Throughout the year the children join in a range of celebrations of important events in their own and other people's lives, such as birthdays, Christmas and Diwali. The provision for communication, language and literacy is very good and the children achieve well making good progress with their early reading and writing skills. They use spoken language effectively to express their needs, explain what they are doing, talk about themselves and their experiences and organise their play. They listen well to stories, adults and each other and understand the principles of conversation. All are able to recognise their own name, and often those of others, and most are able to write it.
Attention is paid to correct letter formation.
The well resourced book area is used throughout the day by the children who demonstrate the enjoyment they get from books as well as a good understanding of the structure of a story and the purpose of print. They turn the pages with care, understand the direction of print and re-tell stories using the language of the story. Children refer to captions around the room and are able to 'read' them. For example, a child referred to a notice displayed by the role-play area to acknowledge that two children were allowed to play there at a time. The children use their developing writing skills as part of activities such as role-play by writing telephone messages or shopping lists.