St Mellons Church in Wales Primary School

Welcome to Nursery! Croeso i Dosbarth Meithrin!

Teacher: Mrs Mendonça   

Teaching Assistants: Miss Ford & Miss Smee

Hello! My name is Mrs Mendonça and I am the Nursery class teacher. Working alongside me is Miss Smee  and Miss Ford,  our Learning Support Assistants.

Communication

Contact us on: 

nursery@stmellonsprm.cardiff.sch.uk

Google Classroom code: 6t5hki42

Twitter (X) - @stmellonsprm                     https://twitter.com/stmellonsprm

About Us

Our learning environment is made up of three main spaces; the main classroom where free play takes place, our quiet room, where we share stories, songs and inputs and the outdoor area, where we enjoy lots of fresh air!

Our main aim here in Nursery is to enable and share the wonder and magic of early childhood. We want our children to feel happy, engaged and safe whilst developing a love and curiosity for learning.

Wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do and we enjoy genuine and valued relationships with our children and their families. 

 Overview of the Sessions

Important Dates

Autumn 2025
Christian Value – Generosity
1st September– INSET Day - School Closed for Pupils
2nd September – INSET DAY – School Closed for Pupils
3rd September - Pupils return to school
10th September - Clergy Assembly - Generosity 9.15
Meet the Teacher sessions for Parents - Session 1 at 3:30pm and Session 2 at 4pm
RWI Workshop for Parents - 2:30pm in the school hall
17th September - Calm Quest Tales Family Learning 12.30- 3.30pm (pupils age 5-8) x 10 weeks
18th September - Individual and Sibling Photographs
22nd September - INSET Day - School Closed for Pupils
22nd - 28th September - Recycling/Fairtrade Week
23rd September - International Day of Sign Language
26th September - Macmillan Coffee Morning - Families Welcome 9am - 11am
26th September - International Languages Day
29th September - Food bank Collection Week
1st October – Black History Month
3rd October - INSET Day - School Closed for pupils
8th October – Harvest Festival Worship - 9:15am Pupils Only
10th October - RWI workshop for parents 9.15am
World Mental Health Day
15th October - Judaism Day - Whole School Celebration for pupils
16th October - World Values Day
Scholastic Book Fair week
20th October - Rags to Riches Collection
20th and 21st October – Parents Evening
24th October – Last Day of term

Classroom Routines

Snack

Please send your child to school with a bottle of water every day, clearly labelled with their name. Healthy snacks can be purchased from school at a cost of £2 per week, using Parent Pay or can be sent in from home for the children to enjoy with their cup of milk or water.

Uniform

Please ensure that all items of clothing are labelled with your child's name when they come to school so we can identify who they belong to, should they ever get left behind.

Spare Clothes

Please ensure that your child has a spare set of clothes in their bag every day that includes a top, skirt/dress/trousers, knickers or pants and tights or socks.

Our Learning Context

Our learning context this half term is “Hello Autumn”. Children will be introduced to the season of autumn, and their learning will be based around the changes this season brings. There will be the opportunity to explore and play using sensory objects, creating artwork and sharing current knowledge of the season. We will look at how the weather changes and what happens in nature. This will allow us to prepare for the celebration of the Harvest Festival and will help us answer our inquiry question: 

“What happens in Autumn?”  

🍂🌰🚜🦊🌾 

Planning

Here you will find our Medium term inquiry planning.

Home/School Learning Links

Autumn Term home/school learning grid. Children may do as many home tasks as they like and bring them into school to share with the class whenever a task has been completed!

Nursery/Reception Homework Grid Autumn Term 2025 

“Hello Autumn” 

The Four Purposes

In Nursery, we will begin to support ourselves and each other in becoming:

• Ambitious, capable learners who are ready to learn throughout their lives.
• Enterprising, creative contributors who are ready to play a full part in life and work.
• Ethical, informed citizens who are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world.

Healthy, confident individuals who are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society. We will ensure this with the support of the 5 Developmental Pathways which will allow authentic and purposeful learning for all children 

Our Christian Value

 We  follow the ‘Values for life’ scheme this term and our value is ‘Generosity’. Please discuss our termly value with your child at home and encourage them to share how they have been ‘living out’ the value in their daily life. 

generosity.pdf

 Proverbs 11:25, "A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed". 

Communication Pathway

As part of the 'Communication' pathway, our learners will be encouraged to speak clearly and with confidence. We will share stories together daily and ignite a love of books and characters. There will be lots of singing and rhyming, clapping songs and action rhymes for the children to discover and enjoy. Along with this, we will be using Read Write Inc to introduce the children to early sound play. Each week, they will learn a new single letter sound and enjoy a range of play based activities associated with it. Each letter sound has a formation rhyme that accompanies it that the children love to learn, with a bit of help from Fred the Frog!

Exploration Pathway

 As part of the 'Exploration' pathway, our learners will be joining in with number rhymes and songs and reciting the number names in order. We will be playing games that help them to realise that anything can be counted, not just objects, e.g. claps, steps. There will be lots of opportunities for pupils to recognise and use the names for 2D shapes (circle, square and triangle) within play activities and they will use and build with 2D and 3D shapes within their play.

Cymraeg

Children will have opportunities to speak Welsh daily in school. We encourage the children to ask and answer questions using our 'Helpwr Heddiw'. We will begin by learning colours in Welsh, saying who we are and greeting our friends & teachers

Our Learning Tools

As part of the children's physical development, we have a Dough Disco session every day. Dough Disco helps to strengthen fine motor muscles to enable them to develop their pencil grip. This, in turn will help them to develop their writing skills. We all have  lots of fun squashing, squeezing, pinching and rolling as each of our fingers goes to the Dough Disco!

 Ways you can support your child in Nursery

• Encourage independence with self care - using the toilet, washing and drying their hands and wiping their nose.
• Teaching them how to put their coat on - this will really help in the Winter months!
• Enjoy stories together and inspire a love of books. Talk about the pictures and let them turn the pages as you go.
• Model and encourage the use of 'please' and 'thank you' throughout the day.
• Play games as a family, especially ones that will encourage turn-taking.
• Point out shapes, colours and numbers that you see when you are out about.
• Help them to recognise their name.
• Sing lots of songs!

  Internet Safety

 Pupils are taught ways to stay safe online in class and Digital Leaders have carried out whole school assemblies about internet safety. Sound advice on internet safety can be found on https://www.internetmatters.org/ 

Jigsaw

In St Mellons, we use 'Jigsaw' to support our pupils' Personal, Social & Emotional development. It is a whole-school approach that embodies a positive philosophy and creative teaching and learning activities to nurture children’s development as compassionate and well-rounded human beings. Jigsaw is a comprehensive and completely original PSE programme for the whole primary school from ages 3-11. 

Picture News

Every week as part of our worship, pupils get a snapshot of the news via Picture News - real stories adapted for children. We talk about what we think is happening and how it makes us feel. Below is an example of a topic we might talk about and the feelings we might start exploring.

Learning Links

Here are some useful websites that provide fun, educational activities that can support your child's learning.

            Topmarks           BBC Teach           Cosmic Kids Yoga 

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