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.

 

 

World Book Day – Thursday 7th March

World Book Day – Thursday 7th March.
We have not dressed up in ages so we would children to come dressed as their favourite book character. There are prizes on offer so think creative and flamboyant; the more home-made the more chance of winning!
I can’t wait to get my costume ready 🙂

Our Community Walk

Reception/Year 1 have been learning about the facilities in our local community. The children have enjoyed the home challenge of sharing their favourite places in the community and our walk yesterday is developing our knowledge and understanding about mapping. We are also linking it to our art and design work, identifying textures and structures in our locality.

Online Safety Newsletter – February 2024

Online Safety Newsletter from Knowsley Council.

Online Safety Newsletter February 2024

We have become significantly dependent on and accustomed to the digital services and devices we use for being online. Online safety plays a vital role in the proper use of these tools.

Online Threats

The internet, for all its glory and opportunities, does unfortunately feature threats and challenges. These might manifest as online abuse, bullying, threats, impersonation, grooming, harassment or exposure to offensive and/or violent content.

All of these are harms we have a duty to protect young people from – and we shouldn’t underestimate its seriousness. If young people are exposed to – or perpetrate – these behaviours, they can be life-altering.

  • A systematic, large-scale review of academic research found that victims of cyberbullying are more than twice as likely to self-harm or attempt suicide
  • There have been high-profile news stories about online grooming and its devastating effects
  • According to Ofcom, 45% of 12-15s who go online say they have seen something hateful about a group of people online in the last 12 months

Practice Online Safety

Being aware of and practicing online safety is the only way to mitigate these risks. They will always be present, but teaching young people how to manage harmful situations and content will ensure they are best-placed to benefit from their time online, free from harm.

Creating an online space that is led by the principles of online safety requires all of us to step up – to both practice online safety and to challenge bad and harmful behaviours online.

Understanding the consequences of our actions as well as the tools that are available for reporting and helping are the first stepping stones in being an educated and respectful digital citizen.

This Newsletter provides practical advice for parents!

 

Inclusion: A tale of five rooms!

This month we have an article in the magazine ‘Headteacher Update’ that tells the story of how Sir Alexander Fleming won the NASEN Award for Primary Provision of the Year 2023 and how at the heart of this success is the nurturing and inclusive provision we provide to meet the diverse needs of our learners.

Click here to read the full article and search for page 30!

Headteachers update Jan 2024 page 30

What makes a home a home?

This is our learning all about homes.

Practitioners here plan the curriculum with our unique children, families and community in mind. We choose topics that all our children can relate to and have had experiences of so that we can engage and motivate them. We set a home learning task and ask our families to share aspects of their lives that we may not know about. This supports children’s speaking and communication skills and develops their awareness that others may be similar or different to them.

We found out that most of our children live in houses but some of them live in bungalows. We explored the different features including the rooms in certain homes. Our core text of Peace at Last by Judith Kerr supported us to differentiate between rooms; having themed resources about different rooms develops children’s language in the best way possible, as they are able make connections. We sang songs about homes and looked at how homes are portrayed in books. Children acted out what they learnt about homes and applied this in our home corner provision. We compared different types of homes. Children built and designed homes in the small world provision and we enhanced it with a caravan. The project inspired us to construct and mark-make in a variety of contexts. We were able to innovate songs about houses to songs about a range of different homes. This project has allowed us to recognise and celebrate diversity.

This learning will continue and be extended in the Spring term, as we think about how our homes fit into our community in Sutton Hill and how homes have changed from the past. These threads are woven throughout our whole school Geography and History curriculum and will lay the foundations for later learning.