Please also remember to read the weekly school Newsletter for whole school and local community updates. 

Dates for the Diary

13th January 2025 - Nursery are taking part in a 'People Who Help Us' workshop

16th January 2025 - 'Maths in EYFS' workshop. Strategies to teach maths in the Early Years. An opportunity to work with your child using resources and taught strategies. 

CHANGE OF DATE - Please be aware that one of the 'Early Learning Time' dates has been changed. The original date was the 20th June 2025 and it has now been changed to the 27th June 2025. 

10th January 2025

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to the Spring Term. This half term our theme is 'Once Upon a Time...', over the next 5 weeks we will be sharing some well-known traditional tales. 

This week we have been sharing the story of 'The Three Magi' from the Bible. The children have been acting out the story and we have been discussing the long journey that The Three Magi went on, following a star, to get to Jesus. 

This week we experienced some cold weather; the children even saw a few minutes of snow. This caused excitement in the classroom. We shared the books 'Snowball' and 'Say Hello to the Snowy Animals'. The children had a lot of fun when we had a snowball game (giant pompoms), we split into two teams and had to see which team had the least amount of snowballs at the end of a given time. Mrs Davies was very competitive with her throwing!  We tried to see what would happen if we left some water, containing objects, outside overnight but unfortunately the temperature didn't get low enough to freeze the water when we tried it. We will try our investigation again another day. We have found a lot of ice around the garden. We talked about how the ice was made and we looked at what happened to the ice when it was brought indoors. 

The children have been introduced to the sound 's' as part of our phonics learning. They have been encouraged to think about objects that begin with this sound and we have been doing some super sorting, separating objects that begin with 's' from those that don't. 

The children have been reminded of our Class Rules and they are being reminded about flushing the toilet and washing their hands after using the toilet. 

Just a reminder that the deadline for Reception applications is nearly here. The final date is the 15th January. There is a link below.

Please remember to look at the 'Nursery Home Learning' page to see the weekly learning that your child can do at home. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

13th December 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week we have been working hard learning songs and actions for our show and they have done very well. We have been learning the story 'Nativity' and the children have been busy making hats, carrying on the pattern theme, and biscuits ready for the show. 

The children took part in the Christmas Lunch and we have put on a show. Thank-you so much for attending, I know the children appreciate you being there. They did a superb job and we are very proud of them. 

Next Thursday is Christmas Party afternoon, across the school. There is no need for the Nursery children to bring in food. The children will prepare their own little snack, in class. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

6th December 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week we have been busy preparing for Christmas and for the small Christmas show that we will be putting on next Friday. The children have been learning the story, actions and songs  and they are doing really well. You are invited to join us, next Friday at 9am for a hour of Festive fun. Please remember your Christmas jumpers. 

On Wednesday the children had a visit from the theatre and watched the show 'The Imagination Train: North Pole'. It was about a train ride and the children met Pippa the Penguin, saw igloos and the Northern Lights and went to Jack Frost's party. It was fun and the children were very involved. 

Each day we have had a visit from a special Elf. He takes messages back to the North Pole and the children have been told that a little bit of magic will be lost if the Elf is touched. We are also opening our Advent calendar, each day we are learning more about the Nativity. 

The children have been making decorations for the classroom and they have been encouraged to use handwriting patterns including dots, swirls, circles, lines, zig zags and arcs (rainbow). They have done some great work and the decorations will look lovely hanging in our classroom. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

29th November 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week we have started our Christmas preparation.  We have been very busy learning three songs that we are going to share at the Christmas Fair, on Sunday and we have been making Candy Cane patterns for a hall decoration. We have been using 2/3 colours (printing with paint)  to create a repeating pattern and thinking about how we make these with other objects around the room. 

The children have been introduced to Angel Gabriel and Mary. We have shared the 'Annunciation' story and have been learning a couple of songs relating to this. The children have been busy creating Angel pictures and we have been reinforcing that they are not Fairies!

We have started to get out the Advent Wreath and calendar and the children will be learning more about this through the Advent season. The Christmas tree will be put up on Monday and the children have been making a decoration, out of salt-dough to put on it. The children have also been told that Christmas is a time for celebrating the birth of a very special baby, Jesus.

