Nursery News 19th July 2021

NURSERY NEWS

19th July 2021 – Edition 233

Find out About:

A. Staff changes

B. End of Term arrangements July 2021- A reminder

C. Leavers Day –Thursday 22nd July- 8:50am-11:50am- A reminder

D. The end of the 2020-2021 Academic Year is rapidly approaching.

A. Staff changes

Saying Goodbye….

Mrs Shambrook will be leaving us at the end of this term. She has been working at Willow for the past 20 years in a variety of roles, both in the classroom and in the school office. Prior to that she volunteered as a Parent Helper when her two daughters attended Willow. Mrs Shambrook looks after all the staff, is kind, and very generous with her time. We will all miss her from the staff team. Mrs Shambrook said: ‘It is with a heavy heart that I am saying goodbye to Willow, and I will miss everyone dearly.”

A Warm Welcome Back….

Mrs Cashmore has been working at Willow as a Teaching Assistant since January 2013. Since then she has been studying hard, achieving her Science GCSE, then Maths GCSE, following this with a foundation degree in Child and Family studies, then completing a BA degree in Child and Adolescent Studies. In September 2020 Mrs Cashmore left Willow to study full time to achieve her Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) to become a fully qualified Primary teacher. I’m pleased to say she has returned and will be joining our team in September.

B. End of Term arrangements July 2021

The last day of term in July 2021 for all children will be Wednesday 21st July.This day will run as a normal Wednesday. Timings of the day will be the same as all Wednesdays.

C. Leavers Day –Thursday 22nd July- 8:50am-11:50am

On Thursday 22nd July school will open only for the Main Nursery children that are leaving us. The session will be from 8:50 am to 11:50am. All Main Nursery leavers are invited to attend this session, regardless of your child’s normal attendance days. As children are attending for the morning only, no child will require a packed lunch. Children will require their water bottles. Children should arrive at 8:50 am and wait outside as usual.

D. The end of the 2020-2021 Academic Year is rapidly approaching!

We find ourselves rapidly approaching the end of another year at Willow. I have some ‘Thankyous’ that I would like to share. Firstly I would like to thank each and every parent who has chosen Willow for their child. Parents rarely realise that our funding is directly linked to the number of pupils we have, so without your children, there would be no Willow. Thank you to those parents who have kept us well stocked with fruit for snack time. The children have really enjoyed the ice-pops that parents have provided during the summer term. Parents have been very generous this year. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our collection of boxes and tubes for the children to build models with. All support is very appreciated.

Thank you to all parents and staff for working together to keep all our pupils safe. I know the majority of parents have not been inside school at all this year, so thank you for trusting us to look after your children.

I would like to thank all the children that have been with us throughout the pandemic. Their behaviour has been Outstanding. The children have been resilient and resourceful which has been proved in the excellent outcomes they have achieved. The school has provided a sense of normality throughout this challenging time for staff and pupils. Staff’s wellbeing has been challenged at times, but channelling our energies into keeping the children safe and stimulated has kept us going.

The year group that are leaving us at the end of this week are a very special year group, who will be remembered as the group who went through Covid 19 with us. I want to wish all these children every success as they leave us to move on to their Primary Schools in September. There is a collection of very unique and special

individuals that will be leaving us, and we will miss them.

To those families that are staying, my hope is that we can all get to know each other better, that school will become a more ‘open’ place, and we can resume all the normal Nursery activities that we have been excluded from doing during the past year. (Amongst other things, we have all missed Playdough, Sand play/ Messy play, Dressing up and Cooking!)

The only thing left for me to say is ‘Have a Safe Summer’. None of us know what the next few months will bring, but children are only little for a short time, so try and have some positive family time together.

Leigh Davies

NURSERY NEWS

12^th July 2021 – Edition 232

Find out About:

Very few tissues left in school.
End of Term arrangements July 2021
Leavers Day –Thursday 22^nd July- 8:50am-11:50am
Review of the year- Results.

1.Very few tissues left in school.

We have very few tissues left in school. We still have lots of runny noses!. If you could spare a box of tissues for the children to use in our classrooms we would be very grateful.

2. End of Term arrangements July 2021

The last day of term in July 2021 for all children will be Wednesday 21^st July.

This day will run as a normal Wednesday. Timings of the day will be the same as all Wednesdays.

