Hartes of Henley Newsletter
The Pavilion, Henley-on-Thames, Tel. No. 01491 577423,
Dear Parents/Carers.
With spring underway, we are now looking forward to the holidays. This term we having been learning about ‘Physical Forces’with the sensory story ‘Whatever next?’ followed by‘People and Places’ with the sensory story of ‘Handa’s Surprise’. The children have had fun completing the scenes for the stairs both for the flying to the moon and for creating our African scene for Handa’s surprise. The tree and monkeys being a particular hit. The children visited the river and rowing museum for their space day. For Handa’s surprise, the children have tasted a variety of fruit, some everyday and some they haven’t tried before!
We have celebrated a number of days and to mention but a few;- Burns night, Valentines Day, Chinese New Year, St Patricks Day and Red Nose Day. We have also been busy making Mothers Day gifts and filling our Easter baskets.
We are spending extended time outside enjoying some of the nice weather we have been experiencing. Please can parents send in a named sun hat and sun cream for future use if they haven’t already done so.
Our sensory room is now up and running and the younger ones have been enjoying the sensory experience in this room. A lovely place to relax and be calm whilst exploring through touch, sound, sight and hearing. Please see our write up on sensory rooms on our website.
Our facebook page has been a big hit with everyone and to see the latest of what we are doing, please visit us.
Our facebook gave the news of our new garden furniture that was specifically cut with our children in mind. The children were excited by their arrival and they make a lovely addition to our garden balcony.
During April 2017, we will be sending out the annual Terms and Conditions for parents to sign. This is an important document that requires a signature for children to continue to access the service so we would appreciate it if they are returned to us as soon as possible.
Yellow Area (Baby area)
In the yellow area, we have been developing sensory stories for use in the sensory room. We have also had a lot of fun playing parachute games. We have created some nursery rhyme baskets using finger and glove puppets with nursery rhyme characters. We made a collection of sensory playdough from chocolate, lemon, peppermint, strawberry and vanilla with their matching colours.
We have explored in our music and movement sessions Chinese and African music.
During our theme ‘Whatever next?’, we played with moon sand, scented ice and ice hands and during people and places, we explored and tasted fruits. We also did fruit printing. We have also had our first picnic on our balcony and we used bird seed and made bird feeders to take home.
Green Area (2-3’s)
In the Green area we have added to our EAL (English as an Additonal Language) resources. They have had fun weeding and planting our spring bulbs on the garden balcony. The sensory garden tray has been in use with us digging in it for our toy bugs.
We have completed the puppet theatre and now have a comprehensive collection of puppets for the children to play with.
The children have had good fun measuring how tall they are and marking it off on the height chart. Whilst we have been doing about people and places, we have been making houses, counting windows, looking at the different types of houses. We have also had fun playing with large cardboard boxes and ‘making’ our own homes. We also made mud huts and went out into the community to visit an estate agent to tally the types of houses that we saw on route. We used fruit to see which was the heaviest/lightest and to put them in order of size. Using the playdough we made our own picnic for the moon covering the ‘whatever next?’ story.
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After School Club
The afterschool club have been helping to prepare a variety of dishes during the cookery club sessions on Tuesday afternoon. On Thursday they are able to access the Art Club to bring out their creative side.
We continue to encourage children to do any homework they may have. We allow them to have a choice of what they would like to do and encourage the older children to help assist the younger ones when the need arises, for example, tidying up and getting ready for mealtimes.With the weather getting better, there maybe the need for park pick-ups. If this is the case, we will post a notice on the door.
Next terms Theme;-
‘Dinosaurs and Animals’ will be our next terms theme with the sensory story ‘The Dinosaur Stomp, the Dinosaur eggs will appear and some may hatch! This is followed by ‘Materials’ as a theme with ‘The gingerbread Man as a sensory story. Yum!
Arrivals and Collections
We welcome the opportunity to speak with parents/carers at the beginning and end of the day. We ask parents to ring the intercom on their arrival and a staff member will come downstairs and greet you and your child. Collections is a very busy time and we need to be sure that we meet all safeguarding requirements. For the safety of all children, we ask parents to again ring the intercom and a staff member will bring the children down to you. We are unable to allow anyone to come into the building unescorted, parents can come upstairs providing they are escorted and remain in the company of a member of staff. They are welcome to speak to any member of staff or if they prefer a member of management. Due to the fact that we must retain the correct staff/child ratio at any given time this might not always be possible unless parents are prepared to wait until a member of staff is available. We appreciate your understanding in this matter and we want you to have the confidence that we take the safety of all children in our care seriously. If you require someone else to pick up your child, they will need to be given the password for collection. Please can we remind parents that when entering the building all mobile phones must be turned off.
Pushchairs – As we have become busier, we are finding the need to reduce the number of buggies brought into the foyer. We are asking parents that if it possiblefor them to take the pushchair away with them or they are welcome to have them chained up outside for security during the day.
Footwear
Please can we ask for slippers/indoor footwear for the children that are still in their socks! It helps to protect their feet and it is important when we are required to carry out a fire drill practice. The childrens slippers can be left here. We would also like to ask the parents to wear overshoes for our indoor shoe policy.
Clothing
Please ensure all clothing is labelled. If anyone has clothing that has been outgrown, we would appreciate any donations as sometimes water play gets very exciting! Please can we ask parents to return any spare clothing that has been given out.
Food
When providing packed lunches (holiday club) or food and milk bottles (day-care), please provide an icepack in the bag to keep them fresh. If you are sending any food in packages, we request that you clearly label them with your child’s name. If they require to be heated up, please stipulate the contents so we are able to record it accurately.
Medication
If parents are supplying any medication, this MUST be clearly labelled, it MUST be in the original packaging. All parents will need to sign a form giving their permission for us to administer medication. We will require your signature at the end of the day.
Day-care
Day-care morning session starts at 9.10am – 12.40pm
Day-care afternoon session starts at 1.10am – 6pm
All day from 9.10 – 6pm
For those children arriving for the 9.10 start, we ask parents not to arrive too early as staff are setting up for the day before hand.
We follow the curriculum from 9.30am until 2.45pm with wrap around care running from 2.45pm. This means the children in day-care will start with circle time at 9.30 and have different focus activities throughout the day and week. Those that stay all day, as well as having the opportunity of going out in the mornings, they will also go for a walk up to the school on some of the afternoons.
Our new EYFS diaries are very much in evident and we encourage the parents to write in them with news and updates of your own. As we see the afterschool parents on collection, we do not specifically have a communication book, however, if you feel you need one, then please see a member of staff.
Ad-hoc sessions – parents are welcome to ask for any additional sessions that they may need, we will endeavour to try and accommodate your needs..
Wish list
We are asking if any parents can help with our continued wish list. Please see below. We would be grateful of any items that you can help us with.
Diversity and Culture – We conintue to look for any books, magazines, posters, dressing up, toys etc. that can reflect different cultures. Any parents that travel or visit different countries and have the opportunity of bringing anything back e.g. a book etc, we would appreciate it, from menus, pictures, momentos etc.
Role play –dolly clothes, wooden toys.
Whizzing Wednedays - Cycle Helmets and knee and elbow pads are now being collected.
We are in the process of recruiting more staff as we have more children about to come in. If you know of anyone who maybe interested, we would love to hear from them. We are currently are
looking for level 2 or level 3 qualified staff. The position is subject to satisfactory references and a DBS check. For further details, please ask them to write to
In the meantime,thank you to all the parents that have shown their continued support. We hope you have a restful Eatser Break and look forward to seeing everyone next term
From the Hartes of Henley Team,