The introduction and use of topic books is also important to offer extra visual aids to learning. There is also a weekly one-to-one reading time with each child. This provides not only the time to develop pre-reading skills on a very informal basis, but is also an opportunity to develop the bond between your child and their key workers as well as a link between home and Nursery, through the progress book. For this purpose, the Oxford Reading Tree, widely used in primary schools, has been incorporated. It is highly effective as a scheme of books, which offers a simple language structure and strong visual cues. Children progress at their own pace and the pace is matched to their enthusiasm.

Alongside reading, children are given every opportunity to develop emergent writing skills, from making 'marks' as their 'writing' in role-play, to developing their free-writing as well as more structured handwriting and name-writing practise. We also look at letter recognition and writing skills. For this purpose, we have incorporated the use of 'Letterland' characters (alongside learning the actual letter names), as a great visual aid to remembering and recalling letters as well as helping with phonics. Parents can really work alongside us, by learning the Letterland names with their children.