Phonics at preschool

[joosiewoosie]

My child is in her last year of preschool. She'll be 4 in January and starting school next September.
Her preschool do not do any phonics or number as far as I can make out. There are never any phonics related activities out. On asking the manager, the response was 'We've been told not to do anything' (by the EY leader in the school they've recently joined with).
I'm not happy with this and have been doing phonics myself with my little one, but before I ask for clarification and reasons from the school, I'd like to check my perception of what good preschool introduction to phonics practise looks like. I think: simple, gentle exposure, fun, starting from where child is, using observations to plan meaningful next steps for child, no worksheets, physical, engaging, messy, practical, enjoying sharing a range of books, texts, songs, printed materials etc... Am I on the right track?
I feel like I'm expecting too much by the looks I'm getting when asking questions. Am I?

It's pre school/nursery, not reception.
Plenty of children do not go to preschool.

They will start phonics at reception next year.

Great for you to be doing reading and some phonics at home, but the more formal teaching of it isn't needed yet as far as the curriculum is concerned.

I think you are getting too stressed about this. I am sure they will be covering anything they need to in the EY curriculum as they have to. When she goes into reception she'll start phonics from scratch and the maths is very basic.

You could buy some resources to use at home but she won't be starting school behind the others.

My kids nursery did:
Having them "sign in". In reality this means picking their names out from a selection of laminated cards (also containing a photo of themselves) and trying to copy it down.
Nursery ryme of the fortnight to learn (rhyming helps them understand phonic sounds later)
Reading a book together at circle time.
The focus was on consolidating their language development so they would be able to access the curriculum when they reached school.

I am an EY Lead and taught nursery last year. Parents probably thought we did no phonics in nursery as we didn't learn any letters but we did do phase 1 phonics every day - listening games, rhymes, oral blending and segmenting, initial sounds etc. Nothing was ever written, everything was through talk, games and singing.

My little nursery ones have all gone to school now and lots of them are reading simple cvc words and captions. It's not about teaching 'phonics - letters' in nursery but a holistic approach to understanding phonics, words and sounds as well as being able to listen and join in.

It is far more important that preschools develop good phonological awareness (through rhymes, singing, music etc), oral language skills, listening skills and a general love of books rather than teaching letter-sound correspondence.