Victoria Lane Academy School Brochure 2017-2018

Early Years Brochure September 2018 – July 2019 Welcome to Victoria Lane Academy Early Years Stage Curriculum Information Booklet

Head Teacher: Mrs Jane Richardson Our Address: Victoria Lane Academy Victoria Lane Coundon Bishop Auckland County Durham Tel: 01388 603588 Email: office@victorialaneprimary.co.uk

We look forward to what we hope will be the start of a special partnership where we are all involved in working together to support the development and wellbeing of your child.

The purpose of this booklet is to provide: ďƒ˜ An insight into the ethos of our school ďƒ˜ Information on the facilities and opportunities available to children attending our Early Years Stage.

We hope you find this brochure useful but we understand that it will not cover every aspect of school and may not answer all of your questions. Therefore, we would ask that you speak to us directly if you have any further questions or are unclear as to any of the information provided.

We are proud of our school that has educated so many generations of children from the communities of Coundon, Leeholme and surrounding villages. A happy, welcoming and highly inclusive school environment, Victoria Lane Academy has gone from strength to strength as part of the family of schools that constitute the highly successful multi-academy trust, Tudhoe Learning Trust.

At Victoria Lane Academy, we aim to provide a welcoming, inclusive school for all children and their families. We provide a stimulating and nurturing learning environment that will instill a love of learning in your child. Our school motto is:

To be the best that you can be

General Information Facilities Victoria Lane Academy’s Early Years Stage is housed within the school building.

The Early Years Stage is attractively furnished and well equipped to meet the needs of the child.

The Nursery has its own entrance and an enclosed secure outside area of tarmac surrounded by a secure grass play area with a sand pit and water area.

Staffing and Organisation Children in our Early Years Stage are 3 to 5 years of age and we have a wide range of well qualified staff who work closely as a team to ensure your child’s time with us is a happy one.

Head Teacher Deputy Head Teacher

Mrs Jane Richardson Mr Lee Blake

Teachers:

Mrs Stephanie Wagstaff Mrs Sarah Deakin

Early Years Educational: Practitioner

Miss Dannii Gibson

Teaching Assistants:

Mrs. Mandy Clark Miss Emma French Mrs Ann Smith (all Teaching Assistants hold a current pediatric first aid certificate)

Admissions Attendance to Lower Foundation (nursery) is part-time. To ensure that your child benefits from their time at nursery we do advise daily attendance except for illness or extenuating circumstances. Each child attends 5 mornings or 5 afternoon sessions and these sessions will last 3 hours which is how the school delivers its 15 hour entitlement for Nursery children.

The nursery times are: Morning session Afternoon session

9.00– 12.00 12.30 - 3.30

Meetings Prior to Starting Parents of children who are going to start nursery are called one month before their child’s third birthday, when arrangements are made for nursery visits with their children and completion of the necessary paperwork.

Before your child starts at Victoria Lane Academy, they will visit the nursery with their parents/carer for an hour. At this time, please share with us any background information or concerns you may have, including changes in family circumstances, medical matters, special needs and behaviour. In this way, if necessary, we can decide together on a course of action, and so ensure that we are providing your child with secure and consistent expectations, both at home and at nursery.

On starting, if your child is reluctant or anxious to let you leave, we may ask you to stay as they slowly and gradually begin to get to know us. If you are worried about your child starting with us, please speak to a member of staff. We are used to any problems that might arise and we are only too happy to help. Please remember that until your child feels happy and safe with us, they will not benefit from the Early Years Stage. We would like starting this stage to be happy and exciting experience. Please help us to make it such for your child.

Nursery Procedures At the beginning of each session, we ask parents to support children in hanging up their coat and collecting their self-registration apples to place on the registration tree. The start of class is an opportunity for parents to pass on any key information to staff, before saying goodbye to their child. We look to build positive relationships with all our families.

Arrival On arrival, please bring your child into the cloakroom and help them to find their peg and their name. At this time, any relevant information can be passed onto staff or an appointment may be made to discuss any concerns you may have.

Collection At the end of the session, please wait in the cloakroom area whilst the children released one at a time to ensure safety.

