St. Francis- Butterflies
This term, we are diving into an exciting new topic: A Taste of the World! The children have been absolutely loving our new role play areas, including a vibrant Pizza Shop and a World Food Supermarket. It’s been wonderful to see them exploring different cultures through imaginative play, broadening their understanding of the world around them. What a delicious start to the term!
Welcome to the Summer Term!
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back to nursery for the summer term! We hope you all had a lovely break and are feeling refreshed and ready for an exciting new term ahead.
This term, we have lots of fun activities planned as we continue to grow, explore, and learn together. From outdoor adventures and creative crafts to stories, songs, and sunshine play, it promises to be a joyful and busy time for all our little learners.
As always, we value your support and partnership. Please keep an eye on our website and newsletter, important dates, and ways to get involved.
Here’s to a fantastic summer term full of smiles, sunshine, and learning!
Warm wishes,
The Nursery Team
Exciting trip to Odds Farm! On Wednesday, our Nursery and Reception classes had an amazing time at Odds Farm! The children enjoyed a fun-filled day with ice lollies, a tractor ride, feeding the animals, playing in the playground, and much more. It was such an adventure that many of them fell asleep on the way back! A huge thank you to the parents who helped us—we truly appreciate your support!
Celebrating Mother’s Day. Today, our nursery children put on a fantastic Mother’s Day assembly and we could not be prouder! They did an amazing job, performing with confidence and enthusiasm. After assembly we hosted a lovely Mother’s Day breakfast in our class, where families enjoyed a warm and welcoming start to the day. Thank you to all the wonderful mums and special people who joined us. We hope you felt as cherished as you are! Happy Mother’s Day!
Last week in the nursery, we continued our exciting journey with the classic tale of The Three Little Pigs. We created a story map, drawing simple pictures to represent key parts of the story. Using this map as a guide, children acted out and retold the story in their own words, helping to boost their communication skills and confidence in storytelling. To further develop their understanding, the children also used story sequencing cards to put the events in the correct order.
Last week in nursery, we had a fantastic time exploring the classic tale The Three Little Pigs! We started by looking at the front cover, identifying the characters, and discussing the setting. The children engaged in a range of exciting activities linked to the story—they drew and described their favourite characters, experimented with different materials using a ‘hairdryer wolf’ to test their strength, and created their own straw, stick, and brick houses using junk modelling. In maths, we incorporated a Three Little Pigs subitising and sorting activity.
On Thursday, we celebrated World Book Day with excitement and creativity! Children arrived dressed as their favourite book characters, bringing stories to life in a wonderful way. Throughout the day, we enjoyed reading together and taking part in a variety of fun activities inspired by our love for books. It was a fantastic day filled with imagination, learning, and adventure!
Today, our little chefs had a fantastic time celebrating Shrove Tuesday by making and enjoying delicious pancakes! The children loved mixing, flipping, and, of course, tasting their creations!
This week, we introduced our exciting new topic, "Animal Fun", and the children enjoyed exploring our jungle-themed role play area. We read Rumble in the Jungle and carefully looked at each animal, discussing their features and movements. The children had great fun acting out the animals, using their bodies to imitate movements like an elephant’s big stomping steps! In maths, we focused on patterns found on jungle animals, identifying stripes, spots, and zigzags. We discussed why animals have different patterns—some for camouflage and others to warn predators. The children also created their own patterned snakes, selecting two shapes and colours to form repeating sequences, while some extended this by using a wider variety of shapes and colours. To finish off the week, the children got creative with jungle animal crafts, making their own paper plate animals. Ask your child about their favourite jungle animal and see if they can show you how it moves!
Dear Parents & Carers,
Pope Francis Jubilee 2025 – Pilgrims of Hope
As part of the celebrations for Pope Francis' Jubilee 2025, the theme for this year is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. In light of the challenges facing the world today, such as the impacts of war, the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the climate crisis, we are inspired to take an action by showing hope and solidarity.
In line with this, each class at Our Lady of Lourdes is choosing a charity to support throughout the year.
