Bispham Endowed Church of England Primary School

Bispham Endowed Church of England Primary School

Headteacher: Mrs J Hirst

Bispham Road, Bispham, Blackpool, FY2 0HH

Telephone Number: 01253 354672 Fax Number: 01253 596732

Email:

School Website: www.bispham-endowed.blackpool.sch.uk

NURSERY INFORMATION 2017-2018

Nursery Information

We have gathered together a wide range of useful information from our Nursery prospectus and from school newsletters to compile this information booklet. Please keep it handy and use it as a reference and guide to our Nursery routines and procedures throughout the school year.

Headlines

This is our weekly newsletter which is published on the ‘Home Page’ and on the ‘Latest News’ section of our school website (www.bispham-endowed.blackpool.sch.uk) on a Wednesday. A text message is sent to all parents and carers advising them when the newsletter has been published. The newsletter, which is numbered and dated, is usually one or two sides long and aims to keep you up to date with Nursery/school events and news and other important matters.

School Web Site

Our school web site is easily accessible via the internet at:

www.bispham-endowed.blackpool.sch.uk.

The website is designed to keep parents and carers and the wider community up to date and informed about Nursery/school news, events and celebrations. Our blogs, our weekly newsletter and other letters that are sent home can be found on the ‘Latest News’ page.

Nursery and School Staff and School Governors

A full up to date list of all the staff who work in Nursery and in school and all the members of our School Governing Board is on our school web site. Parents and carers are also informed of staff changes during the school year, either by letter or via Headlines.

Home-Nursery Partnership

We really value the very positive partnership we have with our parents, carers and families. Any ideas or suggestions you may have are always welcome. We are happy to keep in touch with you via personal contact, telephone calls or email via our school web site. We also have a school text messaging service, provided by Teachers2Parents, which enables us to keep in touch with all our families who have a mobile phone. Please note however that the text messaging service is not able to receive replies to text messages sent from school.

Worries or Concerns

If you or your child has a worry or concern about anything in Nursery please do let us know. A good person to talk to first is your child’s teacher as they know most about your child and their routines and activities. You are also welcome to speak to Mrs Hirst, our Headteacher or Mrs McCormick, our Deputy Headteacher or Mrs Bell and Miss Haslam, our Assistant Headteachers about any matter to do with your child and Nursery.

Emergency Contact Details

Please could you let us know immediately of any changes to your child’s emergency contact details – particularly mobile telephone numbers. It is vital that we can contact someone easily at any time of the school day.

Change of Address

If you move house or change telephone numbers during the year, please complete a ‘Change of Information’ form which is available from the School Office.

Paying Money to School

To help the School Office Team please could we ask you to:

·  Put Nursery fees etc. in separate envelopes clearly marked with your child’s name, the item e.g. nursery fees and the amount enclosed.

·  If possible please send the correct amount of money.

Packed Lunches

Packed lunches must be put in a proper plastic or material lunch box and not a plastic carrier bag as these are easily squashed. All packed lunch boxes should be clearly marked on the outside with their owner’s name. Drinks should be in a carton or small, screw top, unbreakable container (no cans or glass bottles) and should not be fizzy pop or fizzy water. If your child has a yoghurt or dessert in their packed lunch, please include a spoon to eat it with. We promote healthy eating in the Nursery and would be grateful if you would encourage your child to have a healthy packed lunch too! Please avoid sending sweets or chocolate bars. As we have children in school who have severe nut allergies, please do not send any items of food in your child’s packed lunch that contain either nuts or peanuts e.g. peanut butter or Snickers bars.

Healthy Eating and Drinking

As a school we encourage and promote healthy eating and drinking. Blackpool Council currently provides all children in the Nursery with a ‘bread product’, a piece of fresh fruit and a carton of milk for their breakfast/mid-day snack. Nursery children are also provided with a piece of fresh fruit through the Government’s National Fruit and Vegetable. All children are also encouraged to bring a named plastic bottle or drink container of still, unflavoured water to drink. We would recommend the ‘sports type’ bottles with non-spill tops as being the most suitable for the children to use as water bottles. Our own ‘Bispham Endowed water bottles’ are available from the School Office, price £1 each. Please could you take your child’s bottle or container home to be cleaned each day. Please do not send any other food, snacks or drinks into Nursery with your child.

Nursery Times and Supervision

Nursery sessions officially begin at 8:45 a.m. and 12 noon and the doors to the Nursery are opened at these times. Before these times parents and carers are responsible for supervising their child whilst in the Nursery grounds or the school grounds. Please keep your child with you at all times and do not allow them to play in the Nursery outdoor area or play on the school entrance steps and ramp. Please could you make sure that your child is collected on time when their Nursery session ends as young children do get very upset if all their friends have gone and they are ‘left behind’. Children who are not in the Nursery by 9:00 a.m. or 12 noon are regarded as being late for Nursery.

Nursery Security

For the safety and security of the whole school community the whole school site is sealed off with locked gates during school hours. The large grey gate at the entrance to the Nursery is locked at 9.05 a.m. each morning and is then unlocked again at 11.50a.m. for the departure of the morning children and the arrival of the afternoon children. The gate is locked again at 12.10 p.m. and is then unlocked at 2.55 p.m. If your child arrives at Nursery after the gate has been locked you will need to report to the School Office. Access to the Nursery during nursery session hours is via the main school entrance doors only.

