Welcome to Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) at Manadon Vale! Our EYFS is a happy, nurturing and exciting place where children are encouraged to explore, discover, create and learn through play. Starting school is a very special milestone, and we want every child and family to feel valued, supported and part of our school community from the very beginning.

 

Our experienced and caring team provide a balance of child-initiated play and adult-led learning, both indoors and outdoors.

Our team include myself Mrs Barber (Turtles teacher and EYFS lead), Mrs Bettison (Seahorse teacher), Mrs Frearson (HLTA), Miss Clarke, Miss Down and Mrs Glanville (TA’s).

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Meet the team

Miss Katie Hamer

Miss Katie Hamer

Whole School PPA Cover
Miss Michelle Clarke

Miss Michelle Clarke

Teaching Assistant
Miss Phaedra Down

Miss Phaedra Down

Teaching Assistant & Meal Time Assistant
Mrs Rebecca Frearson

Mrs Rebecca Frearson

Higher Level Teaching Assistant
Mrs Heather Bettison

Mrs Heather Bettison

Foundation Stage Teacher
Seahorses
Mrs Nicole Glanville

Mrs Nicole Glanville

Teaching Assistant
Seahorses and Turtles
Mrs Georgia Barber

Mrs Georgia Barber

Foundation Stage Teacher & EYFS Lead
Turtles

Here you will find some useful information for life in EYFS at Manadon Vale.

·        Book Bag (named):

All children require a book bag which they will need to bring every day. This does not need to be a school branded one but will need to be named All uniform should be clearly named.

 

·        Waterbottle (named):

A clear, waterbottle with a sports-flip lid. NO JUICE PLEASE!

 

·        FruitSnack:

The children are invited to bring a healthy snack (clearly named) for their morning playtime snack. In addition to this they will have the opportunity to have milk each morning and choose a piece of fruit each day.

·        PE Days

PE takes place twice a week:

Tuesday –Indoor PE

Friday –Outdoor PE

Children should wear their PE kit to school on both PE days.

·        Reading Books

Reading is an important part of your child's learning journey, and we encourage families to enjoy reading together regularly.

Reading books are changed every Friday. Please ensure that your child's reading book and reading record are returned to school each Friday so that we can provide a new book for the following week.

·        HomeLearning

Optional home learning activities are shared on Tapestry each week. These activities are designed to support and extend your child's learning at home in a fun and manageable way.

We love seeing what the children have been doing at home, so please feel free to share their learning, experiences and achievements with us through Tapestry.

·        Spellings& Handwriting

Formal spelling and handwriting practice will begin after Christmas. We will provide further information and guidance for families when this starts. In the meantime, we encourage children to enjoy mark-making, drawing, writing their name and developing their fine motor skills through everyday activities and play.

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Tapestry

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Tapestryis the online learning journal we use at school to share your child’sachievements. We use this as an assessment tool throughout the year. Inaddition to this we ask parents to include any observations of learning orachievements from home. Please ensure you login to Tapestry for regular keymemos, letters and observations.

We are looking forward to a fun year and thank you in advance for working in partnership with us as your child starts their school journey.

Please ensure you login to Tapestry for regular updates.

Yearly Overview of Foundation Stage

We plan to deliver the following topics over the year, although these are open to change.  This is because we often find learning opportunities following children’s interests or what is happening in the wider world.

Autumn 1

  • All About Me
  • Superheroes
  • Autumn

Autumn 2

  • Traditional Stories
  • Christmas

Spring 1

  • Dinosaurs

Spring 2

  • New Life
  • Easter

Summer 1

  • A Life on the Ocean Wave

Summer 2

  • A Life on the Ocean Wave (continued)
  • Summer

For more information about the EYFS long term plan please see information attached on the right hand side of the page.

Termly Overview of Foundation Stage

EYFS Autumn Overview

📚 Literacy

We will explore All About Me, create family drawings, design our own superhero vegetables linked to Supertato, and begin writing simple autumn words.

