Welcome

🎉️ Christmas Raffle 🎄 We would like to say a massive thank you to all the local businesses who donated prizes for our raffle, and to everyone who bought tickets. Your generosity is greatly appreciated, and from all our little people a huge thanks also for helping support the playgroup they love so much ♥️ The raffle made a wonderful £370 👏 Parent hamper 1 - Teddy Brown Parent hamper 2 - Genma mcdonald Hunter's hamper - Adrian Jebb Box of biscuits - Vanda Christmas train (Alexanders) - Kerry Shaw Hairdryer - Chris McConville Boots hamper 1 - Jill McMahon Boots hamper 2 - Kyle McCombe Muldrews voucher - Rosalie Conn Studio 44 - Debbie Nibblers - Erma law Beth simms - Jenson Gass Hunters voucher (Donated by Dylan's Mum- Razma)- Lily Whiteside Trim haus 1 - Jenna Reid Dolphin voucher - Aaron Gardiner Mart chippy - Karen Ross Trim haus 2 - Daniel Ross Bosch mixer (Dalzells)- Aria Ford Lash loft - Tanya Hazley Internet radio (Dalzells) - Glen Smyth Mullans voucher - Sharon Wilson Courtrooms voucher - Susan Elliot Sweets - Alan Shaw Wine - Syrena Barbour Gardening set - Razma The barber shop voucher - Darren gass Sara Dalzell voucher - Jenna Malcomson Village bakery voucher- Matthew Murphy Benett and Todd voucher - Jonny Whiteside Most prizes have made their way home today, we will send the remaining few home tomorrow. Thanks again to everyone for all your support ✨️

Thank you all 👏👏 we've had an amazing Christmas morning with you. We hope everyone enjoyed seeing Santa this morning, he was wonderful! 🎅 Reindeer food ready, gingerbread men decorated and lots of festive cheer along the way. Photograph permission granted for individual photos 🎄✨️

Looking forward to seeing you all at our festive Christmas morning tomorrow, parents and families welcome from 10am 🎄🎁

Admissions criteria for applications to Pre-school for September 2026 are now live. It is important that you read the published admissions criteria for each of the Pre-school settings you wish to list on your application. Please click the link to view our criteria: https://www.eani.org.uk/parents/types-of-school/school-type/pre-school/rainbow-stop-pg-markethill Applications open on EA Connect at 12 noon on 7th January 2026 for Pre-school.

Is your child due to start preschool in September 2026?✨️ Join us for our open afternoon on Thursday 15th January 2.30-3.30pm. With new standardised hours, we have so much to offer your child and family. Please see some of the important dates below to help you through the admissions process, or call the playgroup for any help you may require 🌈

🌟Stay and play week 🥳 Thank you to all our Mums, Dads, Brothers Grannys and Nannys for giving up time to share a special morning with our preschool children this week, we loved having you all here. It's been fun completing our Santa lists, baking mince pies and creating our christmas tree decorations with you all. 🎄🎁 We have also been establishing pencil grasps, while experimenting with our personal colouring sheets, these have been created from individual photographs we took of each child 📸 It's great fun to see yourself on your own colouring page! 😁 Finishing our week we would also like to say a huge thank you to Mr. Foster from Mountnorris Primary school, who came to visit us this morning to read a story to all the children and chat about what primary one is like in Mountnorris 📖

🌟Standardisation approval-September 2026🎉🌟 We are absolutely delighted to share that we have been selected as one of the preschools in Northern Ireland to offer standardisation for the coming school year, starting September 2026. This is a very welcomed decision for our preschool, and we are over the moon to be moving to full-time hours - 22.5 hours of preschool provision per week for our children. We are extremely excited about this positive change and the opportunities it will bring. Longer hours in preschool mean: ⭐️More time for rich, play-based learning ⭐️Greater consistency and routine for children ⭐️Deeper friendships and social development ⭐️More opportunities for outdoor learning and physical play ⭐️More time to support language, communication, and early literacy ⭐️Space to explore interests, build independence, and grow confidence ⭐️Smoother transitions into primary school We are thrilled with this news and look forward to meeting potential children at our open afternoon, who will be the first to experience this wonderful change with us. Please come along to see our playgroup and ask any questions you may have. 🌈 We can't wait to begin this new chapter together.

A festive morning full of fun and a magical visit with Santa in his grotto 🎅🎄 All donations will go towards our expanding outdoor provision 🙌🙏

The Smeds and the Smoos ❤️💙=💜 What a wonderful story! This week we continued exploring Space with lots of science experiments and very messy jumpers.. Fizzing, popping and colour mixing, as we explored World Around Us & Early Mathematics within our curriculum. We developed language concepts, as well as thinking and reasoning, as we investigated open ended materials. How amazing are, our pre-schoolers Rockets.. 🚀 Definitely amazing enough to take all our imaginations to the Moon 🌙 🌚 🌔