Topaz class has a mixture of Nursery children and pre-nursery children who are at the older end of their year. The children are encouraged to become more independent in this class and do things such as putting on their shoes, opening their snack boxes and going to the bathroom by themselves (although help is always on hand if needed!). Pre-writing and reading skills are practiced daily and the children learn to first trace, and then write their own name.

The phonetic alphabet is also practiced regularly using Letterland, with fun worksheets, flashcards and songs. Number recognition and counting is also practiced regularly and the children are taught to recognise new shapes. The children enjoy story time when they first arrive in the morning and are encouraged to predict the ending and discuss the stories afterwards.

Circle time is also interactive with lots of fun with shapes and numbers, songs and rhymes and language development. It is also an opportunity for the children to learn about the current topic, whether it’s listening to a relevant story, learning a new rhyme, or looking at something that’s been brought in by the teacher or one of the children. There are also lots of arts and crafts relating to the topic, and the children’s work is collected together in a folder and taken home at the end of each term.