Goodbye October - Hello November!!

Date: 26th Oct 2025 @ 8:29pm

I can hardly believe that we have already reached half term, and November is just around the corner.  I would normally have updated you with a blog before now but that just goes to show how busy we have been.  As I look back through numerous photos I hardly know where to begin when sharing what we have achieved since the beginning of the new school year.

Children have settled in really well and, with so many new reception (who are a force to be reckoned with), our older children have had no option but to take them under their wing and embrace our new additions … but what fantastic role models they have been. Once again, our close links with the preschool, and some end of year ‘mergers’ meant that the transition from preschool to wrap around has been seamless with children and staff already being quite familiar with each other.

We started the year with a variety of ‘getting to know you’ arts, crafts and activities including rucksacks, name bracelets, worry monsters, ‘all about me ipads’ and self-portraits.

As is always the case in September, we revisited our club rules and expectations.  We have tried a number of incentives to encourage good manners and behaviours over the last couple of years, but none have been as successful as our raffle ticket jar which has gone from strength to strength and continues to be a positive system … in some cases it has even encouraged the children to help with the tidying and washing up!!  Friday prize day is now firmly fixed into our routine … the only downside being that I have to keep filling up the prize box!!

Our ‘wish wall’ hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts, with children’s wishes being predominantly related to fast-food at snack time.  Unfortunately, our healthy eating policy means that children’s wishes won’t be as easily met on this occasion … although we did make an exception to the rule last week where we ate our way through a couple of tins of squirty cream.  In our defence we received a generous gifting of bananas (which were a very tasty accompaniment to our usual snack of scotch pancakes) so squirty cream and chocolate sprinkles were obligatory!! 

Autumn has brought with it some changeable weather (to say the least) so we have spent quite a lot of time indoors this half term (when we have all been too cold to brave the outdoors).  Whilst indoors, a portable speaker has meant that children have enjoyed singing along to their favourite tunes on the laptop and a new ipad has also allowed children to participate in some games of Kahoot towards the end of the sessions.  The cosy corner has also had a bit of an upgrade (with my ‘office’ getting smaller and smaller by the day) but it is great to see children making such great use of the space.

We are also extremely lucky to have some access to the school hall where children regularly engage in group games.  Even when the hall was full of benches and tables last week (following parents evening) the children were not put off but were instead able to make their own fun by re-enacting their own parent’s evenings from the previous night!!

When outdoors, children have had great fun playing on the new improved trim trail, losing footballs on the roof (!!) and battling over ‘Big Blue’ and ‘Big Red’ (our 2 wiggle cars).  Since re-risk assessing the scooters, we made the tough decision to put them into storage but are hoping to raise some funds in the near future to add a ‘Big Green’ to our wiggle car collection.  When the large playground has been in use for other school clubs, you may have noticed us making good use of the front outdoor area where children regularly have a much-needed run around before heading off to school.

Our Autumn indoor activities have been inspired by seasonal leafy arts and crafts, space week, Diwali and Halloween.  Despite being over in preschool for a few sessions last week, we bravely embarked on a Halloween cake decorating activity.  I am pleased to say that more icing and sprinkles made it onto the cakes than the floor but, the addition of jelly eyeballs did create a tray of food resembling a bushtucker trial (much to the children’s delight!!)

To finish off the term, children were very excited to take part in a fabulous competition where they were able to demonstrate their creative side by designing some beautiful pumpkins.  Children worked hard on their designs over 2 weeks resulting in 2 very worthy winners – well done Lucia and Ella!!

As we return after the holiday for what can only be described as ‘glitter season’ we look forward to celebrating and learning about a number of observances from around the world including Day of the Dead, Bonfire Night, Remembrance Day, Antibullying Week, World Kindness Day, Children in Need, Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas Jumper Day.  Let the Christmas Countdown Begin!!