Nursery News 15.3.2021

NURSERY NEWS

15th March 2021 – Edition 219

Find out About:

A. The MMR (Measles Mumps and Rubella) vaccine.

B. Our Caretaker is retiring!

C. Our video room tours.

D: What the children are learning about this week

A: The MMR (Measles Mumps and Rubella) vaccine.

Are your family up to date with the MMR vaccine?

Most of us know that measles can make children very poorly, but did you know that measles can also lead to life threatening complications if you are not vaccinated. Central Bedfordshire Council, in collaboration with Public Health, are encouraging parents and carers to find out if their family are fully protected against measles. It’s difficult to know which services are available during the current pandemic, but parents can be confident that the MMR vaccination is not affected by Covid. If a child is due to have their vaccination, or has missed one, they are available through your GP.

How many doses of the vaccination do children need to be fully protected?

The MMR vaccine is given in two doses, the first dose of the vaccine is at 1 year of age with the second being given at 3 years and four months. If you’re older children have missed their second, don’t panic! They can be vaccinated and protected. Get in touch with your GP to find out how.

Missed a vaccination?

If a child has missed a vaccination, don’t worry, you can contact your GP to arrange a new appointment during the Covid pandemic. A catch-up vaccine is also available.

For further information on the MMR vaccine, get in touch with your local GP or visit the NHS website.

B. Our Caretaker is retiring!

Mr Wilbourne, our caretaker is retiring at Easter. We are looking for a new Caretaker. We are advertising the position on the ‘Academy for Central Bedfordshire’ Jobs website, where local schools advertise current job vacancies. So, please spread the word to family and friends, as we need to find someone able to keep our school clean and safe.

The application pack is available on our school website.

School Caretaker/Cleaner/Handy Person

Job Title: School Caretaker/Cleaner/Handy Person

School Name: Willow Nursery School

Location: Goldstone Crescent, Dunstable, LU5 4QU

Salary Range: NJC level 2, scale 4-6 £9.81-£10.21 per hour term time

position pays between 45.2 weeks per year to 46.4 weeks per year dependent on number of

years of service within the local authority.

Hours: 20 hours per week split shift. 4 Hours per day, term time only

(to include unlocking the school by 7.30am and locking the school in the evening)

Suggested hours 6am-7.30am, 3.30pm-6pm (can be negotiated)

Contract Type: Permanent. To begin as soon as possible!

Closing Date: Wed 24th March 2021

Interview Date: Week beg Tue 6th April 2021

We are looking for a hardworking, flexible, self-motivated person to be our school

caretaker/cleaner/handy person due to the retirement of our current caretaker.

Main Purpose of role:

· To carry out general maintenance and minor repairs

· To clean the school daily

· To unlock and secure the school on a daily basis

· To carry out regular tests for water temperature and fire alarm systems

· To be the main key holder

We are a dedicated and committed team of early year’s specialists who are passionate about what we

do. We aim to give our children the very best care and education in a positive, clean, fun environment. If

you take pride in your work and you want to be part of something ‘Outstanding’, then please apply.

This school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and

expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will have to meet

the requirements of the Person Specification in order to be offered the post. DBS Disclosure at

Enhanced Level and a qualification check are required for this post

How to apply:

For further details and an application pack, please visit the school website at: www.willownursery.co.uk, and click on school information – vacancies. We will accept electronic or paper applications. Electronic applications to be sent to the email address below. Paper copies to be sent to Willow Nursery School, Goldstone Crescent, Dunstable, Beds, LU5 4QU. Or contact: Name: Trina Evans Tel: 01582 662600 Email: office@willownursery.co.uk

C. Our video room tours.

An update:

There are now two video tours on our website. To find them, go to www.willownursery.co.uk.

Click on the ‘School Information Tab’

Then click on ‘About’

Video Tour Room 1

A room used by the Main Nursery Children (All the children that will leave us in July 2021) All Main Nursery children head here first thing in the morning to hang up their coats. They then have their register taken with their Keyworker. Yellow Group have their register time here with Miss Howe. Main Nursery children are then able to have free flow play inside and outside for most of the day. Main Nursery Children use the space in Room 1, Room 2, Room 5 and Outside.

Video Tour Room 3

A room used by the 3+ age group of children who joined us in January 2021, and the 3+ group who will join us in April 2021. These children are those who are entiltled to the universal 15 hours of funded education, who will leave us in July 2022.

This is the room where Blue and Orange group head to first thing in the morning to hang up their coats. They have their register taken here with their Keyworker.

There is a smaller room which links Room 3 to Catkins class, so we call this room ‘The Link’. The Link is used by both Catkins Class and Blue and Orange groups. It is a messy play area, where water play and art activities take place. The Link is included in the Video Tour Room 3.

Blue and Orange group use the space in Room 3, the Link and Outside.

Next Video Tour:

To begin with, I am trying to produce one Video Tour for each age group, so my next will be for Catkins Class.

I will then go back and complete Room 2, Room 5 and Outside, in coming weeks.

D: What the children are learning about this week

It is so nice to have most of the children in now, since the wider reopening of schools. I will try to give information every week about the themes children will be particularly learning about. We make a plan for the whole year, looking at themes in a particular order, so the children’s experiences build on prior knowledge.

Main Nursery have covered learning all about themselves, their family and people who help us. We now spend quite a few weeks looking at favourite Fairy Tales to stimulate their learning. In the last few weeks we have covered ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and this week we will be moving onto the ‘Three Little Pigs’. The texts in these stories are very repetitive, and they help children to grow in confidence when beginning to read. They may not be able to read words, but, from memory, they would be able to join in with the repeated refrains in the story, that would go along with the illustrations. In this way, children begin to feel that they are reading the book. With each book we look at connected themes. With the Three little Pigs we look at the theme of building, and the use of materials. We look at the power of the wind, which is quite timely with all this windy weather we have been having. The children chose to explore making kites at the end of last week. So we had lots of kite flying in the garden, with strings and kites getting tangled together. We had crying when kites blew off strings. We had lots of discussion about how we could repair the kites and to think of strategies to improve them.

Blue Group and Catkins, will be having a hospital role play area. We have a small bed, bandages, medical tools, a light box with real x rays to look at and lots of resources to stimulate talking, reading and writing. Adults will join the children in role play. Adults will model being a doctor, nurse, patient and receptionist. They will encourage children to try out different roles. Adults will use correct language for the medical tools for the children to hear whilst they are playing. Adults will model how to create story scenarios within the role play.

We will be reading Dr Maisy- A Maisy Mouse story book. It is a very basic story that introduces medical characters. Children will represent x-ray images, making cotton bud collages on black paper to represent bones. This should begin a discussion about their skeleton.