Nursery
Welcome to Nursery - Mermaid Class - Early Years Foundation Stage
Mrs Cullum - mcullum@gordon.greenwich.sch.uk
Mrs King - rking@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.
Autumn Term 2026 Learning
Welcome to the children starting with us in Mermaid Class, their parents and carers, and welcome back to those returning to us! We hope you have had a lovely summer and are excited to begin your learning adventure. It is going to be a busy time! The new children will initially be settling into 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). As well as settling into their new environment and routines, they will be learning skills through our topics on: "Me and My World", "Amazing Autumn" and "Let’s Celebrate."
Autumn first half-term ‘Me and My World’ and ‘Amazing Autumn’
Texts: Mermaid School, Together a Forest, My World Your World, Super Duper You, A World for You and Me, Scarecrow’s Wedding, The Leaf Thief
Autumn second half-term – Let’s Celebrate
Texts: Little Glow, Binny’s Diwali, The Light in the Dark, Night Animals, Day Monkey, Night Monkey, The Christmas Story, Luna Loves Christmas
The children will:
- Use all their senses in hands-on exploration of natural materials
- Understand a question or instruction that has two parts, such as ‘Get your coat and wait at the door’
- Enjoy listening to longer stories and remember much of what happens
- Use large muscle movements to wave flags and streamers, paint and make marks
- Use one-handed tools and equipment, for example, making snips in paper with scissors
- Explore collections of materials with similar and/or different properties
- Take part in simple pretend play, using an object to represent something else even though they are not similar
- Increasingly follow rules, understanding why they are important
- Remember rules without needing an adult to remind them
- Start taking part in some group activities which they make up themselves, or in teams
- Pay attention to more than one thing at a time
- Sing a large repertoire of songs
- Develop their sense of responsibility and membership of a community
- Show more confidence in social situations
- Explore how things work
- Talk about what they see, using a wide vocabulary
- Talk about the differences between materials and changes they notice
- Explore colour and colour mixing
- Explore different materials freely, to develop their ideas about how to use them and what to make
- Show different emotions in their drawings and paintings, like happiness, sadness, fear, etc.
- Join different materials and explore different textures
Communication, Language and Literacy
The children will
- Join in with rhymes and songs and begin to move/do actions to music
- Concentrate for several minutes on an activity, a story or during group time
- Understand and respond to simple questions
Literacy
The children will
- Use a range of tools in a range of media to make marks
- Begin Phase 1 phonics listening activities
- Join in with familiar songs, rhymes and repeat phrases from simple stories
- Take care of books and handle them correctly
- Show an interest in quality texts
Mathematics
The children will
- Show awareness of surroundings and curiosity to explore and make sense
- Perceptually subitise to 3
- Use numbers as labels to 3
- Understand that 3 is made of other numbers
- Begin to join in songs, action rhymes with counting or number patterns
- Start to use a 5-frame, understanding concept images and ‘full’/’not full yet’
- Show ‘finger numbers’ up to 5
In conjunction with NCETM Numberblocks scheme:
- Categorise objects according to properties – colour, shape or size
- Identify shapes in the environment and select shapes appropriately for building
Please note that some aspects / topics may change in order to adapt to the children's learning needs and interests.
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, 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.
- 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 £6.00 at the beginning of each half-term, if that is more convenient. Thank you for your support!
- Please ensure that your child brings a waterproof coat each day as we spend lots of time enjoying the outdoors. Please ensure outdoor clothing, cardigans, jumpers, etc. are all clearly named.
- If your child is not going to be in Nursery, please inform the school office/teacher by phone/email.
- If your child is to be collected by someone who is not known 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.
- Please remember to sign up to the Interactive Learning Diary. Don’t forget you can share your child’s achievements in nursery and upload information from home. Our weekly learning will be sent out on ILD. Please ask if you are experiencing difficulties with signing in.
- If you have any questions or wish to raise a concern, please contact the class teacher in the first instance.
Diary Dates
Please see the school calendar and weekly newsletters for more information about events for Nursery.