Brough Pre-School Nursery

26/03/2026

We’ve had such a busy half term it has absolutely flown by! On the first day back, 23rd Feb, we all had a Chinese banquet for our lunch – noodles, rice, prawn crackers, spring rolls, prawn toast, sweet & sour sauce and finished off with fortune cookies. Chopsticks proved a little difficult but it was great fun having a go. 🥠 🥡🥢
On Tuesday 3rd, whilst on our walk looking for signs of spring, we had a fantastic surprise to see two hot air balloons floating towards us in the beautiful blue sky. We had a ‘bird’s eye’ view as we were up at Brough Castle, where they were heading to. The weather could not have been better, not a cloud in the sky and the colours of the balloons were so bright. The children said they were ‘Elmer’ balloons. 🏰🎈🐘
We were approached by Penrith Library to do a display regarding emotions. We chose ‘The Colour Monster’ as it is a favourite with the children and there are lots of learning opportunities as we talked about feelings, emotions, colours and physical skills as they cut out pictures, coloured and stuck coloured wool onto the appropriate colour monster. Well done and thank you, to the families that went to have a look. It has been greatly admired according to library staff. 📖📚This tied in nicely with World Book Day when children came in dressed as their favourite character or brought in a favourite book. The Book Bus came and the children had a lovely interactive story before choosing books. 👸🏼🦸‍♂️🐅🦖
All the children made a Mother’s Day card with a beautiful flower coloured as they wished. We also made a variety of paper flowers and filled a large basket as part of our Easter display. 🌹🌺🌼
Monday 16th March - We went with reception and yr 1 children from Acorn’s Class, Brough Primary School, to Branch Out forest-school at Blencow. The weather was surprisingly kind to us and certainly didn’t dampen the pre-schooler’s spirits as they drank hot chocolate around the campfire, toasted waffles, looked at nature amongst the trees, found a newt, climbed, ran and generally had freedom to use a lot of energy in a short time. 🪵🔥🦎🪾
Monday 23rd March – Easter craft morning in Acorn’s class. A brilliant way to help transition towards starting school in September. The pre-schoolers love joining the older ones, finding their way around the classroom and exploring the outdoor areas (the egg hunt was a definite hit today!) 🐣
Monday 23rd March – we had a little lamb for the day. The children named him Leo. Everyone had a go at bottle feeding the lamb (have a feeling Leo will sleep well tonight!). 🐑
Next term will see us doing planting, growing, life cycles followed by People who Help Us. 🧑‍🌾🧑🏻‍🍳👩🏻‍🚒👮‍♀️👩‍⚕️

Also, swimming sessions, trips out, sports day, and lots more. 🏊
Have a lovely Easter everyone and hope the Easter Bunny visits you! 🐰 🐣

06/03/2026

World Book Day 2026 📚📖

03/03/2026

What a lovely sight today when we went for a walk. Blue sky not a cloud in sight and two beautiful coloured hot air balloons! The children (and adults) had a Birds Eye view and watched as they slowly drifted towards Brough Castle.

13/02/2026

February Blog 2026

Well, what a colourful half-term we’ve had! Our topic on ‘Colours’ has well and truly been covered. We’ve done lots of different techniques; painting on tin foil, using sponges, sprays, different sized brushes and coloured pasta by shaking in a bag. Colours have been mixed and new colours produced. We’ve made pasta necklaces, newton’s discs, Elmer and handprint rainbows. Games have been played using a dice and also on tablets. 🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣

Our grand finale, was being approached by Penrith Library to make a display to promote Children’s Mental Health Week and National Year of Reading 2026. We decided to use ‘The Colour Monster’ story, which shows different emotions and feelings which need to be sorted by colours and put in the correct jars. All children took part either painting, sticking, colouring, cutting out and telling us favourite bits of the story, in their own words. The end result was a display showing how to deal with emotions by sorting them and putting them where they belong. Please pop into Penrith Library and have a look at your child’s work. The display was put up on 11th February for one month. Our role play area has been turned into a library complete with a coffee station! 📕 📖

We’ve also been looking at patterns, making our own with beads and looking at tyre tracks, and footprints on our walks. 🛞

