ECO SCHOOL 2025-2026

Tasty Apples

We have had a lots of apples this year with all of the trees bearing fruit.  The children were able to go out and help pick some lovely red juicy apples and bring them back into the classroom. After washing and chopping them, they enjoyed tasting them for their snack. Chocolate apples went down a treat!

People who help us

Dentist: We had Dentist Kerry visit the nursery. She came into school and spoke to the children about how to brush their teeth, and what things we should and should not eat to keep teeth and gums healthy. The children were all able to take home a new toothbrush and some toothpaste.

Forest School Activities and Autumn Castlecoole Trip

Enniskillen Nursery School is a Forest school. Mrs McBride organised some great activities for us over two days.

We also went to Castlecoole for an autumn walk with our teachers and our parents or grandparents. We rustled through the autumn leaves with our feet. We made a nest of leaves to allow our hedgehog to hibernate in during the winter.

Mrs Humphreys brought an owl. We had to look out for the owl which she had hidden in the tree. Mrs Humphreys read us the book- 'Owl Babies' before we went on our walk. We threw leaves in the air and allowed them to flutter down on our heads. We looked up through the autumn trees at the blue sky. We visited the stick house. We added more sticks to the house. We then played in the lovely new play park at Castlecoole.

Santa Mile a day!

The children and their parents had an early morning walk on Friday, 5th December. They met with staff before school and did a Santa Mile. We were full of energy coming to school.

Winter Walk at Castlecoole

We returned to Castlecoole for our winter Walk. We had received a letter from Santa to say that he was on his way to the nursery but it was windy and the baubles he was bringing us for our tree had fallen off the sleigh. The tree he was bringing us was ok but we had to go to Castlecooole to find the baubles for the tree. Luckily he left us a map and that helped us on our search. 

At Castlecoole we noticed that the leaves had now fallen off the trees. It was now Winter.  We had hot chocolate and gingerbread men at Castlecoole House.... and we found the baubles and brought them back to school.

Red Rock Friday

Friday 7th February was Red Rock Day in school. The children all came to school, wearing something red and brought some money for the Children’s Heartbeat Trust.

We had lots of lovely healthy red fruit and vegetables for our snack and did some exercises to get our hearts beating faster. The children decorated red hearts in the classroom and took them home to talk about our interesting day. 

PSNI Safe Walking

Two policemen came with their car and bicycle to practice safe walking with the children. We all put on a coat and a high viz vest to get ready. We held hands with a friend. Then we headed out the front of the school with a policeman leading the way. Another policeman was at the back on his police bicycle. We learned that we must always hold a hand when walking beside a road. It is very important not to walk near the edge of the footpath and we must try to stay in close to the buildings. When we returned to school, the children all received a certificate to say they could walk safely. They also had a chance to sit in the police car and push the lights and siren.

Spring Flowers

We have noticed the lovely daffodils nodding their heads in the breeze around our school. It is exciting to see our daffodils grow. The children picked some daffodils for Mrs Humphreys and made a beautiful posy for her desk.

Herbs Deadheaded

We trimmed our herbs in our planters. There was lots of old dead wood and dead stems. New stems will grow and we look forward to using the herbs in our kitchen in school and in our mud kitchen outside.

Polytunnel is Ready

Our polytunnel is ready for planting. Robert's grandad has been a busy bee working hard to get all the soil in the planters. He made the planters and then lined them. We placed twigs at the bottom and cardboard. These will decompose and make lovely mulch. We had lots of twigs lying around after the storm and cardboard from our parcels. Then we put the soil on top. The beds are now ready for planting.

Robert's grandad also made two windows for our polytunnel with levers which will automatically open when the temperature in the polytunnel is too high in the summer. 

He also moved our water butts and linked them to the spouting and drainpipe near the polytunnel. The water butts will collect our rainwater. He connected a hose to the water butts and now we will be able to water our plants in the polytunnel with rainwater which we have collected. Our plants will love the natural rainwater and we will save water by not using our ordinary tap.

Eco Week in Nursery

Every year we devote a week to ECO activities. This year the week: Monday 9th- Friday 13th March was ECO Week. We have been thinking about how we can look after our planet. The children enjoyed a variety of activities including making seed bombs and bird feeders, planting cress seeds and potatoes, learning about caring for creatures, and exploring ways to reuse and recycle materials.

Learning Through Play

In our play, we used junk materials in the sand and water trays to show that everyday items can have lots of different uses, and we also chose to use natural resources instead of plastic ones where possible.