3.Leavers Day –Thursday 22^nd July- 8:50am-11:50am

On Thursday 22^nd July school will open only for the Main Nursery children that are leaving us. The session will be from 8:50 am to 11:50am. All Main Nursery leavers are invited to attend this session, regardless of your child’s normal attendance days. As children are attending for the morning only, no child will require a packed lunch. Children will require their water bottles. Children should arrive at 8:50 am and wait outside as usual.

We have consulted the children about what activities they would like to plan for their last day and this is what they have come up with:

Children may dress up if they want to. Children may come to school in a dressing up outfit if they wish. There should be no pressure on anyone to buy an outfit. I am aware that due to covid-19 children have not attended parties so may not have any dressing up clothes or special party clothes. Normal Nursery clothes are absolutely fine too.

We have arranged for children to:

Make party hats, Ice Cakes and eat them, Have Ice Pops and Ice Cream,
Play with Trains, Dinosaurs, Transformers, Toy Spiders, The inflatable fish,
Have songs and music, musical instruments, Dancing,
Watch a Frozen DVD,
Play parachute and Ring games.

At 10:30 am all children will sit down together for a picnic time in the garden. Staff will provide the snacks the children requested: Jam sandwiches, crisps, pizza, party rings, gingerbread men, jammy dodger biscuits, fruit,

The morning will finish with a group time for each colour group, where all children will receive a certificate praising their individual skills and/or qualities.

11:50am Going Home Time- Parents to collect children from the front gate. Children will be dismissed in the regular way, with Green group first, followed by Red group then Yellow group.

D.Review of the year- Results

I had two parents respond to my request to review the school year and to share their thoughts about things we do well and things we can improve. So thank you to those parents for taking the time to reply.

The children were very happy to tell me their views. I have collated their responses to the 5 questions I asked them. I have added the children’s views to the end of the newsletter. Some responses may make you smile.

Response to parents:

My first question to parents was what do we do well? I’m pleased to say both parents recognised the quality of teaching and the variety of activities that children are involved with is a strength.

One said “We are very impressed with the quality of teaching at Willow, our daughter always comes out having had a great day at the nursery (even if she doesn’t tell us what she has done). I think the effort you all put into the different themes of teaching each week shows the dedication you all put into providing a great experience for all the children”.

The other commented: “I feel that Willow always strive to ensure all children enjoy their time at nursery. I also feel that the children have lots of fun and do great activities throughout the day and it’s great to see the photo’s coming home especially with the chicks and most recently the Giant snails, this was a great thing for the children to experience.”

My next question: Is there anything we can do to improve? especially with regard to involving parents more after the Covid restrictions are removed.

One said: An area we feel the school could improve which is also an area of how the school can include parents more would be how information is passed onto parents about the child’s learning. I’m aware in non covid times parents would be allowed to come inside and look at their child’s folder to follow their progression but due to covid this hasn’t happened and I think other than a newsletter each week not much is passed back to parents. At the moment we have to wait for a consultation phone call every few months. I’m aware other schools/ nurseries use online platforms parents can log into which shows what has occurred during the school day and includes photos of the learning that’s occurred. I think something like this would be a good way to involve/ include parents more.”

I am considering ways in which the school can become more open to parents in September. We have a very full structured program of open activities that we usually roll out across the year. I hope that early in the next academic year I will publish all those activities in a timetable so parents can see what we aim to achieve across the year.

Parent consultations are offered termly, more often than that, and I know the staff will say that they would not have enough significant information to update parents with. We try to choose times for consultations that coincide with when staff have updated notes on children’s progress and had time to analyse how individuals and groups of children are progressing. All staff are required to be on duty during the school working day to maintain ratio’s, but we will always try to make time for parents to talk to keyworkers if there is something important parents wish to discuss, but for this to happen cover has to be found for the classroom to cover the Keyworkers responsibilities.

Online platforms: This is something we have considered in the past. We have decided to continue using paper copies, to record observations, collect work samples and to add photographs, creating a year book. An online platform would be too time consuming for staff to manage. For example Miss Howe has 22 children that she is keyworker for. Some are part time, so she usually has 17 children in at any one time. If Miss Howe spent 2 minutes per child uploading information that would take at least 34 minutes per day of uploading photo’s etc. We have a lot of children on our registers, we just would not have the time to do this well. I would also be afraid that parents would look daily at the online journal and would be disappointed if there was no update available about their child.

