We would like to say a huge thank you to all our parents and families who joined us for our Christmas celebrations. The children have had so much fun over the last month taking part in festive activities, songs, and celebrations — it has been a joy to see!
🎁 Christmas Raffle 🎁
Thank you to everyone who supported our Christmas raffle. We are delighted to share that we raised over £300 — an amazing achievement that will benefit the children greatly. During his visit to preschool Santa took the time to draw the raffle, the results are below.
As always, thank you for your continued support throughout the year, as well as for the lovely cards, gifts, and kind wishes — they are truly appreciated by the whole team.
We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas break and look forward to welcoming everyone back when we return on 5th January.
🎄✨ From all of us at the preschool, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ✨🎄
⚽️🏴⚽️🏴⚽️🏴⚽️🏴⚽️🏴⚽️🏴 Our preschool was buzzing with excitement this week as we welcomed coaches Lisa and Lucy from Baby Ballers for not 1 but 2 fun-filled football sessions! The children loved practising their dribbling, passing, and shooting skills, as well as joining in with energetic games that encouraged teamwork and confidence. With plenty of cheers, high-fives, and expert guidance from the fantastic coaches, every child got stuck in and had a ball. A big thank you to Baby Ballers for inspiring our future football stars!
At our preschool, we believe learning should be hands-on, full of wonder, and closely connected to the natural world. This month, our children had the incredible opportunity to witness one of nature’s most magical transformations—watching tiny caterpillars grow into beautiful butterflies!
It all began when we received a special delivery: a small container filled with wriggly little caterpillars. The children were full of questions and curiosity—“What do they eat?” “How big will they get?” “Will we get to see their wings?” Each day, we observed and cared for our tiny guests, watching them munch on leaves and grow bigger and bigger.
Soon, the caterpillars made their way to the top of their enclosure and formed their chrysalises. The room buzzed with excitement (and lots of whispering—“Shhh, they’re sleeping now!”). Over the next week or so, we kept a close eye on the chrysalises, patiently waiting for the next stage of their journey.
Then—magic! One morning, the children arrived to find delicate butterflies flapping their new wings, ready to meet the world. The looks of awe and joy on the children’s faces were unforgettable. We read “the hungry caterpillar” book, danced along to the song, and took part in various caterpillar related activities.
The most heartwarming part of this experience came on the day we released our butterflies into the preschool garden. With gentle hands and excited voices, we said goodbye to our fluttering friends. The children waved as the butterflies took off into the sky, finding flowers, sunshine, and freedom.
This experience helped our little learners connect science with empathy, curiosity with care, and nature with nurture. It’s not every day that you get to watch a miracle unfold right before your eyes—but in our preschool, that’s exactly what happened.
What an exciting week we’ve had at St Helens. We were lucky enough to welcome some of our community’s real-life heroes — the police, firefighters, and paramedics — who came to visit us at preschool. The children had an amazing time exploring the vehicles, meeting the emergency workers, and learning all about how they help keep us safe every day.
👮 First to arrive: The Police
Our week began with a visit from two friendly police officers who pulled up in their police car. The children were full of questions and listened carefully as the officers explained what they do to keep our community safe. The children even got to try on police hats and vests, and they were fascinated by the flashing lights and siren demonstration! The officers reminded us that police are always there to help, whether someone is lost, needs help, or just needs a friendly face.
🔥 Next came the Firefighters
Just when we thought it couldn’t get more exciting, the next day, we heard the roar of a fire engine arriving! Our local firefighters jumped out and gave the children a tour of their incredible truck. They showed us their tools, talked about fire safety, and even let the children have a go at spraying water from the hose (which might have watered our garden in the process!). It was a brilliant hands-on experience and a fun way to learn about fire safety in a gentle, age-appropriate way.