Exploring Nature and Recycling

We had a brilliant week taking part in a variety of activities to celebrate eco-week. The children were busy planting cress seeds; they made seed bombs to grow wildflowers; and threaded cheerios to make a snack for the birds around their home. Through these activities, the children have explored ways in which we can look after nature.

We have also discussed the concept of recycling- the boys and girls do a great job each day placing their food waste into our class food bins. They have all taken food bags home as an encouragement to continue this aspect of recycling at home.

Throughout this week, the children have used recyclable materials in their artwork and even made new crayons by placing old crayons into moulds and melting them.

Teamwork and Outdoor Learning

Outside, they planted potatoes with Mrs Mullan, working as a team to put compost into sacks and placing the potatoes inside before covering them over. We are excited to see how they grow over the coming weeks!

Discovering Life Cycles

We had frogspawn arrive into Nursery and the children are delighted to have them in class. They love using the magnifying glasses to look closely at the frogspawn and tadpoles and have already developed a greater understanding of the different stages in the frog life cycle. We can’t wait to see how they continue to change throughout the spring season!

Green-Themed Day

On Friday of ECO Week, it was our green-themed day to complete our celebration of eco-week. It was fantastic to see everyone wearing green! In play, the children enjoyed creating shapes with our green, glittery playdough, and made pictures with different green materials.
They had a yummy green-themed snack: grapes, pears, kiwi, peppers and apple…even the milk turned green for the day!

Walk to School Day at Enniskillen Nursery School

Our nursery children enjoyed taking part in Walk to School Day. We set off from Tesco and walked together across to the nursery, making sure to stop carefully at the zebra crossing along the way.

Our little walkers looked fantastic in their bright hi-viz vests, helping us stay safe and easy to see as we travelled.

It was a lovely opportunity to practise road safety, walking together, and enjoying some fresh air before the start of our nursery day.  Well done to all our brilliant walkers! 

Wear Green Day

We finished our wonderful ECO Week at Enniskillen Nursery School with our Wear Green Day.

The nursery was filled with so many lovely shades of green — green jumpers, green tops, green hairbands and lots of bright smiles! 

Thank you to all our families for helping the children take part and celebrate caring for our world. Everyone looked fantastic today! What a lovely way to finish a very special ECO Week.

ECO SCHOOL 2024-2025

Tasty Apples

We have had a great season for our apples this year with all of the trees bearing fruit.  The children were able to go out and help pick some lovely red juicy apples and bring them back into the classroom. After washing and chopping them in the house, they enjoyed tasting them for our snack.

Bulb Planting

The children have all been busy helping to plant some daffodil bulbs. They were all able to fill their own pot with compost and make a little bed for the bulb. We planted it roots down and once we had covered it over with soil,  we gave the plants a big drink of water before we took them home to care for and watch them grow.

Forest School

Everyone enjoyed taking part in the forest school activities organised by Mrs McBride in the playground.

The children had opportunities to observe colour in the environment and match items they found to individual colour cards.

They explored mark making using soil and sticks for drawing and even painted with leaf brushes. Finally, they helped the hedgehog hide by making him a cozy bed of leaves.

Santa Mile a day!

The children and their parents had an early morning walk on Friday, the 6th of December.

They met with staff before school and did a Santa Mile. Everyone taking part really got into the Christmas spirit and were full of very energy coming to school.

RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch!!

Due to the storm, we had to change the day of our bird watch.

The children all had great fun making binoculars and bird feeders in preparation for the big day. There was a lot of fine motor skill learning involved in cutting, buttering, tying and rolling to make everything we needed.

There was a lot of excitement as we waited for the birds to visit our playground.

Unfortunately we only managed to see some pigeons, crows and magpies.

However, by looking at all the books and pictures we had in school, the children have now learnt quite a few bird names and are able to recognise them.

Poly tunnel excitement !!!

At last our poly tunnel was delivered and installed in the front of school this week. The men were very busy and worked hard to get it finished in one day.

We are now looking forward to being able to get on with the project and start our planting.

People who help us

This year we have been very lucky and some parents with interesting jobs have come in to talk to us.

Dentists: We had two mummies who are dentists come to visit .They came into school and spoke to the children about how to brush your teeth, and what things we should and should not eat to keep our teeth and gums healthy. The children were all able to take home a new toothbrush and some toothpaste.

Doctors: As part of healthy heart week, a doctor came into school to visit us.  She talked to the children about her job. She explained how their hearts are always beating and they gets faster when they do exercise and the noise that it makes is “lub dub”.

The children were able to use a stethoscope to listen to a heartbeat.

They also had their pulse and blood pressure checked using special equipment.

