Autumn Term 1 2026

Week 1

Welcome back to school! We have had such a wonderful first week and what an exciting start to our new school year! This term, we are learning all about ‘People’, and our first topic has been ‘Us’ – what a lovely way to begin our adventures together!

Our biggest focus this week has been settling into our beautiful new Hub and getting to know our new surroundings. We have loved spending time with our friends, exploring all of our new resources and discovering our fantastic new outdoor space. We have also been learning about kind hands, personal space and how we can keep ourselves safe, whilst having lots of fun along the way!

Our Bucket Time sessions have been full of exciting sensory experiences. We have painted our hands, moved our bodies, explored, splashed and, of course, made lots of wonderful mess! We have had lots of opportunities to explore with our senses, have fun together and enjoy trying new things.

We have also loved our phonics sessions! We have been finding sounds in the sand, playing ‘same–same’ matching games, practising our writing on the whiteboards and having fun with match-and-spell activities. There has been lots of exploring, discovering and learning as we have played with sounds and words.

But our absolute highlight of the week has been the warm, sunny weather!  This meant we could enjoy one of our most favourite activities – WATER PLAY! Hooray!  We have splashed, poured, scooped, explored and had so much fun in the water, making the most of our wonderful new outdoor space.

What a fantastic first week we have had! We are feeling settled, happy and excited to be in our new Hub, and we can't wait to see what adventures next week will bring. 

Week 2

This week, our topic has been all about ‘me’. Now that we are beginning to settle in, we have been able to start our learning and enjoy lots of exciting activities. We have been discovering our personal interests and learning about what matters most to us, with our adults guiding and supporting us through these wonderful discoveries.

We have loved making our own playdough faces, rolling out the playdough and using it to decorate and create lots of different faces. It has been lovely to see the children explore their creativity while talking about the different features that make each of us unique.

In Bucket Time this week, we had lots of fun making a face using shaving foam! We added eyes, a nose, a mouth, ears and lots and lots of hair. We then got a little messy as we used a swatter to splat it all away! We also enjoyed our balloon face pop activity. We filled balloons with a little water and paint, decorated different faces on each balloon and then popped them! 😊 It was very messy, but lots and lots of fun!

Our phonics focus this week was the sound ‘a’ — a, a, a, apple! 🍎 This is a bouncy sound, and we practised signing, saying, copying and writing it throughout the week through a range of lovely activities. One of our favourite activities was using a paintbrush to write the sound in sand before shaking the tray and starting again!

As you will notice, Atlas and Atlantis will continue to change and develop over time, and this week the children in Atlantis have been excited to see lots of lovely new additions to the room, including a brand-new home corner. Please feel free to come in and have a look at all of our changes. The team is very proud of the ongoing transformations and is excited to see how our learning environments continue to grow alongside the children.

Week 3

This week, our topic has been all about ‘families’ as part of our wider topic of ‘People’. We have been exploring what families are and learning that families can look different. We have enjoyed looking at lots of different family pictures and talking about the people who are important to us. We also got creative and made our own family member collages, choosing different materials to create our pictures. It has been lovely to see the children sharing their ideas and developing their understanding of what makes a family.

In Bucket time this week, we have enjoyed lots of fun family-themed activities. We had lots of fun with our ‘Family Fingers’ activity using balloons, which was a wonderful opportunity to explore, watch and join in together. We have continued to encourage the children to watch, engage and take turns during our Attention Autism activities, with lots of smiles and excitement along the way!

Our phonics focus this week was ‘s’ – s,s,s,snake (this is a stretchy sound). We practised recognising, saying, copying, reading and writing our sound throughout the week through a range of fun activities. The children particularly enjoyed highlighting the ‘s’ sound, taking part in our exciting sound reveal and practising writing the sound. It has been lovely to see the children becoming more familiar and confident with recognising and engaging with their focus sound.

It has been a fun and busy week in class, with lots of opportunities for learning, creativity, communication and making connections. We are very proud of the children and all the wonderful ways they have joined in with our learning this week.

Week 4

This week, our topic has been all about ‘Friends’ as part of our wider topic of ‘People’. We have been exploring what friends are and learning about what it means to share, be kind and take turns. We have particularly enjoyed looking at our story ‘The Rainbow Fish’, which has helped us to think about sharing and friendship throughout the week.

We have also been getting creative and designing our Christmas cards! These will be coming home for you to admire, and you can decide whether you would like to order them.

During Bucket Time this week, we loved our handprinting activity. We chose a primary colour to cover our hand before giving a high-five to a friend with a different colour. It was very exciting to see the new colours we created together! We also enjoyed our movement session on Friday, where we copied a range of actions modelled by our adults. We have continued to encourage the children to watch, engage and take turns during our Attention Autism activities, with lots of smiles and excitement along the way!

Our phonics focus this week was ‘d’ – d,d,d,dinosaur! This is a bouncy sound. We practised recognising, saying, copying, reading and writing our sound throughout the week through a range of fun and engaging activities. The children particularly enjoyed highlighting the ‘d’ sound and taking part in looking after our ‘d,d,d,dog’ while singing ‘How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?’ It has been lovely to see the children becoming more familiar and confident with recognising and engaging with their focus sound.

It has been another fun and busy week in class, with lots of opportunities for learning, creativity, communication and making connections. We are very proud of the children and all the wonderful ways they have joined in with our learning this week. 🌈🐟🎨

Have a lovely weekend!

Week 5

This week, our topic has been all about ‘People Who Help Us’ as part of our wider topic of ‘People’. We have been exploring different professional roles, including firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, dentists and teachers. We have enjoyed singing songs such as ‘Aunt Polly Had a Dolly’ and ‘This Is the Way We…’ and have also had lots of fun practising our first aid skills and developing some important personal care skills.

In Bucket Time this week, we have enjoyed lots of exciting and sensory activities linked to our topic. We particularly enjoyed exploring different objects and props linked to people who help us, taking part in dressing up as doctors, firefighters and police. We have also been working on communicating our wants and needs, making choices and joining in with familiar songs and actions.

Our phonics focus this week was ‘t’ – t, t, t, tower! (This is a bouncy sound.) We have been practising recognising, saying, copying, reading and writing our sound throughout the week through a range of fun and engaging activities. The children particularly enjoyed our glitter glue reveal of our sound, following the phrase ‘down the tower and across the tower’. We also all had a go at writing our sound in the sand using paintbrushes, helping us to practise our pencil grip and develop our early mark-making skills.

It has been a busy week with lots of lovely learning opportunities as we have explored our topic. We also had our first proper rainy day this week! 🌧️ This is a little reminder that we need lots of spare clothes, wellies and waterproof coats so that we can continue to enjoy our outdoor area whatever the weather. Please also ensure that all clothing and personal belongings are clearly labelled with your child/ren’s name 😊

Have a lovely weekend!

Week 6

Week 7