We have been to visit our local market traders – engaging in the hustle and bustle of the town centre that occurs every Thursday.
 
We visited to buy fruits and vegetables for use at nursery, on our travels we enjoyed music from buskers, they even played special requests for us! The children had a ball dancing in the Brittox as passers-by were enchanted by their joy.
 
This is such a lovely trip to do again and again with our children, every trip offers something new to see, questions to be asked and things to learn. 

At Heathcote House, we love to be a part of our local community and this project was no different.
 
The staff and children enjoyed working collaboratively to create a wonderful HUGE heart ‘mobile’ style masterpiece. We worked with the children, making hearts of varying sizes using willow and decorating with tissue paper and smiley photos of our gorgeous children. This was all strung together by Mrs Goodman, hanging from a fallen tree branch, found in our own mini woodland space and delivered ready for installation.
 
Being an active part of the local community in which you live and grow up in is hugely important, the children being able to spot a little bit of themselves or their nursery group when out shopping in town offers a lovely sense of belonging and achievement as well as offering subject for conversation with extended family and friends.
 
We have a taken a few walks down to The Shambles to look up at all the wonderful displays created by individuals, families and other community groups, showing the children where to find it and take their adults.
 
Art work can be seen on display early December until Valentines Day. 

With the help and hard graft put in by the incredible volunteers of the Devizes in Bloom committee we have created a truly wonderful space where magic happens!
 
The children at Heathcote House Nursery LOVE the outdoors and we had an abundance of space. We were really keen to kick start our journey of growing with our children, showing them and helping them to understand food, where it comes from, how it grows and what wonderful things we can produce as a team if we worked together. Albert and his team of wonderful volunteers came and put in lots of hard work (we supplied the tea!) to help us get set up and the results have been wonderful.
Our children have really enjoyed rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty in our allotment space. They have planted, watered, weeded, and observed growth and change throughout the spring and summer months before reaping the rewards during the early Autumn. We grew potatoes, leaks, beans, chives, raspberries, the children harvested them, washed and chopped the veggies, prepared stock and put all of the ingredients into the slow cooker, by teatime it was cooked and ready to enjoy! All of the children loved the soup, most having a second helping and there was a great sense of pride and achievement that the children from being part of the entire process.
 
We also grew and looked after a wonderful selection of flowers, giving lots of colour and dimension to our plot, Cosmos, Crocosmia, Honeysuckle, Hydrangea, Hollyhocks, Daisies, Sunflowers and Verbena.
 
We can’t wait to get the ground and raised beds prepared and get started on our 2023 crops! 

Our Rising Stars children have benefited from regular yoga sessions with the lovely Maxine. They spend 30 minutes focusing on calmness, mindfulness, breathing and enjoying slowing down while having their own space to be still.
 
The children have really embraced these gentle sessions, enjoying seeing Maxine each week and engaging in a new story or theme each session.
 
We look forward to welcoming her back this term on a different day to allow more of our children to engage in her sessions.