Week ending 17.10.2025

This week, we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming our parents into school to watch us during our phonics sessions. It has been wonderful to share our learning and show everyone how hard we’ve been working to recognise our sounds and blend words together. The children were so proud to demonstrate their growing phonics skills.

We have also been thinking about the special people in our school and how they help us. We talked about our teachers, lunchtime staff, office staff, and all the adults who make our school a happy and safe place to be. The children enjoyed going on a tour around the school, meeting and introducing themselves to different members of staff. They shared some lovely thoughts about what people do to help them and how that makes them feel.

As part of our ‘All About Me’ learning, we have explored hobbies- what we like to do, what we’re good at, and how everyone enjoys different things. The children were very excited to talk about their favorite activities, from football and dancing to painting and baking!

In Maths, we have been exploring lots of hands-on activities to develop our understanding of capacity, weight, and pattern. We compared the capacity of different containers using coloured water as part of our fun potion-making activity. We talked about which containers held more or less, and learned the language of full, empty, and half full. We also explored weight and mass by investigating classroom objects and comparing which were heavier or lighter. To finish, we created our own repeating patterns through clapping, and saying the sequences out loud- everyone showed brilliant focus and creativity.

In RE, we continued learning about the Story of Creation, focusing on days two and three. The children were fascinated by how God created the sky, the land, and the plants. We linked this to our visit to Forest School, where we collected leaves and talked about the different trees they might have come from. The children had a wonderful time exploring nature and showing curiosity about the world around them.

To mark the end of our fantastic first term, we enjoyed decorating our own celebration cupcakes- a lovely way to celebrate all the amazing learning and friendships we’ve made this term!

Please also find in your child’s book bag a small bag for collecting autumn objects over the half term break. We would love for the children to bring in  their treasures next term so we can explore and talk about them together as part of our Term 2 learning.

We are also looking to further develop our outdoor learning area, and would be very grateful for any pallets, boards, tyres, or crates that families might have spare. These resources will help us to extend the children’s imaginative and construction play outdoors.

We wish all our families a wonderful half term break- thank you for your continued support. We can’t wait to see everyone again in Term 2 for exciting learning adventures!

   

 

 

Week ending 3.10.2025

This week in Early Years, we have been very busy learning our new letters f.e.l.h. and r. The children have been working really hard to recognising these letters, and they have loved joining in with our dough disco sessions to help strengthen their fine motor skills.

In RE, we have been learning about saying God’s name respectfully and why this is important. We also spent some time talking about friendships-what makes a good friend, how we can show kindness to one another, and how we can look after the people around us. Alongside this, we discussed the different types of families, celebrating the fact that families can look different but are all special.

For Understanding the World, we explored materials and light, investigating how some objects shine through while others do not. The children were fascinated to test different materials and talk about what they could see.

In Maths, we have been continuing to work on sorting items and beginning to compare them. The children have been creating their own sorting rules and learning to sort objects using more than one criteria. We have been using key vocabulary such as sorting, match, same as, and different. The children particularly enjoyed playing the ‘Guess My Rule’ game as a class, trying to figure out how items were grouped. We have also started to compare objects using mathematical language such as more and fewer.

It was a very exciting week for Squirrels, as they went to Forest School for the first time with their Year 5 buddies. The children had an absolutely brilliant time making cakes and pancakes in the mud kitchen, playing with the tyres, and building dens together.

On top of this, we had our first visit to the library this week, where the children loved exploring all the different books and listening to a story being read aloud.

We have also been working really hard on our Harvest Festival song, ready for our performance in St Stephen’s Church on Monday morning for Harvest Festival. The children are verry excited to share their song.

 

Week ending 26.09.2025

This week has been a wonderfully sunny one, filled with lots of exciting new experiences!

In our topic All About Me, we have been creating our own family trees. We began by talking about who is in our families, thinking about who is the oldest and who is the youngest. Afterwards, we used paint and our fingertips to add beautiful leaves to our tree outlines. We also drew pictures of our families, shared who was in them, and celebrated how each family is special and unique.

 

In maths, we explored comparing and matching. We had a fun challenge of sorting socks. The children looked closely at the different patterns, such as green socks with spots and green socks with stripes. Together we worked out which ones made a pair and which didn’t, talking about the similarities and differences. We then went onto sorting other things in the classroom.

On Thursday, the Badgers had their very first visit to Forest School! Their buddies gave them a tour of the exciting areas, including the mud kitchen, the stage, and the den. Afterwards, they gathered around the campfire to learn about fire safety, including how to step back carefully from the fire pit.

Next week, it will be the Squirrels’ turn to discover the Forest School area.

 

Week ending 19.09.2025

This week, the children worked carefully on their self-portaits, thinking about the details that make them unique. We also had some thoughtful discussions about what makes us happy and what makes us sad, helping us to understand and talk about our feelings. We had our very first PE lesson, and the children were amazing! They showed great independence when getting changed, and walked sensibly to the hall ready for lots of fun and activity. 

We are also continuing to meet up with our Year 5 Buddies, which has been such a highlight for the children. They have loved spending time with their older friends, and it has been wonderful to see how nurturing, responsible, and caring the Year 5 children are with the Early Years children.

In phonics, we have started learning our new sounds t, i, n, p and g, and it has been wonderful to see the children joining in with such enthusiasm.

Of course, there has also been plenty of time to play and explore with our new friends, and it's lovely to see the children building friendships and enjoying their time together.

Well done everyone for such a brilliant week of learning and settling in!

 

     

        

                                                       

 

 

 

Week ending 12.09.2025

It has been wonderful to welcome all our new Early Years parents and children into school this week. On Monday morning, the children arrived bright and early, full of smiles and proudly wearing their new school uniforms. They have settled into their new classrooms brilliantly, quickly getting to know their teachers and teaching assistants. We are so proud of how well the children have adapted to life at Bishop Chavasse. They are already beginning to understand and follow our school expectations, and it has been a joy to see every child eager to try new things.

This week, the children have been practising their fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up and sort colourful pom-poms. 

In phonics, they have begun learning the sounds m, s, a, and d, showing fantastic enthusiasm and excitement. We have even started “Fred Talk,” where the children practise repeating sounds and blending them together to make words. We are looking forward to introducing new sounds next week.

Our new topic, All About Me, has also begun. The children enjoyed sharing their “All About Me” boxes with their classmates, explaining the special items they brought in and why they are important to them.

During exploring time, the children have loved dressing up, role-playing, building in the construction area, and beginning to play collaboratively with their peers.

It has been a truly wonderful first week, and we are so excited to see how the children continue to grow and flourish in the weeks ahead.