As part of our expedition, “How do we show we care?”, we have been thinking carefully about all the different ways we can show kindness, care and love.
This has led us to look beyond our classroom and think about the living creatures that share our school grounds with us. We talked about how we can care for the minibeasts, bugs and birds that we find outside and wondered what we could do to make our outdoor space even more welcoming for them.
We decided to take action and created a brand-new Nature Nook in our outdoor space!
Our Nature Nook has sparked so much curiosity, wonder and excitement. The children have loved exploring, observing and carefully looking after the creatures they discover. We have found ladybirds, butterflies, caterpillars, worms and many other fascinating minibeasts!
Most importantly, the children have been showing genuine care and love for the tiny creatures around them. They have been handling them gently, watching where they crawl and talking about what they might need to live and thrive.
It has been wonderful to see our children not just talking about caring, but putting their ideas into action. Our Nature Nook is already becoming a very special part of our outdoor space — a place where curiosity grows, discoveries are made and kindness is shown to even the smallest creatures.
What a wonderful week our Reception children have had exploring and learning in the great outdoors! It has been fantastic to see our youngest children showing such enthusiasm and developing their independence as they settle into life at school.
Through a range of outdoor activities, the children have been developing their teamwork, resilience and determination. They have worked together to build exciting obstacle courses, putting their coordination, balancing and problem-solving skills to the test. They have also been practising the letters they have been learning in their phonics sessions, taking their learning outdoors in a fun and engaging way.
There has been plenty of opportunity to get active too, with the children enjoying team games such as football and cricket, as well as activities designed to keep them moving and fit.
Perhaps most special of all has been watching new friendships begin to blossom. It has been lovely to see the children’s confidence growing each day as they become more familiar with their new surroundings, make new friends and discover all that Reception has to offer.
We are incredibly proud of how well our Reception children are settling in and can’t wait to see what adventures and learning opportunities the coming weeks bring!
This week, we completed our first Crew walkthroughs of the year — and what a wonderful opportunity it was to see our children and Crew Leaders already building such positive, caring and purposeful Crew communities.
Across NIS, we saw lots of examples of children belonging, caring for one another, working hard and growing their character. It was fantastic to see the care and attention being given to Crew time and the way our children are already beginning to understand what it means to be part of a Crew.
🐻 Our Care Bear Crews
Our Care Bear Crews showed some wonderful examples of positive communication, kindness and support.
We saw Crew Leaders using thoughtful prompts and communication to help children share their ideas and participate, alongside lots of kind, caring and supportive interactions. These small moments are so important in helping our children to feel that Crew is a safe and welcoming place where they are valued and listened to.
🪶 Crew Backshall
Crew Backshall showed a fantastic understanding of what makes a beautiful Crew circle.
The children were encouraged to think carefully about how they sat together and how they could make sure everyone could see and hear one another. One child explained:
“If our legs are crossed and knees are slightly touching we can make a perfect circle where we can see each other.”
What a brilliant explanation! 🌟
This is exactly the kind of ownership we want to see developing in Crew — children understanding not just what we do, but why it matters. The children were also encouraged to think about the care and attention they give to themselves, each other and their Crew.
💛 Crew Nightingale & Crew Earhart
There was a lovely warm and welcoming feel in both Crew Nightingale and Crew Earhart.
We saw children making clear connections between their actions, our character traits and HoWLs, with these being explained and discussed in a way that helped children understand what they look like in practice.
We particularly loved seeing children writing Golden Tickets for one another, celebrating the amazing character traits and HoWLs they have already seen their friends demonstrating this year. ✨
What a wonderful way to notice the positive things happening around us and remind each other that our character is something we build together.
🎨 Crew Parks & Crew Simmonds
In Crew Parks and Crew Simmonds, we saw children being encouraged to work hard and take pride in creating beautiful work.
It was lovely to see children being supported to think about the quality of what they produce and to recognise that beautiful work doesn’t happen by accident — it takes care, effort, perseverance and pride.
🌟 We are only just getting started!
Our first walkthroughs have given us lots to celebrate. Most importantly, they showed that our children are already beginning to understand that Crew is about more than sitting together.
It is about listening to one another, caring for one another, celebrating each other’s strengths, working hard, showing our character and making sure that everyone belongs.
A huge well done to all of our Crew Leaders and, most importantly, to our wonderful children for the fantastic start they have made to Crew this year.