Our nursery class has chosen to support Blue Cross, a charity that helps animals in need, reflecting our values of compassion and care for all living creatures.
Throughout the year, we will:
- Raise awareness about the charity.
- Organise fundraising activities to support its work.
We encourage you to visit our class webpage for updates on our activities and progress. We deeply appreciate your continued support as we work together to make a meaningful difference this year.
Thank you for your support of our Jubilee 2025 Pilgrims of Hope Charity Drive!
Warm regards,
The Nursery Team
Celebrating 100 Days of Learning! Today, we marked a special milestone—100 days of school! Our little learners came dressed up beautifully, making the day even more special. It was a joy to see their excitement as we celebrated all the growth, fun, and friendships built over these past months. Thank you for your support in making this day so memorable. We are truly 100 days brighter and can't wait for more adventures ahead!
This week in the nursery, we read The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The children enjoyed the story, and as they became more familiar with it, they showcased their wonderful acting skills, confidently using dialogues from the story.
In the last two weeks in nursery, we have had a wonderful time exploring “Room on the Broom”! The children enjoyed listening to the story, engaging with the characters through props and actions. We discussed the setting, events, and vocabulary, and focused on the fun rhyming words throughout the story. The children were also involved in activities that tied into the themes of the book. They created healthy packed lunches for the dragon, sorting foods into healthy and unhealthy categories. We practised counting, sorting, and basic addition as the children grouped and counted characters from the story. In addition, we explored creative activities like bubble wrap painting to create dragons, witches’ hats, and broomsticks, allowing the children to explore different textures.
This morning, we had the pleasure of celebrating Maths Week with a special session in our nursery class! Parents were invited to join us in exploring how their children are developing key mathematical skills through engaging activities. It was wonderful to see parents participating and enjoying the different maths-themed challenges we had set up. A big thank you to all the parents who joined us today—we hope you had as much fun as we did!
This week in our RE lesson, we listened to the story Jesus welcomes the children (Mark 10:13-16). The children participated in role play to bring the story to life, learning how Jesus showed love and kindness to everyone, especially children. We also discussed how we welcome others in friendly ways, like with a handshake, high five, or hug. We talked about how to express ourselves when we don’t feel comfortable, practising saying phrases like, "No, stop that," or "Please don’t do that." For our activity, the children enjoyed colouring templates of themselves to create a lovely RE display.
We hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Thank you for participating in the "Make Your Own Monster" homework activity! We were thrilled to see how creatively the children made and described their monsters. Luckily, most of them were friendly, enjoyed playing with friends, and loved to eat!
Welcome back to the Spring Term!
Dear Parents/Carers,
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful and restful Christmas holiday, filled with joy and special moments with your loved ones. We are so excited to welcome you and your little ones back to nursery as we begin the Spring Term.
This term promises to be an exciting one, with lots of fun activities, new learning opportunities, and chances for the children to grow and thrive.
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, concerns, or updates you would like to share as we begin this new term together.
Warm regards,
Nursery Team
Dear Parents and Carers,
This year we will be using the Development Matters framework to inform the learning taking place in the classroom. The topics for each term reflect chosen texts and learning goals that will be assessed.
The yearly plan has been uploaded here for you to refer to throughout the year.
Thank you,
Mrs Szymczak
As we approach the last week of the school year, we wanted to share some highlights of our festive celebrations. The children had a wonderful time during our Christmas Jumper Day and enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch together. We also held a lively class party filled with fun activities, including musical chairs and musical statues. The students got creative with some holiday crafts, showcasing their artistic talents! Thank you for your support throughout the year. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May your holiday season be filled with joy, peace, and wonderful memories.
Today, our EYFS classes delivered their Nativity performance, and it was a wonderful success! The children were fantastic, looking absolutely beautiful as they brought the story to life. Thank you for your continued support in making this event so special!
This week in nursery, we explored the setting of the story Little Red Riding Hood. The children listened carefully, discussed what they could see in the woods, and noticed the details, colours, and patterns in an illustration filled with animals and plants. We also encouraged curiosity by asking open-ended questions like, "What else might live in the woods?" and included activities such as pointing, counting, and describing what they observed. As an extension, the children enjoyed a nature trail around the school playground. They also created a beautiful woodland collage using various materials.
