The Old School Day Nursery & Pre-school

Glow party fun! 🥳 🌟

Today, the babies have been testing out some of their new light up toys. The babies love anything that sparkles, shines and glows. We had peaceful, relaxing music on whilst we explored the different toys. The babies used their fine motor skills to push buttons and their gross motor skills to pull and shake.
We had such a fun time! ✨ 🌈

Easter Bingo! 🐣

Last week, we hosted an Easter bingo evening to raise money for our chosen charity. We want to thankyou everyone who came to join us.😌

We also hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend! 🍫 🪺 🐣 🐰

Bubble fun! 🫧

Recently, we have got a new bubble machine. The children absolutely love this inside and out in the garden. They love chasing the bubbles and using language such as, “Pop,” “Bubbles,” & “Wow!”

Look at how happy we all are! 🫧😃

👋 | We've been having a bit of fun behind-the-scenes...

Meet some of your favourite nursery heroes in action figure form!

Developing our garden space! 🪴

Over the past few weeks, we have been developing some of our garden spaces. We have turned our planting area into a dinosaur land and fairy garden. We have been using our fairy garden to encourage children to give their dummies to the fairies. 🧚
We have also extended areas in our mud kitchen and added in various resources such as dried oranges, herbs, potion making items and dried flowers. 🌹
The next place was the play house. We have turned this into a cafe which sells; pizzas, ice creams, coffees, cakes and tea. ☕️
The children have really enjoyed using the new areas and we have noticed more imaginative play as well as an increase in focus, language and engagement. 🍕 🦖 🧚‍♀️ 🍦

🧑‍🏫 | Important Reminder: Nursery-Wide Closure on Friday 22nd August

We kindly remind parents and families that all nurseries will be closed on Friday 22nd August 2025 for a Staff Development Day. Staff from across all of Tommies Childcare will be coming together for a day of learning and networking so that colleagues can bring new knowledge and skills back to their nurseries.

Free the characters from the frozen ice! 🧊

To help the babies stay cool in the warmer weather we’ve had this week, we created a fun activity which involved their favourite characters and ice. We provided tools for the babies to use to help smash the ice and free them. We also added in lemons for them to taste. 🍋
This activity helped the babies to develop their gross motor skills and also their communication and language skills as we encouraged simple language such as, “smash,” and “cold.” 🧊 🔨

Easter Baking! 🐣 🍫

Today, the pre schoolers have enjoyed doing some Easter baking. They have made Easter nest cakes! The pre schoolers were able to help with every step of the process, developing their fine and gross motor skills, as well as their hand eye coordination skills. They then decorated the cakes with beautiful and colourful chocolates and sprinkles. They also added a cue little chick on top. 🐤 🪺

Cereal play! 🌾 🥄

In the toddler room today, we have been enjoying cereal play with rice Crispies. This activity was so simple, however, the children used their imagination throughout and extended the activity further. They filled up the cups and made “coffee,” and “tea.” ☕️ They were also, “making dinner for mummy and daddy.” We also spoke about quantities such as empty and full.
Of course the toddlers wanted to taste the Crispies too and did this using their spoons and cups. 🫖 🥄

The broad beans are sleeping in their blankety bed 😴 🫘 🎶

Recently, we have been providing various vegetables in the pre school role play area such as parsnips, carrots and broccoli. This week, the pre schoolers have been particularly interested in the broad beans. Hannah sat with them and opened up the broad beans to look inside. This then led to the pre schoolers asking how they grew. Using this interest, they then planted their own broad beans. During this, they spoke about what plants need to grow. 🌱

We’d love to see any planting you have done at home 🌷 🥕

Sensory Dinosaur World 🦕

The babies are super into their messy and sensory play at the moment. We created this dinosaur world using various textures, smells and tastes such as lemons,mint leaves, cinnamon,flowers and cereals. The babies enjoyed tasting and smelling and copying actions and words such as stomping.

We had so much fun! 🦖 🌷 🍋

UPCOMING ROAD CLOSURES ⛔️

Dear Parents, Families & Staff,

We have been made aware that National Grid will be undertaking important works on Nuthurst Lane, directly by The Old School Day Nursery.

The works are due to commence from 8th – 22nd April, with the road being completely closed from 8th – 11th April. National Grid have provided assurances that families and staff needing to access the nursery will be provided access to the road like normal.

We are sharing this information with you as your journey to and from the nursery may take a little longer due to the works taking place, so please plan your journey accordingly.

We apologise for the inconvenience; however, these works are out of our control and have been permitted by the Local Authority.

We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Happy First Day of Spring 🌸 ☀️

The pre schoolers have pulled out their green thumbs today, preparing the flowers ready for spring time. We have recycled some old wellies to grow our plants in. The preschoolers scooped in the soil and then watered them. 💧
We can’t wait to see our plants and flowers grow! 🌱 🌺 🌹

Chocolate Dinosaur Swamp! 🍫 🦖

The babies have been showing an interest in the dinosaurs recently and they do love to engage in messy play. With this in mind, we combined the two interests to create a chocolate mud dinosaur land. 🦕
We encouraged the babies to get stuck in, showing them it was okay to get messy. We also encouraged movements such as stomping, making marks with fingers and high fives with chocolate covered hands! 😁 We also encouraged simple language such as “Stomp,” “Dino,” and “Mud.”

The babies loved this activity and were very engaged for a long period time. 🍫 🦖

Welcome to the Baby Spa 🧖‍♀️ 🥒

Last week, Rhiane and Hannah created a baby spa to help the babies relax before dinner time. We had cucumber eye masks, massages, warm flannels, smelling tests, a sensory galaxy light experience and to conclude, a foot soak. 🌟 🌌
The babies absolutely loved this experience and were very relaxed and happy afterwards. 🍋🫧✨

The Old School had a little lamb 🐑

Today, we have had some very special visitors. One of our parents kindly brought in two baby lambs to see the children. Their names were Tulip and Snowdrop. The children loved watching the lambs play and also had a little stroke. Some of the children even fed the lambs their milk. 🍼

What an amazing spring time opportunity! 🐑 🍃💐

Happy World Book Day! 📚

Today the children have come dressed as their favourite characters and have brought in their favourite stories. It’s been such a fun day! 🦸‍♀️ 🧙‍♀️ 👑 🦖

Happy Pancake Day! 🥞

The children across the nursery have enjoyed pancake related activities and have enjoyed delicious pancakes cooked by Sally! 👩‍🍳

We would love to see the yummy pancakes you have eaten today. 🥞 🍌 🍓