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Nursery News – 25th November 2024

NURSERY NEWS

25^th November 2024 – Edition 353

Find out About:

A .Applying for a place at Primary school- A reminder.

B. School Photographer.

C. Donations of Fruit for Snacktime.

D. What are the children learning about this week?

A. Applying for a place at Primary School- A reminder

This applies to all children in Big Nursery

The deadline for on time applications is 15^th January 2025.

We have heard from the admissions officer at Central Bedfordshire Council. She has told us that 15 of our families have yet to apply for a place at Primary School.

We are asked to remind all parents that they must apply before the deadline. We know everyone still has a few weeks left, but there is nearly always at least one Willow parent each year who fails to apply, and their child is left without a place when Primary School places are announced in April.

B School Photographer.

The School Photographer has collected all photo orders.

We will let parents know when photo packs are ready for collection.

C. Donations of Fruit for Snacktime.

The government provides milk for all children in nursery. We offer this during our mid-morning snacktime. We also like to offer a small portion of fruit to all children, partly to give them a boost to their energy to keep them going until lunchtime, but also to encourage them to sit for a few minutes to eat their fruit, drink their milk, practice their manners- using ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ appropriately, and chatting sociably to their friends.

Snacktime also gives a break within the child’s choice of activities. This is useful when we have extremes of temperature outside, either when the weather is extremely hot or very cold. At snacktime we encourage all children to go inside and have their snack. This means we can encourage a short rest time inside.

We need parents help to make this work. We ask parents to donate fruit that can be shared with all the children. We ask that all parents consider donating a small bag of fruit once every half term, and this will ensure that we have enough fruit for all children to have a snack.

We suggest donations of apples, pears, bananas or satsumas, as these are the easier fruits to share amongst a large group. (Generally we cut an apple into 4-8 pieces dependent upon its size, a banana provides 2-4 portions, and a satsuma is usually 2 portions.)

We happily accept other fruits and vegetables that can be shared, but please consider the preparation time required….. We prefer a bag of prepared carrot batons to a bag of uncut carrots!

We often receive lots of donations at the beginning of term, then donations begin to trail off. We are unable to offer a fruit snack if we do not have enough fruit to share with all the children. This was the case for three days last week.

I know the cost of food is increasing rapidly these days, but if all families donate a small bag we will have enough fruit. The children really look forward to their snacktime.

D. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is shop role play.

It will be an exciting week in Nursery as the children will have shop role play spaces set up in different areas. The role play areas will be adapted to suit the children’s different stages of development and staff will tailor the teaching areas to suit the needs of the children.

Some children will have a greater knowledge of what happens when we go shopping, or when we order items online and get them delivered to our houses.

Other children may have a simpler perception of shopping, where they might go to a shop and put items in their basket. Staff will use these teaching opportunities to incorporate the children’s prior knowledge of what happens when we go shopping and add to them as they model different scenarios. They will give visual and verbal prompts to the children to expand their role play and communication skills. Children will learn how to build on their imagination, using real life experiences that they have had with their families.

Role pay opportunities such as this are perfect for supporting the children with learning good manners, children will be reminded that when we buy thing in shops, sometimes we have to queue and wait for our turn to pay. It is also a good time to remind our children that we should always try and remember our manners and say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ to all people that help us, including shop keepers.

There will be lots of opportunities for the children to expand their skills through play, as they write shopping lists, interact with other children and recall familiar experiences.

Nursery News 18th November 2024

NURSERY NEWS

18^th November 2024 – Edition 352

Find out About:

A School Photographer.

B. Walk in the Dark event

C. BBC Children in Need.

D. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Green Group Parents: Basic Skills. A reminder

E. Open School Event: For Big Nursery Children ‘Music Time’. Week beginning 2^nd December

F. What are the children learning about this week?

A School Photographer.

The School Photographer has returned ‘proof card photo packs’ of your child’s image to school.

We are distributing these to individual children (and their parents) when they attend school.             Any Parent is welcome to come in and collect their child’s ‘proof card photo pack’ during school office hours (8:30am to 2:50pm)                               Instructions of how to order are included in the photo packs.

