Last month at St Paul’s, the children across all rooms enjoyed rich learning experiences centred around maths, physical movement, nature and community connections.
Maths has been woven throughout the month in wonderfully practical ways. Children in the baby rooms explored eggs through cooking and counting, shopping for real ingredients and then enjoying boiled eggs together. They discovered how many without always counting (“subitising”), and used their fingers to point carefully to each egg as they counted. Cardboard boxes became brilliant mathematical tools for exploring spatial reasoning — children climbed in and out, hid and revealed themselves, testing sizes and shapes. In the nursery rooms, puzzles helped children develop spatial reasoning too, as they rotated pieces and visualised how things fit together.
Physical challenge and movement have been central to learning this month. Children in The Pod explored the garden confidently, stretching on bars, pulling and pushing themselves over A-frames, rolling over balancing beams and jumping on boards. Green Group from Nursery Room 2 journeyed to the woods at Stoke Park, climbing over fallen logs, running in the big space and reaching the hilltop to enjoy the views. These experiences helped children become bold, confident movers and explorers.
Growing and nature have captured children’s imagination. Children in Nursery Room 1 transferred bean plants to the allotment and are now caring for them with love — watering, weeding and stringing them up. Sunflowers are germinating too. In the Early Years 2 Room, the children have been fascinated by rain and water play, exploring language like trickling, pouring, soaking and drip-drip-dripping. The community connection came alive when children posted letters at their local post box, seeing their marks transformed into real messages sent out into the world.
These learning experiences show how children at St Paul’s are developing resilience, curiosity and a deep love of learning through play, exploration and real-world engagement.