Class of 2024
We recently held our very special annual event for our school leavers. Families were invited to spend an evening on the lawn to celebrate their little superstars as they prepare to leave nursery and start their school career. The team welcomed guests armed with umbrellas and that best of British spirit! The rain did hold off during the event and the children had immense fun singing their favourite songs and even a special rendition of their favourite story book, ‘Cows in the Kitchen’ by June Crebbin.
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 Kim from the Learning Journey and Clare from Story Bears who visit us regularly as part of our enrichment programme. We also thank Andy from Romar Sports North Devon for all his regular football coaching.
We have enjoyed visits from Torrington Dental Practice, Little Locks Hairdressers, The Hoodoos at Christmas, Grandad Ray and his Saxophone and Pops with his honey bees!
We thank Emma Hedge, who with Libby’s help, runs Hedgehogs Bakery. Nothing ordinary of course, we have seen the children produce Cornish pasties, Cream Teas and Courgette Muffins!
With National Statistics pointing towards 1 in 5 children not owning a book at home, this year we launched ‘Read More in ‘24’. Danni and Molly have launched this initiative where every child is invited to borrow a book for bedtime.
Some more notable achievements and qualifications were the presentation of our official Maths Champions certificate awarded to Sarah and Gaynor who have studied aspects of maths development and audits. Well done to the entire Kindergarten team for running with this and achieving Math Champion status!
Katie ‘Fox’ was presented with her Forest School Leader qualification. After a year of study and practical experience and assessments in Exmouth, Katie is now a fully fledged Forest School Leader and looks forward to running regular sessions on site and on outings in the future.
The Eco-Heroes committee, Eco-Hero reps and indeed the whole team have been working tirelessly to achieve the Silver Tree Award from The Woodland Trust. They have made up poems, taken photographs of plants, used tree ID sheets and drawn pictures. We are thrilled to announce that not only did we achieve Silver status but we far exceeded the criteria and we were awarded with the GOLD TREE AWARD!
As the afternoon continued, so did the achievements. Emma Hedge came forward to receive the presentation for our Prem Aware Award from the Smallest Things charity. Earlier this year, we were lucky to welcome a parent to our staff meeting to talk about life with a premature baby. Thank you so much to that family because it inspired us a whole team to train and gain a sound knowledge and understanding in how to support families through their learning journey with us. Thank you to the SNUG and our wonderful SENDCo Emma Hedge for heading up the programme.
We are only the 2nd Early Years Business in the UK to receive this award, and the first nursery in the South West of England to have received this award this year and the ONLY nursery in Devon ever!l
Our nursery is in its 26th year, (30 years of Kindergarten) and 11 years based at Sticklepath. It is a special place and it is because of the dedicated team that we have.
Michele, Emma H, Donna and Katie have celebrated more than 20 years of fun at St. Michael’s.
Our team, many of whom have been here 15 plus years have an overall total of more than 280 years experience of nursery teaching between us.
Sarah alone since 1987, is now seeing second generation coming through our doors!
In fact, Sarah recalls a pleasant young girl in her Brownie pack by the name of Donna. You may know Donna as Business Coordinator and Accounts. Not only is Donna already a Level 3 Nursery Nurse, she has also recently been studying her Level 3 SENDCo qualification. Thank you Donna for all you do here at St. Michael’s.
At this point Emma Hedge hijacked the microphone as this nursery is steered by the most kind, compassionate and visionary manager Sarah. Flowers were presented, applause was loud, adoration was clear to see and only one or two tears shed! Thank you Sarah from the entire team. Thank you to the board of Directors for all their support behind the scenes.
Further staff achievements include three apprentices achieving Early Year Teaching Awards, Emma, Chloe and Molly, we have been finalists in the Devon Women in Business Awards for Sustainability, won the Mud Champion Award, training towards further study with the new EYPDP, (government training schemes) and our chef Liz was nominated for the ‘Good Schools Foods’ Award with Jamie Oliver.
We then took a moment to reflect and celebrate many of the siblings in the crowd. They were met with huge applause as we heard about their story. They left in 2020 when we were operating within the strict confines of bubbles for the key workers in the community. It was a lovely moment with their siblings and it took us into the most important part of the whole ceremony. The singing!
The children performed songs from the forest and the big emotional one....'You Got a Friend in Me', (from the film Toy Story). The children sang every lyric beautifully accompanied with signs using Makaton.
Each child was then invited to come to the front and shake Sarah's hand before receiving their Graduation card.
Thank you to all our families for attending and making this such a special event. Thank you to the team for their constant care and support and to Sarah and Emma for making this event happen.
Farewell to all our school leavers. Good luck and keep in touch with us!
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