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Term Dates

Chagford Montessori Nursery School - Term Dates

Summer Term 2025

Tuesday 22nd April – Thursday 17th July

Half term: 26th – 30th May

Autumn Term 2025

Monday 8th September – Thursday 18th December

Half term: 27th – 31st October

Spring Term 2026

Monday 5th January – Thursday 2nd April

Half term: 16th – 20th February

Summer Term 2026

Monday 20th April – Thursday 16th July

Half term: 25th – 29th May

 

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Phonics Q & A

Download Phonics Q & A recording

Talk starts 5 minutes in, please forward to skip preamble!

 

Links referenced in talk:

Jolly Phonics Letter Sounds (British English) – YouTube

 
 
 

Jolly Phonics Letter Sounds (British English)

 

 
Play
 
 
Early Learning Goals
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65253bc12548ca000dddf050/EYFSP_2024_handbook.pdf
 

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WOODWORK

Why introduce preschool children to woodwork?

The children will be doing woodwork projects from time to time as we believe this is a wonderful medium for children to work with. We would like to explain why we think woodwork is such an important activity and reassure you that safety is always prioritised.

Woodwork has a long history in early childhood education dating right back to the beginnings of early childhood education with Froebel’s Kindergarten in Germany back in the 1800s. Since then, it has been embraced by many countries all over the world. Woodwork is one of those special activities that truly engage children and encompasses all areas of learning and development. Children really respond to the challenge and very much enjoy working with wood and real tools. Elise has completed a comprehensive course focussed on woodwork for 3–5-year-olds and has been sharing her knowledge with the whole staff team.

STaff

Chagford Montessori staff get stuck in, on an in-house training day.

Woodwork encompasses so much learning – children will be developing their physical coordination, fine and gross motor skills, and hand-eye coordination; they will learn basic mathematical concepts, such as shape and measure, and develop their mathematical thinking skills; they will be developing their understanding of the world – seeing tools as a basic technology, understanding wood as a material and observing many scientific concepts such as the rotation of a wheel, levering nails back up or using a drill, to drill holes. They will be developing their language with new vocabulary, using language to talk about their ideas and to problem solve. Children develop their mark-making and drawing to express ideas on paper and also mark on the wood itself. But there are two areas where woodwork really excels.

Pumpkin

Hammering golf tees into a pumpkin is good preparation for doing woodwork

Firstly, it develops children’s self-esteem and confidence – it is empowering for children to create with real tools, and they take great delight in their achievements, and it develops a can-do spirit. Secondly, it develops children’s thinking skills - their creative and critical thinking as they problem solve and express their imagination with wood – which is not easy to work with! In terms of safety, this is always prioritised. We adhere to strict guidelines such as the children must always wear safety glasses and sawing is only ever done with 1:1 adult supervision. Part of children’s development is that they need to learn to manage risk and make judgments to protect themselves, so they are better able to make decisions in all situations that life presents.

Look and learn

Learning through watching others.

Each child who participates has as long as they want to use the resources, guided by Elise and some children have worked in the area for one and a half hours at a time – what fabulous engagement and concentration!

Once each child has had a go at basic hammering, they can put their skills to work by combining an assortment of small wooden blocks, beads, bottle tops, fabric, etc. Following our Montessori principles, Elise works with each child at their own level; some are happy banging nails into a strip of insulation foam, and others have made quite detailed models and progressed to using the vice and screwdriver too. We are inviting children who are 3 years and above to participate, one morning per week.

The vice

Learning through doing: using a vice and a screwdriver.

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Oral Health

Download Oral Health article

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Tapestry

Access your child's learning journal here: https://tapestryjournal.com/

Download How-to-create-Observations-for-relatives

A guide to using Tapestry can be found here: http://eyfs.info/video_tutorial/_/tapestry/

 

 

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Infection Control

For your information, we have made a link to the Health Protection Agency's (HPA) publication on infection control. Please refer to this if your child is ill as we base our Health and Safety policies on the HPA guidance. Please click Managing specific infectious diseases: A to Z - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) to view.

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Sound Box

Sound Box
The aim of the sound box is to focus the objects that
children bring in on a particular phonic sound each week.
Helping your child to find a suitable item to put in the
sound box will increase their phonic awareness and letter
recognition. Sounds for the next half term are:
w/c 22.04.25 f as in frog
w/c 28.04.25 e as in elephant
w/c 06.05.25 b as in baby
w/c 12.05.25 t as in tree
w/c 19.05.25 y as in yellow
HALF TERM
w/c 02.06.25 p as in pig
w/c 09.06.25 l as in lamb
w/c 16.06.25 j as in jelly
w/c 23.06.25 h as in hippo
w/c 30.06.25 a as in apple
w/c 07.07.25 r as in rainbow
w/c 14.07.25 d as in dog

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Download 1-7-Areas-of-Learning

Download EYFS in Montessori Settings Guide_

'What to expect, when' guide for parents

Policies for parents

Download Equality Inclusion Policy

Download Arrival and Departure of Children Policy

Download Confidentiality policy

Download Complaint Policy

Download Equality Inclusion Policy

Download Food and Drink Policy

Download ICT Policy

Download Parental Involvement Policy

Download Privacy Policy

Download Safeguarding Policy

Download Tapestry Policy

Newsletters

Download Newsletter SUMMER 2025

Download Newsletter SPRING 2025

Download Newsletter AUTUMN 2024