We had a fantastic time on Monday evening at the South Normanton Community Lantern Parade and Concert. It had a chilly night so had to wrap up very warm for our walk through the village.

We had made our lanterns the previous week at our Christmas Crafts Activity Day and th children had attatched their lightst inside so that they glowed in the darkness.

We met at St Michael's Church at 6.00pm to walk through the back streets to the Postmill Centre, supported by the local community police force and volunteers. We were really pleased to see so many of our nursery children who came with their families.

As we carried the lanterns carefully through the village, we lit up the streets and as we walked we were watched by lots of members of the local community who really enjoyed the wonderful spectacle. As always, it was really lovely to see lots of older familiar faces too...many of the children and their families that we knew from nursery in previous years. The lanterns all looked absolutely fantastic lighting up in the dark night.

The Postmill Centre was extremely busy as we settled in our place and looked at all the lanterns. Then we began our very special concert. The nursery children sang first in acollaboration with South Normanton PreSchool. It was great to have so many young children from the community coming together to sing and we all safely got onto the stage supported by the staff. We were so proud of our children who sang brilliantly up on the stage, in front of all the other children and their families. We sang and signed two songs, Winter Wrap Up Warm) and Jingle Bells. Our children were followed by Christmas singing from The Brigg, The Green and The Glebe Schools. Very well done to all who took part.

For our children this event is a wonderful opportunity to perform, which not only builds their confidence but also gives them a real sense of pride at such a fantastic achievement. It also creates great learning links for our British Values curriculum enabling the children to develop a sense of community, belonging and how and why we celebrate.

The parade and concert also reminded us all of how lucky we are to be able to celebrate with others from South Normanton and a great community spirit was felt throughout the event.

Many thanks to all our children and their parents/ carers who supported with this lovely community event...it made us all feel very proud and very Christmassy!

To re-live our children's fantastic performances, please enjoy the audio and photos below.