Gallery
Our first school trip to Oxford Island
Back to school after the half term holidays
October Fun
Week beginning 14th October 2024
This week we have been busy exploring the forest during our weekly forest school session and we engaged in a relaxing, thinking spot activity, that encouraged us all to stop and take in the sounds and smells of the environment around us and to feel the breeze across our faces. The children have also been exploring and learning the names of different types of fruits and vegetables and pumpkins have been a huge interest as we draw closer to the Halloween holidays. We also met ‘Pickles’ the hedgehog and have been learning lots about seasonal change and woodland animals. Well done everyone on another busy week of learning and fun at BNS!
Some photos of our fun filled week
First weeks at Banbridge Nursery School!
What a fun couple of weeks it has been :D! The boys and girls have done an excellent job at settling into nursery school life and have been working hard to develop their independence and self-help skills to complete our daily school routines. There has been lots of investigating; building; negotiating and exploring within both the indoor and outdoor classroom environments, as well as getting to know each other along the way. We are incredibly proud of the boys and girls and look forward to another fun-filled week, full of learning and play.
FROM NURSERY SCHOOL TO P1!
What an incredible year it has been for the class of 2023-2024. We are so proud of the boys and girls and each of the achievements they have made throughout their time here at Banbridge Nursey School. Each and every one of them have grown so much and we feel so privileged to have had the opportunity and pleasure to teach and work with your children everyday. We all had so many special times and how fast the year did go! Now its time to part but your boys and girls will always have a special place in our hearts.
Thank you for everything!
From all of the staff at BNS ☺️❤️
SPORTS’ & FAMILY FUNDAY 2024
What a day that was! Thank you to every single girl and boy and grown up who made this family celebration so successful, enjoyable and memorable. Enjoy the memories
Green day
Green day was so much fun! We carried out our ‘big spring clean’, built dens, searched for minibeasts and even had our snack outside like a picnic! Everyone looked brilliant wearing their green clothing and had so much fun playing outside all day.
GRANDPARENTS DAY
Streamvale farm trip
A beautiful, sunny week in BNS!
Week beginning 22nd April
This week was gardening week and the boys and girls and our lovely parent volunteers have helped transform our school garden and made it beautiful again! Thank you again to everyone for their help :-)
Back to school fun after the Easter holidays
Easter Celebrations
What fun we had before the Easter holidays! We painted eggs as we had intended to have an Easter egg rolling competition on the last day of school but the weather was too poor! We had an Easter disco and a surprise visit from the Easter bunny. We hope everyone had a lovely Easter!
Week beginning 19th March 2024
Another busy week. We enjoyed visits from Bert the police officer, as well as Alice’s mummy who taught us some French and Florence’s mummy who came to share some favourite stories with us. Despite the very changeable weather, we enjoyed long periods of time outside every day. Miss Thompson made a tyre swing for the girls and boys and this was a big hit!
Following on from the interest shown in floating and sinking last week, we were building boats from recycled materials and testing them in 5e water tray - some were more successful than others
4-8 March 2024
This week we celebrated World Book Day with a special musical morning. Ricky and Chris brought Jack and the Beanstalk to life through music and sounds and we loved every minute of this interactive session.
We were also back in the forest on Tuesday and had another parent in to read some favourite stories.
END OF FEBRUARY FUN
Back to school fun after the half term holidays!
The children have all settled in very well after their half term holidays and have been busy engaging in lots of forest school fun; developing their knowledge of people who help us in the community and developing their ability to turn take with others. There has also been lots of interest in ‘fairytales’ and playing ‘schools’ and the children have enjoyed acting out these stories and roles during their play. We continue to support the development of the children’s fine motor skills and this week they have learnt how to safely use a saw to cut elder wood, a potato peeler to whittle and a hammer to hit nails appropriately.
Making Pancakes
Today we made pancakes for snack. Pancake Tuesday is happening next week but the children enjoyed making pizza so much for their snack a few weeks ago and asked could they make pancakes next. The children did an excellent job at helping Miss Thompson weigh the ingredients, crack the eggs, measure the milk and stir the mixture. The children loved picking their toppings and loved eating their pancake even more. The adults in school then had a competition to see who could toss and catch the pancake the most and Miss Thompson won!
