The last few days over on Facebook we’ve seen something is coming soon, change is in the air that we’ve been hinting at for the last couple of months…
You will have seen on the news numerous reports of the education funding crisis which is impacting settings throughout the UK but especially here in Northern Ireland, as we are funded less than England to start with and are facing a 10 – 12% cut for the incoming year. This has forced numerous settings like ours to close meaning thousands of essential places for pre-school children have been lost. These impacts are also being felt for children in need of special school settings with places missing for hundreds of children just in NI.
For the team here pre-school is not just an essential part of a child’s introduction to education, but an essential building block of who they are going to become.
For me personally I still remember my time in play school in a Salvation Army centre in Belfast some 45 years ago, yikes! We did arts and crafts, rode trikes, built forts out of boxes and cushions under the piano, had awesome ladybird books read to us by Mrs Faulkner and more. I learned how to work with others, importantly how to make friends, built confidence doing drama all before I got to school and it made P1 and beyond a breeze.
So despite the growing impacts on the pre-school sector and education as a whole we are not giving ground on what we feel is important for children, even if the government is waning in its commitment. So do we shrink in the face of all of this, no, we get bigger, brighter, stronger.
Change is a good thing, everything evolves to meet new challenges and Chirpy Chicks which got a new lease on life in 2016 when it faced closure, was due to turn the page on the next chapter of its evolution in 2020, but the world went a little haywire for the best part of a year. Now it’s time to take the best parts of what’s been built so far and make a bigger world of adventure for the little ones in our care.
So for the new term the Chirpy Chicks 🐥 are becoming part of something new..
Our new EVERGREEN WOOD PLAYSCHOOL website is live, our Facebook Page has a new look and we’ve a brand new page on Instagram 🌲😊. There’s lots of fun planned for the year ahead with special friends coming to visit like Summer the Therapy Horse, Hawk Walks NI and more. We’ll be out in nature even more than usual and we’ll hopefully be getting some new places to play with Council plans for a nature park near the Village Hall, and we’re working with the Village Hall to (fingers crossed) renovate the building and get a brand new dedicated space for ourselves.
So there’s exciting things to come and with the first day back Friday August 25th we’ll have an Open Morning and Parent’s Information Evening closer to the time with more news on that to follow.
On our brand new website at www.evergreenwoodplayschool.com you’ll find updated contact details and lots of information about everything that’s new and about what pre-school education is all about.
Our social media has also changed with the Chirpy Chicks Facebook Page transforming into our new look and you’ll find us there and on Instagram as well by looking up @evergreenwoodplayschool.
The Chirpy Chicks website will stay live until early 2024 for anyone looking to collect pictures from the News section over there, and old email addresses still work too so we don’t miss any enquiries.
The Chirpy Chicks will be having fun at the heart of Evergreen Wood with some new characters for the children to enjoy that we’ll introduce over the next few weeks, and our Happy @ Home blog is also up and running with some activities to do when Playschool is closed for the summer.
The whole Evergreen Team 🌲 can’t wait to start a brand new adventure with our new class of Playschool pioneers and keep an eye on our website and social media for more news as we get ready to start back in late August. Until then have a great summer and we’ll see you soon down in Evergreen Wood! ☀️😊
Kind regards
Nick
Owner, Evergreen Wood Playschool 🌲
