RECENT NEWS

AUTUMN 2025

The children have been enjoying some wonderful seasonal activities together, encompassing food, flowers and all things harvest! We used all our senses to taste, smell and describe different types of fruit (mango, papaya, pomegranate); the children were happy to taste new things and some were experts on exotic fruits already! The children also enjoyed creating beautiful paintings using different fruit and veg to print with. 

In our role-play sessions, the children took part in their various costumes as shopkeepers, customers, farmers and delivery drivers at our Farm Shop- there was some excellent coin counting, bargaining and conversations about where our food comes from. We continued our learning with an exploration of the work of farmers at harvest time; the children were particularly engaged in their sensory play at the tuff tray with wheat, flour and diggers to scoop, transport and enjoy. The children were excellent farmers for a morning too as we examined all the parts of a combine and thought about how each part worked to turn wheat and barley into the food we eat. We certainly have some machinery enthusiasts and budding farmers amongst the children and snack and lunch times took on a new meaning as we tucked into our oaty biscuits and granary bread.  

Many of you will have met Mr Fiddlesticks, our very own scarecrow which we made together- the children displayed excellent team work and imagination as we stuffed his clothes with newspaper, accessorised with hats and hay and came up with a suitable name for him! The children enjoyed reading about Mrs Boot`s scarecrow at Apple Tree Farm and singing about dingle-dangle scarecrows with flippy-floppy hats!

In other news, as the much-loved Singing Sally retires, we look forward to welcoming Alice Warburton, who will be bringing her wonderful Outdoor Explorers sessions into Preschool three times termly, starting when we return from the half-term break!

SPRING/SUMMER 2025

The children are thoroughly enjoying the warmer weather and the extended sessions outdoors with wild flower hunting being a favourite activity!  We have been covering many topics in the recent weeks including “lifecycles”; the children were absolutely transfixed by the tadpoles that were brought into the pre-school and loved cuddling the chicks for a couple of mornings as well!  Thank you to Claire for bringing them in!  The children also learnt to gently handle and feed the chicks which was such a joy to watch.  Continuing on the animal theme, Hen Bevan very kindly brought in her tortoise during “T” week.  The children had a brilliant time learning all about tortoises, hibernation and their strong shells.  Thank you Hen for taking the time to visit!  Singing Sally also come in for a wonderful session on insects and mini beasts which, as always, was enjoyed by all!

EALRY SPRING 2025

At Preschool, the children have embraced their winter learning, making bird food to help care for the wildlife in their own gardens, creating snowy scenes and polar animal crafts in their artwork and celebrating a very lively and colourful Chinese New Year, led by a very special visitor; thank you Celia as always! We wrapped up our seasonal topic with brilliant Singing Sally fun, which included pompom snowball showers and Percy the Penguin shenanigans as we sang and laughed our hearts out!

The children have been spotting the first signs of the milder days to come in our outdoor space; from pretty snowdrops to daffodils, already inspiring some lovely colourful painting and drawing as we look forward to a busy Springtime here at Preschool.

JANUARY 2025

Here at Preschool, we celebrated the end of the year with lots of festivities; memorable highlights included a trip along to St Giles Church in the village to decorate the magnificent tree, donated kindly as always by the Sanderson family. The children were delighted as the lights were switched on, so proud that their fabulous display was ready for everyone in the village to enjoy! Families were invited into Preschool for a Nativity performance too by the children who each shone brilliantly as their various characters and sang with cheer for their audience! 

As we settle back into our Preschool routines, we are all looking forward to a busy and fun Spring term ahead; we have been making the most of the cold snap, building "bonfires" and examining in awe the results of Jack Frost`s visits to our wonderful outdoor space! 

AUTUMN 2024

The children have settled well and are enjoying all of our Autumn activities. Highlights so far have included finding and sorting lots of different coloured leaves as they fall from the trees, spotting interesting spiders` webs and generally making the most of our wonderful outdoor space! We have used our senses to admire some lovely shiny conkers and numeracy skills to count and compare them! The children enjoyed a fabulous session with Singing Sally celebrating Fireworks Night and created some beautiful paintings using autumnal colours and pretty chalk drawings of whirly fireworks! Displayed on the wall in the main hall are the rather brilliant self-portraits created by each child using a mirror, a choice of paints and accessories- a lovely celebration of our individuality! 