Our Trip to the post office and post box
On Wednesday 7th February we walked down to the shop to visit the post office counter. The children payed for their stamp, which now has the King’s head on it and stuck this to their envelope. We then headed outside to the post box to post our cards.
Week beginning 29th January- 2nd February 2024
This week consisted of a visit to Downshire Nursery to see Mr Hullabaloo, learning lots about birds and a visit from our forest school officer. We have also been having lots of fun playing outdoors, building circuits and lots of music was had during our music sessions on Wednesday.
Week beginning 22nd January 2024
This week, we have been busy learning about ‘birds’ and completed the ‘big bird watch’ on Friday morning. The boys and girls have also been very busy building large and small models; developing fine motor skills their ability tear and crumple and have learnt how to use technology I.e. the iPad to take photographs and videos of their play.
Week beginning 15th January 2024
A busy week with a visit from ‘wee critters’ on Monday, a wintery forest school session on Wednesday and today we made pizza for snack. The children have also been very busy learning about winter and the changes it brings and have enjoyed experimenting with the freezing and melting of ice and water. We have also been practicing new skills including threading and have been singing lots of our primary movement songs, which you can find on our primary movement section on our site.
Next week brings a forest school session with our forest school field officer and an eco school challenge- ‘ the big bird watch’.
Have a lovely weekend!
A wonderful visit from Wee Critters!
On Monday 15th January, Allan and his wee critter friends came to Banbridge nursery to help teach the boys and girls about nocturnal animals and the importance of caring for small animals and the environment.
Back to school fun after the Christmas holidays!
Our last day of school and an exciting visit from Santa!
Christmas Fun at BNS 2023
Christmas is Coming
Week beginning 27th November 2023
Week beginning 20th November 2023
Our first school trip to Oxford Island
On Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th November, we headed off on the ‘big bus’ to Oxford Island. We had a fantastic time exploring the woods, building fairy houses, searching for minibeasts and swinging on the rope swing. The children also climbed along the logs and ropes, explored the different textures and artefacts the woods afford and listened very carefully to the natural sounds around us.
Wonderful Woodland Wanderings
13-17 November 2023
Magical Musical Memories
6-10 November 2023
Happy Halloween!
Over the past few weeks, the children have been very interested in and exploring all of the different types of pumpkins you can get, the slimy pumpkin pulp and many seeds which can be found inside them. The children have continued to express a love for outdoor learning and have enjoyed engaging in circuit based learning experiences to further develop their strength, co-ordination and balance. The arrival of our new puddle suits has enabled us to get stuck right into the mud, with lots of jumping in muddy puddles, the creation of a mud slide and painting the school grounds with mud too! The children have settled extremely well into their new school environment and we couldn't be prouder of each and everyone of them!
We hope everyone has a great half term holiday and we look forward to seeing the children again on Monday 6th November.
It’s Autumn time!
Over the past few weeks, we have been very interested in the natural changes occurring within the environment and have been very busy raking the leaves as the autumn leaves fall down. We have also been very busy building our new outdoor sand pit; growing cress; developing our balancing skills and exploring our mud station. On Friday 13th, we finally received the puddle suits we had ordered and had lots of fun trying testing these out and jumping in some puddles Mrs Porter made with the hose! Great work boys and girls!
September fun!
Can you believe our first full month of nursery is done! Here are a few snippets of the learning and fun that has gone on over the past two weeks, including lots of of outdoor learning, socialising and getting to know all of our friends and exploring the autumnal changes within the environment.
First weeks at Banbridge Nursery School!
What a fun couple of weeks it has been :D! The boys and girls have done an excellent job at settling into nursery school life and have been working hard to develop their independence and self-help skills to complete our daily school routines. There has been lots of investigating; building; negotiating and exploring within both the indoor and outdoor classroom environments, as well as getting to know each other along the way. We are incredibly proud of the boys and girls and look forward to another fun-filled week, full of learning and play!
FROM NURSERY SCHOOL TO P1!