We hope to see you all at the Christmas Fair. the children have been working hard to learn the songs and actions. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

22nd November 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week we have been learning about the Jewish Festival of Light, 'Hanukkah. We have shared a few books, relating to the Festival and we have been learning about how it is celebrated. There are eight days in the Festival and the children have been taught about a Menorah. There are eight candles to light on a Menorah, one for each day of the Festival, there is a ninth candle the Shamash (helper candle) that is used to light the other candles). The children have made Potato Latkes with Mrs Barber. These went down well.

At the start of the week we were thinking about Fireworks so we created our own. We used a paint, a pipette and a salad spinner to make our creations. The children were really surprised to see what had happened to the paint once it had been spun. The had made new colours and the paint had spread around the paper. 

We thought about some different sources of light and the children have been busy exploring the torches. As part of home learning the children have been asked to look for sources of light around their home and when out and about. 

The weather has turned colder this week and the children have been busy discovering patches of ice around the garden and their was a bit of excitement when we had a snow flurry. It is now taking a lot longer for us to get ready to go outside. Please practice fastening up zips and putting on scarves/hats. We recommend that the children have mittens, unless they can put gloves on by themself. Also, please ensure that all clothing is named. 

Next weekend we will be having the Christmas Fair. The children will be singing on stage at 12.15pm so it will be great if you can get to the stage for 12.10pm. We will be starting our Christmas learning, next week. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

15th November 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

We started our week thinking about Remembrance Day, with us having a minutes silence at 11am. The children used glitter to decorate their poppies and they are now on display in the classroom. See the photo below. 

On Monday afternoon the children were introduced to the Festival of Lights, Diwali. We had a lovely workshop and the children learnt about the Diwali story with the characters, Rama, Sita, Hanuman and Ravana. We were introduced to some dance moves and we put them together in a sequence. It was a great experience.

Throughout the week we have continued with our 'Let's Celebrate' theme, thinking about how Diwali is celebrated. The children have made Diya lamps, using clay, tools and beads, they been introduced to Rangoli and Henna patterns and we have made and eaten Chapattis . We have been learning a Diwali related song (What is Diwali? - CBeebies) and we have learnt a few more dance moves. 

The stories we have shared include 'The Best Diwali Ever', 'Chapatti Moon' and 'The Runaway Chapatti'. We have also used the  following website to help with our learning.

Diwali - CBeebies 

The children have been thinking about the shapes, circle, square, rectangle and triangle and they have been encouraged to look for them around our environment. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

8th November 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to Autumn 2. Our topic this half-term is 'Let's Celebrate!' and this week we have been thinking about a celebration that we are all aware of, birthdays! Thank-you for sending in a photo of your child, celebrating, they are on display in the classroom and the children are enjoying looking at them. Mr Troll was a little upset this week because his friends had forgotten that it was his birthday. The Nursery children soon cheered him up by singing happy birthday drawing him pictures and making food to eat. Please send your child in with a photo, if you have not yet done so so that they can be added to the display. 

On Monday we started to think about all the Autumnal changes that we are seeing at the moment and we shared the story Leaf Man. On Tuesday we created our own Leaf person, using the leaves that the children had collected. I have added the children's creations, below. Once made they did get blown away... We have been busy learning an Autumnal song and in the hall today the children pretended to be leaves, swirling and whirling to the ground. Mrs Barber then used a pretend broom to sweep the leaves (the children) into a pile before jumping into the pile with the children. I have added the song for home learning, enjoy sharing it. 

The children have been introduced to a Poppy. Many people wear them at this time of year. We shared a poem and song which I have added below. The tune for the song is 'Lavenders Blue'. The children made a Poppy, using salt-dough. These are still drying and I will share photos once finished. We have also created some beautiful poppy paintings using potatoes, to print and poppy seeds. I will add these to the website, next week. 

We also touched on Bonfire Night, on Wednesday. We talked about some of the fireworks that we had seen in the night sky. We will continue to think about fireworks, next week, when we learn about the celebration of Diwali. 

Parent consultations will be going ahead next Wednesday. We ask that you join us for the 30 minute slot, from 8.45am-9.15am. I am aware that you are allocated a time for the consultations but it is great for your child to spend time with you in their learning environment.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

25th October 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

Can you believe that we have reached the half term? Time has flown by but I can see that we have some tired children. 

This week we have been investigating pumpkins, listening to Gospel music, thinking about Autumnal changes and talking about spiders (keep looking for them!).

On Tuesday the children went into the hall to listen and to join in with singing from some Gospel Singers. This was great. We were singing the chorus from 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' and 'This Little Light of Mine'.  The children did a little dancing and we joined in with the actions. 

