Welcome to Foundation Stage 2

Chestnut Champions

This year our classes are named after trees that are found in the United Kingdom.

We have chosen the Horse Chestnut tree.

Class Times

We open the door at 8.45am and school starts at 8.55am.

Hometime is 3.10pm.

We will meet you on the Key Stage 2 (Junior) playground.

Chatsworth Trip

We had such a fantastic day out!

We were really proud of all of our children - they were brilliant  xx

The  Queen's Platinum Jubilee

We have been extremely busy this week celebrating the Platinum Jubilee. We have learned some things about Queen Elizabeth, about where she lives and the clothes she wears for different occasions. 

We have made our own red, white and blue bunting to decorate the classroom, painted pictures of the Queen and have written a short biography to put into our school's time capsule.

We joined in with Royal sporting events - a hobby horse obstacle race, collecting the Royal jewels, collecting different items to put into the Queen's handbag and building the largest palace.

We made our own jam or cheese spread sandwiches and decorated buns, which the grown-ups served to us for afternoon tea!

We finished our celebrations with a royal crown parade and a street party lunch with the rest of the school. 

What a fantastic end to our term!

Look at the fun we had during Science Week!

We walked all around the outside of school and noticed lots of things that are growing. We found crocuses and daffodils. We noticed the blossom that is beginning to grow on the trees. We took some bark rubbings and added fingerprint flowers to create our own Cherry Blossom trees.

We mixed colours together to make new ones, then painted a picture with them. 

Our milk turned from white to pink and from milk flavour to strawberry when we mixed the powder into the milk - delicious!

When we used the extra large whisks to mix washing up liquid with warm water we made a lot of bubbles!

And finally...we ended Science Week by making a giant 'Fizzy Firework' outside. It didn't quite explode as much as we wanted it to but we still enjoyed mixing it together.

World Book Day

What a fantastic day we had!

We dressed up as our favourite book character and brought in some of our stories to read.

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar (which is one of Mrs. Harper's favourite books). We hunted outside for the food that the caterpillar had eaten and said the sound that the food began with. We counted out 10 treats (chocolate chips and sweets) to put on top of a biscuit that we iced. They were delicious!

The Early Years Foundation Stage

We believe that the children's time at school should be a nurturing and enjoyable experience in which they are able to discover, explore and create in a secure and happy environment.  

The children learn through a mixture of planned and child-initiated play activities and experiences and build on the knowledge they bring from their homes and community.

We take into account the children’s differing interests, needs and abilities.

The guide 'What to expect in the EYFS Foundation Stage: a guide for parents' explains in detail how the children play and learn during their time in Nursery. Please follow the link below to access the booklet.

We subscribe to Tapestry which is an online learning journal which parents and carers can access from home. Through this app, we are able to share your child's learning at school with you.

 You are then able to add comments to your child's work, as well as add information about what your child has been doing at home.

The children love sharing their home learning with their friends and the grown ups at school. 

Please speak to Miss Sleight about setting up your Tapestry account.

Any questions...

If you have any worries or questions we are available to speak to at the beginning or end of each day, or you can telephone school to make an appointment (01909 720251)

You can also email Miss Sleight at:

karensleight@whitwell.derbyshire.sch.uk