Physical Development

Nursery

At Little Bears, children take part in physical activity and outdoor learning every day. For this reason, children should come to Nursery dressed appropriately for active play and movement.

• Please ensure your child wears suitable clothing and footwear.

Reception

Children in Reception have PE lessons everyday and partake in outdoor learning, therefore uniform for Reception children should be the following:

• School jumper or cardigan (with the school logo)
• White polo shirt
• Navy or dark blue tracksuit bottoms in winter, or blue and navy PE shorts in summer.
• Trainers

For safety reasons, earrings must not be worn for PE activities. If your child does wear earrings, they will need to be removed at home before coming into school. 

What to Bring Every Day

Nursery

Please send your child into Nursery each day with:

• A named coat, whatever the weather.
• A named water bottle filled with water.
• Suitable clothing for outdoor play.

Although we spend lots of time outdoors, we understand the British weather can be unpredictable, so coats are essential every day. We also have space available to store wellies at Nursery if you would like your child to keep a pair here. 

 Reception

Please send your child into school each day with:

• Book bag with reading diary and reading book
• A named coat, whatever the weather.
• A named water bottle filled with water.

Reading at Home

Nursery

Each Friday, your child will bring home a sharing book/reading book to enjoy together at home. We ask that you spend time reading and sharing the book with your child and return it at their next Nursery session so it can be exchanged for another book. 

Reception

Reception, children learn to read through phonics. This is a way of teaching children to read, by matching sounds (phonemes) to letters (graphemes). We follow the phonics scheme Little Wandle. Little Wandle has a very helpful website for parents, including instructional videos. The link for this website is below:

Little Wandle parents website

We love encouraging a love of books and reading from an early age. Your child will get a new reading book to take home every week. You should listen to your child read ideally every day, but a minimum of 4 times a week. This should be recorded in their reading diary and signed. It is helpful if you can comment on your child's ability to recognise letters (graphemes) and the sounds that they make (phonemes), how confident they are with segmenting and blending words and identifying tricky words, how fluently they read and their understanding of what they have read. We also encourage parents to read storybooks to their children, as it is a great way of expanding both their imagination and their vocabulary. Every week on a Thursday, your child will bring home a sharebook, which is for you to read to your child, not for your child to read to you. This should be kept in the plastic wallet and returned to school on a Monday. 

Reception homework

Reception homework will be a combination of practising phonics sounds taught that week, letter and number formation, maths games and phonics reading or writing tasks. Homework will be sent home in a homework folder every Thursday and should be returned the following Tuesday. 

Healthy Snacks

Nursery and Reception

We provide all children with a healthy snack during children are welcome to bring their own healthy snack if they wish. Please remember:

• Snacks should be healthy and suitable for young children.
• Grapes and other small fruits must be cut up before being brought into school, for safety reasons.

Stay Connected

Nursery

Don't forget to follow our Little Bears Facebook page to see updates, reminders and snapshots of the exciting learning taking place throughout the year.

Reception

Don't forget to follow the Brierley Primary School Facebook page to see updates, reminders and snapshots of the exciting learning taking place throughout the year.

We're Here to Help

We pride ourselves on being approachable and supportive. There is always a friendly member of staff on the door at the beginning and end of each session or each school day. 

If you have any questions, concerns or information you'd like to share, please do not hesitate to speak to us. We value working closely with families and are always happy to help.

We look forward to a wonderful year of learning, exploring and growing together in Little Bears and Reception!