Nursery News 28th November 2022

NURSERY NEWS

28th  November 2022 – Edition 280

Find out About

  1. Parking with consideration.
  2. Oral Health Week.
  3. Christmas Parties
  4. School Photographer
  5. Walk in the Dark.
  6. Renewing 30 hour codes.
  7. What are the children learning about this week?

 

  1. Parking with consideration.

One of our Local Residents in Goldstone Crescent has very politely asked me to pass on a message to all Nursery Parents who come to school by car. She says:

“Could you please, please remind parents to not park over our driveways and to drive carefully around the school/nursery. Our driveways are being blocked regularly. We also drop our children to different schools and when we come back we can’t access our driveways or we have work commitments and can’t move our cars.”

Goldstone Crescent becomes extremely busy at dropping off and collection times. Please park with consideration to our neighbours.

 2. Oral Health Week.

It is Oral Health week in Big Nursery this week. We will be having a visitor to speak to the children on Wednesday 30th November, from a Dental Practice in Houghton Regis. She is bringing with her toothbrushes for all the Big Nursery children and her friendly crocodile puppet.

 

3.Christmas Parties

The school will be open only for the parties.

 

The Little Nursery Christmas Party is planned to be on Friday 16th December from 9:00am to 10:00am.

 

All children who attend Little Nursery are invited to attend the Christmas Party regardless of what days they usually attend.

Parents and children should arrive for 9:00am, and wait on the pavement outside the nursery. We will follow normal routines to admit the children. Children will require their change of clothes bag. Children will not require their water bottles as we will be providing refreshments. We will use normal routines for departure, so please arrive to collect your child at 10:00am.

 

The Big Nursery Christmas Party is planned to be on Friday 16th December from 11:15am until 1:00pm.

 

All children who attend Main Nursery are invited to attend the Christmas Party regardless of what days they usually attend.

Parents and children should arrive for 11:15, and wait on the pavement outside the nursery. We will follow normal routines to admit the children, with Green group coming in first followed by Red group, then Yellow group. Children will not require a water bottle or a packed lunch on this day as we will be providing refreshments. Children will not require their change of clothes bag.

 

Children may wear party clothes if they wish, or regular nursery clothes.

 

Please be prompt to collect your child at 1:00pm. We will use normal routines for departure.

 

4. School Photographer.

Victoria, our school photographer contacted me on Friday to say there would a small delay in the delivery of our photos. She expects to have them to us by Wednesday 30th November. We will get them out to parents as soon as we receive them.

 

5. Walk in the Dark

Our first after school event, for two years, due to Covid, went ahead last Thursday.

That is something to celebrate in itself, as it felt so very normal!

I must admit, when we were setting up the garden at 3:30pm the rain was pouring down and the wind was blowing wildly, that we were anticipating a very soggy ‘Walk in the Rain’ event. However, the rain just stopped at around 4:30pm. We quickly dried off all the seating and tables and opened the front door…..

We were so pleased to see 30 families joining us. This was more than we had thought would come, due to the challenging weather conditions. However, lots of little people arrived with their torches, ready to explore, bringing with them parents, and lots of excitement.

The event in itself is not elaborate, but what it does do is spark the children’s imaginations. I heard one child racing off through the dark shouting they were ‘looking for Tigers’. There were torch beams criss-crossing in the sky above the school, and passers by walking their dogs were stopping to look at what was going on in the Nursery School garden.

It was lovely to see the community atmosphere created when families came together to enjoy a snack in the garden. Room 2 still smells of onions! I was fortunate enough to be on the gate as families drifted home. I had some lovely feedback from parents. A couple of children cried because they didn’t want to leave….. We must have got something right…..

 

6.Renewing 30 hour codes.

All parents in receipt of 30 hour funding must ensure their 30 hour code is valid on the 31st December 2022, to enable it to be used for the Spring Term 2023.

If you already have a 30 hour code it must be renewed every 3 months. The government sends out reminders by email to all those who need to renew their code. We have had parents have some problems in the past. Sometimes the reminder email from the government has ended up being sent to parents spam email accounts. Please check your spam folders!

Some parents, for example, of children in Little Nursery, may have applied for their child’s 30 hour code earlier in this term in readiness for January. Codes do come with a ‘grace period’ but these only apply when the code is actually being claimed from. So if your code is not yet being used please make sure it is renewed and valid on 31st December.

If a code is not valid, we are unable to claim the 30 hours funding from the government. In this situation your child would revert to a 15 hours universal funded place, or you would have to pay the top up fee of £67.50 per week to maintain a 30 hour space.

 

7. What are the children learning about this week?

What are the children learning about this week?

The theme in Little Nursery is Maisy Mouse.

In Catkins, the children will use sponges and paint to create pictures of Maisy Mouse. They will look at the shapes of the sponges as they dip them in paint. The children will also be encouraged to talk about the colours of the paint being used.

In the link, Mrs. Brinkley will be using a different paint technique each day. These will include using cotton buds, rollers and their fingers. Mrs. Brinkley will explain to the children that they can use different resources to paint instead of the traditional paintbrush.

In room three, Mrs. Watson will set up a library role play for the children to sit and read books. She will provide a range of stories for everyone to share including some of the Maisy Mouse collection.

Outside, Miss Gaffney will take the children on a hunt for characters from the Maisy Mouse book. They will explore the whole garden looking for as many characters as they can find. Miss Gaffney will also be making some flags for the children to celebrate Saint Andrew’s day.

The theme in Big Nursery is oral health.

In room one, Miss Skai will be sharing the story of I care for my teeth, the children will read along with Miss Skai ensuring that everyone is reading from left to right and from top to bottom. There will also be a sequencing tooth-brushing activity for the children to complete. The children will cut and stick pictures in the correct order to show how they look after their teeth.

 

In room two, Miss Howe will be creating mouth pictures using paint for the lips and teeth. The children will be encouraged to use sponges dipped in white paint to represent teeth. They will be encouraged to paint and count twenty teeth.

Mrs. Cashmore will squirt shaving foam on some laminated teeth to represent toothpaste, she will model how to clean the shaving foam off of the teeth with a toothbrush and explain that we must brush our teeth twice a day to keep them healthy.

Outside in the garden, Mrs. Patterson will be promoting healthy food choices for the children. She will be placing pictures of happy teeth and pictures of unhappy teeth around the garden. Mrs. Patterson will then ask the children to find healthy food choices and place them on the happy teeth, and the not so healthy food choices on the unhappy teeth. This should help children in the future with making their own healthy food choices.

At Willow Nursery School we have chosen to focus on oral health as part of our school development plan. This means that, as a school, we will be teaching the children how to make positive food choices, how to brush their teeth effectively and all about the dentist. The main points we will focus on are listed below. Please work with us in promoting good oral health for your children.

Brushing

  • You should replace your toothbrush if the bristles have become splayed.
  • You should have help from a grown up to brush your teeth if you are under 8 years old.
  • You should brush your teeth with small circle shapes on your teeth and gums.
  • You should only have a pea sized amount of toothpaste on your brush if you are 3, 4, 5 or 6 years old.
  • You should spit out the toothpaste if you want to, but you don’t need to rinse your mouth out with water.

Snacks

  • You should drink tooth friendly drinks like water and milk.
  • You should eat tooth friendly food like breadsticks, cheese, grapes, crackers and vegetables.

Dentist

  • You should visit your dentist regularly to get your teeth checked to ensure they are healthy.