2 weeks ago
Posted on 09th Jul 2024 by Katie Reese

Our Sequence of Learning for Expressive Art and Design – Printing

This term in nursery we have explored printing, following the whole school pedagogy for Art.

Practitioners plan a range of carefully timed experiences, including enhancements to the environment and adult directed activities in order to develop children’s knowledge and skills in printing.

The sequence culminated in the children creating Ghanaian inspired Kente Cloths using clay and paint. This also linked to their learning about the continent of Africa.

1 month ago
Posted on 17th Jun 2024 by Katie Reese

Cooking Up a Feast at Forest School!

The children in nursery always have a nutritional snack each day at nursery.

Throughout the year they learn how to prepare and make a range of dishes, which gives them the prerequisite knowledge to thrive as humans, great fine-motor practise and some early design technology skills.

The staff make considered choices about what they offer children in order to widen their knowledge of types of food and their appetites.

Recently, we have been cooking plants as part of our Understanding of the World topic. The staff and children also made Nigerian inspired Jollof rice as they learnt all about countries in West Africa.

1 month ago
Posted on 17th Jun 2024 by Katie Reese

Nursery Open Day Wednesday 19th June 3:30-4:15pm

Come and visit our nursery this week!

We have 15 and 30 hour flexible places for 2-3 year olds from September 2024.

We will be taking ‘Rising Threes’. This means if your child is 3 already, or turns 3 between now and December 20th, they qualify for a place in our nursery.

We look forward to meeting and playing with you soon!

1 month ago
Posted on 17th Jun 2024 by Katie Reese

Fun at SAF Playgroup!

Miss Matthews had a wonderful time today at SAF Playgroup.

It is an opportunity for parents to get together and chat, while their little ones socialise and play in our lovely school.

Miss Matthews is a lovely mummy herself and will always ‘lend an ear’ to our families to chat about life with youngsters!

She looks forward to meeting lots more of you soon and building an even bigger, supportive community of parents.

Our playgroup runs every Wednesday 2-3pm.

2 months ago
Posted on 22nd May 2024 by Katie Reese

Story Time with Local Author Sarah Corkill

Pupils in KS1 had story time with a difference today! Local author Sarah Corkill visited them and read her amazing story Maggie Magazine Gets Recycled.

This story enabled the children to make predictions about what Maggie Magazine would be turned into next. We know that learners need to recap on ideas in order to store knowledge into their long term memory and Sarah’s book was all about materials so they were able to draw on their scientific knowledge in this area, while also learning about recycling and how we can take care of our world.

The children listened and made thoughtful comments and asked questions about where Sarah’s inspiration had come from in writing the book. It left the children feeling enthused about stories, junk modelling and recycling!

2 months ago
Posted on 21st May 2024 by Katie Reese

Welcoming our New Parents

We know that starting school is such an important time in the lives of our children and their families. Transitions and change can be tricky and therefore we have an important and robust system for supporting children’s smooth transition into our school, in order to give them the best possible start.

Today we met many parents of children due to start Reception in September.

They found out about our school philosophy, curriculum and practical details such as the routines and uniform.

Lyndsey joined us from the Health Visiting and School Nurse team in order to support parents with ‘school readiness’. She chatted to parents about eating and sleeping and was able to signpost them to other health departments. We work closely with this team of professionals to support children’s development and learning, especially in the EYFS.

We are looking forward to sharing lunch with our new families, playing with the children during Stay and Play sessions and visiting them at home in the coming weeks.

2 months ago
Posted on 14th May 2024 by Katie Reese

A Little Seed for Me to Sow . . . .

As part of our ‘A is for Alive’ project we have been exploring plants and their features.

The children have read a range of books such as The Tiny Seed, recited poems from the Poetry Basket and sang songs about key concepts of growth.

The practitioners have planned first hand experiences to deepen children’s understanding and knowledge. Here is Mrs Matthews planting pumpkin seeds that we have grown.

“That’s the shoot! It’s grown.”

“Look at the leaves. They are green.”

“Water it.”

By caring for plants and our environment children are learning key life skills. The Nursery children look forward to harvesting the pumpkins in September when they are in Reception.

This is crucial knowledge to support children’s later learning in science throughout school; In year 1 they will be describing the structure of plants in detail.

2 months ago
Posted on 14th May 2024 by Katie Reese

A Visit from the RSPCA

Nursery and Reception learnt about Louise’s job role and how she cares for pets that have not been looked after by their owners.

The children learnt five key things that animals need to thrive. Honey helped demonstrate some of these!

This knowledge will help their understanding about living things, animals and jobs. It builds on the learning they have already done and they have already started to use it in the role-play and small world area.

This is also linked to our school value of respect.

3 months ago
Posted on 12th May 2024 by Katie Reese

The Huge Benefits of Snack Time!

Snack time in nursery is an opportunity for lots of amazing learning!

It is a nurturing and social daily event in which children develop their self-regulation and executive function skills by sharing out the china plates and cups and working together to ensure everyone’s needs and wants are met.

This week, during our learning about plants that we can eat, the children noticed seeds in the watermelon! This is crucial scientific knowledge, needed to understand the structure of plants later in year 1. The children used their knowledge of subitising to recognise groups of seeds. They explored different representations of quantities by lining up the seeds. Adults were able to develop children’s reasoning skills through word problems and the use of stem sentences.

“I can see you have eaten a seed because there is two left and one and two make three altogether.”

“I have given her two seeds, how can I make two into three?”

The children also enjoyed poppy seed biscuits that they had made during their play.