Glenwood turned 50 on 4th October 2026. The first entry in the log book said, “Glenwood Nursery opened officially on 4th October, 1976, although two members of teaching staff have been here since the 19th August, 1976. At this date we have one head teacher, one assistant teacher and five nursery nurses.” What a contrast to a staff team of over 30 members of staff now and a further increase when Glen staff join our team!
We celebrated with a giant Teddy Bears’ Picnic in the woods. many of our families were able to attend too. And or course, we all took our teddy bears!
Our Parents’ Committee purchased special mugs for all our children as a lasting memento of this special occasion.
A special time capsule has been buried to mark 30 years of East Renfrewshire and create a lasting legacy for future generations.
The commemorative capsule was placed on the site of the new Eastwood Leisure Centre and Theatre during a ceremony recently.
Provost Mary Montague, Council Leader Owen O’Donnell and children from nearby Glenwood Family Centre and St Ninian’s High School were all on hand to help bury the time capsule.
Among the items included in the time capsule are a Scotland football top bearing the name of Scotland captain and former St Ninian’s High School pupil Andy Robertson, a copy of the council’s A Place to Grow Strategy and a pair of council cufflinks. Glenwood Family Centre contributed a badged t-shirt and photographs of its nursery building, while St Ninian’s High School added a school tie and a head teacher’s award.
The capsule will offer future residents a fascinating glimpse into the area’s history when it is eventually uncovered.
Our values are excellence, inclusion, nurture, partnerships and respect. We regularly review these to ensure they reflect what Glenwood stands for.
We recently asked some of our stakeholders to describe Glenwood in just three words. We gathered views of our children, families and our family centre, cluster and neighbourhood colleagues. We have been able to capture a wonderful perspective of Glenwood, which we hope reflects our values.
Children’s viewsFamily centre, cluster and neighbourhood colleagues’ viewsParents’ views
When we received our Gold Rights Respecting Schools banner we had to take down our silver one. We wondered what we could do with the old banner. We decided to repurpose it into a giant paint easel outside!
We decided we would love a mascot to show that we are a Rights Respecting School.
We had a competition and every child had the opportunity to design a mascot. We selected 4 favourites and voted to decide which design would become our mascot.
The runners up-
The winning design-
The winning design was Mr Crocodile and we got him made into a cuddly toy. Doesn’t he look great. Well done to Leo for producing the winning design.
Just in case you don’t know, we have a large crocodile lurking in our wooded area of the garden. He was rescued from our old building after a public campaign led by one of our families so Mr Crocodile is perfect!
We wanted to develop our garden to make it more exciting. We had a large grassy hill and another steep slope which we were keen to make better use of.
We consulted the children on what they would like to have in the garden.
They voted and chose a rainbow pergola, some log seating for our fire pit area, a scrambling net and a pull up rope. We had some money left over so also managed to get den poles and a camo net.
When the Queen died in 2022 many members of the public laid flowers at the nearby council offices in her memory. We were asked to make compost from the flowers afterwards. The compost took a long time to make and was finally ready in March 2025.
We were then invited to a tree planting ceremony in Rouken Glen Park to plant two trees using the compost, one in memory of the late Queen and one to honour King Charles 3.
We met some important people- The Provost of East Renfrewshire was there and the Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire!
We have been learning about our bodies. We know how to keep ourselves healthy. We are very interested in what is inside our bodies. We have learned we have a skeleton and are learning the names of some of the bones. We worked together to make our own skeleton.
We were interested in getting some fish for our playroom. We talked about what we would need to do to care for fish. We made a list of all the things we would need.
“I have a fish at home. You have to feed it every day.”- Ralph
“We need money to buy fish food.” -Conin
We bought 2 goldfish and voted to decide their names. We chose Rainbow and Goldie.
We made a feeding chart to make sure our goldfish are not over-fed.
We created a set of rules to help us take care of our fish.
We love to sit and just watch the goldfish in their tank.
In Glenwood, we celebrate what is special and unique about each and every person. We are all loved and included just for being who we are!
Our Being Me! tree
We had a special Being Me! celebration and invited all our families. We performed some of our favourite songs using Makaton signs. Our songs included our Rights song as we learn all about the rights of all children.
Together with our families we decorated wooden hearts to celebrate what is special and unique about us and to share some of things that are important to us.
My familyMy pet cat
My Eid present listMy Favourite characterMy friendsMy favourite cuddly toyMy interest in numbersMy love of rainbowsMy family
Our children love to be creative. Look at the wonderful stories they composed. They shared their stories with the adult who wrote down their words. The children then drew beautiful illustrations and wrote their name as the author.
Thank you to all the parents who were able to attend our recent Curriculum Evening. We showcased how we demonstrate our values in all we do.
We received lots of lovely feedback.
“What a wonderful, educational and welcoming nursery! The staff are friendly and professional. We are so grateful that our children get to come here. Thank you all.”
“Very interesting and informative- I hadn’t realised that there was so much thought and planning going in to the children’s day here.”
Amazing resources. So many fantastic experiences with great variety. Staff are always so helpful and supportive. Thank you for all you do. “
“very interesting to see the spaces and activities. Clear to see how much you consider the children’s views and opinions. Staff very enthusiastic as always. Thank you.”
If you were unable to attend, you can access some information about this here.
Happy Diwali to our families and friends celebrating this week.
Diwali is the five-day Festival of Lights, celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the world.
Diwali is a festival of new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness, and for some also coincides with harvest and new year celebrations.
One of the ways people celebrate Diwali is by decorating their homes with colourful rangoli designs, lighting diyas or displaying lights around the house.
We have been learning about Diwali through stories, research and activities.
We painted colourful rangoli designs to decorate our nursery.
We created clay diya lights and painted these in bright colours.
We noticed one of our books was torn so we repaired it with sticky tape. Lots of our books were looking tatty so Mrs Brown asked us what books we would like for the nursery.
“I like this kind.”(held up a flap book from the book corner)
“I like dinosaur books.”
“I have a Yeti story in my house. I’d like that for nursery.”
“I like monster and dragon books. I am not scared by them!”
“I like this book.”(held up Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson)
Adult-“I love Julia Donaldson books…. Do you think we need some more by that author?”
“Yes! We were looking for the Snail and the Whale in nursery but we couldn’t find it.”
“Yes, look at all those ones we could get.”(Looked at inside cover of the book to point to other titles by the same author)
“I like the Gruffalo and the Gingerbread man. I have them in my house.”
“I like the Worrysaurus.”
Here are some of the books we bought, just as requested by the children, along with some others to reflect our nursery values. We look forward to more books being delivered soon, including the ever popular Julia Donaldson titles and some traditional tales.
The yeti storyThis book was torn and tatty so we replaced it.Books with dinosaur charactersLift the flap booksThe WorrysaurusMore books supporting our emotionsBooks with monstersBooks reflecting our diversityBooks promoting inclusionBooks to support emotional development
We welcomed Tommy Millar (Football Development Co-ordinator) and Kerry Comerford (Active Schools Co-ordinator) along to Glenwood for some mini kicker taster sessions. We are looking forward to next week’s session!
We harvested some of the potatoes we have been growing in our garden.
We boiled them to make some yummy mashed potato and used the leftovers to make potato scones for snack. So tasty!
Why not try our recipe at home-
450g floury potatoes, peeled and cooked 1/2tsp salt
50g butter 100g flour
1. Mash potatoes,add salt, butter and flour to give a stiff mixture. 2. Turn out onto floured surface, knead gently and roll out to a thickness of 1cm. 3. Cut into triangles and cook on a hot greased griddle for 4-5 minutes on each side.
