A Warm Welcome to Our New Nursery Families

We would like to extend a very warm welcome to all our new Nursery children and their families. It has been a joy getting to know each and every one of the children and watching them begin their journey with us here at Barnby Road.

This half term, we’ve seen our little learners begin to settle beautifully into Nursery life — getting to know new faces, building friendships, and becoming familiar with our daily routines. It’s been a pleasure to see their confidence grow day by day.

We’ve had a wonderfully busy start, especially with lots of sensory play activities that the children have absolutely loved! From exploring the texture of colourful rainbow rice and squishy cooked spaghetti to creating our very own glittery slime, there’s been no shortage of excitement and curiosity.

Sensory play is a vital part of early childhood development. It helps children make sense of the world around them by engaging all their senses. Not only does it help build important neural connections in the brain, but it also supports problem-solving, fine and gross motor skills, and social-emotional development as children learn to communicate, share, and play together.

Thank you for your continued support in helping your children settle so well into Nursery life. We are so excited for the term ahead and all the wonderful learning and adventures still to come!

Makaton Magic This Half Term

This half term, we have been incorporating more Makaton into our daily practice—and what a positive impact it has had across the school!

Makaton is a language programme that uses a combination of speech, signs, and symbols to support spoken language. It helps develop essential communication skills such as attention and listening, comprehension, memory, recall, and the organisation of language and expression. Introducing Makaton has allowed us to create even more inclusive and accessible learning opportunities for all our children.

The children have been particularly enthusiastic about our “Sign of the Week”, as well as taking part in our very own Makaton Christmas Advent Calendar. So far, we have learned signs for Christmas tree, reindeer, mince pie, toys, and Father Christmas.

It has been wonderful to see the children confidently using Makaton in their play—signing “please” and “thank you”, sharing signs with their friends, and even singing and signing along to familiar songs. Their excitement, curiosity, and growing independence have been truly lovely to watch.

We look forward to continuing our Makaton journey next term and celebrating even more communication successes!