SUMMER 2024

We have celebrated a successful Summer Term, culminating in (a very hot!) Sports Day,  a jolly seaside-themed Singing Sally session and an emotional 'Goodbye' to our leavers who now move on to the next stage in their lives.  We wish them well and many happy times ahead.   We have also been able to say 'Goodbye' and 'Thank you' to Catherine after 10 years of working at Pre-school.

The new term begins on September 3rd when we shall welcome back our younger children as well as several new families.  We hope that they will all enjoy their time with us and make lots of new friends as we embark on a busy, fun-filled Autumn Term.

April 2024

We are all really enjoying looking at animals and their homes/babies at the moment.  We have also weaved our own nest from moss/twigs/feathers that the children have collected from the wonderful outdoor space we have at the Village Hall. Jane Clarke kindly brought the Pre-school some frogspawn to look at and that has spurred a lot of interest in the children to think and talk about frogs and their lifecycles. 

We are starting to enjoy some warmer days with wild flower hunts inspiring lots of lovely artwork. The final term of the year also means we are working our way towards the end of the sound alphabet and that the older children are readying themselves for their next new exciting chapter!

February 2024

Celebrating the Chinese New Year.

September 2023

After a lovely restful summer, we have been delighted to welcome back all the children to Pre School and also welcome lots of new starters whom, we are sure, will settle in very quickly.  It is so wonderful to hear all their fantastic summer stories and see all their brilliant pictures showing what they’ve been up to! 

We would also like to thank everyone who came and supported the Medbourne Pre School Summer Fete which was a huge success and raised much needed funds for new equipment. Further to this, we are producing children’s sweatshirts with the Pre School logo on as a fundraising opportunity.  If you would be interested in one of these, please either order at the Pre School or contact us using the Pre School email address and we’d be happy to help.

Easter 2023

We were all delighted at Preschool to have a fun-filled `Snow day` when the children marvelled at the twinkliness of our outdoor space- the children worked as a team to build their very own Preschool snowman, which was a lovely end to our Winter Theme.

As the snow melted away and warmer days arrived, the children were excited to discover new pops of colour every day as the snowdrops made way for the daffodils and white violets. The children were inspired to create some gorgeous artwork full of flowers, rainbows and their gardens at home. Learning centred around the birds nesting all around us- the children spent a super playtime collecting all the materials they thought would be useful in a nest- soft moss, bendy twigs, dried grass and tiny feathers- which we weaved into our very own nest which was displayed for parents to admire later in the day. Eight locally hatched hen chicks came in to spend the morning with us and the children spent some lovely quiet time watching them find their wings and taking care of them for the morning, topping up their water throughout and stroking their fluffy feathers.

Later in March, Preschool were delighted to be invited by the Johnson family to spend the afternoon at Rectory Farm in Great Easton- children, parents and staff were all thrilled to be able to hear all about their lambing season and even had the opportunity to help bottle -feed the lambs. The children were so enthused, we spoke lots about what they had seen and learned for days afterwards- we think farmer Fay has most definitely inspired some future farmers!

Indoors, our Sound Table and free-drawing areas have been busy areas as many of the older children develop their skills in forming letters and words, impressing us all with new vocabulary and pencil skills daily!

As the children all prepared for the holidays, they were thrilled that the Easter Bunny had paid them a visit at Preschool- each was able to hunt for chocolate eggs to collect in their little baskets! We were all so impressed with how much kindness the children showed each other, with the elder ones helping the younger children find their eggs for their baskets too. It felt a lovely celebration of all we had shared this term-warmer days, sunshine, arts, crafts, and friendships.

January 2023

Christmas time at Preschool is always full of excitement, perhaps more so this year with all the children`s festive activities able to go ahead without restrictions. During Advent we spent a super morning at the Church in Medbourne with Rev. Stephen Bishop, decorating the magnificent tree together and seeing the lights turned on. The children also enjoyed a brilliant Christmas-themed session with Singing Sally, and it was lovely to end the term with parents invited into Preschool to see the children performing a story entitled “A Star So Bright”.

In January, the children settled quickly back into the busy new term, full of enthusiasm to embrace all the unique learning opportunities lent by the time of year. Many happy sessions were spent exploring the sights and sounds of winter, describing the feeling of crunchy footsteps and the sight of shiny frost on the branches. Something of a winter wonderland was created indoors too as the children produced all sorts of artwork including snowmen pictures using arm-like twigs they had gathered outside.

The children continue to thrive and enjoy learning about the world around them as we turn our thoughts to caring for wildlife at this time of year and try our hands at making seed cake for the birds in our garden