The Ofsted guidance regarding recording information about children’s progress has recently been updated to say that staff should not be recording lots of data about children, that assessment should not take staff away from actually working with the children. This is something I strongly agree with. Our staff create stimulating work environments, and challenge the children, by using language to intervene in the children’s learning, to stretch them, to get them to reflect on what they are doing and enabling them to move onto their next step in their learning.

Getting the balance right, on how staff use their time, is constantly being reviewed, to enable the staff to be as effective as possible. We are putting ‘involving parents’ very high on our agenda for the next academic year. We have a school development plan, where we identify four areas to focus on improving in the next academic year, usually based upon areas identified by staff/ governors/ parents / children/ data in our end of year review.

We know young children rarely share what they have been doing at school, and we do want parents to feel fully informed about their child’s developments and achievement. We will look to find the right balance.

Both parents that gave feed back both mentioned the organisation of drop off and collection time. I have been asked about what will happen in September when the majority of Covid Restrictions have been dropped.

Before Covid, all the main nursery children arrived between 8:45am and 9:05am with their parents, came right into their classroom, took off coats , hung up bags, stored lunch boxes, then went off to choose tasks. I can say, that all staff were tied up with parents and children until at least 9:25am, and teaching would not start until after then.

At that time children were spread across two cloakrooms. With the covid restrictions we had to cut the school space into two spaces to keep year groups apart. This is not something we would ever have chosen to do. However, there have been a number of benefits to how we have been organised for the past year. During the staff review the one thing that staff did not want to let go off is how we manage the children’s arrival and departure. We have one cloakroom for all 50 main nursery children attending on any one day. We could not accept all 50 main nursery families into one cloakroom area all at once. I have spent time giving consideration to this question already. I can say that within two minutes of coming through the door Green Group are already sitting down with their teacher having register time and beginning their learning. Staff find this time invaluable with their Keyworker children. They feel that they really know all the children that they care for really well. We find that there are less tears. Children have settled much quicker this year. The staff are doing a lot of organisation for the children and families, for example our going home routines begin at 2:30pm. Children wash hands, gather their belongings, put their coats and bags on and are then ready to leave. We match children to parents on the way out. This is the quickest way we can dismiss so many children. At going home time at 2:50, we generally can empty the school in 6 mins. If parents were to come in, we would still have children in the classrooms as late as 3:10pm. Staff have timetabled meetings, assessment and record keeping to do after school from 3pm until 4pm.

We really want to keep our arrival and departure organisation the same. The two parents who responded to my questions both had differing concerns about drop off and collection, which I think is worth sharing for discussion: There is a dilemma. Parent 1 needs to drop off very swiftly. They have to take an older child to a primary school which is not in the close vicinity to Willow. This parent needs drop off and collection to be as swift as possible.

Parent 2 would like the Keyworker at the gate to share some information about their child on a daily basis, just a couple of sentences.

These needs are both reasonable, but they actually conflict. Helping Parent 1 means we have to go as swiftly as possible, passing children to parents as quickly as possible. To meet Parent 2’s needs we would have to slow everything down. If Keyworkers were to give all 50 main nursery parents just 20 seconds each to talk about their child’s day at the gate would mean that the time taken to empty school would be increased by 16 minutes.

The staff can go as quickly, or slowly as the parents need, but for the parents as a ‘group’ it is evident that no one approach will meet everyone’s needs. So again we have to try to achieve a balance that works.

We do accept that some of our parents cannot be in two places at once, and we try to help parents to find a suitable arrangement that will work for them, and support the needs of their family, but families must remember our staff are needed to support their keyworker children from the time the first keyworker child arrives right up to the last keyworker child going home. I am around, and usually available at these times, but it is my job to move the lunch box trolleys around, and ensure all bump notes are photocopied and distributed to the correct keyworker, in order to give to the correct parent.

Willow Nursery School- Children’s Evaluation.

1. What do you like to do at Nursery?

Have a tea party, Do Puzzles, Do football

Play with toys

Go on bikes. I like to play with Fire engines.

Play with X and X.

Play with Cars,play with bikes.

Play with X

I like playing with X and the things she plans for us to do.

