Newsletter Winter 2014
Nursery News
I would like to give a warm welcome to all the new children who have joined the nursery since our last newsletter. Welcome to Jasmine and Megan. You may have noticed some changes around nursery. We have added an arch to the blue room to define play areas more. The baby room had a new wooden play kitchen and we have had lots of new toys to play with.
The Nativity play was an absolute pleasure to watch as the children put on a splendid performance, thank you again for the support with costumes and your attendance. Elaine, the vicar extended her thanks for your generous donations.
Thank you to those parents who completed our questionnaire, this feedback is very useful and allows us to continuously improve and meet the needs of your children and the family. I am pleased to report that the results are positive highlighting that on the whole you strongly agreed that the quality of care, learning, staff and leadership were excellent and met your expectations.
Suggestions for further improvements were; to post on the website daily activities, some more outings and some more focus on baby led weaning.
Comments from parents below
‘My little boy loves coming to nursery, he gets a lot from it.’
Thankyou for all of the staff at School House Nursery for all your hardwork’
‘Both key workers fully understand the boys likes ,dislikes, personalities, which as a mum makes leaving them so much easier and confident that they will have a good day at nursery’
‘Cant speak highly enough of the staff’, ‘how the staff treat the children made the dreaded return to work and separation anxiety all the more bearable’
‘I personally think your staff are excellent. I feel my child is cared for and not just looked after’
‘X is still happy to go nursery and always seems to be doing interesting things. The staff all seem friendly and approachable. They are all helpful and patient with the parents as well as children.’
‘We are more than happy with the care each received. Any concerns have been addressed promptly and professionally’
‘Excellent, all staff are extremely welcoming and work hard to keep all the children happy.’
‘A fantastic nursery, exactly why I have recommended friends to take their children there!’
‘I feel that x time at School House has been a wholly positive experience with good staff –parent communication and a happy, positive feeling within school.’
Alice is a real credit to nursery. It’s a pleasure to deal with her and X is fond of her and happiest when she is around. All staff work well together and have created a friendly and professional setting-thankyou’
Events
A few dates for your diaries;
Saturday May 10th will be our next open morning (chance to look at your child’s learning journey and to talk with their key worker)
Stockley Farm visit April date to be arranged.
Staff Update
Congratulations to Sarah who had Maisie in December both are doing well. Welcome back to Steph who has returned to nursery after her maternity leave. Congratulations to Louise who is now a qualified Early Years Teacher. Alice and Mandy Beckett are now attending University of Chester to gain a degree in child development.
Toddler’s rules
1. If I want it’s mine
2. If tis in my hand, it’s mine
3. If I can take it away from you it’s mine
4. If I had it a while ago its mine
5. If it’s mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way
6. If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine
7. If it looks like mine , its mine
8. If I think it’s mine, its mine
9. If I give it you and change my mind later, its mine
10. Once it’s mine it will never belong to anyone else no matter what
Fun and Learning
As I am sure that you are aware of the children in the main nursery have small circle times in their groups. These are mostly planned and run by their key carer. Here is an update at what each group have been busy doing since September.
Red Group – Alice
The children in the red group have been exploring letter sound and letter recognition and looking for them in the environment. They have recently shared their letter folders with each other as these contain objects beginning with a letter sound that the children have found at home.
We have been talking about the importance of being healthy and which food is healthy and unhealthy. We have also looked at the effects that exercise has on our body. “When I run my heart beats faster”. We have been discussing different cultures and their celebrations starting with Chinese New Year. We made dragons, lanterns, fans and explored Chinese writing and tasted Chinese food.
Green Group – Mandy B
Have been comparing sizes using tape measures to measure each other and made a height chart. They used lots of mathematical language (big, small, biggest, and smallest) in this activity. We have also compared similarities and differences looking at hair, eye and skin colour and made some self-portraits. We have looked at shapes around the nursery and practised shape names, we then cut out our own shapes to make pictures encouraging colour recognition.
We have been celebrating Chinese New Year making dragons, Chinese writing, potato printing and using chopsticks.