On Wednesday we shared a non-fiction book, 'Spiders'. Did you know that spiders have pale blue blood? Or the reason for spiders not sticking to their webs? We had to do a little investigation. Flies and other bugs stick to a web but not a spider. This is because spiders have oily legs. We used sticky tape, baby oil and our finger to recreate a spider on its web. 

Mrs Barber made a lovely Autumnal treat, on Thursday, This was inspired by a child who brought Mrs Barber, Mrs Davies and I a Gingerbread man, for a treat. We looked through our recipe book and found a recipe for Ginger and Pumpkin cake. The children helped to mix the ingredients and make the cakes. They were very yummy! We investigated a pumpkin and started to think about the life cycle of a pumpkin. It's amazing to think that such a large pumpkin grows from a tiny seed. 

We have had a few songs this week. We have continued with a song about creation, we have had a skeleton song and a pumpkin counting song. 

The children have been spotting the Autumnal changes. This week we learnt a poem, as part of poetry week and it was about the different coloured leaves that we can see on trees. Maybe your child can share it with you, 'I see Leaves'. 

I am setting some home-learning for other the holidays. You will find this on the home learning section of the website, link below. 

Have a lovely half term

See you on the 4th November

Miss Whittaker

18th October 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week we have been continuing with our spider learning. Sharing the songs Incy Wincy Spider and Little Miss Muffet. The Little Miss Muffet book that we have been sharing has lots of rhyming text and we have been encouraging the children to listen out for words that rhyme. For example, a parrot took Miss Muffet's carrot, mice took her rice and a bear took her pear. We have continued sharing the story 'Aaaarrrrgh Spider' and shared two different versions of Incy Wincy Spider.

Mrs Barber had fun reprising her role has 'Big Bird Barber' chasing all the little spiderlings. Whilst playing this game we encourage the children to look out for others and to move around safely. There is also a lot of listening to instructions. The children had fun making bread dough and making this into Spider bread. The children were encouraged with their careful counting. 

We have been thinking about the story of Creation and how God created all creatures, big and small. We thought about how some of us have pets at home and how we take care of them. We also discussed if we could have any pet what would it be? We need to look after all of the creatures, big and small, including spiders! 

Christmas came very early in the Nursery. The MCCA requested the annual Christmas card so we turned this into a printing session. The children used their hand to create a Christmas tree and a brown block to print a tree stump. The children then added a star and decorations with a paint brush. 

This morning we had a foggy start to the day and lots of spider webs were spotted. As part of our movement to music we danced creating circles, straight lines and spirals/swirls. We then demonstrated how to create a sparkly spider web, creating a spiral shape with white paint and glitter. We carried on printing, this time using our thumb/finger to create a spider body shape before adding 8 legs. 

I have asked the children to look out for spiders, over the weekend. Hopefully they will see quite a few. You could always take a photo and add to class-dojo, for us all to see, if you spot any.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

11th October 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

The weather this week has been up and down and we have made the most of it. We have had so many weather changes that we had to talk about this. The children have been learning that there are seven colours in a rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. I demonstrated how to mix colours and we created some wonderful rainbow paintings. These are hanging in the classroom.  

This week we have been learning the story of Incy Wincy spider and we have been using jingle bells and shakers to create music. The children made spiders using four cucumber sticks, four carrot sticks, two raisins and one circle of bread. The children were encouraged to select the correct amount of items and to count carefully as they created a spider. The spider was soon gobbled up.

We have shared the story 'Aaarggh Spider' and we have been thinking about the family and their pets. As part of our RE learning we have been thinking about how God created our Family. We have started to draw pictures of our Family and this will continue next week. 

In the hall we played a game were 'Big Bird Barber' was catching spiders to take back to her nest. The children were encouraged to look out for others as they escaped to the safety of the web. Lots of fun was had. The children have had the chance to go on bikes and scooters  in the big playground and we have been doing lots of ball kicking. 

Please ensure that your child has a coat in school, everyday. We have also been talking about catching our germs when we cough and sneeze, by covering our mouth. Please continue to encourage this at home. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

4th October 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

'God made me, God loves me' has been a big discussion point this week as we continue to learn about the story of Creation. We have continued to think about the wonderful world that God created for us and we will be continuing to talk more about this over the coming weeks.  The children have created some lovely self-portraits and they were encouraged to look at a photo of themselves as they painted.