Red Rock Friday

Friday 7th February was Red Rock Day in school. The children all came to school, wearing something red and brought some money for the Children’s Heartbeat Trust.

We had lots of lovely healthy red fruit and vegetables for our snack and did some exercises to get our hearts beating faster.

Dr Rachel came to visit and talked about how to keep our hearts healthy by eating good food and doing some exercise every day.

The children decorated red hearts in the classroom and took them home to talk about our interesting day.

PSNI Safe Walking 2025

Two policemen came with their car to practice safe walking with the children. We all put on a coat and a high viz vest to get ready. We held hands with a friend. Then we headed out the front of the school with a policeman leading the way.

We learned that we must always hold a hand when walking beside a road. It is very important not to walk near the edge of the footpath and we must try to stay in close to the buildings.

When we returned to school, the children all received a certificate to say they could walk safely.

They also had a chance to sit in the police car and push the lights and siren.

NI Water Visit 2025

Anna Killen from NI Water Service came to school today and talked to the children about where our water comes from. The children enjoyed being scientists along with Susie Scientist (her toy) and helped her to clean the dirty water using sand filter magic. She introduced them to H2O the raindrop super hero.

We all learned what to do so we don’t waste water:

• Turn off taps when brushing our teeth
• Have a shower instead of a bath.

She explained that we should make sure rubbish goes in the bin and not down the toilet to stop it ending up in the rivers and sea and making our animals sick. We also learned how important it is to drink nice clean water.

RNLI Visit

This week we had a visit from the RNLI.  Peter came to talk to the girls and boys about being safe near water and about his job and how he helps people who are in trouble.

He had his stormy Stan, the lifeboat man puppet, with him and he brought with him the big woolly bear suit that he wears to keep warm underneath the dry suit which he needs when he is on the lifeboat. The dry suit even has Wellington boots attached to it.

He explained to the children that if they are at the beach and in trouble or lost they should go and find a lifeguard who is there to help them. He showed them the lifeguard uniform. He told them that if they are in a boat they should always wear a life jacket to be safe.

The children were able to try on real RNLI helmets and child sized yellow coats. He even had small pretend lifejackets to dress up in.

Eco Week

We had a very busy week in school for our Eco week. The children took part in lots of different activities, thinking about how to look after our planet.

We all learned how to take care of nature by planting some seeds and beans in school.

The children were able to take home reusable water bottles and bags. This was teaching them how to recycle and save waste.

We had a great turn out for our walk to school morning with parents and children meeting together at Tesco’s, highlighting the carbon footprint caused by cars and fumes.

The week was finished off with our 'Wear Green Be Green Day'.

Everyone enjoyed dressing in something green and taking part in green activities throughout the day. We even had green food for snack!

Planting!!!

This week we have started to plant our seeds in preparation for the beds in the poly tunnel. The children enjoyed helping to plant lettuce, peppers, peas and radishes. We also planted some special magic beans and look how big they have grown.

The children helped to fill the potato sacks with compost ready for our seed potatoes. We hope to have lots to eat this year!!

More planting (May)

The children were very excited to help plant tomato, plants and strawberries. There was a lot of water needed as the weather is so hot at the moment, but they’re enjoying smelling the tomato plants in the conservatory.

The raised beds are in progress for the poly tunnel, and we have a vine and other vegetables ready to plant.

ECO SCHOOL 2023-2024

Juicy Apples

In September we were able to pick the lovely red apples that had grown on our apple trees at the front of school. We made delicious apple crumble with them and everyone enjoyed having some for snack.

Planting Daffodils

October has started and we are busy with our planting. The children have all planted their own daffodil bulb in school and taken it home to look after and watch grow.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2024

We all had a very busy time in school this week getting ready for the Birdwatch. Lots of the children helped to make different types of bird feeders. We used cheerios, bagels with lard and sunflower seeds and tubes with birdseed on them.

In class we spent time looking at books and pictures of birds. We talked about what they eat, how they move and why they need extra food at this time of the year. Some of the children were able to name the Robin, Blackbird and Magpie.

It was very exciting watching to see what birds came to our playground to eat. We saw lots of Great Tits and Magpies. Mrs McBride loaded our results onto the RSPB website.

NI Water Visit

At the beginning of February we had a very informative visit and talk from Anna who works for education in NI Water. We learned how water is collected and cleaned using sand, which she showed us with a bottle and filter.

She told the children all about how we need to save water and not waste it at home and in school. Anna explained how lots of things we drink have too much sugar in them and that we should drink lots more water to be healthy.

Safe Walking

This month we have been learning how to walk safely when we are out beside the road with a grown up. The Police came to school to help us practice this. The children all learned that we must hold someone’s hand and stay on the pavement, away from the edge that is near the road.