What an incredible year it has been for the class of 2022-23. We are so proud of the boys and girls and each of the achievements they have made throughout their time here at Banbridge Nursey School. Each and every one of them have grown so much and we feel so privileged to have had the opportunity and pleasure to teach and work with your children everyday. We all had so many special times and how fast the year did go! Now its time to part but your boys and girls will always have a special place in our hearts.
From all of the staff at BNS ☺️❤️
Sports day, family fun day and bbq!
A visit from Mr Hullabaloo, sports and games fun and our ‘sun hats and shades’ sponsored walk!
Another fun and busy week with a visit from our favourite storyteller, Mr Hullabaloo who told us lots of ‘summery’ stories with bobbin’ bear. On Wednesday, we had a brilliant time at Banbridge Academy with Simon who organised an energetic and fun sports and games morning. Then on Thursday, we had our sponsored walk to Solitude park in Banbridge. It was beautiful, sunny day and the boys and girls walked very safely to the park. We had lots of fun engaging in a Solitude park ‘scavenger hunt’ and enjoyed our packed lunch. Thank you to everyone for your help, support and donations this week. Have a lovely weekend!
Eco Schools Green flag award 2033
On Wednesday 8th June, we received our Eco Schools green flag award! Miss Thompson and a few pupils were able to attend the ceremony for the ABC Council area and are absolutely delighted to have achieved this. We couldn’t have done so without the pupils hard work and dedication to look after our school environment and without the support from our school community. Well done everyone!
Our last school trip to Streamvale farm!
On Wednesday 31st May, we went on a school trip to sunny Streamvale farm. We got on the bus and headed to Belfast to see all of the different types of farm animals, including, sheep, rabbits, horses, ducks and chickens. We got to feed several of the animals and even went on a tractor ride! It was a fabulous day and the boys and girls listened so well to the guides. Thank you to all of our parent and grandparent helpers for your help.
Eco Schools Green day
Thursday 25th May was green day in Banbridge Nursery School and this involved wearing green and being GREEN. We completed several green actions by planting sunflower seeds, picking up litter around the school community and playing outside all day, with all unnecessary lights switched off inside. We also went up the hill to the grass pitch and woods for our snack, had a story and even took a few minutes to use our senses to look and listen to all of the natural sounds and environment around us. It was so much fun playing outside all day in the sun!
Spruce up Saturday
Thank you so much to our pupils and families for coming in on Saturday 20th May to help tidy up, paint our fences and mud kitchen and to wash our toys and playground surfaces. We really appreciate it !
Minibeasts, music and lots of outdoor fun!
Week beginning 1st May
A busy week celebrating the King’s coronation, developing our fine and gross motor skills and developing our understanding of lifecycles as we received some tadpoles to care for and observe.
Movement Matters
On Friday 28th April, we invited our wonderful school community in to discuss the special nature of learning outdoors and to engage in an interactive play session outside. The staff and children were so amazed by the ideas and play generated by our visitors and we had lots of fun exploring and learning together. We hope everyone enjoyed their time at Banbridge Nursery School and thank you for coming!
Easter egg rolling and a visit from the Easter bunny
On Tuesday 4th April, Banbridge Nursery School received a special visit from the Easter bunny! We couldn’t quite believe it but we were very excited to follow the clues to find our chocolate eggs in the woods. We also did some egg rolling down the big hill which was lots of fun! We hope everyone has a fabulous Easter.
Easter tea party
On Monday 3rd April we had a fabulous Easter tea party for grandparents, aunties and uncles! The children all looked wonderful in their Easter Bonnets and we had lots of fun getting to know everyone!
Shopping trips to Centra
Every Tuesday, the boys and girls and our wonderful parent and grandparent helpers have been heading down to the centra shop near school to purchase items for the children’s snack. This is a great experience for the children to learn about the shop, the different types of food we can purchase, as well as developing their awareness of money exchange.
World Book Day 2023
On Thursday 2nd March we celebrated World book day! The children looked fantastic in all of their different outfits and we enjoyed looking at all of their favourite stories. We started the day by creating a delicious Incey, Wincey spider treat and then went on our world book day parade around Edenderry Primary School. Afterwards, we went on a story book treasure hunt to find lots of different story book props and ended the day with acting out The three little pigs story with yoga poses for the wolf, pigs and the house. Well done everyone!
