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Nursery News 9th March 2026

Monday, March 9, 2026

NURSERY NEWS

9th March 2026 – Edition 402

Find out About

A. A reminder: An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Orange Group Parents: Basic Skills, on Wednesday 11th March.

B. Bedtime Stories: A well-attended event.

C. Fees Increase from April 2026

D . A reminder to renew Funding for working family codes

E. Phonics program Big Nursery: Slithery Snakes and Ants on my Arm

F. What are the children learning about this week?

 

A. A reminder: An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Orange Group Parents: Basic Skills, on Wednesday 11th March.

Miss Skai teaches Big Nursery Orange Group children ‘Basic Skills’ on a Wednesday morning. The children move to a quiet space in Room 5 where they work in small groups (approx. 8 children) to learn reading, writing, mathematical skills and problem solving.

This character on the left is Biff, she features in the Oxford Reading Tree Scheme books that we use to help teach reading skills. The group on Wednesday will focus on a story about Biff losing her toy aeroplane. We look forward to parents coming in to observe their child in a taught session.

 

B: Bedtime Stories: A well-attended event.

Thank you to all the parents who attended the Bedtime Stories event last week. We had around 22 families here. The staff always get a little bit nervous when they have to read in front of the parents, but they all said the event went well.

Miss Gaffney read Where’s My Teddy? By Jez Alborough. She had a Gigantic Teddy with her, that was taller than the children and a ‘Tiddly Teddy’, like the ones in the story. (Unfortunately Mrs Patterson had lost her voice, so Miss Gaffney stepped in at the last minute!)

Mrs Cashmore read Little Rabbit Foo Foo by Michael Rosen. Little Rabbit Foo Foo is a challenging little rabbit that carries a little hammer whilst riding around on his motorbike ‘Bopping’ animals on the head. The Good Fairy eventually puts him straight! Miss Cashmore had a squeaky hammer which she used as she retold the story to hold the children’s interest.

Miss Howe read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. She used one of our Storysacks to retell the story. Every child was able to hold a piece of food and feed it to the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Our Very Hungry Caterpillar is made of fabric, and food can be put right inside him. The more he eats the fatter he becomes until he has a ‘stomach ache’, before eventually turning into a butterfly.

Miss Skai read the Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. This group had a little visitor! The mouse from the story was hiding in the pocket of Miss Skai’s dressing gown!

The children were all very well behaved. As a school, we love books and storytelling, and we hope our enthusiasm rubs off on the children (and maybe the parents too!)

 

C. Fees Increase from April 2026

Very few parents know how we receive our funding to finance the school. Willow Nursery School staff are employed by Central Bedfordshire Council, but our wages are not paid by the council directly. Our funding comes to the school to pay all our costs, including: staff wages, building and grounds maintenance, utilities, educational resources, ICT resources (our admin packages), Insurances, Staff training etc.

The government looks closely at the cost of providing Early Years Childcare and Education. Funding comes from Central Government to our Local Authority, Central Bedfordshire Council. The Local Authority decides how much we are funded per pupil per hour. This rate is increased slightly each year, on the 1st April.

In the past, we always tried to keep our fees as low as possible, to help parents. However, in the current financial climate finances are much tighter for us. The school governors decided that we will increase our fees annually from 1st April each year, to be in line with the hourly pupil funding rates we receive from Central Bedfordshire council.

We receive £8.08 per pupil per hour for Two year olds entitled to funding through the Working Families initiative, or funding for underprivileged two year olds.

We receive £5.62 per pupil per hour for three year olds funded through the Universal 15 hours funding for three and four year olds, or three and four year olds entitled to an additional 15 hours funded through the 30 hours funding for Working Families initiative.

Our fees from April 2026 will be: £16.86 for a three hour session for 3+ aged child, and £24.24 for a three hour session for a 2+ aged child.

Children who receive 15 or 30 hours free funding do not pay fees for their free funded sessions

 

The rate for two year olds is higher than the rate for three and four year olds because two year olds are required to have a ratio of 1 member of staff for every 5 children and three and four year olds are required to have a ratio of 1 member of staff for every 13 children.

 

D. A reminder to renew funding for working family codes

Parents who are entitled to 30 hours free funded Nursery hours in Big Nursery must ensure a valid code is in place by 31st March 2026 if they wish to have 30 hours funding for the summer term 2026.  Codes need to be renewed approximately every three months. The government does usually send out reminder emails directly to parents. Do check your Junk Mail or Spam folders, as sometimes the reminder can end up there.

If the code is not valid your child will not get the funding from the government, and would have to fall back to 15 hours attendance or choose to pay for the additional 15 hours.

Similarly, the Funding for Working Families initiative- in Little Nursery– Parents must ensure their valid code is in place on 31st March.

 

E. Phonics program Big Nursery: Slithery Snakes and Ants on my Arm

Phonics began two weeks ago in Big Nursery. In week one your child will have learnt their first sound ‘s’. We begin every session by reminding all children that each letter has a name and a sound. The name of the letter is ‘S’ and the sound it makes is ‘sss’. As a parent it is important to teach your children both the letter names and sounds at the same time. Children need to use letter names when spelling words out, and letter sounds when trying to ‘read’ or ‘decode’ words.

We tell a story about a snake in the grass. We try to make our sessions interactive and playful. The children all made a sock Snake hand puppet, to retell the story which they will have hopefully brought home by now. Children will remember the ‘sss’ sound if they have fun playing with their snake, making a ‘sss’ sound. We show the children the letter ‘s’ that represents the sound ‘sss’. We ask them to move their hand like a snake whilst saying the ‘sss’ sound.

