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Nursery News 13th July 2026

Monday, July 13, 2026

NURSERY NEWS

13th July 2026 – Edition 417

Find out About:

A End of Term arrangements July 2026

B Leavers Day –Friday 17th July- 8:50am-11:50am

C Lost Property

D Remember to put your younger children on our wait list.

E School re-open dates for September 2026

F The end of the 2025-2026 Academic Year is rapidly approaching!

A. End of Term arrangements July 2026

The last day of term in July 2026 for all children will be Thursday 16^th July.

This day will run as a normal Thursday. Timings of the day will be the same as all Thursdays.

B. Leavers Day –Friday 17th July- 8:50am-11:50am

On Friday 17^th July school will open only for the Big Nursery children that are leaving us. The session will be from 8:50 am to 11:50 am. All Big Nursery leavers are invited to attend this session, regardless of your child’s normal attendance days. As children are attending for the morning only, no child will require a packed lunch. Children will require their water bottles. Children should arrive at 8:50 am and wait outside as usual.

11:50am Going Home Time- Parents to collect children from the front gate. Children will be dismissed in the regular way, with Blue group first, followed by Orange group then Yellow group.

C. Lost Property. Our Lost Property will be emptied at the end of term, and any unclaimed belongings will be disposed of. Please look through the Lost Property boxes that are in the storage trolley in the outdoor Library area.

D. Remember to put your younger children on our wait list.

Please remember to add your younger children’s names on our contact list. We are no longer able to give preference to children who have had brothers and sisters in our school. We look purely at how long children have been on our contact list for each termly cohort when we allocate spaces. Please encourage friends and family members to put their child’s name down as soon as possible, to have the best chance of being offered a space in the future.

E. School re-open dates September 2026

Tuesday 1^st September School Closed Staff Training Day

Wednesday 2^nd September School Closed Staff Training Day

Thursday 3rd September School Open.

Brand new families have been advised of their start date.
Existing families should continue with their child’s current attendance pattern.
Some existing families have increased their child’s sessions from 15 to 30 hours. These children will start on 3rd September.

F. The end of the 2025-2026 Academic Year is rapidly approaching!

We find ourselves rapidly approaching the end of another year at Willow. I have some ‘Thankyous’ that I would like to share. Firstly, I would like to thank each and every parent who has chosen Willow for their child. Parents rarely realise that our funding is directly linked to the number of pupils we have, so without your children, there would be no Willow.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our collection of boxes and tubes for the children to build models with. The sellotape that parents donated has been constantly in use. There is always a little group gathered by the sellotape dispenser waiting for a turn. Thank you to all the families who have responded to our requests for tissues throughout the year. Parents have been very generous. All support is very appreciated.

A very big thank you is given to our two volunteers who have given their time regularly throughout the year to support the teaching and learning in the classrooms. This support really alters the adult to child ratio’s we can provide. We can offer a wider range of activities, but ultimately the greatest benefit is there are more people to hold conversations with your children.

The 2026 Leavers are a group of very individual children. The majority of children play in pairs or trios. The children always seem to be trying to build friendships with each other, as we repeatedly hear ‘Will you be my best friend?’

We have some very strong personalities within our group of leavers. Some of these individual personalities clash in what appear to be love-hate relationships. In some situations, we hear raised voices as two children have a disagreement, but we also have times where the same pairings caringly look out for each other saying ‘Are you okay?’ and behave supportively.

We seem to have some very wise and tolerant characters too. They have wide and varied talents. This group of leavers has a very large amount of children who joined the nursery aged just two and then enrolled for 30 hours (for working families) when that became available. It was this cohort that began the shift in attendance pattern, so that the majority of pupils now attend for 30 hours. We have tried hard to expand our planned opportunities to keep these children busy and engaged. We have really got to know this year group. They are a close ‘family’ of pupils. We will miss them.

What will the next year group bring?

Strong friendship bonds are already forming. Staff know the children very well. The 2027 leavers now step up to be the ‘Big Children’ and that brings a level of responsibility to them.

The tiny two year olds just like taking their shoes off and dancing with big smiles on their faces, and that is how life should be when you are two.

So to the families that are staying with us, I look forward to seeing the progress that your children make in the next twelve months as they grow and mature, and I hope all the children will experience some fun with us during that time.

The only thing left for me to say is ‘Have a Safe Summer’.

