World Book Day
05-03-2026
Today we had lots of fun celebrating world book day dressing up in our pyjamas and home clothes. We also enjoyed sharing stories together.
Early Years Foundation Stage
#smithdowneyfs Tweets
“Every child deserves the best possible start in life and support to fulfil their potential…experiences between birth and five has a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up”
Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage”, Department for Children, Schools and Families, (2017)
Our Curriculum Intent
Our EYFS curriculum is language led and inclusive driven. Every area of learning is designed to reduce disadvantage and meet the needs of all children. We aim for ambitious outcomes, enabling all children to access a rich, engaging and sequential curriculum.
Our Curriculum Implementation
Universal Provision: We provide a language rich environment through daily stories, talk activities, role play. Adults model and scaffold language, extending children’s vocabulary and understanding. High quality interactions during focused tasks and continuous provision supports development in prime and specific areas.
Targeted provision: To support children’s development, we provide small group interventions such as WellComm and bucket therapy. We teach phonics in small groups. Visuals, Makaton and sensory aids further support children to access our rich curriculum.
Specialist Provision: We tailor individual support plans for children with high needs, collaborating with specialist where requires. Strategies are tailored to ensure participation and progress.
Family and community: Parent workshops, Stay and Learn sessions and home learning support provides opportunities for parents/carers to learn alongside their children and support learning at home. Cultural and linguistic diversity is integrated throughout.
Our Curriculum Impact
Measuring success: We measure progress from initial baseline assessment in all areas. We use a combination of observation and formal assessment (e.g. RWI phonics and WellComm) to support judgements. We understand the importance of supporting all aspects of child development, recording progress in social and emotional growth, participation and engagement alongside cognitive progress.
Please click on the links below for further details of our EYFS curriculum.
SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD
Please attend all our parent/carer session or speak to staff members for advice helping your child. Below are some websites you might find useful.
EYFS Curriculum – EYFS Development Matters
A guide to your child’s learning and development in the EYFS – What to Expect When?
Videos and resources to support Phonics – RWI Phonics Guidance
Fun, educational games for children to play – Cbeebies
Free eBooks for children to read online – Oxford Owl
Simple, fun maths activities – Maths Activities
Early Years Foundation Stage Chatter
We had a lovely day in our pyjamas celebrating World Book Day. We loved sharing your books together 📕
04-03-2026
We are learning about Luna new year and have painted our good luck message and created lanterns by ripping paper.
10-02-2026
I went to the shop and I bought………
03-02-2026
This afternoon we had lots of fun playing a memory game called we went to the shop. The children learnt new words such as cauliflower and cabbage and could recall the order the food was bought.
We have been learning the names of fruits and how to describe them. We then used the fruits to make faces.
22-01-2026
Developing our physical skills with our family. It was lovely to see so many of you sharing the skills with your children. 🍌 🍊
22-01-2026
Reception Parent Maths Workshop
20-01-2026
Huge thanks to all parents for coming along to session 2 of our maths workshop today. It was great to see so many of you having fun playing games and everybody winning bingo! Thank you to Paula from Purple Circle for giving us lots of additional activities to share. Looking forward to seeing everyone next week.
This week is all about bananas and gorillas from our new story book. Today we have been mark making gorillas and making banana puppets. We used lots of fine motor skills by wrapping wool around the banana.
20-01-2026
Thank you for everyone who joined us today at our session promoting physical development. Your children were brilliant at chopping the bananas and fruits to make their banana split.
20-01-2026
Learning new vocabulary whilst conducting our lava experiment.
16-01-2026
We had lots of fun watching our lava experiment we learnt some new words such as lava, erupting and volcano.
It has been a busy morning building this morning we named this structure Our Future Building!
09-01-2026
We have been developing our fine motor skills and mark making to make The Big Dipper constellation after looking at them in our new book.
09-01-2026
Exploring the ice outside
06-01-2026
Today we had lots of fun playing outside in the snow and ice.
Father Christmas
17-12-2025
Today we had a surprise visit from Father Christmas and enjoyed receiving a gift.
Post Box Walk
17-12-2025
We had a great time posting our wish letters home. Thank you so much to all parents who joined us on the walk yesterday.
Outdoor Imaginations
17-12-2025
It’s great to use our imaginations outside to create chalk drawings.
Seasonal Crafts
17-12-2025
In Reception, we have busy creating our own biscuit dough, making salt dough decorations, Santa socks and reindeer food.
Fruit kebab
16-12-2025
Today the children had lots of fun making fruit kebabs out of various fruits.
Rainy Day Exploration
15-12-2025
We enjoyed creating stepping stones for the rain today and watching what happens when we drew in the puddles.
Post Office Play
15-12-2025
Recently last week and this week, we have been having fun in our post office role play area and preparing for our post box walk tomorrow. We are writing wishes to send home and learning about what happens when letters are posted.
Parents, carers and families all very welcome to join us on our walk to the post box tomorrow Tuesday 16th at 9.15. Many thanks for your support.
Thank you so much to everwho joined us to watch the fabulous singing from our Nursery children. 🎶 🎵 🎄
10-12-2025
Elfie’s Adventures
10-12-2025
We have a very kind elf in our class and we have been seeing where he is each day!
Nativity 2025
09-12-2025
Nativity 2025- huge thanks to all parents for coming along to our nativity show last week.
It’s Christmas !
01-12-2025
Today the children have enjoyed decorating the classroom and the Christmas tree 🌲
It has been a busy day booking cakes for Maisie’s Birthday Party 🎂 We have learnt the names of the ingredients and measured them out before mixing them together.
28-11-2025
We have been busy building an obstacle course and strengthening our core muscle and balance by walking across them.
24-11-2025
