| Early Years & Infants
* Please see 'Latest News' for Early Years & Infants News updates
Welcome to the Early Years & Infants Deparment.
At the Early Years & Infants Department we believe that choosing your child's first experience of nursery and school is a very big decision in their young life. Our ethos is, in the first place, to provide a very caring and stimulating environment in which children feel happy and secure with lots of new, enriching experiences.
The nursery offers hands-on activities where children learn through taking part in purposeful, structured and spontaneous play. Young children develop at different rates and in different ways. We know that children learn best from first-hand experiences and aim to provide activities appropriate to each child's stage of development. We introduce children to an early years curriculum which encompasses the eight key areas of learning.
The nursery is situated within The Mews. It has two areas:
1) Creative Activities Area, used for art, waterplay, sandplay and a home-corner
2) The Quiet Room, used for storytelling, computer skills, circletime and group activities.
Children attend nursery from the age of 3 years and the day begins at 8.30am and finishes at 3.15pm. After a short play break we then offer an afterschool club until 5.30pm. Children who attend the nursery are automatically allocated a reception place for the September in which they are 4 years old, subject to parental support for the school's ethos.
Forest School
Forest School is set amongst the copse of trees in close proximity to the front lawn; children sit to discuss their activities, observations and findings around a log circle.
Further development of the areas amongst the trees around our beautiful site has just been completed, including new pathways, a log square and hand-crafted slate signs.
The children are extremely enthusiastic about their weekly trip to Forest School. This has enabled them to broaden their knowledge of natural habitats, trees, leaves, insects, bird life and woodland creatures, such as squirrels and hedgehogs.
Chinese New Year 2010
The Early Years and Infant department have been celebrating Chinese New Year. Learning experiences included tiger paintings, wooden spoon tiger puppets, tiger masks and folded paper dragons. On the final day Mrs. Lau provided us with a feast of Chinese food consisting of prawn crackers, noodles and egg fried rice. The children thoroughly enjoyed eating this whilst watching a display of lion and dragon dances on the interactive whiteboard.
Our thanks and good wishes to Mrs. Lau for her generosity and kindness.
R8 Recorder Group Concert
R7 were delighted to enjoy a performance from the R8 Recorder Group. They played a selection of tunes at a very high standard. Our favourite was 'Ragamuffin' and we tapped along to the beat. R7 are now very keen to learn the recorder when they move to the Junior Department.
Remembrance Day
As part of their History topic studying Remembrance Day, R7 visited the local Old St Mellons' war memorial. The children behaved with great respect and were very interested in the inscriptions on the memorial. Back at school, some children were moved to make their own representation of 'Flanders Field' with their poppies in the school garden.
Brecon Railway Trip
All the children enjoyed a special trip on The Brecon Railway. They were excited to be travelling on a steam train and sung along with the Christmas songs. Father Christmas was there to greet us at the end of our journey and each child received a bag of gifts. We all had a tasty lunch with crackers and paper hats.
Young Gardeners
The children enjoyed planting the Spring bulbs kindly donated to the department during the first week in October. Our gardening venture proved to be a big success this year, and we intend to continue and develop a larger area in 2010.
Storytellers
During the second week in October, pupils from R11 came to our department to read their scary stories to our pupils. Much fun was had by all, and on 5 November, Enid Middleton (a regular storyteller at St John’s College) also visited the department to further enthuse our children about reading.
Visiting R11’s Enterprise Week
The Nursery and Infant children thoroughly enjoyed buying items at the R11 Trade Fair on Friday 16 October. Each class had visited beforehand to view the products and listen to each company promote their wares!
Book Day
This was a very successful event, rounding off the first half term. A parade was held in the school hall in front of some Junior classes, each child announcing the name of their character over the microphone. For anyone in doubt over the characters of the staff, we were all dalmations! Proceeds from Book Day were used to purchase new books for each class.
This year's Christmas Production - 'The Bossy King'
Work is well underway to learn the songs and speaking parts for the Nursery and Infants performance of The Bossy King. Nearer the time, any help with costumes from parents will be much appreciated.
RHS Flower Competition - the Frog Garden
R9 and the Nursery recently collaborated on a project to enter the RHS Flower Competition. The pupils of R9 excelled themselves in helping and working with our youngest pupils. There was also a photographic display of the wheelbarrows in Queen's Arcade. Congratulations to all the pupils involved.
Big Pit Visit
As part of their History curriculum, R7 spent an interesting day at Big Pit, Blaenafon. They had a guided underground tour of the mine, a virtual educational tour and a visit to the baths and museum. The miner guides made the experience special by telling the children about real incidents from their past.
Dr Isaac's Visit
Following on from their visit to Big Pit, R7 had a visit from Dr Alun Isaac who brought in a collection of fossils, minerals, metals and gems. He gave an interesting talk about what can be found under the ground. The children were amazed by the wonderful crystals.
R7 winners of Blooms 'Vegetable Growers' Competition
R7 were winners of Blooms' Vegetable Growers Competition. They visited Blooms Garden Centre to collect their prize from Kevin, one of the gardeners. The prize consisted of seeds, trays, compost, garden gloves, garden tools and books. After planting the seeds, R7 will return to Blooms to re-plant the seedlings in a raised bed. |