 

🔢 Maths

We will develop our early maths skills by matching, sorting and exploring simple patterns using a range of objects and resources.

 

🌍 Understanding the World

We will explore the season of Autumn, noticing changes in the weather, trees, plants and the natural world around us.

 

🎨 Expressive Arts & Design

We will create self-portraits and autumn crafts, exploring different colours, materials and creative techniques.

 

🔤 Phonics

We will learn new sounds and begin to segment and blend simple CVC words.

 

✝️Religious Education

We will learn about Christian beliefs through stories, discussions and activities. We will also learn about why Christians perform

nativity plays at Christmas? We will also perform our own class nativity.

 

💛 Personal, Social & Emotional Development

We will focus on “Being Me in My World” and ‘’What I am Good at’’ developing our understanding of feelings, friendships, kindness and belonging.

 

🏃 Physical Development & Pe

We will complete a PE baseline assessment, play team games and enjoy a fun superhero assault course to develop our physical skills.

 

EYFS Spring Overview

 

🦕 Literacy: We will immerse ourselves in non-fiction texts about dinosaurs, learning interesting facts before creating our own dinosaur fact files and developing a story plan for Katie and the Dinosaurs.

 

🔢 Maths: We will explore numbers to 10 in depth, developing our understanding of counting, composition, number bonds, and odd and even numbers.

 

🌍 Understanding the World: We will explore dinosaurs, winter, new life and life cycles, and learn about Easter and how it is celebrated.

 

🎨 Expressive Arts and Design: We will explore a range of creative experiences, including dinosaur crafts, making binoculars, exploring the artwork of artist Berthe Morisot, and creating Easter crafts.

 

✝️Religious Education: We will explore the questions “Being Special: Where do we belong?” and “Why do Christians put a cross on their Easter Garden?”, developing our understanding of belonging, Christianity and Easter traditions.

 

💛 PSED: Through Dreams and Goals and Healthy Me, we will develop confidence, resilience and an understanding of how to make healthy and positive choices.

 

🔤 Phonics: We will continue to develop our phonics knowledge by learning and practising new sounds, blending and segmenting words, and applying our skills in reading and writing.

 

🤸 PE: We will develop our physical skills through fun gym activities, exploring shapes and movement, alongside fundamental games outdoors.

 

EYFSSummer overview

 

🔢 Maths: We will explore shapes by visualising, building, mapping, manipulating, composing and decomposing them, while making connections.

 

📚 Literacy: We will read under-the-sea texts, plan a Tiddler story, create pirate maps and sea-creature fact files, and write about rockpools.

 

🌍 Understanding the World: We will learn about pirates and seaside life in the past and enjoy a visit to the aquarium.

 

🏃Physical Development: We will practise dancing, sports day activities and team games.

 

🎨 Expressive Arts and Design: We will explore Frida Kahlo, learn pirate songs and create models using recycled materials.

 

💛 PSED: We will explore relationships and learn about changes as we grow and develop. We will also talk about the transition to Year One later on in Summer 2.

 

✝️Religious Education: We will explore the questions ‘’Which places are special and why? We will also explore ‘’ Which stories are special and why?’’

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Year Notices:

