Redcliffe Nursery School has had an excellent first term, with children settling beautifully into both Blackbirds and Seagulls rooms and engaging in rich learning experiences.
The children in Blackbirds Room have quickly adapted to their new environment and daily routine, building excellent relationships with their Key Person and each other. The children have been enjoying exploring and manipulating clay, making fresh orange juice with juicers, positively challenging themselves in the garden and discovering different spaces and resources in the room. Regular music experiences feature throughout each day, with two singing time sessions providing inclusive, uplifting activities that build self-esteem and relationships. Several families have reported that children are singing nursery songs at home.
In Seagulls, settling has been going very well. The transition processes for children coming up from Blackbirds, including introducing them to their new group and Key Person before September, have helped everyone feel confident early on. The use of miniature personalised figures, or ‘mini mes’, has helped create a sense of belonging within key groups. Play experiences have been rich and diverse, with role-play in the home area, the sand pit, the outdoor kitchen, and communication-friendly spaces proving very popular. There has been considerable creative exploration in modelling and artworks with paint, paper and glue. Children have enjoyed helping to transport a delivery of sand from giant bags to the sand pit, and the nursery’s apple tree has produced a bumper crop.
Both rooms have used Black History Month to celebrate achievement and diversity, promoting standout figures in history whilst celebrating the rich cultural diversity within the nursery community. Creating sets of ‘mini-mes’ and setting up interest corners with stimulating books has prompted rich conversations with children. Noticing and feeling seasonal change has been a feature across both rooms, with children exploring the garden and observing autumn’s arrival. The piles of leaves and the changing weather have provided rich learning opportunities linked to different areas of the curriculum.
Redcliffe Nursery School is excited to invite all children and families to join their upcoming Family Walk in Leigh Woods. These outdoor adventures provide fantastic opportunities for families to explore nature together, building connections between home and nursery whilst supporting children’s physical development, curiosity about the natural world, and sense of belonging within the nursery community. All families are welcome to join, but minibus transport is reserved for current nursery families. Families can sign up in reception.