B. Walk in the Dark event.

Thank you to all the families who joined us for our Walk in the Dark event last week!

It was dark and chilly in the garden which made it all the more exciting.

The event was very well attended.- with 112 people signed in! It is one of the staff’s favourite events during the school year.  We hope you enjoyed it too.

C. BBC Children in Need.

Friday 15^th November was Children in Need day. Miss Gaffney shook her little red box with a picture of Pudsey Bear on the front, to make a collection for the Charity.

We raised £50:00

D. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Green Group Parents: Basic Skills. A reminder.

Mrs Patterson’s Green Group parents have been invited in to observe a 30 minute reading/writing activity on Wednesday 20^th November.

An invitation letter was sent out last week to Green Group parents advising the time of their child’s group. We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.

E. Open School Event: For Big Nursery Children ‘Music Time’. Week beginning 2nd December

At the end of every morning session children in Big Nursery participate in a planned group time. Throughout the year children will participate in groups such as: Storytimes, Big Books, Oxford Reading Tree, Theraplay Sunshine Circles, Music Time, Phonics, Maths Stories, Dance, Number time.  We plan for 5 different activities each week. We usually offer these activities in blocks of 10 or 20 weeks across the year.

For example children will have one 25 minute music session per week for 10 weeks. The sessions are carefully planned, to increase children’s skills and abilities with music, week on week, building upon what they had learned in previous weeks. For Music Time the staff received tuition from the DeCapo organisation, and we then worked together to plan music sessions around the resources they provided us with.

We would like parents to come in to school and see how we teach your children.  Throughout the year we are going to invite parents in to school to join in/observe our grouptimes.

We would like to invite all Big Nursery parents to join us for ‘Music’ time. Each parent of a child in Big Nursery will receive an email tomorrow detailing the date and time of the Music session that you can choose to attend, during week beginning 2^nd  December. If you would like to join your child to participate in our Music Activity ‘Pigs on Holiday’ then please just turn up at the date and time specified and you will be made very welcome. There is no need to book. Sessions last 25 minutes.

F. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week in nursery is ‘Keeping Ourselves Safe’.

Staff will teach the children about staying safe as an overall theme but teaching will include road safety, using equipment safely, stranger danger and maintaining privacy when changing or using the toilets.

Throughout the nursery, the staff will be encouraging the children to be as independent as possible in all areas. They will be supported where needed, but encouraged to practice getting changed by themselves, put their hats, coats and gloves on to go outside and to be independent with toileting needs. These are important steps for the children to take to become independent and school ready. As the children learn to do these tasks for themselves, they will be reminded of the importance of keeping themselves safe.

When changing, we encourage the children to take off and replace underwear as swiftly as possible, so their genital areas are exposed for as short a time as possible. We encourage similar privacy when children are using the toilet, ensuring children know that there should be only one child in each toilet cubicle.

There will be lots of safety talk in the nursery as the children will learn the significance of staying safe while on the roads, in their homes and out in public. They will learn about the importance of wearing seat belts in cars, crossing roads with adults, holding our adult’s hands when walking and not talking to strangers.

Nursery News 11th November 2024

NURSERY NEWS

11^th November 2024 – Edition 351

Find out About:

A. Walk in the Dark event THIS WEEK

B. BBC Children in Need.

C. Wipes and Nappy Sacks

D. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Green Group Parents: Basic Skills.

E. What are the children learning about this week?

A. Walk in the Dark event THIS WEEK.

Miss Howe is organising a ‘Walk in the Dark’, an activity for children and their parents to attend together, after school, on Thursday 14^th November at 5:00pm. Children will need to arrive, wrapped up warmly, ready to search the Nursery Garden for hidden soft toy animals. Children will need to bring a torch, because the garden is very dark in places! Brothers and sisters are very welcome too.

We will provide refreshments for everyone who attends. (Free of charge). We plan to offer hot dogs/ cheese rolls, biscuits and squash.

If you plan to come, please send an email to Mrs Selth  cselth@willownursery.co.uk entitled ‘Walk in the dark’ detailing your child’s name and how many adults and children will be coming, so we can buy enough food….