🚑 Last but not least: The Ambulance Crew
To finish off our amazing week, we had a visit from paramedic Rob and his ambulance. The children got the chance to look inside a real ambulance and learn about the important job paramedics do when someone is hurt or unwell. Our little learners were amazed to see the stretcher, bandages, and medical equipment. They especially loved watching their heartbeats on the special monitor that checks your pulse and some children even got a print out of their own unique heart rhythm.
What We Learned:
🚨 When and how to call 999 in an emergency
🚨That emergency workers are kind, helpful, and here to protect us
🚨How to stay safe and calm in different situations
🚨The importance of helping others and showing appreciation for community helpers
It was a truly unforgettable day, filled with learning, laughter, and lots of wide-eyed wonder. We are so grateful to the police, fire brigade, and ambulance teams for taking the time to visit us and inspire our children. Who knows — we may even have a few future firefighters, police officers, or paramedics among us now!
Thank you to our incredible emergency services! You’re our real-life superheroes! 💙
We recently had another exciting learning opportunity—this time in celebration of World Bee Day! 🐝
The children have been buzzing with curiosity as they explored the fascinating world of bees. We’ve been learning all about their life cycle, the important role they play in pollination, and how we can help care for and protect these amazing little creatures.
To make the day even more special, we welcomed a real-life beekeeper into our setting! The children were captivated as they discovered the tools used in beekeeping, saw parts of a real hive, and learned about how honey is made. It was an incredible hands-on experience that brought all their learning to life.
We also took part in bee-themed crafts and activities, from making our own mini beehives to pretending to be busy worker bees ourselves. It was a fantastic day full of discovery, wonder, and appreciation for the natural world around us.
World Bee Day certainly left a buzz in the air—and in our hearts!
In celebration of World Music Day on the 21st of June, the children have been exploring a variety of musical styles. We had a wonderful time trying out different instruments, learning how to play them, and following musical instructions—whether fast or slow, loud or quiet.
Using a world map, we selected a new country each day, and during lunchtime we listened to calming music from that country. This helped us explore global cultures through sound in a peaceful and engaging way.
We also listened to different types of music and shared how each one made us feel inside our bodies. It was a joy to see how the children responded to a happy, upbeat song—before long, everyone was off the floor and dancing! Music truly does have a superpower.
To top off the week, we had a very special visit from Diana, a dancer from Romania. Diana spoke to us about her country, taught us some Romanian words, and led us in traditional Romanian dance. What an amazing experience!
On Saturday 21st June, our dedicated team braved the hottest day of the year to complete their Paediatric First Aid training
I’m delighted to share that we now have nearly 100% of our staff fully trained, and we’ll be 100% qualified in the next few months. This ensures we continue to deliver the highest standards of care and safety for all our children — truly living our ethos of “Play, Learn and Grow Together – Our Passion is Their Future.” 🌈
A huge thank you to each and every one of the team for their commitment, teamwork, and dedication — especially on the hottest day of the year! 👏✨
Thank you so much to all the families who completed our May 2025 Parent Survey — your feedback has helped us plan some fantastic changes! 💬💙
📅 What’s New from 15th September 2025:
🫧 Baby Room (Under 2s) • Opening 3 days a week initially (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday) until we have a waiting list • Flexible core hours (9am–12pm & 12pm–4:30pm) — funding can be used for these hours • Breakfast Club and Extended Hours (8am–6pm) available for an extra charge
📚Pre-School Room (2–5 years) • Open Monday to Friday for core hours • Flexible core hours (9am–12pm & 12pm–4:30pm) — funding can be used for these hours • Breakfast Club available Monday to Friday • Extended Hours (4:30pm–6pm) offered Monday to Thursday until we have a waiting list • Charges apply for breakfast and extended hours
🍲Tea-Time Meals: • Optional meal for children staying after 4:30pm — or bring a packed tea
💙 Affordable and Competitive: • We are committed to staying competitive and affordable for all our families. • We will introduce separate fee rates based on your child’s age, to ensure fairness and sustainability.
