We shared a very busy day together, with our activities focussed on celebrating all the things that we are proud of as a nursery and looking back at the history of our school , right from when it was built in 1989!
It was a lovely warm day meaning that we could make the most of exploring, playing and learning both inside and out in the nursery garden. We had a great time and welcomed parents and carers, grandparents, siblings and governors to take part in our celebration activities.
A wide variety of activities helped us all to celebrate our 30 years and all the things that make us outstanding! We made party hats using all of our achievement logos, signed some songs to celebrate our makaton friendy status and made birthday cakes with real candles…some friends even managed to count 30 candles on their cake! We also looked at lots of scrap books and through a slide viewer to see many pictures of our nursery through the years including some slides of when it was very first built!
Through in big nursery, we celebrated our love of the environment as an eco-school making blossom pictures and celebrated our love of science, technology, engineering and maths; making boats to carry the gingerbred man to safety. There was a healthy snack of many exciting fruits and a celebration of reading our favourite stories in the sensory room too. Outside in the garden we played games to remind us of our identity, explored water and bubbles and made a sensory soup in our mud kitchen!
Prior to the days event the children had worked together to fill a time capsule to bury at nursery and be opened in another 30 years. It enabled really valuable learning and discussions and the children made fantastic suggestions of what to put in the capsule, which we sealed together with the children on the morning of our Activity Day. It contained the following items…
1) A collaborative picture made with the fingerprints of all the current childen at nursery .
2) Our donation certificate from UNICEF. As a rights respecting school understand every child’s right to an education and so we donated books to children in third world countries to help them to all enjoy this right.
3) Certificates from the Woodland Trust…one for the Bee group and one for the ladybird group who donated trees to support wildlife…an important part of being an Eco and Forest School
4) A local newspaper from 1st May
5) A very special 50p coin, with The Gruffalo on it!
6) A Peppa Pig toy, as an episode that we watched helped us to understand what Time capsules were all about!
7) A special book sent to us from our international schools friends in the USA, celebrating our collaboration.
8) A memory stick with recordings of our children singing and talking to the children of the future…very exciting indeed!
At the end of the session we all went together outside into the nursery front garden to place the capsule carefully into the ground which the children helped with and of course we sang a song to celebrate! We had a very special speech from some very important people. Firstly we were proud and excited to welcome Mrs Barbara Morrison, the very first headteacher who opened the nursery in 1989 and was very glad to join us and share in all the achievements over the last 30 years. We also heard from Isobel Martin our co-chair of governors as well as our very own Mr Peter Hallsworth…what a fantastic way to welcome him and an exciting start to his time at South Normanton Nursery School.
In the afternoon we welcomed Debbie Smith, parent of one of our current children and also one of the very first pupils to come to the nursery back in 1989 and spoke about her experiences when the nursery first opened. The children planted a pearl bush in the nursery garden as pearl signifies 30 years so we thought this was perfect for the occasion!
It was a truly wonderful day, celebrating all or our achievements as a nursery and we are extremely grateful to all who attended to make the day extra special, especially to our governors, Debbie and to Barbara, who gave up time to join us for this momentous occasion.
We hope you like the pictures and recordings of the days events…a fabulous experience and enjoyed by all.