Nursery News 21st November 2022

NURSERY NEWS

21st  November 2022 – Edition 279

Find out About

  1. Big Nursery-Would you like any additional sessions for your child?
  2. Little Nursery- Would you like any additional sessions for your child?
  3. School Photographer
  4. Walk in the Dark.
  5. Children in Need.
  6. What are the children learning about this week?

 

  1. Big Nursery-Would you like any additional sessions for your child?

At the beginning of the school year, in September, I plan for there to be the correct number of staff on duty in each session. We can have up to 50 children in Big Nursery at any one time. We must have 1 member of staff for every 13 children. So for 50 children I need 4 staff.                                                                                              However, if there are 39 children or less I need 3 staff on duty.                                                        So, in this academic year 2022-23, some sessions have 3 staff on duty and some have 4 staff.                                                                                                                                                    I am able to offer additional sessions to children who already attend Big Nursery. However, some sessions will be capped at 39 pupils due to staffing levels.

If you would like to pay for additional sessions for your child (at £13.50 per morning or afternoon session, or £27.00 for a full day session) your child can start those sessions immediately, if we have a space available. We do expect that once extra spaces are taken they become your child’s regular allocation, and they are booked and paid for every week.

If you would like to use the 30 hour entitlement to pay for your additional sessions, you would have to ensure that you have a valid code in place by 31st December 2022, in order to use 30 hour funding in January 2023.

So you can book:

  • additional morning spaces.
  • additional full days

We do not have an option to send a child in just for an afternoon session (except as part of the Wednesday/Thursday/Friday 2 ½ day offer).

However, if your child attends for 2 ½ days, you may wish to top up their half day to a full day, adding an extra Wednesday morning or afternoon, in order to make a total of three full days.

The ability to book these sessions will be just this week, until Friday 25th November, as we have to get registers ready for the new year, so there must be an end point!

 

2. Little Nursery- Would you like any additional sessions for your child?

I am able to offer additional sessions to children who already attend Little Nursery. Some sessions are allocated to particular age groups. Availability is dependent upon your child’s age.

Blue Group children will become entitled to their 15/30 funded hours in January, parents have chosen their options for January and these sessions are now allocated so there are no further sessions available for Blue Group.

Orange group are those children who will become entitled to 15/30 hours funding in April.  Parents have chosen their options for April and these are now in place.  I have one Tuesday morning session available for an orange group child for the Spring Term. There are no further sessions available for Orange Group.

The younger Little Nursery children, (including Yellow Group who are entitled to their 15/30 hours in September) may choose additional sessions for between now, (or January) and September. I can offer some morning sessions, (currently only four spaces in total), or you can choose to extend your morning space into a full day space (8:45am to 2:45pm). Morning sessions cost £15:00 and full day sessions cost £30:00.

Again, once booked, sessions are allocated as your child’s regular attendance pattern and therefore should be booked and paid for every week.

The ability to book these sessions will be just this week, until Friday 25th November. After this time I will release the available sessions to children on the waiting list.

Please note: I will not be able to generate any further morning sessions in Little Nursery until September 2023. Once the last 4 spaces are filled it is unlikely that any more morning spaces will become available. So, if you feel you would like more sessions for your child, please consider extending a morning space into a full day space.

 

3. School Photographer.

Victoria, our school photographer collected all the photo orders from school. She plans that all the photo’s should be returned to Willow by next Monday, the 28th November. We will get them out to parents as soon as we receive them.

 

4. Walk in the Dark

We made the decision to move the Walk in the Dark from Thursday 17th November to Thursday 24th November at 5:00pm due to the heavy rain we were experiencing. It had been raining for the majority of the preceding week and the garden was extremely wet. This is our first evening event since Covid, so we want it to be fun.

So, we plan to try again!  So as a reminder….

We turn off as many lights in school as possible. School is lit just by a few lanterns. The children’s faces are a picture when they come in and find their school in darkness. It looks completely different!.

So what happens?. Families come in at the front entrance of the school. Parents sign in. Children then collect a clipboard with a look and find sheet attached, with photographs of a number of soft toy animals that are hidden in the dark garden. Families then go off to find the hidden toys. If you have a torch, do bring it. The children love exploring with a torch!. Then, when you have found all the hidden characters it is time to stop for some refreshments….. Having something to eat in the garden, in the dark, is quite different. I’ve heard rumours that we may be having hotdogs ( or cheese rolls for vegetarians) cookies and squash.

This event is free.

The refreshments are free, too. We would like everyone to have to opportunity to come.

If we decide to cancel the event again we will send out an email at around 8:30am on Thursday morning, and put a message on our web site www.willownursery.co.uk

 

5. Children in Need.

Friday the 18th November was BBC Children in Need day.

We raised £65 in our bucket collection.

 

6. What are the children learning about this week?

 

The theme in little nursery is construction

In Catkins, Mrs. McGrath will show the children how to decorate construction collages using glue and paper. Mrs. McGrath will talk to the children about what the construction vehicles are used for. She will support the children where needed in making their collages, making sure to model lots of language to improve the children’s understanding.

In Room three, Mrs. Brinkley will have large Lego blocks available for the children to build their own designs. She will talk to the children about the colours of the blocks and ask questions about what the children are building. Mrs. Brinkley will try to instil a sense of pride in the children about their creations.

 

In the Link, Miss Gaffney will be creating card sculptures. She will provide cut outs of cardboard and PVA glue. The children will be encouraged to stack the cardboard pieces on top of each other, using glue to keep the pieces in place. The end result will be constructions made of card.

 

Outside, Mrs. Watson will use building and connecting blocks to make different structures of their choice. There will also be a range of smaller blocks available for the children to focus on their fine motor skills as they balance and stack their blocks.

 

The theme in big nursery is electricity 

In Room one, Mrs. Patterson will provide components such as wires, switches and bulbs for the children to create their own small electrical circuits. Mrs. Patterson will show the children how to make an electrical circuit and then see if they can replicate this on their own. She will also have the remote control cars out for the children, who have the chance to work on building their sharing skills as they wait for a turn on the remote control cars.

In Room two, Miss Skai will set up a stage area for the children to sing, dance and perform along to music, and a disco light. Everyone will have the opportunity to perform on the stage and can choose which way they would like to do this. While they are perfoming, Miss Skai will be working with small groups of children, learning about items which are powered by electricity or batteries.

Outside, Miss Howe will be playing a game called ‘electricity or not?’ which the children need to use their knowledge to decide if certain items are powered by electricity or not. There will be two signs, one for items that need electricity and one for items that do not. The children will be shown images and they need to move close to the sign that shows how each item is powered.

Mrs. Cashmore will be playing ‘electricity tag’, a game of tag where the chaser tries to catch other people. When a person tags their friend they will say ‘buzz’ and then they begin to work together. Mrs. Cashmore will explain to the children that electricity can pass through certain objects and when we tag somebody in the game the power to tag moves onto them.