Learning and playing

Play outside

I like going outside and when it’s a little day.

I like dinosaurs

Playing and Unicorns

Painting and water

Playing cars

Bikes

Cars, Lego, Crystals, Drawing

I like the slide, I like the monkey bars, I like hanging off the Monkey bars. I like playing with my friends. I like drawing.

Slide

Nursery Rhymes, Nursery toys, playing with toys.

Be happy Play with babies in the home corner I like the slide, painting.

Playing on the slide Balancing

Play on the slide

Play with my friend X I like playing with X

Like playing with the special tray. I like the jewels. Like playing on the slide- Like the teachers. Like playing with friends.

Hulk role play. I like to eat snack.

Being Spiderman and other super heroes.

Playing with cars, Drawing,

I like the new fence, cos it’s nice and clean. I like playing with my friends. I play in the mud. Looking for stuff, bugs.

Out in the garden, going on the bikes. Messy Play tray, slide

Playing with X, cutting out things.

Play cars, play with penguins and Ice, playing with snails. Pancakes, bikes painting more pancakes

Dress up as Elsa. Lollies

Play draw, The Kitchen, Playing on Bikes

Drawing Making Bug hotels, painting

Play bikes, water tray made a flag

Play with the dinosaurs. Like having friends

Play with the crates, drawing things, playing on the bikes with X

Stamps, playing in the water, colouring, I like the screen, I like when I go outside’cos I made a flag.

2. Is there anything you don’t like at Nursery?

When ‘X’ pushes me.

I don’t like going outside but sometimes I do go outside. Sometimes I miss my Mum.

Books aeroplanes and helicopters.

Cars

I don’t like that there is no stories.

Sometimes I miss my Mummy.

To play outside

Bananas

I don’t like my feet.

Unicorn

When my clothes get wet and I’m changing and changing. (water tray)

I don’t like going outside

Water tray, wet sleeves

I don’t like anyone pushing me or bullying me.

No, I like it

No.

I don’t like it when X is mean to me

Silly words

I don’t like swords to beat me.

I don’t like the hulk.

I don’t like playing with water cos my sleeves get wet.

I like nursery

When the kids are too noisy.

Painting.

Dinosaurs and cars

I don’t like playing in the water tray. I don’t like getting wet.

Children making really loud noises with the musical instruments, X running over my foot.

When X hurts me, I don’t like that,

I don’t like it when X is not my friend.

3. Tell me something you are good at now since coming to Nursery?

Reading

Basketball, Playing football

Puzzles colouring

Helping

Writing

I’ve learnt to cut paper. I can paint.

I can ride the bicycle with two wheels.

Doing Painting

Reading and writing

I have learnt about Guinea Pigs.

Writing

Learning colours pink and purple

Playing on the bikes I ride the fastest bike in school.

Talking, riding Bikes

Playing football, I’m very good at riding the tricycle

Drawing now Listening, Making Music

Painting

Playing with toy dinosaurs, drawing pictures.

Not hurting anyone Good at eating my lunch now.

Balancing

Good at getting clowns. Good at joining boxes together with sellotape Cutting out.

Painting, playing outside.

Star jumps, playing superheroes.

Having Superpowers

Running and faster running

Playing games, playing outside.

I am good at writing, I like writing words like dog. I’m good at writing numbers. Waterplay, colouring

Writing, good at riding a bike. I’m good at numbers

Listening with people, cutting and colouring

Good at being happy

On rope bridge- I can put my feet high up on the rope.

Stories but I can’t read.

Dancing Drawing

I don’t like making

Phonics

Balancing on rope bridge. Can go upside down, jumping and colouring

Good painting, making hats.

Cutting

4.Tell me what you have learnt in Phonics:

Reading books

I need Miss Howe to teach me phonics. If Miss Howe wasn’t here I wouldn’t learn phonics.

A,m,d,b,c,k,

‘l,l,l,’

Letters

P,a,t,s

F,e,n,g

A, the sound

T,e

A,t,p

A,p

‘fffff’ action

A,p,d,r writing.

I’ve learned d,a,s,a,c,b

We make words with letters inside the pictures

T,t,t, tennis

Singing songs with Iggle Piggle

Numbers and letters

A new word. Letters

Letters, a lot of letters ‘s’ Learning

Numbers

Stories about the fish says ‘fff’

I don’t know.

