At Holmsdale we have lots of pets! We believe that spending time with animals is important to help children develop an understanding of how to treat other living things. They also help children begin to understand the need of all living things for water and food among other things. Most importantly, the children love to spend time watching, handling and caring for the animals.

At Holmsdale we have;

Two donkeys, Hettie and Bullseye, who we adopted from the Donkey Sanctuary.

Lots of chickens, who give us plenty of eggs! some of the chickens are ex-commercial chickens, who we have offered a retirement home to. Others were hatched at the nursery, which the children love to watch!

In the rooms we have various pets including fish, Giant African Land Snails (GALS) and occasionally we raise butterflies!

Children have enjoyed watching ducklings and chicks hatch, either after incubating them in one of the classrooms, or letting the chickens sit on the eggs! The chicks and ducklings visited other rooms and were extremely popular! A few of them moved in with families at the nursery once they grew up, the rest stayed with us.

During the spring the children like to watch as frogspawn from our pond slowly changes into tadpoles, then froglets, then finally frogs. We also take opportunities to learn about animals around us, for example going on bug hunts at Forest School. Worms, slugs and clusters of ladybirds often cause lots of excitement!

 

To find out more  about the nursery please click on the headings on the left of this page.

To contact us please call 01530 262434, email on jenny@holmsdalemanor.co.uk or click here for more details