Your child will be offered either 5 morning or 5 afternoon sessions a week: Morning 8:45am to 11:45am Afternoon 12:40pm to 3:40pm

Talk to your child about the things they will be able to do at nursery. Help your child to become more independent. Three year olds should be encouraged to feed and dress themselves and to tidy up their own things. They need to get used to meeting and mixing with different people and to talking with your family and friends.

Before starting nursery, your child must be toilet trained during the day, and should be able to manage himself/herself at the toilet.

We would like to get to know your child as quickly as possible, his/her likes and dislikes, what s/he is good at, any activities s/he particularly enjoys, etc. If your child has any anxieties, please discuss these at an early stage. It may be better to do this without your child being present. On your child's first day at nursery, you will have the chance to have a parent conference and be able to share this information with us.

Every child is different and will settle into nursery at different paces and in different ways. Treat your first day at nursery as a visit day - spend the majority of time playing and talking to your child and other children at the activities. On the second day, we encourage parents to stay for some of the session and to take a 'back seat'. Sometimes children and parents are happy to say goodbye on arrival on the second day, sometimes they are happy to say goodbye midway through the session, and other times goodbye can be hard and can take a little longer. On your child's third day, we encourage you to say goodbye soon after arrival if possible. Always say goodbye and let your child know that s/he will be collected later.

During your child's first week at Nursery, our priority is to settle your child into our environment, in which s/he will enjoy and look forward to coming to.

In nursery, your child will be using paint, play dough, glue and other creative but 'messy' stuff, and although we provide aprons, we encourage you not to dress your child in expensive or their best clothes. Uniform is not compulsory until they move up to Reception but Hollingwood School sweatshirts and T-shirts are available to buy from the school office if you are interested.

Please ensure that clothing, such as school sweatshirts, cardigans, hats and coats are named. As children will explore a range of 'messy' equipment and engage in variety of active play, no jewellery of any kind is to be worn to decrease chances of loss, damage and accidents.

The foundation stage begins when children reach the age of three and ends as they reach the age of six. During this time your child may attend a number of settings, such as play-groups, day nurseries, school nurseries, reception and other pre-school settings.

The Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation stage. There are six areas of learning in this curriculum:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development (Behaviours, sharing, respecting, confidence, respect)
• Communication, Language and Literacy (facial expression and gesture, listening, speaking, letter sounds, reading and writing)
• Mathematical Development (numbers, counting, shape, space, measure)
• Knowledge and Understanding of the World (science, DT, ICT, past and present, cultures, environments)
• Physical Development (fine motor, gross motor, health awareness)
• Creative Development (art, imagination, role-play, music, dance and movement)