Hairy Bear

I don’t know.

T l a c s r o b

Use letters to read and write n p t g

To learn letters

Learning about Letters and numbers.

Letters Biff and Chip Books.

Letters

Ive learned about reading

I have learned about something but I don’t know

H p e r colouring pictures, letters help you to read and write.

Fff (does action) Letters are for reading and writing.

Im learning phonics and we play word building-BAT

5.How can we make Willow better for the new children?

Don’t know.

All be friends

Switch the toys around, change the boxes.

I don’t want dinosaurs with Playdough. I like t rex.

I don’t know.

Switch toys, presents.

Make ball pits.

To learn hymns.

Make X’s little brother good. He needs to know abcd’s

Do the same things as we do.

More cars more bikes.

Nothing

More grown ups to play.

Play in the garden

More play , have lots of fun.

We can have some unicorns.

New Fishy toys for the water tray.

Coming to Nursery Makes me happy!

More toys LOL dolls and bottles.

Put a trampoline outside Inside Room 1 a ball pit

Put some dinosaurs out because my brother likes those.

Have a party.

Playdough- I like playdough.

Hulk Toys superheroes.

Bring my home here.

A house. My home here.

New toys- Elsa toys and Anna and Olaf and Sven and Christoff.

New painting aprons.

I don’t know.

Take (Willow Nursery) to Flitwick lower school.

More painting

Get some new stuff, go to the farm, come to visit me at my home: gave address.

A party, Dancing.

Make a show.

Maybe we could be kind to them.

NURSERY NEWS

5th July 2021 – Edition 231

Find out About:

A. Arrangements for September 2021.

B. Reminder about consultations this week.

A. Arrangements for September 2021.

We have finalised our plans for the beginning of term in September 2021. So this information is for all the families staying with us in September.

Covid 19 has impacted quite greatly upon our ability to show families around our school. In normal circumstances, I (as Headteacher), personally show at least two families per week around our school, to see if they would like to add their child to our waiting list. We usually invite the children joining the 3+ year to come to a visit afternoon to a ‘stay and play’ session with their parents. When a child starts parents are welcome to stay to help settle their child.

I am aware, that most parents of children attending Willow in September have not seen inside the school. So, we have planned a few days of induction to enable parents to come in to school with their children, to see what the school is like.

The regulations that we have had to follow in schools during Covid have not yet changed. It is very unlikely that any new guidelines will be released this side of the school Summer Holidays. So, Miss Howe and Myself have tried to plan the first week or so back, not knowing what rules will exist for schools, or indeed what will be happening with the pandemic. It is our hope that these arrangements that we have planned will happen in the way we have planned. We are optimistic.

We have kept numbers of families small at each event, to be safe, but also to give families lots of opportunity to meet all the staff, look around the school and ask questions. This does mean that these visit arrangements will take longer than one day.

We are aware that a number of our parents are working parents, and look fo the school to be operating for all children as soon as possible. We have made our plans trying to strike a balance for everyone’s needs.

However, if these plans change (due to Covid) we will do our best to get in touch with all parents as soon as possible. If I have anything to communicate to all parents I will put a ‘Latest News’ Story on our Website. Please check there first before ringing the school.

Let us start with Catkins class…..

Catkins Class will reopen on Wednesday 8th September. Children’s attendance patterns remain the same, unless you have spoken to me about additional hours for your child. New starters in Catkins Class have received paperwork advising parents what their child’s first day will be. In Catkins Class we wish to settle only one or two new children in each session. New Catkins Children have start dates somewhere

between the 13th September 2021 and 4th October 2021.

Catkins hours remain 8:45am – 11:45am for a morning session or 8:45am to 2:45pm for a full day session.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Main Nursery:

Monday 6th September 2021 and Tuesday 7th September 2021 have been scheduled as visit days. The school will not be open as usual on these two days. Attendance on these days is by invitation only. See details below:

Monday 6th September:

All children who will be in Yellow Group in September are invited to attend a Stay and Play session, lasting for one hour, with a Parent. Invitations were sent out on Thursday 1st July to all these parents. There will be 3 sessions during the day, so only 8 families will be invited to each session. Yellow Group have all been allocated a start date between Wednesday 8th September and Wednesday 15th September, to ensure we only take in 6 brand new children on any one day. These start dates have also been communicated to Yellow Group.

