

Language and Vocabulary Development
Language and vocabulary Development is very important to us here at Orchards Day Nursery and we ensure that parents also feel supported in such an important area of their child’s development.
We do this by sending home some fantastic ‘Home Learning’ tools for parents which include a cooking box and communication bags.
We have a community book share which has proven to be very successful and our children enjoy reading the books they have borrowed on a daily basis.
Want to get your children talking? ECAT (Every Child A Talker) have 10 top tips to help support and develop your child’s communication:
- Get the child’s attention first – get down to the child’s level and engage their attention before speaking or asking a question. Young children find it difficult to listen and carry on with an activity at the same time. Saying their name first encourages them to stop and listen.
- Use simple repetitive language – describe your everyday activities. As you talk about what you are doing (‘I’m washing the cup.’), repeat your words slowly and clearly.
- Build on what the child says to you – talking very clearly, add one or two more words to the child’s sentence. For instance, if the child says ‘look, car’, you could say ‘look, red car’.
- Imitate the child’s language – with very young children, simply imitate their words and sentences. This will show them that you‘re valuing their words and will encourage them to keep talking.
- Rather than criticise, demonstrate the right way – if a child makes an error in a word or sentence, simply say the correct version rather than pointing out the mistake. For example, if the child says, ‘I goed to the park’, you might say ‘Wow, so you went to the park’.
- Give the child time to respond – children often need time to put their thoughts together before answering, so give them longer to respond than you would with an adult. Make sure to maintain eye contact as you wait for them to complete their remark.
- Use all the senses to help teach new words – for example, if you’re teaching the names of fruits, encourage the child to feel and smell the various fruits as they learn the words. Another idea is to use familiar songs and rhymes as a learning tool by missing out words for the child to fill in.
- Make learning language fun – play around with words, sounds and sentences and don’t be afraid to talk in funny voices or have daft conversations. The more children see you experimenting with language, the more likely they’ll be able to do it themselves.
- Be careful with questions – try not to ask too many questions, especially ones that sound like you’re constantly testing the child. The best questions are those that challenge the child to think rather than give an instant answer.
- Use the full range of expression – speak in a lively, animated voice and use gestures and facial expressions to back up your words. You’ll be giving more clues about what your words mean, which can be very useful if the child is struggling to understand language, and be demonstrating the importance of nonverbal communication.
Recent Activities
Here at Orchards we celebrate meaningful festivals with our families, staff and all children.
Attached are photos of our recent HOLI festival.

Partnership with the Local Community
We work closely with our local schools to support children’s transitions from our Preschool to school.
We set up extra visits, take the children to our local school’s library, invite the teachers into our setting and have regular networking meetings with local teachers.
We value our setting being an integral part of the community.
We have close links with our local church, St. Marys.
We are involved with charity work, MND and Arthur Rank Hospice in particular.
We pen pal with our local care home, sending letters back and forth between children and residents.
Home Learning Support
Please find below some links that support home learning.
https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/
https://ican.org.uk/i-cans-talking-point/parents/
https://cambspboro.50thingstodo.org/app/os#!50thingstodobefore5/welcome
Funding
We accept 2 year old funding.
Please follow this link for more information.
We accept 3 year old funding in our Preschool.
Please follow the link below for more information.
We also accept 30 hours funding. For more information click here.