💙Places Available Now: • We currently have spaces for children Under 2 and 2–5 years! If you need flexible, high-quality childcare that fits around your family, get in touch today!
🙏 Thank you again to the parents who left contact details — we’ll be in touch very soon!
Exciting times ahead – from September 2025, we’ll be welcoming children under the age of 2 into our setting! More information about this wonderful development is coming soon.
As we continue to grow, we want to make sure we’re supporting our families and local community in the best way possible. We’re currently open 47 weeks a year, and we’re exploring the option of extended opening hours to better meet the needs of working families.
Whether you’re a current parent, a prospective family, or a member of our wider community, we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Please take a few minutes to complete our short Consultation Survey using the link below – your feedback will help us plan for the future.
This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a fantastic early years conference with Kerry, Julie, Afton, and Summer, delivered by https://thebabyroom.blog/.
We explored the rhythm of the baby room, brain development, and the importance of responsive, attentive care for babies. We also connected with professionals from across Norfolk and Suffolk who share the same passion for giving babies the best start.
I left feeling so proud—so much of what we learnt reflects what we’re already doing at St Helen’s! The team represented our setting brilliantly.
Exciting times ahead as we prepare to open our baby room!
The second half of the spring term has come to an end. Here’s some of the fantastic learning we’ve done over the last few weeks.
We’re lucky to have a large garden that attracts many different creatures but particularly birds and the children love to watch them from the windows. We noticed a couple of nests in the trees so we had a go at making our own nests using things we had foraged from the garden. We incorporated this interest into some of the room activities including a maths game of sorting and counting eggs into nests and using the construction to build nests.
We love a rainy day at St Helens and definitely made the most of this one by jumping in puddles, we then tried catching the rain using bowls, some had holes in and we watched as the rain dripped out of the holes.
We celebrated St David’s day and St Patrick’s day with dancing, treasure hunts, daffodil painting and clover painting.
Some of our children celebrated Eid, so we decorated lanterns, crescent moons and listened to some Arabic music.
We’ve explored new ways of mark making using celery, fine brushes, chalks, water, cotton buds, rollers and sponges and lots more.
During snack this term we’ve been rehearsing some all important skills we learned from last term scooping (using spoons), using tongs to pick things up, and learning to spread. After Easter we will practise using a knife and fork.
We’ve planted some sunflowers recently so we’re looking forward to see if they’ve grown when we return from Easter.
We finished off the term with a visit from “Bert’s amazing creatures” and a cracking afternoon of fun and games.
All the staff at St Helens would like to wish a Happy Easter to all our families.
New year seems a long time ago now that we are halfway through February but what an awesome few weeks we’ve had at preschool.
We’ve celebrated the lunar new year with lots of exciting opportunities, this year is the year of the snake… what animal are you?? Linking in to our physical development we’ve explored different ways of moving… the children especially enjoyed slithering like snakes under string and tape. The children tried eating Chinese food for snack, noodles, prawn crackers and lychees and even used chopsticks. We also had a go at Chinese dancing with drums and a big dragon!!
A couple of children spotted birds nests in the trees in the garden, this sparked an interest in birds and how they make their nests. We built our own nest using things found in the garden and the children continued this inside using blankets and wood from the construction area.
We enjoyed a yoga and mindfulness session in the multi purpose room, this helped us to feel calm and relaxed after a busy day of learning.
You may have heard about our kindness jar… To celebrate “world kindness day” everytime someone is kind we write it on a special heart and pop it into the jar. It is so important to remember to be kind. Once the jar is full that’s when the magic happens!! The kindness is returned to us in the form of a special drink (pink juice).
Kindness day coincided with Valentine’s Day, with lots of activities encouraging conversation about the people we love and those that love us too.
We would like to say a big thankyou to those that came in to read for us during “story telling week.”
