Design Brief: To Design A Patterned Decoration From Malleable Materials

We followed the whole school sequence of learning for Design Technology in order to design a patterned, malleable decoration.

We used photographs of Christmas Trees and appraised patterned baubles.

We then explored ways to create everyday patterns and then repeating patterns. This supported our vocabulary development.

Then we explore salt dough and clay and ways to create patterns such as pressing, using tools, beads and sequins.

We evaluated our designs and discussed what we liked and how we could improve them.

The decorations took pride of place on our Christmas Tree.

A Throw Back to December – A Time To Celebrate!

We had a very busy end to the autumn term . . .

As part of our People and Communities topic we learnt about how some people celebrate Christmas. The children learnt about the Christian story of the Nativity through small world, role-play, songs and books. They were inspired to make marks of some of the significant characters. We stole the show in Our First Nativity performance, there was not a dry eye in the hall! This took lots of self-regulation and courage.

The children also shared photographs of celebrations that they have participated in at home. This evoked lots of rich language of comparison.

The countdown to Christmas was very exciting and we used our Advent Calendar to see the passing of time. We placed a star in the five frame each day and could describe whether it was full, nearly full, empty or nearly empty. We could see whether we had a long way to go and as we were getting closer.

Alex Bear loves to read!

Each week in nursery Alex Bear goes home with a child. He loves to read and wants to share lots of stories over the weekend with our children and their families. This promotes a love of reading for our youngest children.

Parents then upload what their child and Alex read on the Seesaw App so that we can see it in class. The children love seeing which books he’s read and this motivates them to read even more!

Alex loved reading Dear Zoo and The Jungle Boogie with Zulikha.

What a great start to the term! Relationships, routines and fun!

The children and practitioners in nursery have had a wonderful start to the term.

We support children to transition into nursery in many different ways, starting with home visits. This enables children to meet their teacher in the place they feel most comfortable and allows parents and staff to chat about important information that will shape the provision offered to children in the EYFS. It builds the foundation for strong relationships between families, staff and children and we have continued to nurture these by interacting with the children at every opportunity.

Children have been exploring the environment and developing an understanding of the opportunities on offer and where resources are kept. ‘Sorting time’ is a wonderful time for mathematics. They are already beginning to show our school value of respect.

Routines are a crucial within our setting and children have been helped with visual timetables to involve themselves fully within these. They are starting to show the ability to self-regulate and following an adult’s instructions.

Educators pride themselves on getting to know children well and are continually interacting, observing and assessing what children can do and what they need next.

Behaviour Policy and Curriculum

Sir Alexander Fleming Primary School and Nursery

Behaviour Policy and Curriculum

‘Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviour.’
Mahatma Gandhi

What do our children think about our Behaviour Systems?

“Opportunities can never be reached unless you are well-behaved”

“Our rocket system works well as it shows the children that they have consequences”

“The teachers are fair and follow through with the consequences”

“It is a good system because there are lots of people to talk to who support you, like the SLT, Rainbow Room, Mrs Fisher, behaviour mentors”

“You can go to the calm room if you feel stressed or worried”

Everyone has a right to feel safe at school. The staff at Sir Alexander Fleming Primary School and Nursery are committed to ensuring that every child is protected from harm. Everyone is of equal value and will be valued equally regardless of whether they have a disability, whatever their ethnicity, culture, religious affiliation, national origin, or national status, whatever their gender and gender identity and whatever their sexual identity.

It is everyone’s responsibility to help make our school a happy place where everyone can be successful. We expect that the respectful behaviour of children will enable teachers to teach, and each other to learn. Everyone is responsible for their own behaviour and our expectation is for good behaviour offline and online. Good behaviour is something to be proud of and so is rewarded and celebrated. The education of many children will be protected from disruption by a minority who are demonstrating unacceptable behaviour; this will be met with consequences. Parents will be informed about the expectations of the school and about the consequences if the child behaves inappropriately in school, in the community and online.

Please find attached a copy of our school behaviour policy and behaviour curriculum for 2024.

Behaviour Policy September 2024

Behaviour Curriculum

If you have any questions regarding our behaviour policy or curriculum please do not hesitate to ask your class teacher or any member of staff.

Best wishes,

Mrs Tomlinson

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.

 

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!

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.

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.

 

 

A is for Alive!

During the summer term we embark on a project all about living things. Topics are chosen by staff in order to encompass seasonal fascinations, pre-requisite knowledge needed in later years and cultural capital opportunities.

At forest school this week we observed how the frogspawn we had found had changed and grown into tadpoles. We described the way they looked and how they moved and used an information book to develop our knowledge about the lifecycle of a frog. Some children subitised that there were four tadpoles. “I can see two and two and that makes four!”

We also found newts and were able to compare them to frogs.