Tuesday 7th September.

This day will offer a transition session for all children (and their parents) in Miss Gaffneys Blue Group and Mrs Brinkley’s Orange Group.

We will offer a morning session or an afternoon session.

The idea of these sessions are that you and your child will arrive at school to have a scheduled meeting lasting ten minutes with your child’s current Keyworker and with your child’s new Keyworker

So, Blue Group children will meet with Miss Gaffney and Mrs Patterson

Orange Group children will meet with Mrs Brinkley and Miss Skai.

You will arrive at your specified appointment time, meet with your child’s Keyworker’s and discuss anything you wish to share to enable the transition into Main Nursery to go as smoothly as possible. You will then be free to move around the school together, both inside and outside. Classrooms will be set up with activities, and we invite you and your child to explore their new spaces and chat to staff who will be available to talk with you.

Morning session: 10 minute appointments will be available to choose from between 8:50am and 10:10am. Parents may choose to stay and play after their appointment, but all parents and children should leave by 11:00am.

Afternoon session: 10 minute appointments will be available to choose from between 12:30pm and 1:50pm. Parents may choose to stay and play after their appointment but all parents and children should leave by 2:40pm.

All these meetings/ stay and play are optional. You do not have to attend, but it will be a way to see the school with your child. You may choose to just have the meeting

and then you and your child can choose to leave to go home. You may choose to have the meeting and then stay for a short time and then go. We cannot offer meetings at alternative times or dates as we are looking to get the school up and running as quickly as possible for those parents who are working.

Parents must stay with their children at this event.

Parents can arrange these appointments for Tuesday 7th September with Miss Gaffney/ Mrs Brinkley, during the telephone consultations that are scheduled for this week. If you do not have a telephone consultation this week with Miss Gaffney or Mrs Brinkley, please do not worry they will get in touch with you regarding a transition session in September.

Wednesday 8th September – Main Nursery Re-opens for regular Nursery sessions.

Blue Group and Orange return to Nursery, attending for their agreed attendance pattern. So for example, if your child currently attends for two and a half days at the end of the week, they would return on this Wednesday at 11:50pm with their lunch box.

Main Nursery hours are:

Morning session: 8:50am to 11:50am

Wednesday afternoon session: 11:50am to 2:50pm.

Full day session: 8:50am to 2:50pm

B. Reminder about consultations this week

We will have parent consultations for all the children on 6th, 7th and 8th July 2021 as follows:

Tuesday 6th July- Catkins children. Telephone consultation, a 10 minute consultation scheduled from 3:15 onwards with your child’s keyworker.

Wednesday 7th July- Blue Group Children, 10 minute Telephone Consultation with Miss Gaffney scheduled from 3:15 onwards

Thursday 8th July- Orange Group children, 10 minute Telephone Consultation with Mrs Brinkley scheduled from 3:15 onwards

Main Nursery children will have a Leavers Consultation, where staff will hand over your child’s year book. Therefore Miss Howe has decided these consultations will be face to face, but outside and seating will be 2 metres apart.

Tuesday 6th July -Green Group Children, 5 minute Face to Face meeting with Mrs Patterson scheduled from 3:15 onwards

Wednesday 7th July,- Red Group Children 5 minute Face to Face meeting with Miss Skai scheduled between 3:15 onwards

Thursday 8th July –Yellow Group children 5 minute Face to Face meeting with Miss Howe scheduled from 3:15 onwards.

If any/all of these parent meetings are cancelled due to covid, we will not be able to reschedule.

NURSERY NEWS

28th June 2021 – Edition 230

Find out About:

A. Bookstart Packs.

B. Review of the Year

C. Queues outside school.

D. A case of Head lice in the Younger Bubble.

A. Bookstart Packs.

If your child attends the Main Nursery and is in Green, Red or Yellow Group they will bring home a big envelope containing a book from the Book Trust on WEDNESDAY 30th June . This book is for your child to keep. Book Trust is the UK’s leading reading charity. Every year they give over 5 million books and resources to children across the country. Children receive this pack in their final year in Nursery, so our younger children will receive them in future years.

B. Review of the year

At this time of year, we carry out a big review of our school. In the past few days I have been talking to children individually to gain their views about their school, with regard to what they like, what they think they have learned and what they would like to see change. All school staff and Governors are busy filling in questionnaires too.