We find this is a very enjoyable event for the children, and for all the adults. It is a simple idea, but the children never usually see their school or garden in the dark.

 B. BBC Children in Need.

Friday 15^th November is Children in Need. As in previous years, we will collect money in Charity buckets, should anyone wish to donate.

C. Wipes and Nappy Sacks

Please remember to put a pack of wet wipes and nappy sacks in your child’s change of clothes bag.

Nappy sacks are important, so that we have somewhere to place your child’s wet clothes to send them home. School is busy. Nappy sacks are not just used for toileting ‘slips’. Clothes become wet or messy through fun nursery activities or can become wet or muddy due to the weather conditions in the school garden.

If we are unable to find a child’s nappy sacks or wet wipes inside a child’s change of clothes bag, we will place a reminder note inside the bag to remind parents to include some.

The Local Council is pushing childcare settings to charge parents for consumable items such as nappy sacks and wet wipes. I am resisting this, as I feel free childcare should be just that – ‘Free’ . However this means parents must help us by providing these consumable items for their own child.

D. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Green Group Parents: Basic Skills.

Mrs Patterson teaches Big Nursery Green Group children ‘Basic Skills’ on a Wednesday morning. The children move to a quiet space in Room 5 where they work in small groups (approx. 8 children) to learn reading, writing, mathematical skills and problem solving.

We would like to invite Mrs Patterson’s Green Group parents in to observe a 30 minute reading/writing activity on Wednesday 20^th November.

A further invitation letter will follow to Green Group parents so that we can match up time slots, so parents can join their child’s small group.

Big Nursery Red Group will have their Basic Skills groups in the Spring Term 2025 and Big Nursery Yellow Group will have their Basic Skills groups in the Summer Term 2025.

E. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?’, which is one of our core books, and we will be focusing on reading skills.

Children will have the opportunity to read this story in the classroom, it will be offered to them as part of a group read. When we share ‘group reads’ it means that staff sit with a small group of three or four children, and we look through books together. We will make sure the children follow the pace of the book at the same time, turning pages and looking at the words and pictures on each page as a group. Our core book will also be available for children in the library, for those that want to sit quietly and enjoy the book at their own pace.

The children will learn about all of the animals and colours from the story as they hunt for story characters hidden around the garden. Once children find an animal character, they will be reminded of the story and asked to share what they can remember. Staff will model lots of descriptive words when they talk to the children about the characters and prompt children to do the same.

One of our learning intentions this week is to learn ways to be kind and caring towards others. This can involve reminders to use kind hands, share resources and be considerate of the feelings of others. It is important to us, that our students treat each other with kindness and respect at all times.

Nursery News 4th November 2024

NURSERY NEWS

4^th November 2024 – Edition 350

Find out About:

A. School Photographer visiting.

B. Parent Consultations, Big Nursery this week.

C. Walk in the Dark.

D. Volunteering as a Parent Helper in Nursery

E. BBC Children in Need.

F. What are the children learning about this week?

A. School Photographer visiting.

A little reminder that a school photographer will be here on Wednesday 6^th November and Thursday 7^th November.

B. Parent Consultations, Big Nursery this week.

Big Nursery will be having their Parent Consultations this week!                                         Parents have made appointments with Keyworkers, here are the times staff will be speaking to parents on the phone, as a reminder:

Tuesday 5^th November  Miss Skai’s Red Group Consultations,                                          between 3:15pm and 4:00pm

Tuesday 5^th November Miss Howe’s Yellow Group Consultations,                                         between 3:15pm and 4:25pm

Thursday 7^th November Mrs Patterson’s Blue Group Consultations,                                   between 3:15pm and 4:25pm

Thursday 7^th November Mrs Cashmore’s Yellow Group Consultations,                               between 3:15pm and 4:25pm

Each appointment lasts only five minutes. Please help staff to remain on time.

