Celebrating the Class of 2026

Families were invited to spend an evening on the lawn to celebrate the 'Puffins' Kindergarten class as they prepare to leave nursery and start their school career.

Sarah welcomed everyone warmly and commenced proceedings with a thank you to all the outside agencies, friends and family who visit us in order to enhance the children’s learning, adding to their Cultural Capital.  We thank Clare from Story Bears, bringing music, storytelling, movement and rhyme, regularly as part of our enrichment programme.  We also thank Ashton & Mark from the team at Ferdinand Collective North Devon for all the fantastic football coaching. Also a massive thank you to our speech therapist Lucy who visits weekly assessing, supporting and coaching children and their families.

We thank Emma Hedge who not only runs the most amazing Hedgehogs Bakery but she also does the most amazing job as SENDCo, working closely with our growing team of SEN Champions, Emma W and Donna, and our wonderful volunteer Jayne who brings her extensive teaching experience to her role in supporting young minds.

We celebrate our Borrow A Book for Bedtime initiative led by Danni and we are proud to be taking part in the National Year of Reading, with an emphasis on Reading for Pleasure .

We offer congratulations to Harriet for completing her Level III in Early Years and Madi for achieving her Level II (and well on her way to Level III). Libby is a valued member of our apprentice team currently working towards her Level III.

We wish our student turned bank member of staff Abi good luck wishes as she heads off to the prestigious Norland College.

We applauded our long service members of staff Emma Jenkins 24 years, Emma Hedge 25 years and wonderful Michele who has been with us for an astounding 30 years.

This year we celebrated our team of directors, and welcome to our evening our dedicated and remarkable Director Gordon. Gordon had a vision in 2012 to rescue our nursery . Seeing the value to our community , Gordon has been the drive behind our success and the instigator of many investments and ideas... an all weather garden, beautiful garden classrooms, the commercial onsite kitchen and our calming Hygge Hut to name but a few. Thank you Gordon!

Alan was thanked for his unending support not only behind the scenes but also spending time with the children and staff, recently accepting our challenge of completing our 10 hour 8am to 6pm shift - gold star for Alan !!

We were sad to have our director Steve pass away, who leaves behind a true legacy in the form of our Enrichment Programme. Encouraging us to achieve Plastic Free Status and our Speech Therapy Programme. His ethos was to give every child the opportunity to experience new things and to have the chance to succeed - the Forest School was a favourite place of Steve's and we dedicate our Forest School songs to him

Then it was time for the main event. The children sang 'I have a little seeds' acknowledging their collaborative work in Gardening Club. They sang the 'Goodbye to Forest School' song and then the most beautiful rendition of 'You've got a friend in me' complete with Makaton actions. Each child was then presented with a personalised card and poem.

We thank Katie Fox for bringing us our very own version of Forest School and Early Years Hygge, children thrive in the natural environment and learn so much knowledge about creatures and plants, as well as how to protect our Mother Earth. Katie introduces us all to Makaton and parents agreed we have all learnt many signs during Kindergarten's year.

Sarah received some flowers from the children as a huge thank you for all her kindness and a token of our appreciation of all her incredible hard work behind the scenes everyday.

We recognise that these children are strong and resilient and we wish them all the very best in their future. We are very proud of you all - Good Luck!