This information helps us to plan our areas for development next year.

I always ask parents for their views too at this time of year.

We usually ask just two questions:

1. Please comment about what we do well at Willow.

2. Please tell us one thing you would like to see at Willow that you would consider to be an improvement and/or development. Please write a short email and send to office@willownursery.co.uk

It has been an unusual year for everyone. We have been following government advice, in a GOV.UK document : Action for Early Years and Childcare providers during the Coronavirus (Covid 19) outbreak. We have been unable to invite parents in to school. The experience families have had this year at Willow has been completely different to all previous years. We hope that at some point in the new school year we will be able to increase parent involvement. So, with this in mind I would like you as parents to share with us:

3. Any ideas regarding how parents could feel more involved with the school.

If you wish your comments to inform my review, please send your email by the end of this week, Friday 2nd July. I will then compile all the comments and respond to them in a future newsletter, on Monday 12th July.

C. Queues outside school.

I have been approached by one of our childminders to ask all parents to be considerate of the needs of other parents /carers when waiting in the queues outside school. Her concern is that she can have up to 6 children with her, dropping them off to Willow and Hadrian Academy Schools, and she does not want the children to be asked to walk in the road. I do understand this, as these children are not her own children, but other people’s children in her care. I would kindly ask that when you are queuing outside school you try to leave enough space on the pavement so that others can pass you when walking single file. It is a narrow path, and I have always asked parents and carers to look out for the safety of each other’s children to enable us to keep all our children safe.

From my point of view, I do think that all parents are working really well together to fill and empty the school in an organised manner.

D. A case of Head lice in the Younger Bubble

A parent kindly telephoned me on Friday to inform me her child had head lice. I would ask that all parents of children in the younger bubble check their child’s hair.

I have copied the following information from an NHS information website, which you may find useful.

Head lice and nits

Head lice and nits are very common in young children and their families. They do not have anything to do with dirty hair and are picked up by head-to-head contact.

Check if it’s head lice

Head lice are small insects, up to 3mm long

They can be difficult to spot in your hair

Head lice eggs (nits) are brown or white (empty shells) and attached to the hair

Head lice can make your head feel:

· itchy

· like something is moving in your hair

The only way to be sure someone has head lice is by finding live lice.

You can do this by combing their hair with a special fine-toothed comb (detection comb). You can buy these online or at pharmacies.

How to get rid of head lice

Important

You can treat head lice without seeing a GP.

Treat head lice as soon as you spot them.

You should check everyone in the house and start treating anyone who has head lice on the same day.

There’s no need to keep your child off school if they have head lice.

Wet combing

Lice and nits can be removed by wet combing. You should try this method first.

You can buy a special fine-toothed comb (detection comb) online or from pharmacies to remove head lice and nits.

There may be instructions on the pack, but usually you:

· wash hair with ordinary shampoo

· apply lots of conditioner (any conditioner will do)

· comb the whole head of hair, from the roots to the ends

It usually takes about 10 minutes to comb short hair, and 20 to 30 minutes for long, frizzy or curly hair.

Do wet combing on days 1, 5, 9 and 13 to catch any newly hatched head lice. Check again that everyone’s hair is free of lice on day 17.

Medicated lotions and sprays

Ask a pharmacist for advice if you have tried wet combing for 17 days, but your child still has live head lice.

They may recommend using medicated lotions and sprays. These kill head lice in all types of hair, and you can buy them from pharmacies, supermarkets or online.

Head lice should die within a day. Some lotions and sprays come with a comb to remove dead lice and eggs.

Some treatments need to be repeated after a week to kill any newly hatched lice.

Check the pack to see if they’re OK for you or your child and how to use them.

If lotions or sprays do not work, speak to a pharmacist about other treatments.

Some treatments are not recommended because they’re unlikely to work.

For example:

· products containing permethrin

· head lice “repellents”

· electric combs for head lice

NURSERY NEWS

21st June 2021 – Edition 229

Find out About:

A. Covid Coughs and Temperatures.- Our View.

B. Some children and adults are really scared of dogs.

C. Is your child ready to learn?

D. Updated Public Health Advice.

E. Parent Consultations July 2021

F. End of Term arrangements July 2021

A. Covid, Coughs and Temperatures.- Our View.

Cases of Covid 19 are currently rising rapidly, nationally, especially in schools. We are still required to keep protective measures in place in our schools. If a parent tells us that their child has a temperature or a cough, we are required to advise parents that they should seek a Covid test for their child.