If for any reason you are late or unable to collect your child, please inform us of your arrangements. We are responsible for your child’s safety and must be aware who to release your child to.

Record of Authorised Collectors Under no circumstances are children allowed off the premises with anyone other than 'authorised collectors', i.e. those specified by parents/carers or legal guardians.

Enrolment forms will specify the names of authorised collectors. Parents must notify their child’s teacher of any changes to the list of authorised collectors.

If a person is not known to the school, parents must provide a photograph, or formally introduce him or her to staff. Parents must also notify the school if a child is being collected by another pupil’s parents.

Adults Forbidden from Collecting Children In certain situations, an individual might not be permitted to collect a child for legal reasons, often to do with child protection concerns or custody arrangements. Parents or carers must notify the school of any such exceptions and provide a copy of the legal documentation relating to these arrangements, if required.

Medical Information All staff are first aid trained, and, at present seven members of staff are fully trained in paediatric first aid (exceeding Government recommendations).

We need accurate up-to-date information about how to contact parents and/or carers. In an emergency, or in the case that parents cannot be contacted, the school will ensure the child receives hospital attention.

Parents and carers are responsible for keeping the school informed about any medical/mental health condition or changes to their child/children’s health. An Individual Healthcare Plan (IHP) will then be developed in collaboration with the pupil, parents/carers, Headteacher, Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) and medical/mental health professionals to meet the needs of the child.

Should your child require medication (prescribed only) during the school day, the medication must be given in at the school office, clearly labelled, along with a completed medication administration form (available from the school office and on the website). No pupil should bring into school any other medication that has not been prescribed, such as cough mixture or pain relief tablets. You may, by prior arrangement, come into school and administer such medication to your own child.

Absences If children are not able to attend Nursery, for whatever reason, we ask that parents let us know as soon as possible, so that we can authorise the absence.

If they are poorly, we insist they stay and remain at home until they are fully recovered before coming back to Nursery, to prevent the spread of infection. If your child becomes ill at Nursery, we will contact you or the named emergency contact immediately, administering care in the meantime.

Common Illnesses Sickness and Diarrhoea In the case of "tummy upsets" it is vital that children stay at home for at least 48 hours after the last incidence of sickness and diarrhoea to prevent it spreading to others.

Clothing All children in our care wear a school uniform. This consists of a blue sweatshirt, white or blue polo shirt, grey or black trousers or skirt. We would be very grateful if you could please ensure all footwear and clothing is named. This will be appreciated by the staff and children.

The children are encouraged to use the outside play equipment all year round. They need adequate warm clothing and suitable footwear. We would be pleased if you could bring a pair of ‘wellies’ that your child can wear when they are at Nursery.

We encourage all children to become independent with self help skills by allowing time and opportunity to practice putting on and taking off coats and shoes and we encourage the children to be responsible for their own belongings. Please try and develop their independence at home as well.

Behaviour At Victoria Lane Academy, we believe that the most important part of behaviour management is developing positive relationships with pupils, parents and carers. We strive to work in partnership with parents and carers, and share success and praise. We believe in developing classroom environments, to encourage positive behaviours, establishing rules and routines, and setting clear limits. We believe in rewarding positive behaviours to motivate children and we use sanctions consistently, when negative behaviour is displayed.

In Nursery, we aim to make daily use of the Marvellous Me system which notifies parents of a child’s success at school.

Parents’ Notice Board Please check the notice boards in the children’s cloakroom for nursery activities and news, information and local events. This board will also advise you of the ‘sound of the week’ and the ‘number of the week’ together with ways that family and carers can reinforce the current weeks learning.

Your child’s book: My Learning Journey including learning stories During the time your child is in the Early Years Stage, we would like to compile a book entitled MY LEARNING JOURNEY including contributions from home and school and that are personal to your child.

Observations of the children undertaking a variety of activities, over a period of time, whilst playing individually or in groups will be recorded in their Learning Journal. It is important that parents also contribute to their own child’s learning journey as we strongly believe in developing strong links between parents and nursery to gain a fuller picture of each individual child in our care.

The learning Journey will only become a complete account of your child’s development if family and carers also provide information, and if at all possible pictures, of the activities your child is attempting for the first time since joining us at Victoria Lane.