Class 1 and Class 2 enjoyed a very special Teddy Bears’ Picnic to celebrate our first two weeks together as a crew! The children were excited to bring their favourite soft toys into school and share them with their friends. Over the last two weeks, the children have been working hard to build positive relationships, learn our routines and show kindness to one another. The picnic was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate all the new friendships that have blossomed and the fantastic teamwork we have already seen.
We have had a wonderful first few days settling into Class 2! It has been lovely to see the children getting to know one another, making new friends and becoming familiar with their new environment.
Each day has begun with Crew time, giving us the opportunity to make sure everyone feels happy, safe and welcomed in our class. We have been enjoying learning one another’s names, sharing information about our families and talking about our favourite things.
The children have had great fun exploring our classroom, both indoors and outdoors, and have enjoyed taking part in a variety of exciting new activities. It has been fantastic to see their confidence beginning to grow as they settle into their new routines and build new friendships.
We are so pleased with how well everyone has settled and are looking forward to a fun-filled year of learning, exploring and making wonderful memories together!
What a fantastic time we had at our Colour Run! The children absolutely loved taking part and there were smiles, laughter, and colourful powder everywhere.
As they ran around the course, the children were covered from head to toe in bright colours, making for a truly memorable and exciting experience. It was wonderful to see everyone having so much fun!
Of course, it was very messy, but that was all part of the fun! The children embraced every colourful moment and created lots of happy memories with their friends.
We hope you enjoy looking through the photos of our vibrant and joyful Colour Run adventure!
What an amazing Sports Day we had, even in such hot weather! The children showed fantastic enthusiasm and determination as they took part in all the activities.
A huge thank you to all our families for your support and for joining us to make the day so special. It was wonderful to see so many of you cheering the children on and celebrating their achievements.
Following Sports Day, we loved welcoming you into the classroom for our Celebration of Learning. The children were incredibly proud to share their beautiful work and talk about everything they have been learning throughout the year. It was a lovely opportunity to celebrate all of their hard work, progress, and successes together.
Thank you once again for your continued support. We hope you enjoy looking through the photos from this fantastic day!
Last week, our children enjoyed a fantastic fieldwork visit to Cleethorpes, and what a wonderful day we had!
From the moment we arrived, the children were a credit to our school. They behaved beautifully throughout the day, showing excellent manners, enthusiasm and curiosity as they explored the seaside environment.
We were very lucky with the weather too. The sun was shining and a lovely sea breeze helped to keep everyone comfortable as we spent time on the beach. Of course, no trip to the seaside would be complete without a special treat! The children were delighted to enjoy ice creams and ice lollies, which were the perfect way to cool down after a busy day of exploring and having fun. Please enjoy some of the photos below, which capture the fun, laughter and memorable moments from our day at the beach!
The train journey was definitely one of the highlights for many of the children. There was great excitement as we travelled along the coast together, and it was lovely to see the children sharing the experience with their friends. There were certainly a few tired eyes on the return journey home!
We are so proud of how the children represented our school and would like to thank all the staff and volunteers who helped make the trip such a success.
The whole of EYFS last week were well and truly hooked, lined and sunk into our new summer expedition “Seaside Explorers, what happens where the sea meets the shore?”
The children explored various sea creatures introduced to them through our hook text, “Commotion in the Ocean”. Each crew were given a sea creature to investigate and research, using the internet and supporting non fiction texts. The children then compiled fact files about their given sea creatures and created a large scale piece of artwork between them working collaboratively. They had lots of fun doing this and found out the most amazing facts! Each crew have employed all of their artistic talents to really think about how the creatures look and bring out the best in their features.
Both Nursery and Reception classes presented their sea creatures and fact files to each other in our weekly community meeting. They were so excited to share their interesting facts and spoke thoughtfully and beautifully about their creatures and the new knowledge that they now have! We can’t wait to dive deeper into our thrilling summer expedition. Just look at the quality and craftsmanship of our work, the children really were Go for it Gorillas!
Last Friday we celebrated World Book Day. It was a fabulous day and children were all very excited to dress as a book character and design a hat inspired by a book of their choice. We had some amazing creations that will be talked about for a long time to come.
We started the day with our community meeting where we paraded our amazing hats and costumes. We then went back into the classroom to take part in different activities linked to some of our favourite stories. We created Hungry Caterpillar repeating patterns, built houses for The Three Little Pigs and spent time listening to some of our favourite stories.
