Nursery
Welcome to Nursery - Crystal Class - Early Years Foundation Stage
Mrs Cullum - mcullum@gordon.greenwich.sch.uk
Mrs Hill - ihill@gordon.greenwich.sch.uk
In the Early Years, we have created a happy, secure and stimulating environment in which children can develop as unique individuals and where they develop emotional, social and academic skills needed to become independent, motivated learners and responsible members of the community.
Learning takes place both inside and outside the classroom. We also have a Forest School site where the children develop their awareness of nature, the environment and skills such as collaboration and enquiry.
The Early Years curriculum is designed to meet the needs of the youngest children in our school. Delivery of the curriculum is led through adult-led activities that introduce new skills and extend learning. There are also planned purposeful play opportunities and enhancement of provision, where adults observe and intervene with higher ordering questioning and engagement to extend the learning taking place.
Communication with parents is a strength in Early Years. We communicate with parents and carers on a daily basis and use an online platform called ‘Interactive Learning Diary’ which enables us to inform parents and carers of their child’s weekly learning through observations, photos and videos. It also allows parents and carers to contribute to their child’s learning, as we are all instrumental in ensuring that our children’s development is excellent.
Spring Term 2026 Learning
Welcome to the new children starting with us in Crystal Class in January, and their parents/carers, and welcome back to those returning to us. We hope you have had a lovely winter break and are excited to continue your learning adventure. It is going to be a busy time! The new children will initially be settling in to the new routines and the ‘older’ children will be encouraged to show increasing independence in all areas of learning and to develop their social skills.
As always, the children follow a play-based curriculum. This takes place through a range of stimulating and engaging activities which allow children to explore, communicate, question and develop their understanding. The children will have opportunities to learn skills through focused activities and independent play and their learning journey will follow their individual needs within the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2021).
This term they will be learning skills through our topics on:
Winter Wonderland – we will be finding out about seasonal changes (Winter & Spring) and look at winter and spring celebrations within our families, such as New Year and Easter.
Here to Help – we will be finding out about people who help us at home, in school and in the community.
Once Upon a Time – We will be finding out about different characters and settings and making links with the past and present through traditional tales and oral story-telling.
Communication, Language and Literacy
- To listen and concentrate for longer periods
- To understand instructions of two or more parts
- Begin to ask/respond to how/why questions
- To start a conversation and wait for their turn to speak
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Make healthy choices about food, drink, activity and dental care
- Follow classroom rules independently
- Be able to inhibit their own actions/behaviours e.g. stop themselves from doing things they shouldn’t
- Be increasingly independent in self-care
- To start to develop growth mindset and resilience – have a go at new things and keep trying when finding tasks difficult
- Keep play going by responding to what others are doing/saying
Physical Development
- Build on balancing, riding and ball skills
- Wave arms or ribbons to make vertical lines and circles in the air
- Begin to copy movements such as jumping, hopping, skipping and balancing on one leg
- Develop an emerging tripod grasp when using writing media
- Copy basic pre-writing patterns
- Hold scissors correctly and begin to cut along a line
Literacy
- Begin to produce emergent writing and symbols
- Continue Little Wandle phonics sessions, encouraging the children to recognise and use rhyme as well as encouraging listening skills to identify sounds in words
- Know that print carries meaning and is read from left to right and from top to bottom, and that pages are turned one at a time, in sequence
- Identify letters from their name
- Be able to say what happens next in a story
- Show greater engagement in quality texts such as Snow Thief, Once Upon a Storytime, Stop that’s not my Story, Princess Break Free, You Choose Fairytales, A Practical Present for Pippa, A Chair for Baby Bear, Alan’s Scary Teeth, Jim and the Beanstalk and non-fiction texts such as A Superhero Like you, Why do I need to Brush My Teeth, Meet the Police, Meet the Firefighters, Life Savers
Mathematics
- Sing songs/rhymes using number names and number patterns
- Know number names to 5 and connect amounts on and off 5 frames with these labels
- Compare quantities to 5
- Begin to understand conceptual subitising for amounts to 4
- Use numbers as labels to 5
- Talk about and explore basic 2D and 3D shapes using informal and mathematical language, e.g. ‘sides’, ‘corners’, ‘straight’, ‘flat’, ‘round’, curved
- Talk about and identify patterns e.g. ‘spotty’, ‘stripy’
- Extend and create A-B-A-B patterns
- Begin to describe a sequence of events
Understanding the World
- Begin to role-play familiar people and different jobs
- Use the senses in exploring natural materials, and explore how things work
- Talk about the differences between materials and changes they notice
- Remember and talk about significant events in their own experience
Expressive Arts and Design
- Draw with increasing complexity and detail
- Explore colour and colour mixing
- Explore different materials freely, in order to develop their ideas about how to use them and what to make
- Begin to develop complex stories using small-world equipment
- Play instruments with increasing control to express feelings and ideas
Please note that some aspects / topics may change in order to adapt to the children’s interests and learning needs.
General Information
- ‘Lending Library’ is on a Friday. Please ensure your child brings in their book bag and Reading Record on that day, or every day if they wish to. Please read with your child on a daily basis (this could include the book they borrow from nursery, a book from home or why not enrol at Eltham library? Talk to them about the book and check their understanding by asking questions about events and the characters’ actions. Please also explain new or unfamiliar vocabulary. It would be great if you could comment on how your child responded to the book borrowed from nursery and encourage them to have a go at drawing/mark-making in their reading record.
- We collect a voluntary donation of £1 per week at the end of sessions on Fridays to pay for snacks and other miscellaneous resources. Alternatively, you can pay at the beginning of each term/half term, if that is more convenient. Thank you to everyone who has contributed over the past term – without this we would not be able to provide snacks, cooking ingredients, activities, ingredients for playdough, sensory resources, etc.
- Please ensure that your child brings a waterproof coat each day as we spend lots of time enjoying the outdoors. In the winter months this also needs to be warm. Please ensure outdoor clothing, cardigans, jumpers, etc. are clearly named.
- If your child is not going to be attending nursery, please inform the school office/teacher by phone/email.
- If your child is to be collected by someone who is not familiar to the Nursery staff, please inform us in advance.
- We are a Healthy School. Please do not send in sweets or other treats when it is your child’s birthday. If you want to celebrate your child’s birthday with their classmates, you could buy the class a book, send in a healthy snack such as boxes of raisins or buy stationery such as pencils, but due to the impact on the environment, we ask you not to send in plastic toys.
- Thank you for signing up to the Interactive Learning Diary (ILD). Don’t forget you can share your child’s achievements in nursery and also upload information from home. A weekly blog is sent out on ILD.
Diary Dates
Please see the school calendar and weekly newsletters for more information about events for Nursery.