Leigh Davies

Nursery News – Monday 6th July 2026

Monday, July 6, 2026

NURSERY NEWS

Monday 6^th July 2026 – Edition 416

Find out About:

A. Parents Consultations Scheduled for this week- A reminder.

B. Lost Property

C. End of Term arrangements July 2026

D. Leavers Day –Friday 17th July- 8:50am-11:50am

E. Funding for Working Families- Ensure codes are in place /Renew codes.

F. Review of the year- Results.

G. What are the children learning about this week?

A. Parents Consultations Scheduled for this week.- a reminder.

Parents consultations will take place here at the school, face to face this week.

B. Lost Property.

Our Lost Property will be emptied at the end of term, and any unclaimed belongings will be disposed of. Please look through the Lost Property boxes that are in the storage trolley in the outdoor Library area

C. End of Term arrangements July 2026

The last day of term in July 2026 for all children will be Thursday 16^th July.

This day will run as a normal Thursday. Timings of the day will be the same as all Thursdays.

D. Leavers Day –Friday 17th July- 8:50am-11:50am

We have consulted the children about what activities they would like to plan for their last day and this is what they have come up with:

Children may dress up if they want to. Children may come to school in a dressing up outfit if they wish. There should be no pressure on anyone to buy an outfit. Normal Nursery clothes are absolutely fine too.

We have arranged for children to:

Play with marble run, robots and toy pets.
Have Ninja songs, dinosaur dancing, a unicorn and dinosaur piñata, bubbles and balloons
Play pass the parcel.
Have Ice pops.

Children came up with some interesting requests which were not possible to fulfil: we had one request for coffee, coca cola and burgers were suggested, but we settled on juice and sandwiches. One child requested a tree house. We like their imaginative thought, but we couldn’t manage that one!

At 10:30 am all children will sit down together for a picnic time in the garden. Staff will provide the snacks the children requested: cake, cucumber sandwiches, Doritos, watermelon.

Keyworkers will talk to parents of children with food allergies to ensure their needs are met.

The morning will finish with a group time for each colour group, where all children will receive a certificate praising their individual skills and/or qualities.

11:50am Going Home Time- Parents to collect children from the front gate. Children will be dismissed in the regular way, with Blue group first, followed by Orange group then Yellow group.

E. Funding for working families- Ensure funding codes are in place /Renew codes.

A reminder about the eligibility checker:

Eligibility checker:

Eligibility will be checked via a childcare application developed by HMRC.

Parents are responsible for checking if they are eligible.

Parents need to visit the website www.beststartinlife.gov.uk This is where you will find the online eligibility checker.

Parents will be issued a code to take to the setting (nursery/ childminder etc.).

There will be a grace period for parents where their circumstances change. This will give parents the time to regain employment.

Parents must reconfirm their eligibility every three months via the HMRC online eligibility checker or else they will lose their entitlement, subject to the grace period. Parents are essentially reconfirming that their employment status has not changed and they still meet the criteria. HMRC will send reminder emails to parents to notify them of the need to reconfirm.

For all parents who are entitled to funding for working families for your child, please ensure that your code is in place and valid by 31^st August 2026, to enable us to receive funding for your child for the Autumn term.

The government will send out reminders to families to renew your code. Please be aware that sometimes the government email may go into your Spam/ Junk email folder. If you code is not valid you will not receive funding

F. Review of the year- Results

I have had two families (emails included below) who replied to my request for feedback from parents. I always share what parents say, as there may be some points raised which other parents may relate to….

Dear Team,

I would like to say how incredibly happy we have been with Willow Nursery.

All the staff have been caring, kind and supportive throughout (my son’s) time at nursery. We have seen real positive changes in his confidence, independence and development since he started.

I was initially worried about whether he would be ready for school, but the team has done such an amazing job preparing him. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, I now feel confident that he is ready for this next step.

I honestly cannot think of any improvements, as our experience has been excellent from start to finish.

Thank you for everything you have done for (my son) and for supporting our family.

Kind regards,

Thankyou for your kind words. The staff really appreciated your feedback.

What does Willow do well?

There is a lot of thoughtful planning that goes into everything the children learn – —in around being kind and building friendships. Both of my children have come on leaps and bounds in all aspects of learning and understanding. Willow provides a fantastic foundation for starting school.

Improvements/developments

Snack Time

It would be lovely to bring back daily snacks and summer ice pops!

