Garlinge Primary School and Nursery, Westfield Road, Margate, Kent, CT9 5PA
In Nursery and Reception we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. It identifies 7 areas for learning; three prime and four specific areas:
Foundation Stage plan from the children's interests to help the individual child want to be keen to learn. We do have starting points for each term. These are Ourselves, Our Past, Traditional Tales, Animals and Literature through Theatre but we can, and often do, move away from these depending on the direction the children take us in.
The adults in Foundation Stage continually assess the children throughout the year. These take the form of long observations, short observations, photographic evidence and tasks the children may complete. From the assessments we ensure that the planning is being completed at a level that is appropriate to the individual child's stage of learning.
Parents are a fundamental part of the children's development. We send home scrapbooks to allow the parents to share experiences with us. The children can record visits or activities they have completed at home and then the children can share these experiences with the rest of the children in the class. We invite the parents to come and play alongside their children. We share the children's learning journey with the parents regularly through My Unique Story.
We teach daily synthetic phonics sessions looking at a different sound every day. We then apply this knowledge to word building and blending the sounds together to read and write words.
We begin to explore the basic skills required to develop mathematical skills throughout the children's education. We have daily maths sessions where we explore counting and applying number knowledge to mathematical problems. We also look at shapes and relate them to our surroundings looking at their properties.
We invite many people to Foundation stage to come and share their experiences and to make the children's learning real. We have had an ambulance, fire engine, nurse and dentist to visit the children and discuss their role. We also plan Educational Visits to enhance and support the children's learning.
We offer 15 hour am and pm places (funded) and 30 hour places, each session has a maximum of 26 children in it. We also offer the option to purchase additional sessions and lunchtime supervision on a termly basis.
Supervised Lunch Club (lunch not provided) 11:45am – 12:30pm £4.25 per day.
| Day | 11.45 - 12.30 |
| Monday | 11.45 - 12.30 |
| Tuesday | 11.45 - 12.30 |
| Wednesday | 11.45 - 12.30 |
| Thursday | 11.45 - 12.30 |
| Friday | 11.45 - 12.30 |
Additional sessions (non-funded)
| Day | Session 1 (am) | Cost | Session 2 PM | Cost |
| Monday | 8.45 - 11.45 | £21.75 | 12.30 - 3.30 | £21.75 |
| Tuesday | 8.45 - 11.45 | £21.75 | 12.30 - 3.30 | £21.75 |
| Wednesday | 8.45 - 11.45 | £21.75 | 12.30 - 3.30 | £21.75 |
| Thursday | 8.45 - 11.45 | £21.75 | 12.30 - 3.30 | £21.75 |
| Friday | 8.45 - 11.45 | £21.75 | 12.30 - 3.30 | £21.75 |
We look forward to meeting you soon! Contact the school office to book an appointment to come and visit us.
Reception has four classes with a recently redeveloped shared outside area to explore.
Our classrooms are bright and vibrant and reflect the children's learning and interests.
The children have made a wonderful start to their journey in Reception!
They have been busy exploring lots of exciting activities, including water play, sand play, counting objects, learning sounds in phonics and exploring the outside area. We have enjoyed sharing snack times together, making new friends and learning how to play and work alongside one another. It has been lovely to see the children growing in confidence, developing new skills and having fun as they explore their new learning environment. We are so proud of how well they are settling in and look forward to lots more fun, exciting adventures and learning together!
In our Literacy we completed our first piece of writing for our Writing Journals which will travel with us as we progress through the school.
In our Mathematics we explored subitising – where we practise recognising a small amount without having to count. We also found different ways of representing 3 using finger painting.
We explored our creative areas and did some junk modelling, developing our ability to talk about what we have created.
The new sounds we learnt are: h, b, f, l. We practised writing them in our phonics lessons and in our choosing time.
Our nursery has provided the children with a selection of different resources, activities and opportunities to support, encourage and develop their communication skills through role play, negotiating, games, exploration, discovery and exciting resources for them to ask questions and talk about.
In term 1 our topic is All About Me. The children have been learning all about themselves, their friends, different families, their feelings and how to build friendships. They have had a lot of fun settling into nursery and exploring the nursery environment.
The children used different media to create paper plate self-portraits.
We have been learning about shapes in our maths work. We looked at the work of Kandinsky and identified shapes in his paintings. After this we made our own Kandinsky inspired circles.
The Police came to visit us and talk to us about how they help to keep us safe. We tried on their uniform and some of us even sat in the back of the Police van! They showed us some of the equipment they use to keep people safe.
We loved dressing up in our costumes to show our friends our favourite book characters. We went to assembly and Miss Beaumont read us ‘The Café at the edge of the Woods’ and we made meals for the Ogre to eat!
We celebrated Number Day by wearing clothes with numbers on them and collaging our age. We also did number yoga!
The children have had so much learning about the Lunar New Year.
They have learnt all about how people in China and across the world celebrate this special time, explored dragon dancing, made Chinese lanterns and looked at the beautiful writing.
We also shared the story of how the years became named after the different animals and then labelled the 12 animals.