Snack Time Children have a healthy snack each day. Children will help themselves from a selection of fruit with a choice of milk or water to drink. The Early Years Staff should be made aware of any special diet requirements because of medical or religious reasons.

Visits and Visitors Throughout the school year, we aim to arrange visits to local places of interest. These may include the church, the library and nature walks. For these visits to take place, we may require parent volunteers to help with the supervision of the children.

We also encourage members of the local community, organisations such as police, nurses, road safety and parents to come and talk about their work.

Curriculum Our curriculum is based on the Seven Areas of Learning which leads to the Early Learning Goals of the Early Years Stage. These areas of learning are:• • • • • • •

Communication and Language Personal, Social and Emotional Development Physical Development Literacy Mathematics Expressive Arts and Design Understanding of the World

Our Daily Routine We believe that children at this age learn best through structured play, exploration, experimentation and real life experience.

We provide opportunities for the children:     

to explore the environment and experiences both indoors and outdoors to follow their own unique needs and interests to investigate, to make mistakes and learn from them and to move on to succeed to become independent, confident, and self motivated to make their own decisions and be responsible for their actions to try out their new ideas.

Giving value to the child’s work Your child will have been very productive during their nursery session. They will bring pictures home but there are times when they may not have produced anything to take home but will still have been very busy. We hope you will enjoy talking and listening to them about their time at school and the things they have made. Please praise your child for their achievement. This will give them confidence and encourage a good attitude.

In a typical session, activities available in nursery classroom could involve any of the following:Creative Activities Painting, collage junk modelling, printing, drawing, bubble blowing, marbling, cutting and sticking etc.

Malleable activity Sand, water, playdough, cornflower, rice and pasta etc.

Quiet Area Puzzles, games, books, and other materials to provide pre school experiences in mathematics, prewriting and pre-reading skills.

Role Play Area An imaginative play area that changes according to nursery topics; e.g. hospital or shop.

Floor Area Large and small construction toys.

Outdoors We have a wide variety of equipment to develop imagination, body co-ordination and sociable play. Equipment includes bikes, tents, bats, balls, a mud kitchen, construction items and other small apparatus.

Monitoring your child’s progress Throughout your child’s time in our Early Years Stage, their progress and learning achievements will be carefully monitored to ensure that their needs are being met and that they are fulfilling their potential. Staff are happy to discuss children’s work and progress on a daily basis, but if you feel that you would like to discuss their progress in more detail than the time allows during the session, or if you have particular concerns the staff are willing to arrange a mutually convenient time for a more in depth discussion. We realise that some parents are unable to come to the school on a regular basis and if this is the case, we will be happy to arrange times for these parents to see staff after the session. (Staff will keep an on-going record of each child’s progress in learning in line with the developmental matters as described in the EYFS curriculum).

Special Needs We believe: That every child has an entitlement to develop his or her full potential and recognize a child’s right to a broad, relevant and challenging curriculum appropriate to their ability and talents and qualities.

We aim:  to help children develop their personalities, skills and abilities  to identify barriers to learning and with early intervention provide appropriate support to meet a diversity of needs  to ensure that all children reach their full potential  to work in partnership with parent-carers in supporting their child’s education  each child’s progress is carefully monitored throughout the school and if it is felt necessary, specific provision will be allocated within available resources.

Parents will be fully consulted and if it is thought appropriate, the school will seek co-operation in calling on further professional advice from outside support agencies whose advice may be reflected in Individual Education Plans.

How can you help us?

We would be grateful if your child would bring a pair of Wellington boots (labelled with their name) on their first day at nursery.

We ask for a contribution of 50p per week, which we will use to provide a variety of healthy snacks, on a daily basis.

You can help us and the children by not throwing things away, as often ‘junk’ can be put to great use in the Early Years. Please collect for us your boxes, packets, cartons, cardboard tubes (not toilet rolls please) bottle tops, wood off-cuts, material scraps, buttons and anything else you think we may be able to use.

The staff are here to help you and your child so please feel free to ask us anything you may be unsure about. We enjoy coming to our school and hope that you and your child will too.