Other Nurseries and Schools still manage to provide snack time and ice pops even with children with allergies and I do feel snacks are needed as they burn so much energy, as the saying goes “food is fuel for the brain”

For the children with allergies, maybe they could have a dedicated little snack spot, or just be extra closely monitored while everyone is eating, or could the snacks be inclusive for everyone?

I have written at length in previous newsletters (24^th November and 1^st December 2025) regarding the reasons why we decided to remove snack-time from our timetable. The main reason being the new Safeguarding rules around children being fully supervised when eating to prevent choking. When providing food, staff must sit watching children’s faces. Three staff would be required to provide snacks and observe two tables of children (6+6 pupils). Everyone has to be closely monitored. More than half our staff would be involved with snacktime in Room 5, and we could not supervise the free flow play of the other children with just two staff supervising three classrooms and the outside area.

The new rules around supervision made snacktime unworkable in our setting.

We have prioritised reducing transitions this year, to put less demands on the children who struggle with transition times. (For example moving from free flow choosing time to structured grouptime, or into Lunch, or getting ready to go home.)

During the recent Heatwave we chose to bring children back to their base rooms at 10:00am and again at 11:30am to ensure children had a big drink. We stopped all play at this time and the outside area was closed. At this time we had around 6 children who would refuse to go back to their base room and would lay on the floor to protest against the transition and refuse to comply with the staff’s requests.

Nutrition requirements, from the Department for Education, for under 5’s state that as providers we should only provide children with water or milk to drink. It would be frowned upon if we were providing sweet flavoured ice pops to pupils on a daily basis.

We are planning to offer pupils ice pops on our Special Day, because the children have requested them and this is a one off, a special celebration for our Leavers, so treats are appropriate.

Parent App

An app for daily updates and messaging would be a great addition. However, I’d only want this if it doesn’t distract from staff-to-child time or replace the wonderful end-of-year folders, which are such a lovely keepsake!

I do understand how nice it is as a parent to receive photos or short descriptions of our children, so we can peek into their world at Nursery. Staff are very busy organising activities for children, supervising the children and supporting their interactions with each other.

In the last few years the government has required staff to spend more of their time interacting directly with children in their play, and less time writing it down and recording it.

We are guided by the following government document:

Early years foundation stage statutory framework

For group and school-based providers Setting the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five

Dated: 11 October 2024 Effective: 01 November 2024

Here are some excerpts from this document:

‘Assessment should not involve long breaks from interaction with children or require excessive paperwork. When assessing whether an individual child is at the expected level of development, practitioners should draw on their knowledge of the child and their own expert professional judgement. Practitioners are not required to prove this through collection of any physical evidence. Recorded, written or photographic evidence is not required.’

Ongoing assessment

‘Ongoing assessment (also known as formative assessment) is an integral part of the learning and development process. It involves practitioners understanding children’s interests and what they know and can do, and then shaping teaching and learning experiences for each child reflecting that knowledge. In their interactions with children, practitioners should make and act on their own day-to-day observations about children’s progress…… However, there is no requirement to keep written records in relation to this.’

We have reduced the amount of writing we do and photographs we take on a daily basis. We create some observations to be recorded in each child’s ‘Yearbooks’ to show evidence of how children are working towards our 7 c’s curriculum. These books are handed to parents when their child leaves They will be handed out at parent’s consultations this week. Parents of children who are continuing at Willow will be offered the opportunity to look at their child’s Yearbook at our parent consultation evenings this week.

On a day to day basis we do not have photos or written observations to share. I want staff to be engaging with our children as much as possible. But we do balance this by trying to build up a ‘Yearbook’ of evidence showing your child’s progress during their time with us.

Willow Nursery School- Children’s Evaluation. July 2026

We ask all Big Nursery children 5 questions. Here are all their answers. I think they will make you smile!

1. What do you like to do at Nursery?

Play with friends (6)

I like to find bugs

I like to go outside (3) and having big, big fun

I like to play with my best friend.

Dance

I like to play

I like to ride bikes (4)

Play with my Mummy.

I like to play with scooters.

I like to play with x (6)

I like to find woodlice and snails in the garden. I got a slug, a wiggly worm and a woodlouse.

I like Gruffalo books and the Giant book.

Finding snails.

Playing cars (4)

Playing football

Being friends

Playing mickey and Minnie mouse and Cinderella

Playing with clay.

I like playing with the kitchen (3), that’s it

Drawing (3),

Going in the cosy corner

I like lunch (2)

Playing ghosts

I like dinosaurs (2).

