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 £3.00 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 | £15.00 | 12.30 - 3.30 | £15.00 |
| Tuesday | 8.45 - 11.45 | £15.00 | 12.30 - 3.30 | £15.00 |
| Wednesday | 8.45 - 11.45 | £15.00 | 12.30 - 3.30 | £15.00 |
| Thursday | 8.45 - 11.45 | £15.00 | 12.30 - 3.30 | £15.00 |
| Friday | 8.45 - 11.45 | £15.00 | 12.30 - 3.30 | £15.00 |
We look forward to meeting you soon! Contact the school office to book an appointment to come and visit us.
Reception has three classes with a recently redeveloped shared outside area to explore.
Our classrooms are bright and vibrant and reflect the children's learning and interests.
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.
In our Mathematics work we have been making collections of objects. What would you make a collection of?
We have been exploring our new environment – inside and outside!
We are looking forward to learning more as the weeks go by!
Reception children have had lots of fun at Forest School. They made jam donuts and toasted them on the camp fire, they were very brave and went on the zip wire, they saw the animals on the farm, made wands and lots more.
As part of Sports and Arts week we had a parade celebrating our hard work. We made clown hats, ties and streamers. I think you will agree we look fantastic!
We have been getting to know our new chicks.
Well done to all the children for a fantastic Sports Day! It was brilliant to see the children enjoying all the races and trying their best. Here are some actions shots!
This term we have been learning all about minibeasts. Vicky made us a tuff spot with a log in, we loved finding minibeasts crawling underneath the log.
Our caterpillars have started to change, they are all now in a chrysalis and we are waiting to see them emerge as beautiful butterflies.
We learnt lots of information about minibeasts, including the fact that millipedes can have up to 450 legs!
Then we sorted pictures of the minibeasts into groups with legs or no legs and wings or no wings.
Reception had an exciting delivery this week. Our caterpillars arrived!
We cannot wait to see their transformation into butterflies and learn more about the life cycle of a butterfly.
Jonny who works as a Paramedic brought his ambulance for us to have a look in and some uniform for us to try on. We learnt about what Paramedics do to keep us safe.
Today we came to school wearing red to raise money for Red Nose Day. We enjoyed a variety of activities throughout the day.
Nathan and Lee from Margate Police station came to visit us. They told us about how they keep us safe and let us try on their uniform and sit in the Police car! Lee turned on the lights and sirens – they were very loud!
We loved dressing up in our costumes to show our friends our favourite book characters – can you guess which characters we were?
This week we were visited by the police! We learnt all about their job and how they help us. They showed us their police car, their uniforms and equipment like the walkie talkie! We worked hard to ask questions and learn more about their jobs.
This week in Reception we have been making amounts to 10. We have explored lots of ways we can make amounts up to 10 using cubes, beads, numicon and our fingers.
Bobby and Keane wore their uniforms to school to celebrate World Thinking Day.
This week the children in reception have been learning about the Chinese New Year. They have created Chinese lanterns and dragon masks to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.
We had such a busy week continuing our learning through the story of the Gingerbread Man!
We found a map which we decided to follow. We suspected it was from the Gingerbread Man! Along the way we came across the characters from the story. When we got to the end of the map we found the Gingerbread Man, along with a chest of golden coins! We exchanged these coins for a gingerbread man biscuit!
We had another letter from the Gingerbread Man asking us to help him find a way to cross the river. We decided to make him a boat! We worked together to create a boat for him and put them to the test – with some great results (and some soggy gingerbread biscuits!)
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!
Mummy Pig wrote us a letter asking for us to paint pictures of her pigs as she was lonely without them. Unfortunately we had run out of pink paint! We discovered that if you mix red and white paint then you can make pink paint – problem solved.
We have been sharing the story of The Gingerbread Man. We have been learning Makaton signs to help us remember the story and have enthusiastically joined 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 safely. We tested different containers to investigate which ones float and which ones sink. We found out that ones with holes in sunk! Also ones made of cardboard aren’t the best material!
Our favourite activity was baking and icing our Gingerbread Men!
Luckily the Gingerbread Men didn’t run away when we opened the oven!
We played hunt the Gingerbread Man in the soapy foam – it was very messy and lots of fun!
This term the children in reception are learning about Traditional Tales. This week we have been looking at the story Little Red Riding Hood. The children acted out the story, counting food from Grandma’s basket and carefully cutting out the fruit to stick into the basket.
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