A very warm welcome back to all of our returning children at Bathgate West, we hope you are all excited and ready for your pre-school year here with us. It has been lovely to see you all again and hear all about your summer adventures.

We have lots of new children coming to join us at Bathgate West and over the next few days and weeks we will be working hard to settle them into the nursery and into our routines. We look forward to learning all about our new friends. This coming term our focus will be primarily on getting to know each other and learning about the nursery routines and our rules to help us play safe and be happy.

As always if you have any questions, comments or feedback please do share these with a member of staff who will be more than happy to help and remember to keep coming back to check on our GLOW Blog for details, news and pictures of all of the learning and many activities that are ongoing in the nursery.  We are looking forward to a busy year ahead with you all.

The nursery children at Bathgate West came dressed in their finest to enjoy the end of year parties yesterday. We danced, played games and said some sad goodbyes to some special ladies. The year seems to have flown by and we are sad to be saying Goodbye to our pre-school boys and girls that are leaving us but it has been a huge pleasure to have watched you grow and progress into the confident and bright children that you are. We hope to see you all up at the big school and please remember to pop back to the nursery for a visit at any time to tell us all about how you are getting on at school. For the rest of the boys and girls, we hope you have a wonderful summer and we are looking forward to seeing how much you have grown and hearing all about your adventures in August.

The staff would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support at Bathgate West Nursery and wish everyone a safe and happy summer!

Bathgate West set off on a Safari adventure yesterday as we went on our summer nursery trip to Blair Drummond Safari Park. We may have had to wrap up warm but our spirits were high as we got to see some of the fabulous animals we have been learning about at nursery. A big thank you to all the families that came along to make it such an enjoyable day, we hoped you enjoyed it as much as we did. Here are a few photos from the day….

Today at Bathgate West Nursery we managed to hold our own mini Procession in the sunshine! We dressed for the occasion and we celebrated the courage and determination shown by all of our little super heroes on Saturday by having ice cream in the sunshine. To top off our celebrations we had a surprise visit from the Bathgate Procession Committee who presented us with a shiny trophy for First Place for the best turned out Nursery/School.

A lovely way to end our Superhero celebrations with the recognition of all of the hard work and determination of our children, parents and staff. Well Done Bathgate West….we really are THE BEST!

The children truly were Superheroes at this years Bathgate Procession. On a very wet and wild day you all turned out with your capes, smiles, umbrellas and the biggest cheers possible. Despite the poor weather Bathgate West brought along it’s own rays of sunshine with their songs, cheers and Hip Hip Hoorays! Thank you to everyone who made it along on Saturday and helped show our children why a positive attitude and determination are so important, even if the circumstances are far from ideal. An extra big thank you to Mrs Bett and all of the parent helpers who have given up so much time and effort over the past few months to create our fabulous costumes and banners….. we may have been soggy, but we looked great! Here are a few photos that I managed to capture, before the camera got too wet!

Safari fever has reached Bathgate West Nursery this week as we prepare for our summer trip to Blair Drummond Safari Park in a few weeks time. We have been learning about some of the animals that we will see when were are at the Safari Park. The AM and PM Green Groups each chose an animal they wanted to research more about. They used information books and the internet to find out some interesting facts. Then they shared their learning with the other boys and girls. They are now looking forward to seeing what the other groups have been discovering about Safari animals. Throughout the nursery we have been looking closely at all of the amazing animal prints and created some of our own and we have been enjoying drawing and painting our own animals as well as talking about what we are hoping to see when we go to the Safari park. Take a look at some of our work.

In other news…. our caterpillars are all tucked up nicely sleeping in their cocoons and we are eagerly awaiting their transformation in beautiful butterflies!

It’s been a very busy week, as this week we have also been gearing up for the Newland’s Day Procession, so hopefully we will see all of you Super Heroes tomorrow. Remember bring your capes, smiles and loudest singing voices …     Hip, Hip Hooray!!!

We are continuing our learning with our People Who Help Us topic and it’s been another busy week at Bathgate West Nursery. Tam the Postman paid us a visit to share how his job helps our community. We have been solving crimes, looking for clues and dealing with emergency situations in the nursery this week. A Do-At-Home activity has also been sent home this week for you and you child to spot some of the things that may keep you safe on your travels to and from nursery. See how many you can find…good luck!

Our learning this week has been about people in our community who help us. We have had a visit from the local crossing patrol team and have been practicing how to cross the roads safely. Our Doctor’s surgery has been very busy with patients requiring bandages and lots of medicine, so we have been busy writing our own prescriptions. We are learning how we can get help in an emergency and have been putting out fires and riding in our fire engine. Next week we will have a visit from a local postman to find out how he helps our community.

We have some surprise little visitors coming to stay at Bathgate West Nursery for a few weeks. Our little hairy caterpillars are here and they already munching their way through their food. Check them out at the nursery entrance and see how quickly they grow before they begin their change into butterflies. We will be leaning about all the changes that will happen in the life cycle of a butterfly whilst we watch they change.

With our Eco Topic almost over, the children in the nursery have become Eco Warriors fighting pollution and waste in our nursery. They have been learning where our rubbish and recycling goes once it leaves the nursery and how to save our planet by recycling, reducing and reusing. Our Eco song has become a hit and reminds us of some of the ways we can help save our planet. In our garden we have been spotting and identifying a wide range of mini beasts and we have a chart to show which bugs and beasts we have seen in our garden. It’s been an busy and fun topic and we hope that some of the skills and knowledge the children have been learning can help them become responsible citizens.