People who help us
This week we were very lucky to receive a visit from St John’s ambulance, a paramedic and a nurse. The children learnt a lot about the equipment required to care for a patient and helped make Ted better in the ambulance. We have also been engaging in our own imaginative play in our doctors surgery and the children have been taking great care of their peers. Thank you so much to our wonderful visitors!
Pancake Tuesday
On Tuesday 21st February we made some delicious pancakes! The children all had a part to play and took it in turns to follow the recipe accordingly, involving lots off different skills such as mixing, cracking the eggs, sieving and flipping. Everyone LOVED eating these for their snack.
February 2023
The past two weeks have involved adventures to the forest and up the hill, experiencing our play in the windy weather and finding lots of natural treasures to create some temporary art. We have also been following the children's continued interest in learning about garden birds with many working very hard to create an observational painting or clay model of their favourite bird. The children have also been learning about people who help us within the community and have opened up their own hairdressers, to style their friend's hair and have continued to develop their ability to recognise and create patterns, as well as develop their ability to count using 1-1 correspondence and to recognise numerals. The children also worked very hard to design and create their own friendship cards for their friends, as well as writing these to their chosen friend. We focused on the journey of a letter and posted these cards in our local post box. We also got to have a look in the local shop in our community to see the different items we can purchase from here.
On Friday we decided to make some pizza for our snack. The children all worked together to make lots of different types of pizza with toppings such as pineapple and ham.
We hope everyone has received their friendship card in the post and that you all have a lovely Valentine's Day and Half term Holiday.
Pattern day, RSPB bird watch and 'beyond our gates'
Another busy week in Banbridge Nursery! On Tuesday we went on an adventure 'beyond our gates' and provided the children with the opportunity to freely explore their learning in a defined area outdoors. The children all initiated and engaged in different play experiences including playing hide and seek together, engaging in imaginative role-play; searching for treasure, including minibeasts and safely climbing the trees. Several of the children even initiated a litter pick within the defined play area and collected a whole bag of rubbish- well done! This week we have been learning about the wildlife found around our grounds and how we can care for it. We threaded cheerios onto string to create bird feeders and placed these around our school to feed the birds, as well as developing the children's hand eye-coordination when doing so. On Thursday, we completed the RSPB bird watch and managed to spot a few different types of birds, including a blackbird, robin and a blue tit Friday brought pattern day and everyone looked fantastic in all of their different types of patterns from head to toe. On this day, we also made some patterned biscuits for our snack, made patterns using musical instruments and by moving our bodies and made our very own patterned Elmer the Elephant, as we have been really enjoying reading these stories during quiet room time this week. Great work everyone!
Week beginning 16th January
This week we explored the change in weather by wrapping up warm and going on a winter walk up the hill. We learnt this it’s important to not only wear appropriate winter clothing but that it’s also important to move our bodies to keep ourselves warm, for example, by running and that’s exactly what we did cross the rugby pitch. We even had a lovely cup of hot chocolate to warm us up after our fun winter adventure. This week, we have also been exploring patterns and have been carrying out several science investigations to see what melts ice the quickest.
Christmas at Banbridge Nursery School 2022
It was a very busy Christmas term which kicked off with a trip to Joe McAleenan's to pick the perfect Christmas tree; trips to Edenderry P.S and Bridge P.S to see their wonderful Nativity performances and a visit from Santa Claus himself on the last day of school. The children were also very busy engaging in imaginative play experiences relating to Christmas i.e. we had a a Santa's workshop where the children could design, make and wrap presents just in time to be delivered on Christmas Eve. The boys and girls also worked very hard and carefully to paint Christmas observational paintings and to design and create their very own personalised Christmas bauble for our Sponsored 'Santa and Elves hill climb walk and bauble hunt'. They also created their own Christmas cards and began to demonstrate their early writing skills when writing these.