Pirates had lots of fun Dancing 4 Joy!
Vanessa from the RNLI came to visit us and talk to us about how to keep safe at the beach. We learnt about what the different colour flags on the beach mean. We also learnt about the jobs the Lifeboat Men and Women do. Some of us dressed up in the Lifeboat uniform, the helmet was very heavy! We made our own beach flags using different materials.
This term we are learning about people who help us.
We had a visit from Vanessa who volunteers for the RNLI. She taught us all about staying safe at sea and who can help us.
We dressed up as life guards and life boat people.
This week we have been sharing Goldilocks and The Three Bears. We have listened to and watched the story on the interactive whiteboard. We have enjoyed changing our voices for the different bears.
In our mathematics work we have been counting out objects to give to the Teddy Bears – we matched the different sized cups, plates and spoons to the different sized bears.
We painted pictures of our favourite characters from the story
This week we have been sharing The Gingerbread Man. We have listened to and watched the story on the interactive whiteboard, we loved joining in with “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man!”
We made boats for the Gingerbread Man to help him cross the river so that the fox couldn’t eat him!
We worked together to make gingerbread, luckily, they didn’t run away when we opened the oven! Thank you to Maggie in the Kitchen for helping us to cook them.
We’re excited to have our photographs taken this week! These will take place on either Monday or Tuesday — don’t forget to bring your best smiles!
In Music, we’ll be exploring the different sounds musical instruments make and experimenting with how we can play them.
In Mathematics, we’ll be learning about the differences between shapes. After reading Whatever Next!, we’ll use a variety of shapes to create our own rockets.
We’ll also be developing our fine motor skills by using tweezers to move pompoms — great fun and great practice!
On Friday, your child will bring home a book from our School Library to share with you. Please ensure it is returned by the following Friday so we can continue to enjoy a wide range of stories together.
Any concerns please speak to any of the adults. You can also email Nursery@garlinge.kent.sch.uk
Thank you for your support.
Miss Kemp, Vicky and Leanne
Today we visited our School Library for the first time. We chose a book to take home and share with our grownups. Miss Kemp talked to us about how to look after the books.
Welcome to our new friends and welcome back to our friends from last year. We have been exploring our new environment – inside and outside!
Dear Parents and Carers,
Following the introduction of the Early Years Foundation Stage Nutrition Guidance we would like to clarify how food in packed lunches must be prepared. Please see these useful documents attached.
Thank you for your support and if you have any questions please speak to your child’s class teacher.
Robert Bentley
Foundation Stage AHT
Pirate Class had fun wearing their jeans to school to help raise awareness for Genes for Jeans Day.
We had a special assembly for the children going to Reception to celebrate their time in Nursery. We invited their parents and carers in to share in this special time and as a treat we all had an ice cream from the ice cream van to finish the year off in style!
Rainbow class had its 21st birthday this week! Opening on 22nd June 2004.
We celebrated by colouring in the number 21, eating cake and taking a special photograph of the class.
Josiah has been looking after his bean that he planted at school in term 4, and has grown some lovely beans.
This week for World Music Day we have been reading the story of The Bear and the Piano.
We had lots of fun exploring making our own music with a large piano and a guitar.
Pirate class have been having so much fun at Forest School.
During their first session they met the farm animals, pigs, goats, chickens and ducks, they were extremely brave on the zip line and they learnt how to stay safe in the fire circle. On their second visit they explored the forest during a scavenger hunt, looking for an assortment of natural things, used crayons to create tree rubbings and had a fabulous time toasting and eating marshmallows.
Well done to all the children for a brilliant Sports Day! It was great to see the children enjoying all the races and trying their best. Thank you to the PE Team for their help, especially Mr Bailey who teaches us PE every week.
We have been learning about circles in our mathematics work. We found out that the artist Yayoi Kusama uses circles in her work and we created our own work in her style.
Marcus, a local Artist from Margate and Ellis’s Daddy came to help us create our own planets. We worked as a team to create planets using different coloured paints, we could create any pattern we wanted. Marcus told us this is called abstract art! We also made rockets to fly to our planets. We all had a great morning!
Pirate Class had fun learning about VE Day on Thursday 8th May 2025. They learnt about Winston Churchill and what happened 80 years ago. Pirate Class were surprised to learn about rationing and that some children went to live in the country away from large cities. Wore red, white and blue clothes and used lots of glitter and glue to create their own medals.
This term we have been learning about 3D shapes. We went on a very exciting shape hunt around our school to look for 3D shapes in the environment, we found cones, cylinders, cuboids and other 3D shapes.
Once we had returned to class we used 3D shaped blocks to build towers. We have also been learning about the importance of looking after our teeth and how to clean them properly.
This term, EYFS have been learning all about 'People Who Help Us'. Recently, we had a visit from Johnny the paramedic. The children had the opportunity to find out about how he helps people as well as look inside the ambulance and explore the equipment. We even got to listen to the ambulance's siren—it was very loud! We really enjoyed our visit and learnt a lot.