The Police came back in February and we went for another walk to see if we could be safe beside the road. All the children walked very well and received a Safe Walking Certificate from the Policeman.

Eco Week 4th - 8th March 2024

This week the children have been learning more about taking care of the environment and their world. Each day we have been thinking about how we can re use things, save water, recycle and help prevent pollution. 

We took home a shower timer, a reusable drawstring bag, a beach quiz, a reusable water bottle and we walked to school together one morning.

Planting Cress 2024

We are currently unable to do all the flower and vegetable planting that we normally do at this time of the year due to the ongoing work in the playground. So the children all helped to grow some cress in the classroom. They each individually sewed their own cress seeds in little pots and will be able to take them home once the seeds begin to germinate. 
This was a different experience for the children as we didn’t need any soil!!!!

New Life 2024

We have been very lucky this year to have the opportunity to have some eggs in an incubator in the classroom. The children have patiently waited and last week we had 5 little chicks hatch out. Everyone was very excited and we watched them grow before they went back to the farm.

Again this year, we had some caterpillars in school and observed how they grew and changed into cocoons and then beautiful butterflies which we were able to release in the garden.

Busy Bees!!! (May 2024)

The new playground is really taking shape now and, with the help of a very dedicated parent volunteer, we have managed to transplant some of our original plants and add many new ones to our new wooden planters. 

The children have also been busy planting some flowers in our troughs and we have got some new hanging baskets with strawberries and tomatoes growing in our conservatory.

ECO SCHOOLS 2022-2023

Autumn: Planting Daffodil Bulbs

We have been focusing on the season of Autumn in school and the changes that we see in nature. The children enjoyed getting involved in lots of outdoor learning activities.

Some of these are Forest School based which we have been able to carry out in our playground. 
The children were matching colours in nature, collecting natural materials for 1 to 1 correspondence and being creative hiding the hedgehog.

Later in the year we hope to visit Forthill park to further develop and explore our Forest School area.

The children have been very busy in school working outside in the garden helping to brush up the leaves and get ready for planting. It’s the right time of the year to do some planting for Spring.

We had great fun filling our pots with soil and planting daffodil bulbs. Everyone took their own pot home to look after and watch the flower grow in Spring. 

January: RSPB Big School Garden Bird Watch

This week we all took part in the RSPB Big School Garden Bird Watch. We had already been busy making our own binoculars in class ready for this event.

The children all helped to make bird feeders which we hung around outside on the trees. We also put bird seed on the bird table and waited. There was a lot of excitement when the first birds were spotted and the counting began.

Once we had finished and recorded our results we uploaded them onto the RSPB website. The children enjoyed learning the names of different birds and we talked about the different colours and sizes of those birds that landed in our playground.

Spring flowers 

When it was Spring, we started to tidy up the garden and do some planting. The children all enjoyed helping and will be learning how to look after the flowers.

Working in the Vegetable Garden 

What a busy few weeks we have had in school now that the weather is getting warmer. The children have all been helping to get our vegetable garden ready for planting. They were clearing away the leaves and weeds before turning over the soil in preparation for planting.

This year we have three potato sacks started with earlys.

The children enjoyed putting the individual peas into each hole they dug and counting them as we went along.

We have also added some lettuce seeds and more strawberry plants so hopefully there will be plenty to enjoy eating.

 We also planted tomato plants in grow bags. They are in our conservatory. They are already smelling gorgeous in the conservatory. Now we will all have to remember to water everything and look after them!

Summer: Planting Sunflowers (National flower of Ukraine)

All the children planted their own sunflower seeds and took them home to look after. They are excited to see if the flowers will grow taller than they are.

Looking after our plants

We have been very busy looking after all of the flowers, fruit and vegetables which we planted in school. They need sunshine to help them grow and we have helped to water them using rain water from our water butts. 

Tree planting 

It is exciting to see how big our trees have have grown already. They are growing strong and tall. Can you guess what sort of trees have the pretty blossom on them?

Growing fast !!!!!!!

Look at how well our fruit and vegetable plants are growing. The potato plants are almost as tall as some of the children.

The children have already been enjoying the strawberries and with some more sunshine the rest will turn red quickly. Our broad beans are getting bigger each day and we will be able to pick them soon too.

Look at what we grew!!!!!

The children in school have really looked after our fruit and vegetables this year. With the very hot weather we had to do lots of extra watering but it worked and so far we have harvested our potatoes and strawberries. Which were really yummy.
The peas are still growing and our tomatoes have appeared, some of them are beginning to turn red already.