We started the week thinking about what we can use our hands for. We have focused on the positives, for example, drawing, painting, eating, drinking etc and we have talked about what hands are not for, for example, pushing, hitting, taking from others etc. We have reinforced this learning through the week, highlighting positive uses of hands. We have also been reinforcing helping, at tidy up time. The children are expected to tidy away what they have been playing with.

Apples and pears have grown on trees, created by God and we have been learning about the harvesting of apples. We found an apple tree in one of our playgrounds with one apple left growing on it and Mrs Barber managed to find an apple on a tree and she brought it in to show us. We used apples and pears to make a lovely Autumnal treat, an 'Apple and Pear Turnover'. I hope that they shared this with you. The children worked hard slicing up the fruit and folding the pastry.

We have been looking around for shapes including rectangles, squares, circles and triangles. When making the turnovers we created squares and triangles  with the pastry.  Some of the children wanted toast this morning and we sat in the kitchen looking for shapes and shapes were created when slicing the toast. 

Please ensure that your child has a coat in school, everyday. These MUST be navy blue, this is our uniform. Also, hair must be tied back with blue/yellow accessories to match the school uniform. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

27th September 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

We have reached the end of the first full week and the children have done really well. We have been learning more rules, playing lots of name games and we have been encouraging the following of simple instructions. 

It has been a very busy week. At the start of the week the children started spotting Ladybirds on one of the trees in the garden. Some of them also spotted Larvae so this led to us learning a little about the Ladybird Life-cycle, learning the words egg, Larva, pupa, ladybird. 

We have been sharing the story The Enormous Turnip and talking about Harvest time. We have shared a few versions of the story, with different characters. As part of our learning the children helped to create a Harvest Vegetable soup using potato, carrot, turnip, sweet potato and leek.  The children used knives to cut the vegetables and they did some great slicing. We found out a little more about where carrots come from 

This week we have been out in the big playground, this is part of our routine on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The children started to explore the climbing equipment and we got out the balls. We have taken the children to the hall for some listening games and we have done our first 'Movement to Music', using scarves to practice making lines. 

As part of our RE learning we have been starting to share the story of Creation and this will continue over the coming weeks. 

It's been a wet week which has led to us singing lots of rain themed songs and the children are encouraged to join in. 

Please ensure that all clothing is named, including coats and please continue to encourage your child to wash their hands after using the toilet. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Whittaker

20th September 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

The children have settled really well into staying for lunch. We have so many good eaters this year and some have been having quite a few helpings!  Since the start the children have been having a snack at 10am, as we didn't want the milk/fruit to go to waste. This has been phased out towards the end of this week. The children have lunch at 11.15am and then we have a snack, as part of our carpet session, around 1.30pm.

We have continued to focus on some of our class rules including, Whole Body Listening, washing hands, toilet before lunch, walking in a line, staying on the left and walking around the environment. The children are encouraged with tidying up and we are noticing that more tissues are being required for the noses so we are encouraging the children to put used tissues in the bin, not on the floor! We ask that you continue to reinforce toileting, washing hands and the managing of personal hygiene. 

Next week the children are in from 8.30am-3.30pm. You may find that your child is tired, they may not want to come to school or they may be a little upset coming in. It's a big adjustment for your child and I can assure you that this behaviour is to be expected. If you have any concerns please let us know. 

Thank-you for attending last night's meeting. I have added the 'Meet the Teacher' presentation, below. Any questions, please email the school office. 

Have a great weekend

Miss Whittaker

13th September 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to Genesis class. 

What a great first week we have had. I am pleased to say that the children appear to be settling in nicely and they are starting to adapt to Nursery life. You may find that your child may be reluctant to come into school. This is all part of settling as they realise that they will be coming to school five days a week. In our experience we find that this is short lived and will soon pass.

This week we have been introducing 'Whole Body Listening' and this will be reinforced throughout the year. We have been learning our Nursery prayers, singing songs and sharing stories. The children have been exploring inside and out and next week we will start to learn some of our Nursery rules. The children are being encouraged to tidy up and this will also be reinforced everyday, throughout the year. 

Please can I request that if there is a late change to pick-up arrangements that you phone the office and not email. I check my emails at the start, middle and end of the day. If an email is sent during teaching times it will not be seen by me but if you phone the office they will pass on the message. 

We look forward to welcoming you back next week. We will continue to be part time for the following week. I know that this may be an inconvenience for you but it does benefit the settling in for your child. 

Have a great weekend

Miss Whittaker