Latest News Archives - Page 4 of 52

December 17, 2024December 17, 2024 by riverside

Autumn Festivals and Special Days

Earlier this term the children celebrated a flurry of festivals and special days, from Diwali to Remembrance Day.

Celebrating festivals from different religions helps us foster an understanding of traditions from around the world. In turn, this helps the children appreciate diversity and shared human values, like kindness and gratitude.

Creating Light for Diwali

We welcomed the Hindu festival of lights ‘Diwali’ on 31^st October. Diwali is a religious festival celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and some Buddhists. The theme of the festival is to celebrate light over darkness, or ultimately seeing good triumph over bad.

The children listened to the meaning of Diwali before getting creative making Rangoli – intricate designs of coloured rice – and paper lamps called ‘Diya’.

Happy Halloween

As well as the start of Diwali, the 31^st October marked the start of Halloween, a celebration recognised by several countries, including the UK and America.

It marks the start of ‘Allhallowtide’, the time of year dedicated to remembering the deceased, including saints and martyrs. Over the years, Halloween has evolved becoming a celebration of all things spooky and supernatural.

On Halloween, the children arrived at nursery dressed in their spookiest attire. There were a variety of creepy characters on display, including scary skeletons, wicked witches, and funny Frankensteins.

Older children enjoyed carving pumpkin faces and listening to spooky stories, like ‘Scaredy Bat,’ about a baby bat scared of the light. While the younger ones delved for creepy crawlies (toy ones!) in Halloween sensory trays.

Our spook-tacular sensory play

Bonfire Night

Darker evenings signalled the arrival of Bonfire Night in November. Also known as Guy Fawkes Night, this traditional annual event is observed across the UK on November 5th.

To celebrate the older children were told the tale of how Bonfire Night originated and how it commemorates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, led by Guy Fawkes, to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

To bring the story to life, the children made vibrant firework paintings – representing the gunpowder explosives that were foiled – and played with tactile displays.

Whizz, crackle, pop! The children enjoyed the messy play

Remembrance Day 2024

We also took part in Remembrance Day in November, a special day commemorating British armed forces and civilians who lost their lives in conflicts since the First World War.

The children painted and made beautiful red poppies; a symbol of remembrance associated with the First World War. As well as being one of the first flowers to bloom on war-torn battlefields, poppies were the subject of the famous poem In Flanders Fields.

Archie and Freya making Remembrance Day poppies

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December 17, 2024 by riverside

Staff Awards and Party Night

Our amazing team put the glue sticks down and turned the glamour up for our annual staff awards and dinner in December.

Emma Summersgill, owner of the Riverside Day Nursery said:

“It’s been another incredible year for our nursery and without doubt it’s the commitment, hard work – not to mention creative imaginations – which has made it what it is. Thank you so much, you are simply amazing.

Special mentions on the night:

Best Role Model – Mel
Best Team Player – Eden
Rising Star – Phebe
Outstanding Contribution – Honey and Tianna
People Person – Grace

Following the awards, the team headed to a glittering Christmas dinner at Piccolino, Virginia Waters.

Eden, winner of the Best Team Player award

Mel, winner of the Best Role Model award

Honey [above] and Tianna [below], winners of the Outstanding Contribution award

Phebe, our Rising Star winner

Grace, our People Person winner

December 17, 2024June 13, 2026 by riverside

We heart Hartbeeps!

There’s a new entertainer on the block at the Riverside Day Nursery – Hartbeeps.

Hartbeeps are magical musical story tellers and creators of multi-sensory play for babies and young children.

Children in all our rooms, from babies through to pre-schoolers, take part in a new imaginative adventure every on Monday each week.

Sessions are great fun and have an array of activities, including:

Musical stories
Puppet character friends
Catchy phonic-rich rhymes, raps and songs
New twists on well-known nursery rhymes and children’s songs

The classes tickle the children’s senses and help them build confidence by literally finding their voice!

What We’ve Been Up To!

Younger and Older Babies enjoy outdoors and getting Christmas-ready

The weather may have turned chilly but that hasn’t stopped our littlest members getting out and about. Wrapped up warm and toasty, one of the high points of the babies’ schedule is visiting the park to feed the ducks and swans. The riverside is home to lots of birds and animals, and we spend time spotting the wildlife, as well as collecting pretty leaves to take back to our friends at nursery.

Naturally, the babies have been getting in the Christmas spirit. As well as practising songs for their Carol Concert, they’ve been playing with musical instruments. A real favourite is shaking the jingle bells which sound just like the arrival of you know who!

The older babies have also been getting creative making multicoloured paintings of fireworks for Bonfire Night snowy winter scenes dotted with glue, glitter and cottonwool.

Making snowy igloos

Toddlers jump around and get ready for the Big Day

The best play time is usually outside play time. As the weather has turned colder it’s important our toddlers still get plenty of fresh air and spend time exploring outdoors.

