Nursery News 28th September 2026

NURSERY NEWS

28th September 2026 – Edition 421

Find out About:

A. Important dates

B. Parent Consultations

C. Display of Family Photographs- For All Children

D. Forest School Program

E. Willow Pumpkin Patch

F. What are the children learning about this week?

 

A. Important dates

It is time to give parents an overview of the term, as most families are now enrolled and attending in Big Nursery and Little Nursery.

The school year has three terms, Autumn, Spring and Summer. Each term has a Half Term break in the middle of the term. So dates for this term are:

Mon 26th October 2026 to Fri 30th October 2026: Autumn Half term – School Closed

Thursday 17th December 2026 Last normal school day of the Autumn Term.

Friday 18th December 2026 School open for Christmas Parties only                            (As a guide: Last year Little Nursery Party 9:00am to 10:00am Big Nursery Party 11:15am to 1:00pm, but this may change slightly when we begin planning for this year)

Monday 4th January 2027 –Teacher Training Day- School Closed

Tuesday 5th January 2027 First day of Spring Term- School open.

We have some other notable dates to share with you. Further information will be included in these newsletters nearer to the time, regarding each event.

Wednesday 4th November and Thursday 5th November-School Photographer to visit.

Thursday 19th November 5pm- Open School Event ‘Walk In the Dark’.

Wednesday 18th November Open School Event Big Nursery Green Group –Parents to watch Basic Skills Literacy Session.

Week beginning Monday 30th November Open School Event: Big Nursery Parents invited in to watch their child’s Music Session.

 

B. Parent Consultations

We aim to offer all parents the opportunity to have a Parent Consultation with their child’s keyworker once per term

Little Nursery will be having their Parent Consultations during week beginning Monday 19th October, 2026

These consultations are offered to talk about how your child is settling in. They are not compulsory, but if you would like an appointment please arrange this with your child’s keyworker when they are outside before morning sessions, or after afternoon sessions.

These consultations will be on the telephone, will last 5 minutes and will be available at the following times:

Monday 19th October Mrs Chiriac’s Orange Group Consultations. 5 minute telephone consultations between 9:15am and 9:55 am

Tuesday 20th October Mrs Whiting’s Little Yellow Group Consultations. 5 minute telephone consultations between 9:15am and 10:10am

Tuesday 20th October Miss Gaffney’s Blue Group Consultations, 5 minute telephone consultations between 3:15pm and 3:45pm

Big Nursery will be having their Parent Consultations (on the telephone) during week beginning Monday 2nd November, 2026. Dates and times for appointments will be detailed in Nursery News 423 (published on Monday 12th October).

 

C. Display of Family Photographs- For All Children

Two weeks ago I told everyone about the display we would like to put up of Family photo’s in Big Nursery, and the booklet of Family photo’s we would like to create in Little Nursery. We have had a few photographs come in. We will be using them next week to stimulate discussions about ‘Family’.

We know people have lots of photos on their phone, but people do not always print them. I am suggesting that you might like to send a family photo to the school office, and we can print it off, and place it on the wall. The school email address is office@willownursery.co.uk

 

D. Forest School Program

Mrs Brinkley has started teaching our Forest School program to Big Nursery Red Group. I just wanted to tell you a little about Forest School at Willow.

Mrs Brinkley spent a year studying to become a Level 3 Forest School Practitioner. In order to support her work in school, all other school staff studied to become Level 1 Forest School Practitioners.

 

What is a Forest School? -this is a quote which outlines what a Forest School is and the ethos of them:

‘An inspirational process that offers children, young people and adults regular opportunities to achieve, develop confidence and self-esteem through hands on learning experiences in a local woodland environment’ (Forest School (England) network 2002)

 

Whilst we have some trees and shrubs, we acknowledge that we do not have a ‘Forest’, but Forest School teaching and learning is all about participating in activities in the outdoors, learning new skills, building strong relationships and thinking creatively. Mrs Brinkley has planned 7 activity sessions that Big Nursery children will take part in during their final year at nursery. Mrs Brinkley will work with Red group once a week for 7 weeks. We aim to have worked with Red, Green and Yellow group children by Summer 2027.

 

So, for your information, these are the seven activities the children will be participating in:

 

1.Fairy/ Gnome Dens. Children will use natural materials that they find in the garden to build a small den for an imaginary fairy or gnome.

 

  1. Making Fairies or small people. Children will be shown how to make a fairy using twigs and clay. Children will be encouraged to make their own character, using their imagination to add hair, wings or other accessories.

 

3.Larger Dens. Working as part of a small group children will build a den from tarpaulins and ropes. Children will then join Mrs Brinkley inside the den for a story together.

 

  1. Clay Faces. Children will mould a flat circular clay shape onto a tree trunk. Children will then add natural objects to the clay to create a face. Children will be shown how to make marks in the clay using sticks found in the garden. Children will compare their own features with those of their friends. Children will discuss similarities and differences.

 

5.Bug Hunt. Children will look around the garden areas, trying to find bugs to put into their bug collecting pot. They will tip their collections out onto a white paper surface, then use a magnifying glass to look carefully at the bugs. We will be teaching them about being careful with the wildlife and to look after nature.

 

  1. Mud Kitchens, Mud Potions and Mixtures. Children will be provided with pots and spoons. They will have the opportunity to mix soil with sand and water to make liquid mud. Children will then be able to add leaves and grass, and anything else that they find in the garden, into their mixture.

 

  1. Making Woodland Medals. Children will be shown how to use a hand drill to drill a hole in a small disc of wood in order to make a medal. Children will decorate their medals using felt tip pens

Mrs Brinkley’s Thoughts….

I am really excited to be now teaching our children ‘The Forest School Way’. The children are enjoying the new experience and their ideas are extending learning further. Forest School learning has so many benefits to the child’s learning and covers all areas to support the overall well being of the children.     

Welcome to Forest School learning Willow!

 

E. Willow Pumpkin Patch

Mrs Patterson is planning to set up a Pumpkin Patch in our outside area and is requesting donations of a pumpkin. She is looking for pumpkins of all sizes to add to the patch, so, if you are able to add one to your shopping list, please do! There are so many activities that can stem from having a collection of pumpkins, including; transportation of pumpkins in wheelbarrows and on bikes, pumpkin painting, hammering golf tees into the pumpkins, using the pumpkins in the mud kitchen and even opening up the pumpkins to investigate what’s inside. It will be a very exciting project, full of art, science and cognitive and physical development. Thank you for your support!

(We did this last year and it was an amazing success. The children had so much fun!)

 

F. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is all about me

The learning intention this week is for the children to become more aware of the similarities and differences between themselves and others in more detailed ways and to identify themselves in relation to social groups and their peers.

The children have been bringing in family photos which have been put on a display board for everyone to see. Everyone is enjoying looking at all of the pictures, it is fun for the children to look for their own picture and also to see who they recognise in the other photo’s. The photographs are a big talking point for the children and prompt them to share memories and experiences.

This week the children will be encouraged to use mirrors to look at their facial features and then they can try to recreate their own image, using a variety of resources. Staff will support children by naming all of the different facial features, including those that may be trickier to remember such as chin, eyebrows, forehead, freckles etc. While the children are looking at their faces, staff will discuss with them the similarities and differences between them and their friends.

The skill that we will focus on this week is numbers and counting, this means that there will be lots of math’s resources out for the children to enjoy. Staff will encourage children to practice counting math’s resources as well as objects in the environment, they will model lots counting for the children to hear, learn and repeat.