Our Parent–Teacher Meetings in the Early Years provided a wonderful opportunity to pause, reflect, and celebrate each child’s individual learning journey at Britannica. These meetings are such a valued part of our home–school partnership, allowing us to strengthen connections, share insights, and work together to plan meaningful next steps that nurture every child’s growth and wellbeing.
Using the Birth to 5 Matters framework as our guide, teachers shared how children are developing across the seven areas of learning from growing independence and emotional confidence, communicating ideas, exploring the world around them, and expressing creativity through play. Each discussion was rooted in real evidence of progress, with teachers drawing on observations to illustrate the learning happening each day. Parents were able to see how carefully planned experiences support their child’s next stage of development, whether through problem-solving in the block area, storytelling in the role-play corner, or investigating natural materials outdoors.
Our Curiosity Approach environments continue to play a key role in inspiring children’s exploration, independence, and sense of wonder. By using authentic, open-ended resources, our classrooms encourage children to make choices, think creatively, and engage in meaningful, hands-on learning. These experiences foster not only early literacy and numeracy skills, but also the essential foundations of wellbeing, resilience, and a love of discovery that will guide them throughout their educational journey.
Parent Teacher Meetings also give us the chance to listen to and hear parent perspectives, observations, and hopes for your child. This shared dialogue ensures that what happens at school connects meaningfully with home, creating a consistent and supportive environment where children feel understood and confident to thrive.
When home and school work closely together, children flourish feeling secure, valued, and motivated to reach their full potential.
Reception have continued exploring the story Owl Babies, delving more deeply into the themes of family and belonging. The children reflected on their own families, drawing detailed pictures and discussing what their parents do for work. Linking to our topic on Understanding the World, we also learned about where owls live and how they build their nests. Together, we talked about the different materials birds might use sticks, leaves, feathers, and grass and where we might find nests in our environment. The children then made their own nests, carefully selecting natural materials and working collaboratively with a partner to build a safe and cosy space for their “baby owls.”
In mathematics, Reception continued to deepen their understanding of creating their own representations using a variety of objects. They matched these to numeral cards and practised counting and subitising as a way of checking their work, building strong early number sense through play and exploration.
Nursery have been having a fantastic week with The Gruffalo. The children have loved retelling the story, using their imaginations to think about how each character might be feeling and why they behave the way they do. Their enthusiasm and creativity have been wonderful to see during storytelling and role-play sessions. The children also picked up their paintbrushes to create their very own colourful Gruffalos, each one unique and full of personality. These expressive artworks show how children are developing confidence in using colour, texture, and shape to represent ideas. Alongside our literacy focus, the children have been busy exploring number sequencing, using loose parts such as buttons, stones, and natural treasures to create playful number patterns and explore order.
Pre-Nursery embraced the cooler autumn weather this week by taking much of their learning outdoors. Our story of the week, The Little Red Hen, encouraged rich discussion about teamwork, helping others, and the process of planting and baking. The children explored our “Big Backyard” theme further by investigating plants, seeds, soil, and the fascinating bugs that live beneath the surface. They delighted in digging in our soil sensory tray, running their fingers through chia seeds, and experimenting with tools to scoop and pour strengthening their fine-motor skills along the way. The week was brightened by creating cheerful sunflower art using shades of yellow, and by a fine-motor activity pulling beans from play-dough, which supported their hand-eye coordination and finger control. It has been a week full of curiosity, connection, and hands-on learning.
