♻ On Tuesday we had an exciting visit from Mr Rat’s Recycling Show. Here we learnt all about what we can and can’t recycle, which bin to use and how to keep places clean and litter free! We enjoyed the story very much! ♻
Green Apples
Red Apples
In this topic we have ben learning all about Spring and growth! We have enjoyed spring cleaning our home corner and planting different seeds in Forest School. We have found out about the importance of recycling and how we can help at school and home. We have also loved talking about when we were a baby and how much we have grown!
Thank you to all of our pupils, parents and staff for their continued support of our eco ethos, here at Knockbreda Nursery School.
School is delighted to have successfully reapplied for our Green Flag award!
Please see the comments from our Green Flag Assessors below:
Congratulations to all concerned - staff and pupils alike, and not forgetting the caretaker and many parents who helped your school achieve its environmental targets.
The assessors made the following comments about the strengths of your school :
Excellent participation from the whole nursery on the Eco Committee.
Great links and work with Eco Schools delivery partners and other great initiatives such as Earth Day, Energy Saving Week and Comic Relief Day.
Great to see the children taking part in the Busta Bake Challenge which really ties in with their Waste topic.
The Eco Schools Team loved the idea of you School Eco Promise Wall – great idea!
Fantastic to see pupils enjoying so much time spent outdoors, incorporating their learning with nature.
Following the success of our Eco Week, Earth Day and Energy Saving Home Challenge, the Nursery children have been making their eco promises.
The children and their families all selected an eco promise to make;
making space for nature
recycling more,
using less water
saving energy
Each of these family promises was represented by a colour.
The children each had the opportunity to tie their chosen ribbon to the Eco Promise Wall to create a rainbow of ribbons on our Eco Promise Wall.
Thank you to all our Knockbreda families for helping to support our Eco School!
Knockbreda Nursery School was delighted to welcome the staff from the Northern Ireland Amenity Council to visit our school and to view ‘the best kept school’ in Northern Ireland. Thank you for coming to visit us!
Knockbreda Nursery School Eco Team met to discuss our progress so far this year. The children were delighted to find out that during Energy Week, we saved the weight of a chimpanzee! Well done Nursery! We
are looking forward to taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch this month.
Thank you to Carl for leading our interactive campfire session. The children enjoyed singing songs round the campfire with their friends and teachers as part of our weekly Forest School sessions. What a wonderful experience for our Nursery children!
Thank you to Belfast City Council for bringing Sammy Squirrel to visit Knockbreda Nursery School.
The children enjoyed his visit and are keen to make sure all litter goes in the bin and keeps our wildlife safe!
Knockbreda Nursery School has had a busy two days enjoying our Community Eco Activity Days!
As part of our ongoing commitment to outdoor learning, environmental awareness and our work towards eco school status, Knockbreda Nursery School hosted two Community Get Together events on Wednesday 13th (Red Apples) and Thursday 14th November (Green Apples). On these dates, friends and family of Knockbreda Nursery School were invited to join us during our Forest School sessions.
Our Forest School sessions involve a range of outdoor activities including planting, gardening and seasonal activities. As part of these sessions, we planted some vegetables, flowers and also undertook a campus litter pick.
As part of Children in Need fundraising, during our Forest School sessions the children also enjoyed Pudsey storytelling sessions and planting carrots for Pudsey!"
We are grateful to the eco committees from our Shared Education partnership schools (Knockbreda Primary School and St Bernards’ Primary School) for also joining us; their pupils were such great eco role-models for our Nursery children.
Knockbreda Nursery School welcomed Kirsty and Jane from Belfast City Council to talk to us about litter and the importance of using the right bins for our rubbish. The children were even invited to dress up as Captain Clean Up!
Knockbreda Nursery School held its first Eco Meeting with all children in attendance. We talked about what it means to be an eco school, how we can look after our school and what litter to put in each bin. We all agreed that we love playing outside and need to look after Knockbreda Nursery School inside and outside!
Well done everyone!
Knockbreda Nursery School held its first RRS Meeting with all children in attendance. We talked about what rights are, who has them and what they mean. We even started to think about how fortunate we are to have rights. Well done everyone!
Thank you to all of our pupils, parents and staff for their continued support of our school’s commitment to outdoor learning and the importance of the environmental curriculum.
Knockbreda Nursery School is delighted to have been selected as the Best Kept School Winner for the 2019 Pre Primary South Eastern Region, the winner of the Welcome Award 2019 and also the Overall Best Kept School 2019 Winner, Best of the Best!
Congratulations!
Our new Reco Box eco classroom has been installed and we think it is wonderful! Thanks to all of our families and friends for helping with our fundraising efforts!
Details of our formal opening will follow soon….
Thanks to the hard work of the children, their families and the school staff, Knockbreda Nursery School has been awarded the prestigious Green Flag Eco Award. This is in recognition of all the environmental work undertaken at Knockbreda Nursery School.
Well done everyone- what a great achievement!
Knockbreda Nursery children, staff and parents are delighted that the groundwork has begun in preparation for the installation of our new Reco Box eco classroom….we hope to make full use of our new classroom throughout our summer term at Nursery.
Sincere thanks to Awards for All, Co-Op and to all of our families and friends who have helped to support our school’s fundraising efforts in order to raise enough funds to install our new eco classroom!
Knockbreda Nursery School was visited today by the Recycle Rat from Belfast City Council. The children now know which bin to put their litter in; blue, brown and black!
Our Eco Team met today to discuss progress towards our action plan and to update our Big Bird Watch survey, following the success of our bird cakes. This week, Knockbreda Nursery School has also been supporting Waste Week and learning about the negative impact of plastic on our environment. Pupils, staff and parents are all looking forward to the installation of our eco classroom ‘The Reco Box’ in Term 3 and the further learning opportunities this will present during our Forest School play sessions. What a lot of eco learning is taking place, here at Knockbreda Nursery School!
There was exciting news at today’s Eco Meeting!
As a school we are committed to outdoor play and the value of the Forest School approach. In order to further enhance these opportunities, Knockbreda Nursery School made an application to the lottery funded Awards for All grant scheme to apply for an eco classroom. The school is delighted that we were successful in our application and it is anticipated that our eco classroom will be installed in our Forest School in time for Term 3!
The eco classroom will allow the children a sheltered and designated learning area for activities, table tasks and snack-time, with full lighting and heating installed. The eco classroom will also include an eco toilet and hand washing facilities. The classroom has the option of video camera installation to allow the children to watch and observe the local wildlife first hard via the classroom’s bird box camera. The lottery grant award is £10, 000 and this will cover the basic classroom cost and fit.
The Eco Committee originally suggested the idea of a ‘shelter’ for Forest School at our first meeting in October…how exciting that this idea can now become a reality!
Big Garden Bird Watch 2019
RSPB
The Nursery children loved taking part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch during their Forest School sessions. The children were keen to use the binoculars to look for different types of birds, to identify the species and to count the total of them! The children even made some bird cake for the birds, to help care for them during these cold Winter months.