C. Walk in the Dark.

Miss Howe is organising a ‘Walk in the dark’, an activity for children and their parents to attend together, after school, on Thursday 14^th November at 5:00pm. Children will need to arrive, wrapped up warmly, ready to search the Nursery Garden for hidden soft toy animals. Children will need to bring a torch, because the garden is very dark in places! We will provide refreshments for everyone who attends. Brothers and sisters are very welcome too. If you plan to come, please send an email to Mrs Selth  cselth@willownursery.co.uk entitled ‘Walk in the dark’ detailing your child’s name and how many adults and children will be coming, so we can buy enough food….

D. Volunteering as a Parent Helper in Nursery

At this time of year, we ask if any parents are interested in volunteering their time to be a parent helper in school.

Becoming a parent helper isn’t possible for all parents. We know a number of you are working parents and so are very busy. A good number of parents have younger children to look after too, so are unable to commit to help.

However, we, as a school really value the help if parents can contribute their time.

We find help most useful when parents can make a regular commitment each week to help out for a morning or afternoon session. Some parents offer a few hours of their time every week, some parents offer time every other week. If you become a regular parent helper we allocate you to one of our staff members who you will work with each time you come in. In this way staff can plan activities for you to become involved with, from arts and crafts, -little ‘makes’, which children love, to playing table top maths or language games, exploring construction toys, playing in the sand or water trays with the children.

Adult time can make a huge difference to a child’s education. Our staff’s first priority is to maintain safe and stimulating environments. At the beginning of the school year it is very difficult for them to focus on sustained interactions with small groups of children at the activities I have outlined above. Staff really appreciate the help of Parent Volunteers as it means we can offer wider Adult led or Adult supported opportunities in each play space.

So what can the volunteering opportunity offer you?

• We are a friendly team. You might like to come and spend a few hours working with other adults.
• Come in to school, and find out what your child experiences day to day.
• Maybe take your first steps towards being an Early Years Practitioner. See how rewarding the job really is!
• Spend some time with our wonderful pupils. They just love to chat with new adults and share what they have been doing.

Please do not feel you are too shy, or that perhaps your English Language skills are not strong. We would encourage you to come forward and give it a try.

If you think you might be interested please mention this to your child’s keyworker, or to any of the staff.

Miss Gaffney is our Parent Volunteer co-ordinator. She will then get in touch with you and invite you to a meeting with other interested parents.

E. BBC Children in Need.

Friday 15^th November is Children in Need. Parents often ask us what we are doing for Children in Need. –So as in previous years, we will collect money in Charity buckets, should anyone wish to donate. We do organise activities with a Pudsey Bear theme, and we try to share with the children that we are fundraising to help other children. Sometimes the Nursery children want to dress up because they see their older brothers and sisters dressing up for their school’s event. We are happy for children to dress up, or not to dress up. We do not wish any family to feel under pressure.

F. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is Festivals and Autumn.

The children will be sharing experiences that they may have had over the half term holidays including celebrating Diwali and bonfire/fireworks night.

This year Diwali is being celebrated on October 31^st, which falls during half term. Diwali is the Hindu festival of light, which lasts for five days. When the children return to school, those that have celebrated will be able to draw upon their own experiences and share them with others. Children will be taught the story of Rama and Sita, decorate Rangoli patterns and look at some Diwali artefacts that we display to support their learning.

Children return to school on the 5^th of November, which is bonfire night. Many children may have celebrated bonfire night with their families or by attending an organised display. Staff will share their own experiences of this celebration with the children and prompt them to share their personal stories. We will use vocabulary that describes the sights and sounds that the children may have seen over the half term holiday, and discuss the colours of all the lights and fireworks.

In our creative areas, children have the chance to take part in junk modelling, we have noticed that our box modelling resources have become very low. We would like to take this opportunity to ask that parents donate recyclable materials for us to restock this area. We would gratefully accept small and medium boxes, such as toothpaste boxes and cereal boxes, as well as toilet roll tubes and egg cartons. These provide so many creative opportunities for the children and develop their imaginations. Thank you for your support!

