Nursery / Dosbarth Meithrin
Welcome to Nursery / Croeso i'r Dosbarth Meithrin
Small hands can change the world
The Nursery Team / Tim y Dosbarth Meithrin
The Nursery teacher is Mrs Sam Goddard
The teaching assistants are:
Ms Libby Thomas
Miss Jasmine Cribbett
Mrs Emma Owens
Mrs Maria Rayass
We have a capacity of 80 children at Lakeside Nursery. In each session 40 children attend, supervised by one teacher and three teaching assistants.
Times / Amseroedd
Morning session: 9.00am - 11.30am
Afternoon Session: 12.45pm - 3.15pm
Snacks / Byrbrydau
The children will be offered a daily snack of fruit or vegetables, with milk or water to drink. The cost is £1.40 per week, which can be paid for the full year, termly or half termly.
Snack Money for 2025/2026
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Autumn Term |
Spring Term |
Summer Term |
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Monday 15th September – Friday 24th October
(6 weeks) £8.40 |
Monday 4thNovember – Friday 20th December
(7 weeks) £9.80 |
Monday 5thJanuary – Friday 13th February
(6 weeks) £8.40 |
Monday 23rd February – Friday 27th March
(5 weeks) £7.00 |
Monday 13thApril – Friday 22nd May
(6 weeks) £8.40 |
Monday 1st June – Friday 17th July
(7 weeks) £9.80 |
Total amount for the year: £51.80
Could you please pay in cash, and we will provide you with a receipt.
Please note, if you are unable to pay in full for the year, you can pay termly or half-termly.
** It is helpful for staff if the money is sent in a sealed envelope, with your child’s name and the amount paid written clearly on the outside **
Starting Nursery / Dechrau yn y Dosbarth Meithrin
Useful information for starting Nursery
Please ensure that your child is wearing sensible clothing which is labelled with their name. (i.e. sun hat or wellies, waterproof coat.) Nursery jumpers and cardigans are available to buy from YC Sports on Crwys Road.
It would help your child if they are able to use the toilet independently and wash their hands.
Please ensure that the nursery staff are aware of any medical issues e.g allergies, asthma.
There will be a healthy snack each day, so there is no need for children to bring food with them.
Nursery is stocked with plenty of lovely toys. Please keep all special toys at home.
The safety of your child is of paramount importance to us. We would ask that you choose a password that you and anybody who is picking up your child can use. Please inform the Nursery staff if someone different is picking your child up from nursery.
What and How we learn / Beth a Sut yr ydym yn dysgu
Learning Projects
Autumn 1 - How Many Colours in a Rainbow?
Autumn 2 - Exploring Autumn
Spring 1 - Starry Night
Spring 2 - Once Upon a Time
Summer 1 - Are Eggs Alive?
Summer 2 - Build it up
Library books
The children will choose a library book to bring home every Wednesday. We will provide a manila folder for each child, but you may wish to purchase a green Lakeside book folder through parent pay at a cost of £4.50. Could you please send their reading folder to school every Wednesday. Thank you.
The Curriculum for Wales consists of What Matters Statements which are found within these Six Areas of Learning:
Expressive Arts (this spans five disciplines: art, dance, drama, film and digital media and music)
Health and Wellbeing (this includes PE)
Humanities (this area encompasses geography; history; religion, values and ethics; business studies and social studies)
Languages, Literacy and Communication (which aims to support learning across the whole curriculum and to enable learners to gain knowledge and skills in Welsh, English and international languages as well as in literature)
Maths and Numeracy
Science and Technology This area draws on the disciplines of biology, chemistry, computer science, design and technology, and physics to enhance learners’ knowledge and understanding of the world.
These are carefully planned within a broad and balanced curriculum.
Literacy & Reading
Regular letters and sounds activities, e.g. environmental sounds, listening-walk etc
Nursery Rhymes and songs on the carpet at end of the day (voted for by pupils - pupil voice)
Star groups: Developing speaking and listening skills
Teacher/TA reads a story to the class at least twice a week (voted for by pupils - pupil voice)
Letter sound of the week throughout the year - revisited regularly
Weekly library books go home from October.
January - assessment of letter sound recognition - lilac reading books go home weekly with children who have appropriate letter sound recognition, together with HFW words. These children read with teacher/TA once a week. Where appropriate, children are benchmarked later in the year and given a red book if they are ready.
