Sunderland nursery holds 'Rainbow Ride Bye' to say farewell to children in wake of crisis

Mill Hill Nursery School Nursery staff line up for the send off.

Mill Hill Nursery, in Torphin Hill Drive, Sunderland, decided it didn’t want to end the year without saying a farewell to its children, and came up with a different way to mark the day while sticking to measures to keep everyone safe from the risk of coronavirus.

The team created their own posters and banners to hold up as the youngsters and their families drove by, touching on the Bee Kind project the school has created to help its pupils learn about looking after each other and bees, sparked by one youngster’s fascination with the insects.

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Classes were given a time to join in the “Rainbow Ride Bye” to help keep traffic flowing as they drover by the nursery, which takes babies up to four-year-olds, with the teachers and staff lining the street to wave them by.

Jamie Liddle, one of the nursery’s teachers, said: “Since the school closed down and then opened again, we’ve only had 30 to 40 of our children back, when we would normally have 90.

"It is fully safe, but some parents have decided to keep their children off, which is their choice.

"Because we haven’t seen a lot of the children, we invited them in very small groups to come by and see their teacher.

Families were given a time to drive by the nursery to say goodbye.

"We wanted to have a big celebration but we couldn’t have a big crowd because of the current circumstances, but this was a way to still do something.

"We still wanted to bring them together and it’s a hugely important step for them.

"We’ve spent half a year really building strong relationships with the children, we’ve really got to know and love them, and this is a bit of closure for them as well as they move on.