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30 Ways To Connect

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30 Ways To Connect

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🐬 Reminder: Dolphin class have PE tomorrow instead of Wednesday 🏃🏼‍♀️🏃🏽‍♂️
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🌟Foundation Stage plea🌟 Please see below for donations we are looking for. Any donations will be much appreciated! Thank you 😊
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✨ Year 5: DT, maths and science round-up! ✨ In DT, we've been building free-standing wooden towers, inspired by New York skyscrapers. We've learnt that hot glue is hot (doh!) and that resin pets are everyone's favourite decoration. 💅 In maths, we ditched the maths books as a Friday treat and learnt about factors and multiples with a little help from the whiteboard pens. 🥳 In science, we've been learning all about space and recapping our understanding of the solar system with some hands on activities. 🌕 Well done, Year 5! You're all gems! 💎
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This afternoon,20 of our KS2 children took part in a cross country event at Staddiscombe! A fantastic effort from all our runners 👍 👏
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World Mental Health Day 2026: a little note to you. Sometimes, we all need reminding, adults and children alike! 💙
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Introducing our Kindness Postbox at Manadon Vale! We are so excited to be launching our very own Kindness Postbox this Monday! A letter has been sent home to everyone today with more information. The postbox will live in reception. Our wonderful Year 5 Kindness Monitors as pictured in the photo will be helping me spread a little happiness 🌟 How does it work? 💛 Parents/carers, staff and children are all welcome to post a kind or thank you message in our postbox to anybody in our school community this can include staff & children. 💛 The postbox will be open before and after school (children must be accompanied by a parent/carer) and at breaktime for the first few weeks with our Year 5 Kindness Monitors. 💛 Postcards will be available next to the postbox. You might like to take one home, write your message and bring it back another day to post. 💛 Myself and our Kindness Ambassadors will empty the postbox every few weeks and make sure the messages reach their recipients. There is absolutely no pressure to get involved. Thank you for your support Mrs Barber
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It has been a busy week for cross country. The house competition happened at school on Wednesday, with the teams being picked by the respective house captains. The winning houses will be announced in school next week. At the Connect Academy Trust cross country event at Widey the teams performed brilliantly. All runners persevered on a tough multi lap course. A special well done must go to the 2 teams who won their team relay races. The final cross country race at Staddiscombe awaits next Thursday!
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🎃Calling all Foundation Stage parents/carers🎃 The Halloween disco for Foundation will take place on Thursday 22nd October during the school day. The children can come to school dressed in a Halloween costume if they wish. Any questions please speak to a member of Foundation. We can’t wait 👻🎃
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💙❤️💛 NEW TOUR DATES ADDED 💛❤️💙 Do you have a child who is due to start school in September 2027? 🏫 Come and visit our amazing school to see all the wonderful opportunities we offer our children. ❤️💙 Please phone the school office to book onto a tour. ☎️
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💙❤️💛Inclusion Lead Vacancy 💛❤️💙 An exciting opportunity to come and work at our amazing school and lead inclusion throughout. 🤩 Please click on the link below for more information, relevant documents and the online application form. 💻
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🌟Foundation Stage Parent/Carer lunch🌟 A huge thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us yesterday for lunch with their children. It was wonderful to see so many families sharing a special mealtime together and enjoying time in school. We’d also like to say a big thank you to our fantastic kitchen team for all their hard work in preparing and serving the delicious lunches. Your efforts are very much appreciated! It was such a lovely and memorable lunchtime. 🍽️
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Dolphins have been having a great time in science this term, learning all about materials. Today, they carried out an EGGxperiment to see which material would protect Humpty Dumpty the best 🥚
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A huge well done and thank you to the parents, carers and children for such generous donations for Devon Provide food-bank.
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💙❤️💛 TA VACANCY 💛❤️💙 We are excited to share this full time, maternity cover TA Vacancy at our wonderful school. 🤩 Please click on the link below to see the Job Advert and Job Description. 💻 https://ce0218li.webitrent.com/ce0218li_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC179GF.open?WVID=838654ApYP
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Sounds like Year 1 had a fantastic time! 🎶 Boomwhackers are always a hit! 🥁✨
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Key Stage 2 had a very special guest in their assembly last week. Hannah came to talk to them about an exciting project currently happening across the city, linking Plymouth’s relationship with the sea through art, creativity, learning and community experiences. Intertidal will be travelling to several locations around Plymouth up until the 19th October. Follow the link for further information. A big thank you to Hannah for sharing this with us. https://plymouthsoundnationalmarinepark.com/sea-for-yourself-tide-together/
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