Yellow Group – Mandy O-C
The yellow group have been spending a lot of time exploring the wooden blocks. They have been developing cooperative play and language to create different structures. As a group we have been concentrating on mathematical activities. The children have been sorting, counting and measuring in the sand and water. The group have all shown a lot of enjoyment in our new shape sorter.
Over Christmas the group helped to create a winter wonderland and smowmen for our winter display.
Blue – Julia/Steph The blue group have been incorporating colour into their activities. They have been using the peg boards and the shape sorters to distinguish between colours.
We have been exploring our creating talents to create pictures using different textures, we use rollers and cars to make patterns. Some of the children took part in body painting which involved lots of messy fun and resulted in a splash in the water tray to wash away the paint. The blue group have been practising taking turns and sharing at small group time and free play and have responded well bearing in mind when your two everything is MINE!
Babies – Louise
The babies have been mark making in different contexts in a large scale with paints with different sized tools. The babies took a particular interest in mark making on the outdoor chalk board.
The baby room children have also been exploring our new pretend kitchen and role play area introducing dolls to support play. We use nursery puppets during circle time activities joining in with our favourite actions.
Heuristic Play
The babies and the blue group take part in heuristic play sessions throughout the week. Heuristic play provides an opportunity for young children to explore collections of objects of different sizes and materials such as tins, tubes, ribbons, wooden shapes, pegs, corks and lots more. This enables the children to develop their creative and exploratory drive and to engage in sensory active play.
Extra Curriculum Activities
French time lessons are running on a Wednesday morning term time only for those children who are in pre school or approaching their 3rd Birthday. Also Little Thespian’s takes place on a Tuesday morning this activity involves drama and dance and the cost is £3.00 per session.
Early Years Foundation Grant
Children who reach their 3rd birthday before the 31st March 2014 will qualify for Educational funding from April. It has increased to 15 hours per week for 38 weeks (school terms) of the year. Presently, it is £3.85 per hour and can be taken flexibly over a minimum of 2 days.
Additionally, nursery can offer 2 year old places to children who qualify from criteria set by the government based on family income or circumstances. You should have received notification from Cheshire West and Chester council if you qualify. If you think you may qualify but haven’t had a letter, please ask Michelle or Mandy for further details
Child Protection
School House Nursery is committed to creating and maintaining the safest possible environment for children to be cared for and educated in. School House Nursery believes that it is always unacceptable for a child or young person to experience abuse of any kind and we recognise our responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children and young people, by a commitment to practice which protects them.
Our prime responsibility is the welfare and well being of all children in our care. As such we believe we have a duty to the children, parents/carers and staff to act quickly and responsibly in any instance that may come to our attention.
The nursery has a duty to report any suspicions of abuse to the Local Authority which has a duty to investigate such matters. The nursery will follow the procedures set out in the Local Authorities, safe guarding children’s board reference documents, and as such will seek their advice on all steps taken subsequently.
Should any member of staff or parents have concern for the welfare of any child they will immediately inform the designated safe guarding children officer. Should you wish for a copy of our safeguarding policy, please ask. It is also kept in the folder in the lobby along with all nursery policies and procedures.
Polite Requests
Please could we ask parents to bring in family photos for your child so that we can make them a special book to share with their friends? It’s that time of year again when the weather changes, please can we ask you to provide your child with slippers and wellies.
Nursery Fees
Your invoices will now be sent by Email and the password is lowercase and the name of your child.
I am sure you are aware that personal cheques are soon to be a thing of the past. Payments can be made by BACS transfer
Account number 01481088
Sort code 40:35:07
Please could you reference with your child’s name
It is greatly appreciated if payments can be made within the first week of you receiving your invoice. This will avoid late payment charges being applied to your account. As a small company if payments are received late this can cause problems with staff salaries. Fees can also be paid by childcare vouchers schemes which are run by most employers these can allow you to save on your childcare fees through a reduction in national insurance contributions. Presently we accept Imagine, Busy Bees, Acor, Apple, Care4u, and Fidelity vouchers, but we can register for others if your employer is subscribed to another company.
Should you wish to have any clarification on any of the above please feel free to contact myself
Warmest regards
Michelle and the team