As well as playing on the nursery equipment, we set up an obstacle course. The children love climbing through the tunnel and jumping over blocks. Obstacle courses are ideal for developing physical skills, such as strength and co-ordination, as well as key social skills, such as taking turns and teamwork.

Alongside using our bodies, we’ve been learning about how they work, in particular, our five senses. Learning about the different senses through play helps toddlers store information, develop language skills – there is an amazing amount of excited chatter at the sensory play tables – and practise motor skills by picking up small and tactile objects.

Exploring sound – the children discovered which objects make loud sounds (dog barking) and quiet sounds (cotton wool)

Jump in! Our obstacle course

Pre-Schoolers learn about the world and get festive

Our pre-schoolers have been extremely busy bees this term, carving pumpkins, making vibrant firework art and crafting Christmas goodies their families (you’ll see these soon).

Pre-school age is an ideal time to learn about the wider world we live in. In class we’ve been talking about, and looking at, pictures of different continents and countries. Playing helps the children recall information and dotted around the room are creative play stations. These help to stimulate little ones’ imaginations and store information.

For example, this sensory tray shows the shape and name of different continents, the type of animals that live there and their national flags. There’s also different colour clays the children can squish and mould representing the continent’s environment and climate, e.g. blue for ice-covered Antarctica.

Our continents and countries sensory play

Our pre-school children often have a good idea of what happens at Christmas, and this year was no different! Alongside playing Christmas songs and party games, the children have been excitedly darting in and out of our Father Christmas grotto hoping to catch a glimpse of the man himself.

Merry Christmas!

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July 25, 2024 by riverside

Spotlight on Jemma, our Nursery SENCO

You may have already met Jemma Gleave, our skilled SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) and joint Deputy Manager.

Here, Jemma shares insights about her role and the expert support she provides for children with special educational needs.

How long have you been a SENCO at the Riverside Day Nursery?

“I’ve been here nine years. In addition to being a trained level 3 Childcare Practitioner, I recently qualified as a level 3 Early Years SENCO.”

What special skills do you bring to your role?

“I’m trained in Elklan, which equips me to provide specialised support for children with speech, language, and communication needs. I’m also proficient in level one and two Makaton, a communication tool that uses signs and symbols.”

What inspired you to become a SENCO?

“When I joined the Riverside Nursery, I naturally gravitated towards supporting children with special needs. Although sometimes challenging, forming positive connections with the children is incredibly rewarding.”

What special education needs do the children have that you work with?

“I support children with a diverse range of needs, from children with ASD who struggle with communication and understanding, to those with moderate to severe learning difficulties, including children diagnosed with Down Syndrome.”

How do you go about identifying if a child has special educational needs?

“When a child starts with us, we follow the ‘Every Child a Talker’ (ECAT) guidelines, creating a stimulating environment where learning and language exploration is fun. I also work closely with the children’s keyworkers who flag if they notice a child is having any delays or difficulties.

“If there are concerns, we get in touch with parents to share our observations and get their views.”

What happens next?

“Together with parents, we develop a personalised support strategy. This is called a ‘Play Plan/IEP’. I design these using the ‘Graduated approach’ which follows the ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ cycle. This provides a continuous assessment of a child’s progress and can be adjusted if their needs change.

“We also create a document written from the child’s perspective which has lots of information about them, saying things they love to do, and their identified needs for at home and at nursery. For example, ‘I have difficulty listening, so when you talk to me, please come down to my level, use my name and simple words to explain things.’”

How do you measure progress?

“As part of the support plan, we set gentle individual targets of what a child might like to do next, for example, ‘sitting down at group time and listening to two songs’, as well as how the person helping, whether at home or nursery, can help support this. These actions are then reviewed to see the steps they’ve made.”

How do you tailor the setting for children with special needs and disabilities?

“All our rooms, from the baby room through to the pre-school room, are equipped to cater for children with SEN needs. This includes things like visual timetables, where children can see pictures of their day, so they know what’s happening without having to ask.

“We also set up cosy dens and tents. These are ideal if a child’s feeling overstimulated. They can go into a blackout pop-up tent with lights and sensory toys. It’s really calming when outside is too much.”

Do you do one-to-ones?

“Yes, one-on-one sessions are a big part of my day. I use various play techniques involving pictures, books, and objects to help foster speech development and other skills.”

What is your favourite activity?

“Bucket time! It’s an attention-building strategy originally designed for children with ASD but it works so well, we’ve rolled it out for all.

“I have a special bucket full of fun and exciting musical and light-up toys. The children sit in a semi-circle and I show them the toys one by one. The toys stay out all the time I have their full attention. The first time might only be one or two minutes, so the aim is to increase attention time each session.”

If you’d like to talk to Jemma, get in touch: info@riversidedaynursery.co.uk