Nursery News 19th September 2022

NURSERY NEWS
19th September 2022 – Edition 271

Find out About:
A. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s State Funeral- School Closed Monday 19th
September
B: Operation Encompass
C. Keeping Children Safe.
D. Milk and Fruit time.
E. Can you help with some Tissues?
F. Progress so far….
G. ‘All About Me Week’.
H: Job Vacancy: School Cleaner

A. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s State Funeral- School Closed Monday 19th
September

B: Operation Encompass
The school has been given the opportunity to take part in a project that will run jointly
between schools, Bedford Borough Council and Bedfordshire Police
Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools, prior to the start of the next school
day, when a child or young person has experienced or been exposed to any
domestic abuse.
Operation Encompass will ensure that a member of the school staff, known as a Key
Adult, is trained to allow them to liaise with the police and to use the information that
has been shared, in confidence, while ensuring that the school is able to make
provision for possible difficulties experienced by children, or their families, who have
been experienced a domestic abuse incident.
We are keen to offer the best support possible to all our pupils and we believe this
will be extremely beneficial for all those involved.

C. Keeping Children Safe.
Parents entrust their children into our care. There are rigorous procedures in place
outlined by the government to keep all children safe from harm. I think it is important
to let you know about some of the procedures that may affect you and your family
whilst being part of our School Community, and I will try to explain the reasons for
having these procedures.
We need to know where children are if they are absent from school. If for any
reason you decide to keep your child at home, on a day when your child should be at
school please telephone in to school as soon as possible and let us know. When
registers are completed at the beginning of the session we have to put codes in the
registers regarding the reasons for a child’s absence. If we do not hear from you, you
will receive a call from one of the office staff or the headteacher asking about the
whereabouts of your child.
If you know in advance that you will be absent, for example for a medical
appointment, please let staff know and the appropriate code can be entered in the
register.
If you plan to go on holiday in term time, please fill in a holiday form (available from
the office staff) which again will let us know the dates that you will be absent.
Unexplained absences have to be followed up. If a child is absent for any length of
time and we have not heard from their parents as to the reasons for their absence,
the child become a ‘Missing Child’. In this circumstance we are compelled to contact
the Police and Social Care.
We need to record all injuries. If your child has a fall or receives a bump in school
that we are aware of, we will fill in an accident letter to tell you about the incident.
This letter will be passed on to you outside, by a member of staff. There is another
copy kept in school.
Please inform your child’s Keyworker if your child comes into school with an existing
injury that has occurred outside of school time. Staff must make a note of any
existing injuries a child has. Our children at Willow are young. They are sometimes
unable to tell us how they have hurt themselves. Please tell us if you know of any
marks/cuts etc as it will save staff trying to work out what has happened.
Teach your child to use the toilet. Guidelines say that we should offer as little
assistance in the bathroom as possible. With the three and four year old Nursery
children we prefer to give children verbal assistance from outside their cubicle, only
offering physical assistance if absolutely necessary. If an adult is needed to help a
child in the bathroom another member of staff will always be aware, and support if
necessary.

D. Milk and Fruit time.
The government provides all children at Nursery with a carton of milk. We ask all
parents to donate fruit or vegetables, so we can share these at the snack table
alongside the milk we provide. We ask parents to donate a bag of fruit such as
apples, satsumas, pears or bananas, or vegetables such as peppers or carrot sticks.
If every parent was to donate a bag of fruit every half term we will have lots to share.

E. Can you help with some Tissues?
Sometimes we ask parents for some specific donations that help our school. During
Covid, we were asked to provide ‘Tissue Stations’ in every classroom and to teach
the children about the importance of using tissues hygienically to blow their nose.
We have a tissue bin in each classroom, stored near to tissues and hand sanitiser
and posters reminding children to ‘catch it, kill it, bin it!’ As a staff we discussed
which elements of the previous Covid requirements we would like to continue with.
We think that the hygienic use of tissues, combined with frequent handwashing helps
maintain a cleaner, healthier school environment.
So, I am asking if all parents could donate a box of tissues for the children to use, to
help keep everyone healthy.

F. Early Years Pupil Premium
What is Early Years Pupil Premium?
This information has been taken from Central Bedfordshire’s Website.
The Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) is designed to narrow the attainment gap
between young children from low-income families and their peers by improving the
facilities, equipment and learning experiences to benefit the growth and development
of eligible children.
All children aged 3 and 4 who meet the eligibility criteria will benefit from the funding.
It will be paid to early years providers on an hourly rate basis, linked to claimed
hours for eligible children. The annual value for a 15 hour place over a full year will
be just over £300, or 53p per hour.
Any provider registered to offer funded early years places will receive the EYPP if
they have entitled children. All parents will be asked to supply details to allow a
check to be run by the local authority, eligible parents will trigger a payment direct to
the childcare setting.
Eligibility criteria
Children will be eligible if:
 they are 3 or 4 years old and receiving government-funded Free Entitlement
in any OFSTED registered childcare provider and their parents are in receipt
of one or more of the benefits used to access eligibility for free school meals
 parents receive Universal Credit
 parents receive Income Support
 parents receive Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
 parents receive Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
 parents receive support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act
1999
 parents receive the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
 parents receive Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to
Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than
£16,190)
 parents receive Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop
qualifying for Working Tax Credits
or if they have been:
 looked after by the local authority for at least one day
 have been adopted from care in the local authority
 have left care through special guardianship; and subject to a child
arrangement order setting out with whom the child is to live (formerly known
as residence orders) in Central Bedfordshire
If any parent has considered the eligibility criteria and believes their child is
eligible please telephone or email the school office and together we can make
a claim.

