St Clement’s Pre-School opened its doors to twelve children on the first day of the autumn term. Obviously, this is well below our usual number of new children but this reflects our new strategy to comply with COVID regulations. Under normal circumstances, we integrate our new starters over the course of a couple of weeks so that each child is able to spend one-to-one time with their key worker in relative calm to put aside fears and trepidation. However, this year, our newbies all started together in two sessions just for them and, as we are all finding in these unprecedented times, some new things really work!

We have had a fantastic first half term and our new children haven’t looked back once! We now have lots of happy children enjoying being together, having fun and making memories – just as small children should be doing, irrespective of any pandemic outside!

As usual, life in pre-school has been extremely busy. The children have created a fabulous family tree display and there has been some great autumn planting in the garden involving worms and good times as well as shrubs! If we add in children washing their hands numerous times a day, exciting story-time sessions, counting and mark-making opportunities together with socialising during snack and lunch times, it’s no wonder our children go home beaming and ready for a good night’s sleep!