This week in nursery, we introduced the story of Little Red Riding Hood! We started by discussing the characters, asking questions like "What does Little Red Riding Hood look like?" and "What do you think the Big Bad Wolf is like?" The children enjoyed exploring the story through pictures and descriptions of the characters. The children had a great time choosing to draw either Little Red Riding Hood or the Big Bad Wolf, creating wonderful crafts using paper plates, and practicing their mark-making skills. We encouraged them to add details like Red Riding Hood's cape or the Wolf’s scary features. They then described their creations using new vocabulary.
Over the past two weeks in nursery, the children have been enjoying the story "We’re Going on a Bear Hunt". They brought the story to life through a music and action map, mimicking the sounds and movements of wavy grass, splashing rivers, sticky mud, crackly leaves in the forest, a swirling snowstorm, and the deep, dark cave. The excitement peaked when they embarked on their own bear hunt, chanting the journey and discovering the bear, played by Mrs. Hopkins in costume. This week, the children retold the story in sequence and explored sensory mark-making through activities such as drawing in sand, making marks with charcoal in mud, and creating shapes and lines on whiteboards. They also engaged in math-themed fun by counting steps as they recreated the bear hunt, following a trail of numbered bear paw prints, and using ten frames to count and match teddy bears. These activities have combined storytelling, sensory play, and early math skills, sparking creativity and excitement in learning.
Today in our nursery class, we celebrated Continents Day! The children came dressed in beautiful cultural clothes. We explored the globe and map, introducing the seven continents in a fun, interactive way. Through songs, games, and hands-on activities like placing animal toys and "Mini Me" figures on a felt map, the children began to connect continents with animals, people, and cultures. Creative activities included crafting a world collage, counting and decorating numbers, and using playdough mats to bring the continents to life. It was a day full of discovery, creativity, and smiles!
Over the past two weeks, our nursery children have been having a fantastic time exploring the classic story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They listened to the story and joined in with familiar phrases like "This porridge is too hot!" The children enjoyed talking about their favourite characters and participating in a range of exciting activities based on the story. A real highlight was our "Hot Seating" activity, where children took turns pretending to be characters from the story, such as Goldilocks or one of the bears. The rest of the class asked fun questions like, “Why did you go into the house, Goldilocks?” or “Were you scared when you saw the bears?” This encouraged children to think about the characters' actions and helped build their confidence in speaking. In addition to the storytelling, the children were sequencing events from the story using story cards. They also acted out the story with props like small bears, bowls, and chairs, practising retelling it in their own words. In maths, the children learned a special skill called subitising – the ability to recognize quantities without counting. They also helped Goldilocks sort different sized items (bowls, chairs, and beds) to match each bear’s needs. Through this activity, children used words like small, medium, and large, and practised comparative language, such as “Daddy Bear’s bed is the biggest!” On Friday, the children made porridge for the three bears, following a simple recipe! It was very tasty, and everyone enjoyed a little taste of the porridge they had created, just like in the story. What a delicious way to end our fun-filled adventure with Goldilocks and the Three Bears!
Our 50th Birthday Celebrations for Our Lady of Lourdes School was a fantastic success! On Thursday, we had the honour of attending a special Mass led by Cardinal Vincent Nichols at the church of the Five Precious Wounds. This service was a beautiful way to start our celebrations and truly memorable for our school community. On Friday, we continued the festivities with a throwback to the 1970s! The children arrived dressed in vibrant 70s outfits, adding colour and spirit to the day. We had fun sampling sweets invented in the 70s, danced to the timeless tunes of ABBA, and even crafted our own flower headbands. It was a joyful celebration filled with laughter.
This week, we began our exciting new topic, Into the Woods! On Monday, the children came dressed as characters from different woodland stories, and each one looked absolutely wonderful. We loved seeing their creative costumes and how they each brought their favourite characters to life. A huge thank you to all the parents for your support in getting the children ready for the day—it really made the start of this topic extra special. We’re looking forward to exploring many more woodland adventures together in the coming weeks!
