Nursery

6 days ago
Posted on 09th Jul 2024 by

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.

4 weeks ago
Posted on 17th Jun 2024 by

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.

 

4 weeks ago
Posted on 17th Jun 2024 by

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!

2 months ago
Posted on 14th May 2024 by

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

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.

2 months ago
Posted on 12th May 2024 by

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.

3 months ago
Posted on 18th Apr 2024 by

A Visit From Lauren The Veterinary Nurse

Children have access to a wide range of role-play resources in the EYFS. They can use these in order to develop their vocabulary, imagination and story-telling skills. Our Home Corner is a constant feature in our setting in order for all children have access to nurturing, homely resources that reflect their lives and culture.

Practitioners enhance the role-play provision to link to the overarching theme during each term.

The Vets has just opened in order for children to develop, use and apply their knowledge of animals.

Practitioners plan cultural capital experiences, carefully at key points, so that children can access and use resources purposefully. Today Lauren a Veterinary Nurse visited. The children learnt about her uniform, equipment and role. They learnt new vocabulary such as swab, sterile and gown and the meaning of these words by exploring resources and singing songs.

3 months ago
Posted on 18th Apr 2024 by

A Time For Celebrations; Ramadan and Easter

During the spring term children in nursery and reception learnt about a range of celebrations from different religions and cultures in order to develop their knowledge of People and Communities. This also supports the school value of being respectful and prepares them for their future lives.

The children learnt about the Muslim celebration of Ramadan by looking at books, artefacts and participating in crafts. They learnt that the moon is very important to some Muslims who participate in Ramadan and talked about the countdown to Eid and fasting. The children learnt vocabulary related to clothing some Muslim’s wear like a hijab. One of the children brought in a hijab from home which further enriched children’s learning and made the new vocabulary even more meaningful.

The children learnt about the Christian celebration of Lent and made pancakes at forest school. Practitioners layer children’s knowledge through a range of experiences. They read and acted out the runaway pancake, luckily ours did not run away and we managed to gobble it all up! The children were able to safely sit around the fire. The children and staff explored the Christian story of Easter through storytelling eggs and designed Easter cards. The children participated in an ‘Easter Tea Party’ which was decorated with salt dough crosses they had made a Christian symbol of the cross.

Practitioners were able to draw out connections between the two religions with children.