Collecting Children from Nursery

Please inform us if your child is going to be met from Nursery by a person who does not usually collect them. Children should only be collected from Nursery by a responsible adult and not by an older brother or sister.

Appointments in Nursery Time

If an appointment in Nursery time for the doctor, dentist etc. is unavoidable, please send a written note to your child’s key worker on or before the day of the appointment, confirming the time at which your child will be collected and who they will be collected by.

Absence from Nursery

Please telephone school (01253 354672) on the morning of the first day of your child’s absence – between 8:30 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. if possible. This will allow the Nursery teacher to be informed and an accurate register entry made. On the day your child returns to Nursery, please send a letter to the Nursery teacher explaining the reason for their absence. Absences which are not explained cannot be ‘authorised’ by school and therefore have to be legally recorded in the register as ‘unauthorised’ i.e. the child is ‘truanting’ – which is not normally the case!! We do operate a system of ‘first day absence calls’ for all our children; if your child is not in Nursery and we have not been informed about why they are absent, then the School Office will contact you.

Holidays in Nursery Time

As of 1st September 2013 schools are no longer able to authorise holidays in school time. In order to meet our safeguarding responsibilities we would ask that parents and carers who do choose to take a holiday in school time still complete a ‘holiday form’, which can be obtained from the School Office, informing us of the dates on which their child will not be attending Nursery; a copy of the form will then be returned to you.

Nursery Uniform

Children who wear our Nursery uniform should wear shoes that are sensible, low heeled and black. Socks should be either grey or white ankle or knee length socks and not ‘trainer’ socks or ‘sports’ socks. Short or long length boots, trainers and pumps are not part of our uniform and, together with nail varnish and tattoos, should not be worn. Please could you ensure that any items of clothing which your child is likely to remove or put on during the nursery day are clearly named.

Jewellery

Children may only wear plain, stud earrings in Nursery. No other forms of jewellery such as watches, bracelets and necklaces may be worn, unless for medical or religious reasons, and then only after discussion with the Headteacher.

Personal Belongings

Children are asked not to bring toys of any kind, including soft toys, into Nursery.

Hair

Children with long hair should have it tied back and fastened with small, discrete hair accessories, preferably in school colours. Scarves or wide head bands should not be worn to cover hair unless agreed with the Headteacher for a medical reason.

Headlice

Please check your child’s hair to keep this highly contagious condition at bay. The School Nursing Team do stress how important it is that ALL parents and carers check their child’s hair regularly as the Health Authority no longer has a system for children’s hair to be checked in Nursery by the School Nurse as it did in the past. The School Nursing Team can be contacted on 01253 951740 for advice, support and further information.

Medicines in Nursery

Please do not send any form of medication including prescribed or over the counter medicines, treatments, creams, lotions, cough or throat sweets, lip balms etc. into Nursery with your child as we are not able to administer medication or supervise your child self administering any medication during the nursery day. Parents and carers are welcome to come into Nursery during the day to give medicine or treatment to their child. Specific arrangements can be made for children who have long term medical conditions [such as epilepsy, diabetes, eczema or a severe allergy which requires ongoing, daily treatment] to have and use medication in Nursery.

Asthma Inhalers

If your child needs to have an asthma inhaler in Nursery please check that it is in good working order, is clearly named with your child’s name and send written information to your child’s key worker as to how and when the inhaler should be used.

Dogs on the School Premises

Dogs should not be brought into any area of the school grounds, even if carried by an adult.

School Grounds

We are very lucky to have large, well kept grounds around our school. The children are encouraged to always walk on the paths and go up and down the steps and not over the grass and it would be much appreciated if adults would reinforce this and lead by example. Children and adults should also always enter the school grounds though the pedestrian gates and not through the main vehicle gates. The field, the Trim Trails, the outdoor play equipment and the Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) should not be used by our children, or younger or older brothers and sisters, either before or after school.

School Car Park

The car park should only be used by staff, visitors and drivers with a current disabled driver’s permit. Parents and carers are able to park on the land (which belongs to Blackpool Council) between school and the community centre.

Car Parking Outside School

The area immediately outside school is a ‘no parking or stopping’ zone from Monday to Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Cars should not stop to drop off or collect passengers on the zig-zag markings between these times. Any complaints about parking outside school should be referred directly to the police at Bispham Police Station.

Smoke Free Premises

We are a ‘smoke free site’. This applies to all areas of the Nursery and school building and grounds, including the school car park, before, during and after the school day and also at out of school events.

Discipline and Behaviour

We have high standards and high expectations for the children’s behaviour in Nursery. Sometimes problems do occur and then we involve parents and carers at an early stage. We hope that parents and carers will let us know of anything at home which may be affecting their child’s behaviour.

School Policies

As a school we have a large number of policies which help us make sure that the Nursery/school meets all its statutory requirements. These include, amongst many others, policies for Special Educational Needs, Inclusion, Disability, Equal Opportunities, Race and Equality, Equity and Diversity, Child Protection, Zero Tolerance, Sex and Relationships Education, Drugs and Drug Related Incidents, Anti-Bullying, Discipline and Behaviour. Copies of all our policies are available to parents and carers on request and many can also be found on the school web site.