We are being very vigilant in school listening out for children with new, continuous coughs. We will send a child home if we feel a cough is persistent, and advise parents to seek a Covid test for their child.

However, this is a complete minefield at the moment. We have had a child who is suffering from Chronic Hayfever, who has been off school for some time, and the doctors advice has been that residual congestion remains on the child’s chest due to hayfever.

We know of at least two children in recent weeks who have had a cough, that have seen their GP and been prescribed antibiotics for an infection, and they were told to return to school when they felt well enough.

Children who suffer from asthma are feeling the heat and high pollen counts, which is making their asthma worse.

But, if you, as a parent, are waiting in the queue outside in the morning, and can hear a child coughing and coughing it is a worry knowing that your child may sit next to the coughing child at register time or lunchtime, or may spend half the day playing with the child who is coughing.

So we will do our bit by being vigilant, and looking for children who are coughing, but we ask parents to do their bit by not sending in to school children who are unwell.

B.Some children and adults are really scared of dogs.

A parent has spoken to me about her, and her child’s fear of dogs. She is concerned that a number of families are joining the queues outside school with their dogs. It is a busy space, and families are quite close. I know all our Willow family dogs are well handled and well behaved. However, there will be more than one child out there in the queue who is petrified of dogs. I would kindly ask that if you choose to bring your

pet to school that you consider waiting over the road with your dog and bringing your child over when all the other children from your child’s colour group have gone in. Keyworkers do look out for all their keyworker children arriving and will know that you are there. The same would apply at going home time too. The younger bubble are really good at staying at their waiting spot until their keyworker signals to them to move down. We need Red and Yellow groups to wait at their colour spot until called forward. This will allow a clear space at the gate for our dog owners to pop over and drop off/ collect their children.

I am asking our dog owners to please consider those adults and children who are not comfortable around dogs. I know an argument could be that our small collection of well behaved pups would allow children to get to know animals and be less scared of them, but the line outside school is not the place for this, as parents do not have choice about being here, or indeed the choice to move away to avoid the dog.

C. Is your child ready to learn?

We are in the final half term of the school year, and our thoughts do become focused on those children who are leaving us. We prepare children’s records to transfer to Primary Schools and we summarise children’s progress with parents. We now begin to question, are our leavers school ready?

One tick from ‘the sixteen ticks’ to work upon:

To be able to take off coat and put on shoes.

Children need to be as independent as possible. It is not just the ability to take clothing off that is important, children need to put their belongings in a place where they can be found again, which in school is on their peg. As temperatures rise children will take layers off to try to keep cool. Encourage them to look after their belongings at home. To put their shoes in the place where they should be stored. Also: To be toilet trained and able to visit the toilet alone. Children come into Catkins class in varying stages of toilet training. We support all parents when they feel their child is ready to be toilet trained. Not wearing nappies anymore is a huge achievement for both child and parent. Your child is on their way to independence. Children also need to be taught how to use a toilet independently. Children need to be shown how to manage their clothing, how to use toilet paper to wipe their own bottom, how to flush the toilet and how to wash their hands. They also need to be allowed to try this on their own at home. Children should be confident toilet users by the time they leave Willow to go to Primary school.

D. Updated Public Health Advice.

We have received some updated Public Health Advice after the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s speech on the 14th June 2021. Schools have been advised to keep all, current protective measures in place until there is a further announcement on Step 4 of the roadmap.

We have been waiting to see if there would be any changes to the Covid rules which the school must follow before planning the end of term.

Our plans are now in place, which I will share with you below.

However, Covid may impact upon any of the plans we have put in place. We currently have a small number of pupil families where one parent is isolating due to contact with a positive Covid case. It is very likely that a confirmed case in one of our pupils will close a bubble. Case numbers are growing in schools generally. Staff may have to work from home if their children are asked to isolate.

If we cancel something we have planned, we will not have time to reschedule.

E. Parent Consultations July 2021.

Following, guidelines for schools, we should, wherever possible, use electronic means to meet with parents.