strive for a smooth transition for each child as they settle in and get to know the nursery adults and each other.  Please talk to us about how your child is settling in and make us aware of any aspects of their transition that we can give further help with. 


You are welcome to come into nursery with your child at the beginning of the session.  Please let them show you how they can hang up their own coats and belongings and say goodbye to them when they are settled at an activity or with an adult. 
While we are getting to know you, dismissing the children may take a little longer than usual.  Please stand back from the nursery gate to enable us to see you all clearly so that we can hand over your child to you safely. 


Please inform us of the named adults who have your permission to pick your child up at the end of the session, other than yourselves, by completing a form that we will send home.  If you have planned for a different person to pick up your child, please tell a nursery adult at the beginning of the session so that we can write it in the ‘message book’.

You can also ring the office to notify them, and they will send us an internal message.  

Parent Representatives

Each year we value the support that our parent representatives give us, as a liaison between the class team and our parents. There is a sign-up sheet on the nursery noticeboard where you can express your interest in being a parent rep for the class.  Having three parent reps usually helps to share responsibilities across the parent rep team.  

Book bags

Each child will receive a named book bag from nursery so that we can send home sharing books with them each week.  Please return bookbags on a Thursday so that we can send children home with a different book on a Friday.  Book bags will be sent home at the end of this week.

Naming Belongings

Please remember to name your child’s clothes, snack and water bottles so that we can support children in gathering their belongings at the end of the session.

Snacks

In line with our healthy eating policy, please remember to send in fruit and vegetables or a plain biscuit, rice cake or unsalted cracker if your child does not eat fruit.  The school ‘Healthy Snack’ poster shows other healthy snacks that children can bring in.  These are the only snack foods we have in nursery to keep children safe in case of allergies.

School fruit is available for all children daily.  Snack time is a good opportunity for children to see that their friends eat a variety of fruit and vegetables and may encourage them to try fruit when they might not normally.