Our Foundation Stage Unit at Clyst Heath

Play is truly a child's work in the Foundation Stage

Welcome to our foundation stage unit. We are a mixed unit of Nursery and Reception children playing and learning together. The foundation stage  teachers are: Mrs Lake (Nursery, Oak Green), Mrs Brooks and Mrs Parsons (Reception, blue base) and Mrs Pitman (Reception, red base) We are supported by Teaching Assistants Mrs Jeffery, Miss Gail and Mrs Pam Kaur.

Learning in Oak Class

At Clyst Heath we strive to foster a love of learning, a strong sense of curiosity and the determination and resilience to persevere and succeed. We want our children to be ‘Ready, Willing and Able', in themselves, in their school and in their world.  We teach and learn through a balance of large and small planned groups, focused individual tasks and child-initiated learning. We have three learning characters, who help our children to become resilient, inquisitive and creative lifelong learners. These are Paddington ‘the explorer’, ‘keep trying’ Kipper and Percy ‘the problem solver’. These characters give the children the language to talk about and discuss their learning and that of others. See if you can catch your children being a Paddington, Kipper or Percy learner at home!


If you would like to know more about the Early Years Foundation Curriculum, the ‘nuts and bolts’ of what your child will be learning in Nursery and Reception, then click on the EYFS Statutory Curriculum located on this page.


Spring 2024

Focus-Investigators

This term we are learning all about ‘People who help us!’ We have got lots of visitors coming in to talk to us about how they help people. In Reception, our focus book is ‘Super-tato’ who helps the vegetables escape from Evil Pea. We are very excited about helping him to problem solve and be like Percy.

We have been looking for Evil Pea, writing him messengers and looking for clues.

In Nursery we are also learning about ‘People who help us’ through visitors, stories, role-play and small world.

Our Top Five books this half- term are ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea', 'One Mole Digging a Hole', 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff', 'Chocolate Mousse For Greedy Goose' and 'Fix-It Duck’.

  • Spring 2024

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March 2022

The Foundation Stage Unit had fun throwing coloured water balloons celebrating the Hindu Festival of Holi/Colour. Yes, they did get wet!

We needed to help the Cress Brothers to grow their hair back after Evil Pea had visited. We needed to work out how to help them, and were excited to see that the seeds have finally grown this week!

January 2022

We have been solving problems like Percy! We've been helping Supertato to solve his problems - look what the Evil Pea has done to his friends!

November 2021

In Reception, we are very excited to be learning our new text Handra's Surprise! We have explored the different fruits and thought about our own delicious foods and how to describe them. In Nursery and Reception we are enjoying delving into our new Top Five stories. 

October 2021

Over the last two weeks, Reception have been busy looking at and sorting old and new toys. Kipper's toys have all been mixed up, so we have been Percy problem solvers and sorted them out using their initial sounds. Nursery have had fun singing and exploring five green speckled frogs. 

September 2021

We have had a very busy but fun first week in the FSU. Reception are enjoying working with the book 'Kippers Toy Box.' We have learnt part of the story using actions. We have made our own book of our favourite toys. In nursery we have been enjoying the books 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt.' and 'My Friend Bear.' 

5th - 9th July 2021

We are enjoying 'This is the Bear' stories this week and reception have been busy finishing their final writing piece. Do you like our 'This is the...' stories? 

28th June - 2nd July 2021

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    We worked as a team to problem solve getting Bert out of the swamp. 

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    We looked at how rubbish trucks have changed!

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21st - 25th June 2021

Nursery have been busy exploring the book 'Snail and the Whale' and creating spiral patterns in the outside area, as well as using descriptive words when looking through a snail template. This term Reception are going to be authors and write their own book. This week we have written the beginning of our story. 

14th - 18th June 2021

This week Reception have been sorting Bert and Betty's rubbish into the materials they are made of. We have also been talking about pollution and how we care for our planet. We have been working hard learning our key vocabulary for this topic. Nursery have continued to explore 'under the sea' and have been very creative and even looked at and talked about real fish! 

7th - 11th June 2021

Oh no! Bert and Betty our bears are very upset. During the half-term holiday, they went to Peru to visit Great Aunt Lucy and went fishing. Unfortunately, they did not catch any fish but they caught a lot of rubbish! This week Reception are learning about pollution and how to look after our environment. In Nursery, we are focusing on under the sea and reading 'Sharing a Shell.' 

24th - 28th May 2021

We have put all our skills together this term - we finished our Chick posters and our Art Masterpiece (printing a fluffy chick picture). 

17th - 21st May 2021

We are very excited that our chicks have hatched! We are watching them very closely and are taking good care of them. We are even enjoying holding them!

10th - 14th May 2021

We were very pleased and excited to receive our present from Mother Goose. We have been learning all about how to care for our new chicks.

4th - 7th May 2021

This week we have enjoyed reading books about chicks, continuing to use our new vocabulary and making our own play dough chicks.

26th - 30th April 2021

This week in the FSU we have been busy putting eggs in size order, writing captions about chicks to match a photo, using positional language to describe where our chicks are hiding and putting the life cycle of a chicken in order. We still haven’t received our surprise from Mother Goose but we have been searching our area for clues and we have found lots of feathers!

Information

Nursery Admission Policy Nursery Newsletter September 2023 Reception Newsletter September 2023 Nursery Pamphlet Reception Pamphlet

EYFS

EYFS Curriculum Development Matters

Learning

An essential site for supporting your child’s communication and language development Click here to find out how we teach reading

A Message to Parents:

As well as being a big milestone for many, the Reception year is an exciting time of rapid development. Your child will develop the skills that secure future learning. During this year children refine and develop their communication skills, learning to get along with each other and cooperate; they learn to read, write and understand the basics of our number system. As parents, the most important things you can do to support your children’s learning are talk, talk and talk some more; read and tell stories, count (anything!) and find a quiet five or ten minutes every day to listen to your child read. For more information about what your child is expected to be able to do by the end of the Reception year open the Early Years Outcomes document located on this page.

Nursery Funding

Learn about help paying for childcare
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