Birthdays are very important rites of passage for children, and each year marks a new coming of age. We do fun, but low key!  Many children at Rainbow will have their very first birthday whilst they are with us, marking the end of their first year on earth. A very special time indeed! We want to help parents, families and children to celebrate birthdays at Rainbow and be part of sharing in this special time with our Rainbow families.

Some parents and families choose to keep birthday celebrations out of nursery – and that’s FINE! There is no obligation at all to have a celebration at Rainbow, but for some families – they really relish the opportunity for a small celebration in the nursery. We are flexible!

If you do decide that you would like to join us to celebrate your child’s birthday, you can discuss this with your child’s key-worker or the unit team leader. Birthday celebrations are always included on a Thursday afternoon at the end of week circle, and incoperarated into our Shabbat Shalom activity.

We will sing birthday songs for your child, they will wear our birthday crown made from leaves (or paper) and flowers! 

Some parents choose get involved with the celebration! That’s also fine. Please spend a few minutes talking to the nursery staff to organise how you want to do this, and what you would like to do.

But here are some general guidelines, so that we all have the same expectations:

• Any celebration at nursery, should not be a replacement for a child’s party, we do not hold ‘parties’ in the nursery, we hold small celebrations.

• Celebrations take part  at the end of the day on a Thursday; around 3:45 – feel free to discuss in more detail with the staff

• Many parents want to bring a cake, we prefer that instead you bring some special fruit, or more healthy alternatives to cakes. Click here for some GREAT ideas. However, if you insist on cake, then we it must be healthy, ideally home made and very plain. It cannot contain any nuts, chocolate  (and of course no coffee, alcohol, marzipan or icing!). We have some GREAT recipes for low-sugar healthy options, which we prefer you to use. Click here to see them!

• No other food apart from fruit (and cake, if you wish) should be brought into the nursery

• Please refrain from bringing small gifts to give out to each child, instead you may wish to bring something for the gan, dedicated to their child’s birthday, like a special book for the book corner.
• In the baby unit – we don’t allow any cake at all