We are holding a First Aid 12 hour training course – 6 hours will be done online first, and the remaining face-face at Brough Pre-School on Wednesday 8th April. This is open to anyone who would like to join us. Cost will be approx. £80. Please let us know asap on 017683 42112 if you would like to join us. 🩹

We took part in the RSPB Garden Birdwatch. We walked up to the Church area. Sparrows were the most popular (8), Collared Dove (7), Blue T**s (5) Seagull (1) and Crows and Jackdaws too many to count! We identified birds by their song using Merlin Bird ID app – we all learned something new! 🐦🪶

Lots of fun today as we made pancakes and used lots of yummy toppings! 🥞

Future events:

Monday 23rd February – Chinese Banquet. Don’t order school lunch or bring lunchbox 🥡🥠

Thursday 5th March – World Book Day. Bring favourite book/dress up 📖 👸🏼

Monday 23rd March – Craft morning in school for pre-schoolers ✏️

Friday 17th April – First of 5 swimming sessions. This is free to pre-schoolers 🏊‍♂️

When we come back on Monday 23rd we will be covering Chinese New Year followed by New Life and Easter. Have a lovely half term holiday.

12/02/2026

19/12/2025

Merry Christmas from us all at Brough Preschool Nursery 🎄

18/12/2025

December blog
We came back on 3rd November just in time to discuss bonfires, fireworks and safety. We made lots of colourful pictures and decorated pinwheel biscuits. 🎆🎇
The children were chief tasters as we made our own chips, mashed potato and crisps from potatoes we went to the shop to buy. Everyone loved them and wanted more! We made apple crumble, flapjack and bread rolls. 🍟 🍎 🍞
Claire Dougherty, Library Services, came to share stories with the children on 20th November. Always such a lovely experience and a fantastic range of books that really get the children listening and interacting. 🚀
On Monday 1st December we walked to the church to watch Reception/Year 1 children from Brough Primary School. So nice to see them recite their lines with enthusiasm and confidence. 🎄
Monday 15th December was extremely busy … the Pre-School aged children went into Brough Primary School for a morning of Christmas craft activities. A great experience for all. Back to nursery for a party lunch – sandwiches, pizza, sausages, cakes, crisps, biscuits, jelly and ice cream – all children gave us suggestions to go on our shopping list! And, at 1.30 we had a visit from Santa, who arrived on his motorbike (which he’d borrowed from the Easter Bunny!), due to his reindeers having a rest, before the busy time ahead. We sent Santa on his way with a chorus of ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’. 🎅🏼
Tuesday 16th December – a lovely Christmas dinner was enjoyed by staff and some of the nursery children – empty plates all round (well, apart from a few sprouts that we couldn’t tempt the children with). 🍽️
The past 2 weeks have been spent making paper chains, wreaths, letters to Santa, decorating their own Christmas tree, musical activities, cards, bags, making snow, printing wrapping paper and wrapping presents themselves! The children listened really well to some fantastic Christmas stories and can probably recite the Nativity story backwards!
We’ve watched Stickman, The Snowman and Gruffalo’s Child as a little calm time after playing party games every day – musical statues, musical chairs, fishing, hokey cokey (definitely a favourite), farmers in his den, what time is it Mr Wolf, here we go round the mulberry bush, big pants game and our grand finale … snowball fight! ⛄️ 🎁
Many thanks for cards and presents gratefully received. Have a lovely Christmas break with lots of family time, having fun and making childhood memories to last a lifetime. ♥️
See you all on Wednesday 7th January 2026.

Barbara, Shirley, Shona and Caitlin

15/12/2025

14/11/2025

The children had a fun day spent doing spotty activities and enjoyed super spotty snacks.

⚪⚫🟤🟣🔵🟢🟡🟠🔴

12/11/2025

We didn’t forget…

The children made a poppy wreath which we took to the church for Remembrance Sunday.
It was an experience for the children, as we looked at the lovely stained glass windows, talked about the organ, font and the bells.
We will be visiting the church again on Monday 1st December to watch the Primary school’s Nativity.

10/11/2025

AGM - Open for all parents to attend

Tonight 10th November @ 7:30pm

At Brough Pre-School Nursery

Please send us a yes or a no, thank you