Letters and sounds games for children whose letter sound recognition is developing well but not sufficient to have a reading book (e.g. SATPIN board game)
Welsh: Helpwr Heddiw session daily, in which the teacher chooses a helper to assist with Welsh games, vocabulary and commands for that day
Maths & Numeracy
Resources used include: Numicon - Oxford Owl scheme; Smartboard and practical activities linked to learning projects.
Range of physical resources e.g. Numicon, multi-link, counting items etc. to develop their visual and pictorial learning skills.
Millie Mouse - financial maths
Health & Wellbeing
Weekly Jigsaw sessions
World mental health day - colour monster/emojis
Thrive where appropriate
Outdoor learning - autumn/spring walk; coloured mud painting; planting vegetables in garden.
Star groups - Talking about ourselves and our families
We have a sensory room for the children to access where appropriate.
Science & Technology
We teach science and technology through most of our Learning Projects.
Science: Skittles colour experiment; magnetic/non magnetic materials; making gingerbread men; keeping caterpillars and sequencing lifecycle; planting sunflowers and vegetables - daily watering and harvesting vegetables; sorting materials - rough/smooth; hard/soft
Tech: Building houses for three little pigs; building a tall tower with wooden blocks and shaving foam/boxes etc; making a card with a moving part
Digital Skills: We use digital technology through all our learning projects, for example:
Drawing program; Chatterpix app; remote control cars; interpreting pictograms of class role play votes.
Humanities (Geography, History, Religious Education)
Geography is taught through our learning projects and on specific themed days, for example:
Autumn walk and litter pick (our effect on the world around us and the creatures that share our planet)
Shwmae day - Welsh dragons/flags; Chinese New Year celebrations; Welsh Week;
History is taught through our Learning projects, and through Jigsaw activities, e.g.
Lifecycle of caterpillar linked to how we change and grow; Jigsaw activities - families/growing
Religious Education: We learn about different religious celebrations and how they are celebrated.
Diwali, Christmas, Chinese new Year, Easter, Hanukkah, Eid
Expressive Arts (Art, Music, Dance, Drama)
Art: Colour mixing with powder paints; Autumn artwork (including collage); digital artwork for calendars; Ernest Zoble; coloured mud painting outdoors; huff puff painting
Music: Letters and sounds activities - making different sounds with musical instruments (loud/quiet; long/short etc); lots of singing, often incorporating makaton signing
PE sessions
Retelling of owl babies and Three Little Pigs - acting/puppet show/Chatterpix; role-play area chosen by children
Communication and helping at home / Cyfathrebu a helpu
The communication tool Seesaw is used to share group and individual activities with parents/carers.
Some children take home a scheme reading book following reading assessments in January. These are sent out on a weekly basis
Staff meet and dismiss children at the door each day and parents have an opportunity to speak to staff then or vice versa. Staff & parents also communicate by phone call or email, as necessary.
Sharing with parents/carers / Rhannu gyda rhieni/gofalwyr
In addition to Parent Consultations during the school year, parents/carers are also welcomed to school to enjoy their children sharing songs and music at Christmas and at Easter - with an Easter Bonnet Parade and a singsong.
Parent consultations are held in October and March/April. These are organised as stay and play sessions so that parents can join their children for a 30-40 minute session and speak to TAs as well as meeting with the teacher.
Stay and Play after school for new starters (parents and children) are held in July, December & March.
Initial visits for new Nursery pupils take place in September, December and March.
Learning Areas / Mannau Dysgu
Classroom Areas
Creative corner, writing table, reading corner, maths area, role play, discovery area, small-world area, construction area; fine motor area
Intervention Spaces
Sensory room and cloakroom - used for Wellcomm interventions, star groups, some letters and sounds activities
Outdoors
Regular focus tasks take place outdoors, e.g. messy colour mixing, Autumn and Spring walks, coloured mud painting; Autumn and Spring walks in school grounds.
Nursery Celebrations / Dathliadau
In Nursery we celebrate all types of events. Last year we celebrated
- St Davids Day
- Easter
- Chinese New Year
- Christmas
- Eid
Reading in Nursery / Darllen i blant Meithrin
In Nursery we enjoy reading all sorts of books, from story time to big story sack sessions. We have a book corner where children can enjoy reading and looking at books.
From October, we also have weekly library books that the children choose, to take home and share with their parents.
Green book bags can be bought from the school office for £4.50.
Please share your library book with your child and talk to them about the content and characters etc.
Did your child like the story?
What was their favourite part?
Does your child know what the story is called?
Please return the reading folder every Wednesday.
Visit your local library to share books of their choice.
Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Goddard and the Nursery Team
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The Numtums
Join in with the Numtums and learn about numbers from 1 to 10.
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