The Police came to visit us and talk to us about how they help to keep us safe. We tried on their uniform and some of us even sat in the back of the Police van!
We found out about the celebration of Lent and on Shrove Tuesday we enjoyed choosing toppings for our pancakes.
Vanessa from the RNLI came to visit us and talk to us about how to keep safe at the beach. We learnt about what the different colour flags on the beach mean. We made our own beach flags using different materials. We also learnt about the jobs the Lifeboat Men and Women do.
We loved dressing up in our costumes to show our friends our favourite book characters – can you guess which characters we were?
We enjoyed sharing stories with our friends and telling them why we liked the books.
We made masks so we can be Superhero Readers, enjoy sharing books together with your child.
The police came to visit us. They told about their job, how they are here to help us. We were able to try on their uniform and sit inside their van. We had lots of fun.
We have been learning about Baba Marta.
On the first day of March and for many days afterwards, Bulgarians exchange and wear white symbols called Martenista.
The month of March, according to Bulgarian folklore, marks the beginning of springtime. Baba Marta (meaning Grandma March) is related to an old lady and the common belief is that by wearing the red and white symbol they are hoping that she will chase winter away and bring the long awaited spring.
The reception children dressed up in their own clothes and clothes with numbers on for Number Day. They had lots of fun exploring number activities throughout the day, counting, recognising and ordering numbers.
This week we have been reading the story of the Three Little Pigs – we have enjoyed changing our voices for the Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf!
One of the Three Little Pigs asked us to write our name to go on his wall of fame! We did some fantastic writing.
Some of us built houses for the Three Little Pigs to live in using Duplo.
This week we have been learning about The Gingerbread Man. We had lots of fun working together to follow a map of our school to help us find the hidden characters from the story.
We also drew our own maps.
Rosie came to school and told us today was Chinese New Year also known as Lunar New Year. She had some delicious Chinese food in her packed lunch. In class we made lanterns decorated with gold and red as these are lucky colours. We learnt it is the Year of the Snake.
This week we have been sharing The Gingerbread Man. We have listened to and watched the story on the interactive whiteboard, we loved joining in with “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man!”
We made boats for the Gingerbread Man to help him cross the river so that the fox couldn’t eat him!
We worked together to make gingerbread, luckily, they didn’t run away when we opened the oven!
We were all very excited today when Father Christmas came to visit us. We had the opportunity to speak to him and he gave us all a lovely gift.
Reception have been having lots of Christmasy winter fun. We enjoyed listening to Christmas music while we ate our yummy Christmas dinner. Our grown ups came to join us at school and we made winter crafts together. We also helped to raise money for Save the Children by wearing our Christmas jumpers to school. Next week we are looking forward to our Christmas party and spending time with our families and friends over the holidays.
Merry Christmas.
Nursery enjoyed taking part in the Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day.
Nursery performed Our First Nativity to a captive audience who enjoyed hearing some beautiful singing, hearing some fantastic clear and loud talking and watching some amazing acting!
This term we have been learning about Diwali. We shared the story of Rama and Sita and retold it using masks to take on the different roles. After looking at the different ways people prepare for Diwali we used pens, crayons and counters to create our own Rangoli and Mehndi patterns.
We have also been learning about Bonfire Night, we discussed how to stay safe, shared our own exciting experiences and used a selection of media to create our own firework pictures.
Today the children dressed in their favourite clothes to raise money for Children in Need.
We talked about what makes a good friend, things we do to and with our friends and if they are kind or not so kind things to do. We wore odd socks and designed our own pairs of socks.
This week we have been learning about Remembrance Day and why we wear poppies. We found out that the two minute silence is when we think about all the Soldiers. We took part in the whole school silence. We created Poppy themed art work.
Rainbow class have been very busy exploring autumn. We have been on a nature walk to find leaves and sticks to make autumn decorations with. Frankie even collected things when he went on holiday to Wales!
Odd Socks – We wore odd socks to school to support Anti-Bullying Week.
We talked about what makes a good friend and how we can be a good friend to others.
The children wore their Squirrel uniform to our Remembrance assembly.
Today we mixed, stirred and kneaded dough to make our own bread rolls – they were delicious!
Our topic this term is All About Me, we have been looking at different types of families. Phonics has begun and the children have embraced learning to recognise and write the new sounds. In Maths they have been sorting objects by colour, size and shape. The environment has offered the children some exciting opportunities through music, dance, cutting activities, playdough, painting, indoor and outdoor games and much more. The children have enjoyed getting to know each other and learning their new routine. We look forward to another five terms of fabulous learning and lots of fun together.
For our mathematics work this week we were using shapes to construct models with.
We made rockets for Little Bear to travel to the Moon in. I want to travel in Rosie’s rocket which has chocolate buttons inside it!
We made cookies to eat at snack time. We weighed out the ingredients, used our gross motor skills to mix the dough and small motor skills to shape the dough into cookies. They were delicious!
This week Reception have been learning all about matching in our maths lessons. We read the story of 'Simon Sock' and then took turns in groups to pair up matching socks.
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