Growing strawberries and tending to tortoises

The academic year may be coming to an end but it marks the start of exciting new beginnings for many of our children.

Pre-School children have been visiting their new Reception classrooms and eating their lunch in the dining hall and many of our Nursery children will be moving up to Pre-School in September. The children are well prepared for these important transitions, and are ready for the next stage in their school journey. We will, as always, be sad to say goodbye but we know the children will embrace all of the new adventures on offer to them.

Looking back, the Summer Term has provided some lovely experiences for the children. They have watched tadpoles turn into frogs, paddled in the river with nets, and have enjoyed lots of outdoor play.

Stories have come alive, baking bread like the Little Red Hen, forming letters in shaving foam clouds at the top of the beanstalk, and dressing up as knights, kings and queens and creating colourful crowns.

Our Wonderful World topic saw the children explore different habitats, diving under the sea to create jellyfish and clay imprint shells, and heading into the rainforest to make animal masks and leaf prints.

New activities to help the children further develop their fine motor skills have been introduced, including Dough Disco, which they have all loved joining in with. The new solar fountain in the quad play tray has also been very popular and has helped the children keep cool on hot days!

At Forest School, the Pre-School children have used billhooks and bow saws to make wooden boats and the Nursery children have explored the woodland and created some lovely painted pebbles. There have been pond dipping trips, tents have been pitched for camping adventures and there has still been time for plenty of hot chocolates around the fire square.

Out in the Early Years garden we were all delighted to welcome our two tortoises, and the children have loved collecting dandelion leaves to feed to them whilst learning how to care for our special pets. They now take great care while playing in the garden as the tortoises are often out roaming around, and it is lovely to watch the children gently interact with them.

We have also been busy growing marigolds from seed and the strawberry patch has been very popular, with lots of ripe fruit for the children to pick and eat, although it appears the tortoises are also keen strawberry eaters! Squash and pumpkins have been sown ready for harvesting in the Autumn term and the beanstalk den is continuing to grow.

As we now get ready to welcome new families to the Early Years department, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our current parents and children for such a successful year. It has been lovely to share the many special moments with you all. It is just wonderful to watch the children take part in their first sports days, first ballet performances and first nativity productions.

Their confidence has steadily grown as the year has progressed and they all proudly performed at the Mother’s Day assembly, the Teddy Bear’s picnic and the Christmas productions.

I would like to thank all of the Early Years team too, whose continued support and enthusiasm ensures such events can take place and all of the children are cared for in a safe and stimulating environment.

We are all very much looking forward to enjoying another fun-filled year in the department. In the Autumn Term we can look forward to our Harvest in the Woods celebration and helping to care for the new baby goats which have just arrived at school. We will also be developing a new water play area in the quad which we are sure all of the children will love.

For now though we hope everyone has a super Summer break and we look forward to hearing all about it in September.