This week in nursery we read "Handa’s Surprise" by Eileen Browne, a beautiful story that introduced the children to African culture and explored the themes of friendship, sharing, and celebration. We used props to bring the story to life, engaging the children with questions about the characters and the African setting. We also explored the concept of patterns. Pupils took part in many activities linked to the story, such as: role play - the children acted out the story in small groups, fruit tasting party, cultural craft - the children created African - inspired patterns using fruit and paint, and also made African necklaces.
As part of our Black History Month celebration, the children listened to the story "Mae Jemison: Little People, Big Dreams," where we explored Mae’s determination to become the first African American woman astronaut. We discussed what it might feel like to be in space, how Mae must have felt following her dreams, and even reflected on our own dreams for the future. The children then created "Dream Clouds," drawing pictures of themselves in their dream jobs—such as astronauts, doctors, and artists—and used cotton to make fluffy clouds. Each child shared a word or phrase that described their dream, like “keep people safe” or “help people.” We also explored shapes by creating rockets using 2D shapes, inspired by Mae Jemison’s journey to space. It was a wonderful activity filled with imagination, and we hope you’ll continue to encourage your child to dream big at home!
Today, we had a wonderful celebration of St. Francis Day, the patron saint of our class! The children enjoyed story time about the life of St. Francis of Assisi, learning about his care and love for animals and nature. As a special treat, we baked and shared animal-shaped cookies, which the children loved! We also went on a "St. Francis Nature Walk," where the children explored God's creation, spotting birds, insects, and leaves. To wrap up the day, they made bird feeders using seeds and cookie cutters, they were perfect to hang around our school!
Join Us in the Street Tag Challenge!
Dear Parents,
We are excited to introduce you to Street Tag, a free app that encourages families to become more physically active together. By walking, running, cycling, rolling, or scooting past virtual tags, you and your family can earn points while enjoying the outdoors.
Why participate?
- Boost Physical and Mental Health: Street Tag promotes an active lifestyle, which has numerous benefits for both physical and mental well-being.
- Support Our School: When you sign up for the Schools Leaderboard, the points you collect contribute to our school’s total score.
Please see attached.
Thank you for your support!
This week at the nursery, the children engaged in a variety of activities inspired by the story "Owl Babies". They explored counting and numbers through fun, hands-on experiences. The children counted owl pictures on the whiteboard and used counters to represent the number of owls. They practiced feeding the owls with the correct number of food items. We had an exciting "owl hunt" where children found and counted hidden owls. Using wooden numbers and owl picture, the children counted and practiced writing numbers on whiteboards. Afterwards each child created their own owl family and practiced counting as they made between 1 to 4 owls. It has been a fantastic week of learning and fun!
This week in the nursery we read the book Who’s in My Family? Children shared their family photos and talked about their unique family members. To enhance their understanding, the children created their own family portraits using natural materials developing their fine motor skills. During this hands-on activity, we continued discussing the importance of family.
This week at nursery, children began their new topic, "All About Me." We read the story What I like about Me and talked about the differences and similarities between the children, discussing what they like most about themselves. We counted how many boys and girls are in the class, and observed features like hair length and eye colour. Using mirrors, children closely looked at their faces. As an activity the children created a self-portrait using paint and a handprint in their favourite colour!
We have had a wonderful first week in the nursery class! The children are settling in beautifully, making new friends, and adjusting well to their new routines. It's been a pleasant start, and we’re looking forward to an exciting year ahead!
Welcome to Our Nursery!
Hello and welcome to all our wonderful children, parents, and carers! My name is Mrs Szymczak, and I am excited to be working alongside Mrs Hopkins and Mrs Decruz. Together, we have created a warm, loving, and nurturing environment where your child can grow, learn, and thrive.
Please keep an eye on this space, as we will be updating it weekly with important information, activities, and exciting news from the nursery. We look forward to an amazing year ahead filled with joy, learning, and new adventures!
Best regards,
The Nursery Team