Nursery Funding for Outdoor Play Area

In the summer, the Windmill Nursery at the Regen Centre, Riccall was awarded £7000 from North Yorkshire County Council to improve its outdoor play provision.

The grant from North Yorkshire’s Early Years and Childcare Service is part of a £2.2million initiative to support private, voluntary and independent settings in making improvements to their outdoor provision in order to provide quality outdoor play. Windmill Nursery has now completed its work on its outdoor play area. New fencing, equipment and a garden area have been provided.

Nursery manager, Christine Gardiner, said that ‘the new facilities have enabled us to develop further our outdoor play, so that children can really benefit from the experiences that can be provided outdoors’.

As part of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum for the under fives, children are expected to play and learn outdoors for at least 50% of their time whilst in childcare.

Windmill Nursery is a small nursery in the Riccall Regen Centre. It caters for up to 18 children from 3 months to 5 years old. It recently received a ‘Good’ Offsted report’

Fantastic Flower and Veg Show 09

A big thank you to everyone who entered the show, sponsored the classes and helped on the day.

Overall, the number of flower entries was down this year but that was probably due to the inclement (very wet) weather we have had in recent weeks. There were lots of vegetables with some very fine entries. Also a tasty selection of Baking entries. Handicrafts and photos were also reduced in numbers but nevertheless some excellent craft entries, including a turned wooden goblet produced by Jack Coverdale which won the “Best in Show” trophy. Well done Jack.

There was a good turnout of people looking round the exhibits and I received some very positive comments on the Show.

Good news also for the continuation of the Show in future years. As I announced earlier this is the last year I will be organizing the show (after being involved for around 15-16 years). I am grateful to the individuals who approached me on the day to offer their support in running it from next year. I will be arranging a meeting in the New Year to pass on information and look forward to a very successful show for many years to come continuing a well established village event.

If anyone would like to volunteer to help in any way – sponsoring, judging or helping on the day please get in touch.

Once again thank you – the show couldn’t happen without your hard work.

Nursery Celebrations

The Windmill Nursery at the Riccall Regen Centre has a double cause to celebrate. It has received a grant of nearly £7000 from North Yorkshire CC to update its outdoor play area. Also, it has been given a good Ofsted report for providing strong provision in all areas examined.

Nursery Manager, Christine Gardiner, said that the revamped outdoor play area should be ready later this month and would greatly improve the facilities available to the children.

Christine was extremely pleased with the Ofsted report, which said that ‘the needs of the children are met highly effectively as staff recognise the uniqueness of each child.’

The Nursery was praised for being ‘well led and managed’ with a staff team that is ‘enthusiastic and trained to a high level.’

The Windmill Nursery will be holding an ‘open afternoon’ as part of the Riccall Carnival Fun Day from 1pm to 5pm on Saturday, June 27.

Hercules wows Riccall

The Riccallish Allsorts latest Pantomime – Hercules – which was staged in early February and was a great success. The audience responded well to having an unusual and different pantomime story.

The chorus, choreographed by Sally Corbally, put huge energy into their main production numbers Comedy Tonight, YMCA and Venus.

The production was well cast, with Rhys Chamberlain as the nervous Gryphon trying hard to make friends with Mackenzie Crompton’s spoilt Princess Wanda. Neil Swain’s Dame injected pace and an edgy comedy to the show – you never feel entirely safe when Neil’s on stage – and Lisa Rowntree as Narcissus was the perfect comic partner for the dame.

Craig Hodgson as Hercules added muscle, and Richard Pike as the evil Cyclops was the pantomime Baddie. Even Elvis made a brief appearance – who was that?

Mike Maczuga and his band’s live music was welcomed by the audience, and Pat Davison stage crew kept the production moving slickly along.

Lucie Burton, Chloe Swain and Laura Dinnewell as the three fates added glamour to the show – although they were always happier after the fireworks had gone off!

Amy Dicks, Stephanie Fyfe and Emily Munden had their first main speaking parts as the Greek Chorus and rose well to the challenge.

Singing – dancing – comedy – pyrotechnics – a live band – it was a big production for us, and proved a great night out for the audience.

Whatever next?

New facilities at the Regen Centre

Riccall Regen Centre has received a grant of £500 from the Selby Eastern Area Community Investment Partnership (CIP) towards the cost of converting a redundant IT suite into three smaller areas – an IT room, a formal meeting room (The Office) and an informal meeting area, which will also house the Riccall Community Archive.

Bernard Farrall, the Vice Chair of the CIP, said that they were very pleased to be the helping with the further development of facilities at the Regen Centre. Howard Adamson, the Vice Chair of the Regen Centre, said that the Centre was grateful for the continuing support of the CIP and that the conversion will enable the Centre to offer the local and business communities the facilities that they are seeking at a cost they can afford.