I like cutting paper (3)

I like pencils

I like to play with playdough

Playing toys (2)

Playing with animals (3)

Hide and seek and tag

Building (4)

Watch television

Climbing

Trains

Painting

Jumping in muddy puddles

My brother at nursery

Going home

Jumping

Aeroplanes outside

Playing with my friends

Don’t know.

I like to play with potions.

I like to play with my friends inside and outside.

I like to play with balls.

I’m happy when I play with the water.

I like being with my group.

I like my phonics with the rrrrr sound

Play with children

With the buggy

Like to paint

Playing in the sandpit

I like riding on the bikes

I like painting

I like to eat lunch in school.

2. Is there anything you don’t like at Nursery?

I don’t like anyone bullying me.

I don’t like X being my best friend.

I don’t like x hitting my friend.

I don’t like X punching (2)

I like nursery!

If no one wants to play with me.

Playing with my mummy and daddy.

Playing dinosaurs, I don’t love dinosaurs

I don’t like the fire truck

I like everything!

Nothing

I don’t like eating.

I don’t like cutting things.

Mud kitchen and painting. I don’t like using playdough

X smacking me (6)

Don’t like not playing with children.

Toys

Closing the door

I don’t like people that don’t have kind hands. That makes us sad

Anyone pushing me down the slide

Being squished

I don’t like if boys don’t press (flush)the toilet

If someone knocks my tower over it makes me sad

Sand

Red

I don’t like hurting myself, when I run and fall.

I don’t like seagulls nipping my chips at the seaside.

I don’t like cars.

3. Tell me something you are good at now since coming to Nursery?

Bugs

Football

bikes

I’m good at roly poly’s, I do them at home.

I know how to run (2)

I know how to climb

I can ride the 2 wheeler bike.

Eating chocolate!

I am good at building (3)

I am good at chopping trees with my Dad

I like playing with my plant pots like a drum.

I’m good at counting

Helping my teachers.

Signing at group time (2)

Getting costumes on

I’m good at playing at nursery

I’m good at dressing up

Running (3)

Cutting paper (2)

After school I do gymnastics, I’m really good at that.

Football and kicking.

I’m good at doing hugs.

Tunnels

Doing dance with x and x

I can write my name.

I’m good at doing homework, I do maths

Playing outside

Phonics (2)

The bear, the giraffe, the elephant (naming animals he can see)

Finding snails

Learning numbers, learning A,B,Cs

I am good at building with magnets

Playing with x

I’m good at drawing

I know what to do to make a medal, like I did already.

I like playing with dinosaurs

Riding bikes

Being happy

Good at my trousers.

Spiderman

Lotto

I’m really good at doing flips.

I’m really good at being dogs and cats.

Going home.

Washing the flowers.

Making cards

Adding star stickers.

Drawing

4.Tell me what you have learnt in Phonics:

I done i n g p s d

s t p a m

ppp

Numbers and letters s f c

The delivery man gave me phonics.

O is for Octopus. Gruffalo.

There were 5 in the bed. m, a

A m s

I don’t know (2)

Number e

Number blocks

Whats phonics again? A,d,f,e

Letters a,s,d,p

E, I, h

I can’t remember

O, a, d, s

Nanny and Grandad

I like balloons and watching t.v.

About lions, s for sun and e for …

Playdough

Numbers

Letters a, s, t

Dance, a,b,c,d

S a t –‘sat’

Phonics (2)

Learning people

Running

P is for Peppa Pig, S is for Saw

S,e,n,u

Rrrrrrr h

N,a,m,p and signing

I love it, I got squished. Not letters

I like talking and being cheeky in phonics

M, a, t. I, p, ck

I just scratched my neck

Rrrr The dog with the rug.

My name

S p m n

Snake, ants, tennis,

5.How can we make Willow better for the new children?

Not sure

I don’t know.

Play with them?

Talk to the children.

Make cakes and put them in the oven.

Being kind and make everybody happy.

Good

Hadrian

Make a better room in the little nursery, make it new

By playing catch and pass the parcel

Butterfly toys (2)

Toys (3)

Belle dressing up

I like everything

Not throwing or kicking, not pushing, no dogs!

Have a party (2)

If I had my daddy, giraffes

Make me happy

Make it like a princess

Lightening McQueen

A paw patrol puzzle

Getting the new transformers out

Train track

Sweeties and doughnuts

Find something nice

Get nursery tidy

Work with others

Nope

I don’t know.