F. Progress so far….
All 3 and 4 year olds are now attending Nursery. All 49 children have enrolled. It is
amazing the progress the children have made in the past week. At the beginning of
last week I walked into Room 1 to work with the children after lunch, and the children
were having a great time. Children were exploring all the toys and equipment. I could
hardly see the floor! Every drawer of equipment had been accessed, tipped onto the
floor, played with for a bit then left behind. We had dinosaurs, trains, dressing up
clothes, magnetic numbers, the entire contents of the home corner, puzzles, duplo,
dolls house furniture, binoculars and magnifying glasses strewn all around the room.
I encouraged the children to help me tidy up, and we had a tidy room back after
around 30 minutes! We have been steadily explaining to children that they can
choose whatever they like to play with, but they should tidy up after themselves. This
is an important lesson to learn and we will help the children with this. As time goes
on we hope the children learn to independently look after the toys and equipment,
enabling us, the staff to spend more time playing and learning with them, rather than
tidying up after them!
‘Lunch’ with 40 children has been interesting. There are four staff on duty working
directly with the children at lunchtime. So that means that 1 member of staff is
generally looking after 10 children. We have a variety of levels of self care that the
children present with. Our most able children collect their own lunch box and water
bottle from the lunch trolley and unpack it onto the table. Staff then help them to
open their wrapped food and storage tubs. The children get on eating their lunch,
with little support needed from the adults. They put their rubbish in the bin, they pack
their lunchboxes away, returning them to the correct lunch box trolley and go to the
bathroom to wash their hands.
At the other end of the scale, we have children who require a lot more support…
Some children struggle to sit at the table without getting down to wander off. Some
children have difficulty not touching other children’s food. Some children have
difficulty deciding to eat. Some children require prompting to take every bite of their
sandwich. Some children wet themselves as they sit down to lunch, after just being
asked to use the toilet. Some children tell us they dislike the food their parents have
given them. (Which we can never quite believe!). Many children expect 1:1 attention
as they are not used to being part of a larger group.
Our challenge is to help and support all these brand new children, for them to gain a
good level of self care and independence during lunchtime. We have seen progress
in the last week. We are getting to know the individual children, working out how to
seat the children into table groups to maintain an ordered dining area. We give as
much support to individual children as we can but we cannot give everyone’s child
1:1 support.
We are already realising that we have some wonderful little characters emerging in
this year group. We are looking forward to the journey with them in the coming
academic year. The children have so many skills to learn, but they are making a
good start.

G. ‘All About Me Week’.
The week beginning 26/09/22 is ‘All About Me’ week. We have weekly themes that
we work on with the children. We begin with learning about something all the
children can be familiar with and contribute to discussions about. This work will be
happening with the older children in Nursery, which we refer to as ‘Big Nursery’ in
these newsletters. (that is Mrs Pattersons Green Group, Miss Skai’s Red Group and
Miss Howe and Mrs Cashmore’s Yellow Group.) The adults will be working with the
children on various activities and talking to them about their own life stories and
family history. To help the children understand we would ask if you could send in a
family photo that they can share with everyone. Mrs Patterson would also like to
include these photo’s as part of a display. So, if you would like to send in a photo,
please do so during this week (20/09/22) or at the beginning of next week.
Please hand your photo to your child’s keyworker, so we can keep them safe.
Please write your child’s name on the back of the photo, and if possible the
names of other family members shown in the photograph. We will then be able
to return the photos to you when we take our display down later in the year.

H: Job Vacancy: School Cleaner.

We are still looking for a school cleaner……..
Job Vacancy at Willow Nursery School
Job Title: Cleaner
School Name: Willow Nursery School
Location: Goldstone Crescent, Dunstable, LU5 4QU
Salary Range: NJC levels 1-2, £10:50 per hour (subject to confirmation by payroll provider)
Hours: 3:30pm to 5:00pm Monday to Friday, term time only.
Contract Type: Permanent
Closing Date: Friday 23rd September 2022
Interview Date: Week beg 26th September 2022
We are looking for a part time cleaner to join our staff team here at Willow Nursery School.
Main Purpose of role:
 To clean classrooms, toilets, cloakrooms, corridors and staff areas to a good
standard.
 To ensure the cleaners cupboard is kept clean and tidy.
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, fun environment. We
aim to provide clean and hygienic spaces for children to grow and learn.
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