We celebrated British Nutrition Foundation Healthy Eating Week and expanded on it by learning about, celebrating and taking part in all things healthy. With the valuable support of out local community in South Normanton we had an active sporty week to promote active bodies for health and active minds for learning.

Each day was different and we had contributions  throughout the week from for The Sarah Patrick School of Dance, The Glebe Junior School and Frederick Gents School sports staff and leaders, South Normanton Athletics and Football Club and Alfreton Leisure Centre.

On Monday, with the England's first football match in the Euros under their belt, we used resources provided by South Normanton Athletics and Football Club to learn all about football and our National team in Euro 2016. As well as being a sporty day, our learning also focussed on our identity as British citizens and the feeling of pride we have for our national team.

On Tuesday we had a visit from The Sarah Patrick School of Dance. Before the session we looks at lots of different dance styles, some familiar...some not so much and we talked about where they were from, the skills required and whether we liked them and why.  All children had the opportunity to take part in a fun and active dance and music session with Sarah, where they played instruments, danced in time to the music and exercised their whole bodies. 

On Wednesday we used our special Sports Day equipment to practice our sporty skills. We focussed not only on the physical skills that were necessary but also thought about the values of resilience and aspiration which are required to succeed not only in sports but in s many other areas of learning too.

We also learnt about lots of different sports using pictures and videos...wow!... there are so many different sports and they all require different skills. We talked about the fact that everybody can take part and compete in sports...men and women of all nationalities as well as those who are able bodied or disabled. We also looked at some of the different equipment that are used in the different sports...there was so much to learn. 

Sadly on Thursday, our Sports Day was cancelled due to the very poor weather conditions. We talked to the children about safety and the reasons why we were unable to use the Glebe field for our Sports Day activities.

On Friday the weather was much better so we were able to go in small groups round to The Glebe Junior School to work with their staff and sports leaders and learn some new sporty skills. We were lucky enough to be able to use their brand new tennis court for our sessions and practiced our aiming, throwing skill and balancing to name just a few of the skills that we focussed on. We worked together and the sports leaders did a fantastic job of teaching and supporting our young children with the new and exciting equipment.

Throughout the week the children have also been learning about eating a healthy and balanced diet. They made some healthy dinner plates, tasted lots of different foods and even learnt a song about vegetables!

We are also excited to remind you that we are still negotiating with Aflreton Leisure Centre to secure reduced rate parent and child swimming session, specifically for our school, with all the proceeds going towards updating the provision for physical development at our nursery.

This week of playing and learning at nursery was fantastic fun but also had the very serious undertone of our commitment to tackle obesity in the early years.

Our outstanding nursery provides fantastic provision for children's  physical development on a daily basis and we believe that this can make a real different to the lives of the children at our nursery.