Nursery News 21st October 2024

NURSERY NEWS

21^st October 2024 – Edition 349

Find out About:

A. Important dates, a reminder.

B. Update: Parent School Governor.

C. Parent Consultations

D. Pumpkin Patch

E. Hand, foot and mouth disease. What to look out for:

F. What are the children learning about this week?

A. Important dates, a reminder.

Mon 28^th October 2024 to Fri 1^st November 2024: Autumn Half term – School Closed

Mon 4^th November –Teacher training day- School Closed.

Wednesday 6^th November and Thursday 7^th November-School Photographer to visit.

B. Update: Parent School Governor.

Two parents approached me to volunteer to be a parent governor. We now have a full governing body! Thank you!

C. Parent Consultations

Little Nursery will be having their Parent Consultations this week! Parents have made appointments with Keyworkers, here are the times staff will be speaking to parents on the phone, as a reminder:

Monday 21^st October Mrs Brinkley’s Orange Group Consultations, between 3:15pm and 3:55pm

Tuesday 22^nd October Miss Gaffney’s Blue Group Consultations, between 3:15pm and 4:20pm

Wednesday 23rd October Mrs Cashmore’s Little Yellow Group Consultations between 1:00pm and 1:25pm

Thursday 24^th October Mrs McGrath’s Little Yellow Groups Consultations, between 3:15pm and 3:35pm

Each appointment lasts only five minutes. Please help staff to remain on time.

D. Pumpkin Patch

The children have had so much fun with the pumpkins that parents have donated. They have enjoyed moving them in wheelbarrows and rolling them around the garden. Mrs Patterson carefully cut the top off of a big pumpkin and left it in the mud kitchen for children to investigate. They had their hands and arms fully in it, scooping out the seeds and the flesh.  Another popular activity is where we provide golf tees and little hammers so children can hammer the golf tees into the pumpkin.

The children transported the pumpkins into the big sandpit then used them as building brick to build a ‘Pumpkin Castle’, packing sand around the piled up pumpkins to build walls.

Children decorated the biggest pumpkins with chalk, so this week we will wash them and have a go at painting them.

E. Hand, foot and mouth disease. What to look out for:

We have had a number of cases of ‘Hand, foot and mouth disease’ in Little Nursery. It is a very common viral illness in childhood.

It is generally a mild illness. In rare cases it can be more severe.

I have included some information below from the East of England Health Protection Team regarding this illness:

The individual may develop a fever, reduced appetite and generally feel unwell. One or 2 days later a rash may develop with blisters, on hands, feet, insides of their cheeks, gums and on the sides of the tongue. Not all cases have symptoms. The incubation period is 3 to 5 days. Persons affected are most infectious during the first week of the illness.

The illness is usually mild and clears up by itself in 7 to 10 days.

If the individual develops the rare additional symptoms of high fever, headache, stiff neck, back pain, or other complications then they should seek prompt medical advice.

Spread is caused by direct contact with the secretions of the infected person (including faeces) or by aerosol spread such as coughing and sneezing. Younger children are more at risk because they tend to play closely with their peers.

Advice from the Health Protection Team is:

If a child has a temperature they should stay at home.

Children with hand foot and mouth disease may attend the Nursery if they feel well.

We are encouraging more frequent hand washing. We are encouraging the frequent use of tissues to keep noses clean.

I am hopeful that the half term break may stop the spread through the school

F. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is keeping healthy.

Staff will teach the children about the importance of keeping healthy by exercising and eating well. There will be some activities focused on dental hygiene, which will involve showing the children how to brush their teeth correctly, for how long and how often. They will learn all about visiting the dentist and how they help us to look after our teeth. Looking after our teeth and staying healthy both link to eating well, and staff will use resources to teach the children about balancing their diet and keeping snacks as a treat item, only to be had every so often.

The children will learn value of exercise and rest. As they work and play, staff will talk to the children of the effects exercise has on their bodies. They will encourage the children to pay attention to how fast their hearts beat after exercise and the importance of staying hydrated.

We will also be focusing on scissor skills. The children will learn how to use scissors safely and effectively. We will be providing lots of cutting opportunities to upskill our children and encourage them to cut appropriate materials such as paper, card and boxes in the creative areas. Scissor skills are tricky to master so we aim to provide as much practice as possible.