Our book of the term is “the three little pigs.” So far the children have been exploring the story with lots of different activities inside and outside, including puppets, bowling, physical, and role play.
Just a little update!
To respect the privacy of our children, we will be making a small change to the way we share photos on social media. As many families haven’t given permission for their child’s image to be used, we’ll now be posting photos that don’t show children’s faces. Thank you for your understanding and support!
We’ve reached the end of 2024 and what an exciting term we’ve had.
November began with continuing some Halloween celebrations, a magical story by candlelight and pumpkin exploring with gooey, messy slime.
For bonfire night we made our own firework pictures using cardboard tubes and marble painting. We listened to some firework sounds and created our own using drums for the bangs and coloured scarves for the fireworks.
We’ve been developing our writing skills by using the muscles in our hands to squeeze bottles of glitter glue, a bottle of honey at snack time and tongs to pick up our food, this will help us later when we need those muscles to control a pen or pencil.
The children had the opportunity to learn about Remembrance Sunday with various activities in the rooms to explore.
We’ve been learning some new shapes by tracing around the lines on paper and also going on a shape hunt around the preschool.
How exciting it was to finally see a little snow. We don’t get to experience this very often so we quickly wrapped up warm and headed into the garden. It was very cold and wet and we all preferred to watch it from the window 🫣 but at least we tried. We warmed up with a cosy blanket and a wintery story.
We celebrated St Andrews day with a highland fling and some Scottish dancing learning to move around in different ways.
December came and the ELF arrived all the way from the North Pole!! And what a cheeky elf he has been. We’ve had toilet paper all over, googly eyes, he hung all his washing out, drew over our pictures, had a party in the lunch room and all sorts! He even brought some friends along for the fun. Lastly he brought a very special post box for us to post our letters to Santa.
After writing our very important letters to Santa, the older boys and girls walked down to the post box to post theirs and the younger children posted theirs in the post box brought by the elf. Have you received your reply yet??
The preschool were very lucky to have a visit from the tooth fairy this month.. she came to read us a magical story about Paddington and how he wouldn’t brush his teeth. But after a visit to tooth fairy land he learned the importance of teeth brushing and he promised to always brush his teeth!
It was great to welcome some of you in for our stay and play sessions. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
From all the staff at St Helens we “wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy new year.”
Thankyou for all our wonderful gifts, we will see you when we return on the 6th January!!
Ooooo it’s time for our October blog and my the months are flying by. Time flies when you are having fun hey!!
This month we’ve been practising the balancing skills we learned last month using the tubes and balls, stepping stones and yoga.
In snack the children have been learning “full, empty and enough.” This has been reflected in the rooms with different activities, water play and sand play giving the children the opportunity to experiment with different containers, which ones are empty, full and overflowing. We have also been listening to our bodies and what being full and empty feels like inside, being able to recognise when we have “had enough” to eat. This was a nice introduction into “tipping and pouring” week which helps to support the children in independently pouring their own drinks and knowing when to stop.
Recycle week was an exciting time at preschool. Someone had spread lots of rubbish all over our garden 🤦🏻♀️ thankfully, we had some fantastic children to come and pick it all up using the wheelbarrows and help us to recycle it!! Then there was the water tray… all those sea creatures getting caught in all the rubbish.. once again boys and girls to the rescue, removing all the rubbish with fishing nets and recycling it. An exciting end to the week we had a visit from the recycling team and two HUGE bin Lorry’s. We took turns to sort some rubbish and then watched as the bin lorry’s empties the bins. The bin men explained how important it is to get rid of our rubbish correctly. What a treat!!
We celebrated Diwali by decorating CDs, reading books, listening to traditional Indian music and learning how to dance Diwali style.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough we ended the month with some Halloween celebrations!! Pumpkins, spiders, slime, paint, bats, webs. So much fun and learning!!
Next month we have parents evening coming up so don’t forget to sign up for that when you come into setting.
St Helen's Pre-School 