Get an electric dinosaur that moves itself and we can do the buttons.

More sticks inside.- That are plastic.

Exercises inside.

Pink clay.

Playing

Have a real baby to play with.

G. What are the children learning about this week?

As we move towards the end of the summer term we ask the children who are leaving us to decide what activities they would like to see in the classrooms. We ask them to reflect on what they have particularly enjoyed during their time with us. Staff try to offer all the activities that they request within the last two weeks of term.

We are expecting relatively hot weather conditions this week. Please remember to provide a hat for your child.

Remember:

No Hat,

No Outside!

Nursery News 29th June 2026

Monday, June 29, 2026

NURSERY NEWS

Monday 29th June 2026 – Edition 415

Find out About:

A. ICT systems and telephones now working.

B. Heatwave-last week.

C. Chickenpox update.

D. What are the children learning about this week?

A. ICT systems and telephones now working.

Our ICT technician arrived very early this morning to switch on all our ICT equipment and ensure it is all operating effectively and safely.

We are happy to say everything is all now working. Telephone and email communications have resumed as normal. Mrs Evans is no longer working from home.

B. Heatwave-last week.

I would like to offer my thanks to the whole school community for working together during the period of extreme high temperatures during the Heatwave last week.

We used our knowledge of how heat impacts our school to plan our days. It is possible to go outside for a short period of time in the morning before the day reaches its peak temperatures. Mornings have been hot, but fairly normal in terms of play, as children can access both inside and outside areas.

At 11:30 we chose to close outside and bring all children inside for the rest of the day. We ensured children drank more water, by having whole school hydration breaks (like in the world cup!) at 10:00am and 11:30am, and the children have responded well to our request to drink lots more water than usual.

The afternoons have been very hot and sweaty for all those that were here, both adults and children.

Pressures on family life have changed in recent times. Funding initiatives from the government has meant that the majority of families attending Willow are now working families.

We decided we would try our hardest to stay open. We do always think about the impact closing Nursery will have upon all families, but we do give particular consideration to the stress closing Nursery would bring to those parents that work. Being a parent with a young child is a very demanding period of time in anyone’s life. Add to that the need to be in work, and have childcare close due to heatwave issues and this puts parents in a difficult and stressful position. I hope our flexible approach regarding normal attendance/ reduced attendance/ stay at home and get in the paddling pool, has met everyone’s needs.

For those children who were in school for full days last week they should be recognised as being real ‘troopers’. They have tried so hard not to lose their ‘cool’. The slightly reduced pupil numbers achieved by parents choosing to keep children at home, or choosing to collect children early really helped. Everyone in school just had a little more space.

The staff team has been amazing throughout the challenges of last week. We have a number of staff with underlying health conditions that are exacerbated by hot weather conditions. The staff team pulled together, maintaining a fun play environment whilst meticulously monitoring individual pupils to protect their health and well-being.

As I am writing this today, we all finally experienced a cooler night, so had the opportunity for better sleep. I am hoping that the weather in the next few weeks will revert to seasonal ‘norms’ and provide us with more comfortable conditions for playing and learning in.

C. Chickenpox Update.

We have had another case of chickenpox reported this morning in the two-year-old class. So, please be aware that it is still transmitting at school.

D. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is Peace at Last

This week the theme is based on the book Peace at Last by Jill Murphy. Children will be listening to the story and discussing the characters and events of the story with staff. Staff will encourage the children to look at the pages of the book and all of the little details on each page. This promotes conversations, as the children will want to share what they can see and share experiences of their own. Staff will encourage children to listen to each other as they talk and to wait for their turn to talk. Staff will teach the children that it is good manners to wait until someone has finished talking before they take their turn.

Our learning intention this week is for children to recognise the impact of their choices and behaviours on others and to understand that sometimes these actions can hurt the feelings of others. To implement this, we will talk to the children about being kind and empathetic. We will encourage children to consider how they might feel if something was said or done to them. We will also pay close attention to positive behaviours such as sharing and using good manners. It is important that the children understand that their words and actions also have an impact on others. Staff will give lots of praise for kindness and consideration when it is carried out, they will also be modelling the type of language and behaviour we would like to see the children use.