Also, we are very proud of all of the hard work and effort the children put into their Christmas performance of 'Old Uncle Sam', as well as their singing and signing with makaton. We hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Our first school trip to Oxford Island
On Tuesday 15th and Thursday 17th November, we headed off on the ‘big bus’ to Oxford Island. We had a fantastic time exploring the woods, building dens and swinging on the rope swing. The children also climbed along the logs and ropes, explored the different textures and artefacts the woods afford and listened very carefully to the natural sounds around us.
Children In Need
On Friday 18th, we wore our pyjamas to school to help fundraise money for Children in Need. We also went on a Pudsey bear hunt around the school grounds and took part in some exercise with Pudsey bear and Joe Wicks. Well done everyone!
Exploring seasonal change and a visit from ‘Mike’s World of Owls’
The children returned to school this week after their half term holidays and it was great to have them back and now staying for their full nursery day. We had a very busy week discussing the change of the clock and how this brings a change in the amount of daylight we receive. The children shared their experiences from Halloween with many sharing that they got to see fireworks! We therefore, decided to create our own fireworks using large pieces of fabric and fluorescent paint and had lots of fun learning how to create a ‘splatting’ technique to make our fireworks. We even explored the sounds fireworks make and tired to recreate these using a range of percussion instruments. On Wednesday, we were very lucky to receive a visit from Mike, Bowie the barn owl and Harley the eagle owl, along with an African snake. The boys and girls appeared to be in complete amazement and enjoyed sharing their knowledge of nocturnal animals, including what they knew about owls with Mike- he was very impressed with the children’s knowledge and ability to attend. We all also got to give Harley the Eagle owl a little stroke, if we wanted to and some were also very brave, touching and holding the snake.
Happy Halloween
This week, we really got into the Halloween spirit after a visit from Ricky Matson, a former member of the Ulster Orchestra, who brought a fun morning of musical magic! The children got to see, hear and play a range of string and percussion instruments and even made up their own Halloween songs to match the character they were dressed as. We have also been developing our fine motor skills in a variety of ‘spooky’ ways such as the spider web tuff tray. The children have been very interested in exploring the different types of pumpkins you can get and the slimy pumpkin pulps and seeds which can be found inside them. We hope everyone has a great half term holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone again on Monday 7th November.
Week beginning 10th October
This week we had a visit from Mr Hulabaloo, an interactive storyteller who brought us on an autumn adventure along with his friends Goldilocks and jingles the jester. The children thoroughly enjoyed this experience and lots of laughs were had! We have also been very interested in creating natural art pictures, using the resources we have found around the campus and have been very busy raking the leaves as the autumn leaves fall down.
It’s Autumn!
Week beginning 26th September 2022
This week we have enjoyed being ‘pirates’ and building our ships in our outdoor construction area; painting sunflowers which some of the children have brought in after a visit to the sunflower woods and have continued to build new friendships and relationships with others. We even had an experiment to see how we could grow our own conker tree, built wonderful buildings such as Big Ben and developed our physical skills by walking like various animals. Oh what a busy week :-)
There’s no such thing as bad weather….just bad clothing!
This week the boys and girls have been very busy engaging in their play in all weather types. On Thursday, we got our waterproof trousers, welly boots and coats on and enjoyed playing in the rain, jumping in puddles and searching for rainbows. The children have also been very busy creating junk art models, developing their fine motor skills and working together to solve challenges. We are also very proud of all of the boys and girls and how well they have done staying for dinner this week. Well done everyone!
Week beginning 12th September 2022
What another fun week settling into nursery school life. This week half of each class stayed for dinner and did a fantastic job at trying new foods and following our dinner routine. We are very much looking forward to everyone staying for dinner from next Tuesday. We also had a big surprise arrive in our outdoor area and had the grand reveal on Thursday morning! Our new and improved playhouse has arrived and as you can see, the boys and girls were very excited by its arrival. Unfortunately, it’s not quite ready yet as we need to build a step and get the inside of it floored but hopefully we will get to enjoy our imaginative play, stories and learning in our new playhouse soon!
Week 2
This week we got to meet and play with more new friends and had lots of fun getting to know each other. The boys and girls have also been learning our snack routine and have been very busy exploring our outdoor learning area. We can’t wait until all of the boys and girls are together on Monday!
First week at nursery school