Nursery News 22nd June 2026

Monday, June 22, 2026

NURSERY NEWS

Monday 22nd June 2026 – Edition 414

Find out About:

A. Reminder Monday 22^nd June 2026 is a training day for staff. School Closed

B. Review of the Year

C. Can you help with some Tissues?

D. What are the children learning about this week?

A. TODAY Monday 22^nd June 2026 is a training day for staff. School Closed

B. Review of the year

At this time of year, we carry out a big review of our school. In the last few days staff been talking to the Big Nursery children individually, to gain their views about their school, with regard to what they like, what they think they have learned and what they would like to see change. All school staff are busy filling in questionnaires too.

This information helps us to plan our areas for development next year.

I always ask parents for their views too at this time of year.

We usually ask just two questions:

Please comment about what we do well at Willow.
Please tell us one thing you would like to see at Willow that you would consider to be an improvement and/or development.

Please write a short email and send to office@willownursery.co.uk

If you wish your comments to inform my review, please send your email by the end of this week, Friday 26^th June. I will then compile all the comments and respond to them in a future newsletter, on Tuesday 6^th July.

C. Can you help with some Tissues?

Sometimes we ask parents for some specific donations that help our school.

We are in the hottest part of summer. We would hope that colds and runny noses would be over by now. However, this is not the case!

We have almost run out of tissues. So please, when doing your shopping, consider picking up a box of tissues for our children. We really appreciate parents’ donations, as it enables us to have boxes of tissues close at hand, all around the school and in the garden, so we can do our best to keep children’s noses clean.

D. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is transport – air and water

Staff will work with children to teach them the different types of transport that can be used on the water and in the air. Summer holidays are fast approaching and many children will be going on summer holidays. Some children are lucky enough to be travelling out of the country and this can be used as a discussion point to share personal experiences of air and water travel. There are many resources in school that can showcase different transport and how we use it, including books, toy airports and water play with boats and submarines which will all be available for the children to explore. Staff will model lots of language as they discuss things they have seen while on their own travels and they will encourage children to share their own experiences.

Our learning intention this week is for the children to practice skills of assertion, negotiation and compromise and to look at adults for support in conflict resolution. We will be assisting children as they consider the best way to solve conflicts no matter how big or small. Lots of praise and support will be given to children who try their best to show understanding and kindness to their friends. All children are different and have varying abilities when it comes to being able to problem solve, but being able to try their best or ask for help is key to them becoming successful.

We will focus on cutting skills this week and there will be plenty of books, magazines and paper for the children to cut. Staff will support the children in holding their scissors effectively to be able to make snips in paper and, for those that are able, to cut carefully and with purpose.

Our target for the most skilled children is to be able to neatly cut along a curved shape.

Nursery News 15th June 2026

Monday, June 15, 2026

NURSERY NEWS

15th June 2026 – Edition 413

Find out About:

A. Reminder: An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Yellow Group Parents: Basic Skills.

B. Reminder Monday 22^nd June 2026 is a training day for staff. School Closed

C. What are the children learning about this week?

A. Reminder An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Yellow Group Parents: Basic Skills.

Miss Howe’s Yellow group parents have been invited in to observe a 30 minute reading/writing activity on Wednesday 17^th June.

Mrs Cashmore’s Big Nursery Yellow group parents have been invited in to observe a 30 minute reading/writing activity on Thursday 18^th June.

The children’s skills are really coming along as we head towards the end of the year. We hope you will enjoy the opportunity to see your child working within a more structured, adult led session.

B. Reminder Monday 22^nd June 2026 is a training day for staff. School Closed

C. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is transport – land

Staff will explain to the children what the word transport means and that there are many different modes of transport. There will be a variety of different resources throughout the school for the children to fully explore this topic. Staff will use these resources to expand the children’s vocabulary, they will explain that on land we can travel by car, train, bus, bicycle, motorcycle and on foot.

Our learning intention this week is for the children to talk extensively about things that are of particular importance to them. This means that they will learn to talk about people and things that are not present and they will use language to share experiences and thoughts. This will be promoted by having discussions with the children, and encouraging conversations by asking open ended questions. Staff will often relate to the children as they talk about things that are of importance to them. These discussions help to build bonds between the staff and children. Children are more likely to share more thoughts as their confidence grows.

The younger children have been exploring music and movement with their friends and will continue to do this during their sessions. They have been listening to some traditional party songs such as ‘Agadoo’ by Black Lace and ‘Nellie The Elephant’ by The Toy Dolls (1984 version). The children look forward to this activity every day and have been dancing very enthusiastically. It is lovely to see them coming together as a group and sharing this very special experience. Staff wanted to share this news with parents to encourage you to play these songs at home and have a little dance with your children.

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