We also teach a song for each new sound. The ‘s’ song is:

‘The snake is in the grass, the snake is in the grass, ‘sss’ ‘sss’ , the snake is in the grass.’ (To the tune of ‘The farmers in his den.)

In week two we introduced the sound ‘a’. We tell a story about friends having apples at a picnic. We share some slices of apple for the children to eat. (Again, trying to make a link in their memory that lasts.) In the story a child finds some ants on her arm. We make a very simple ant finger puppet, so the children can move an ant up their arm whilst singing:

‘Ants, ants, ants on my arm, Ants, ants, ants on my arm, Ants, ants, ants on my arm, They’re causing me alarm.’ (To the tune of ‘Skip, skip, skip to my Lou)

Each letter sound will come home on a Jolly phonics page, which allows the child to colour in a picture associated with the sound, has some dotted practice letter shapes to write over, and has a little picture at the side of the page to show how the movement should be made that supports the memory of this phonic sound.

Adding a movement to the sound does help children to recall it at a later date. Spend just a few minutes each week going over the sounds at home.

If you build up your child’s letter knowledge, week by week, adding new letters to the already familiar letters, they will progress with their phonic knowledge.

Give this a go. This will REALLY help your child to learn their phonic sounds which will in turn help them to read and write! If you do this with us, your child will be very prepared for reception class. They will have most of their phonics sounds in place for when they join reception. 

 

F What are the children are learning about this week?

The theme this week is people who help us – Doctors.

The children will have role play areas set up to explore this topic. They will learn about the role of a doctor and the tools that doctors use to help people. Staff will model lots of language to the children to expand their vocabulary and teach them the correct terms for objects that they might see in a doctor’s surgery. Staff will join in with the children’s role play and model language such as ‘appointment’, ‘medicine’ and ‘prescription’. Staff will provide first aid kits for our ‘doctors’ to use as they look after the babies that are hurt or sick. There will be bump notes for our doctors to write for the babies and an ambulance station set up in case any patients need to visit the hospital.

Our learning intention this week is for the children to learn how to name and identify different parts of their body. This will be taught by playing games, reading books, singing songs and interactions with adults.

We will provide lots of resources for the children to use as they explore this topic, these will include a shared read of Doctor Maisy, mirrors for the children to explore their reflections and learn about their body and dressing up outfits to spark the children’s imaginations.

Staff will talk to the children about their own experiences of visiting the doctor’s surgery and encourage the children to recall times where they, or someone they know may have visited the doctor.

 

Nursery News 2nd March 2026

Monday, March 2, 2026

NURSERY NEWS

2nd  March 2026 – Edition 401

Find out About

A. An Evening Event, For Big Nursery Children: Bedtime Stories Thursday 5th March 2026 at 5pm –A reminder

B. Can you help us with some Sellotape?

C. What are the children learning about this week?

 

A: An Evening Event, For Big Nursery Children: Bedtime Stories Thursday 5th March 2026 at 5pm –A reminder

All Big Nursery children are invited to bring a parent along for a bedtime story at Willow Nursery School. (Big Nursery children are Blue, Orange and Yellow, those who will leave Willow in July 2026.) Children and parents will join your child’s keyworker for a bedtime story. Children can come in their pyjamas and bring a teddy bear or favourite cuddly toy with them. Older and younger brothers and sisters are welcome, but please remember the stories will be aimed at 3 and 4 year olds. Parents will be asked to monitor the behaviour of brothers and sisters, and will be expected to take noisy or wriggly children out of the story circle so as not to upset the quiet atmosphere created. We expect stories to last approximately 30 minutes (perhaps less for the youngest children) and we will then have warm ‘Hot Chocolate’ and cookies together.

 

B: Can you help us with some Sellotape?

We are very grateful to those parents who are already supporting the school, by donating tissues or bringing in boxes for our box modelling area. We have a number of children who enjoy making box models, using Sellotape to join their boxes together. We probably have more children who just enjoy exploring the sellotape and the sellotape dispensers!

Please could I ask that all parents consider donating some Sellotape to school? We prefer the 3 inch / 7.5cm diameter rolls as these fit on the dispensers. We would be very happy with the cheaper brands, I have seen 3 rolls for £1 in ‘The Works’ recently.

We could also use masking tape, again on the 3inch/ 7.5cm diameter rolls. This gives the children a choice of tape.

 

We put out this request this time last year and the sellotape donations are only just about to run out. We were overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity. The children use at least one roll a day… so we are looking for about 200 rolls!

Please help us to put a smile on the children’s faces. When a three year old says ‘Can I have some more sellotape?’ we want to be able to say ‘Yes’ and send them away happy, to busily get on with their constructions. There is ALWAYS someone working at the sticking bench.

 

C. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’

This week the children will learn the story of The Tiger Who Came To Tea, written by Judith Kerr. There will be many different opportunities for the children to then retell the story in a variety of ways. There will be comprehensive role play areas set up to expand imaginative play, including Sophie’s house and a café. These areas will include clothes for the children to dress up in which will support their play as they act out different roles from the book.

The learning intention this week is for the children to be able to run with spatial awareness and negotiate space successfully, adjusting speed or direction to avoid obstacles. The children will be supported at each stage of their development to achieve this, the expectations range from being able to walk a considerable distance with purpose, stopping, starting and changing direction, to beginning to understand and choose different ways of moving while staying safe.

This week we will also be encouraging everyone to look around them and take an interest in the natural environment. This includes looking for insects, identifying them and taking care of them. We have lots of magnifying pots, information banners and books to help the children identify insects or birds that they may see this week.

We will also be focusing on ball skills throughout the nursery. We will be encouraging the children to catch and throw balls to each other, kick large balls to their friends and roll smaller balls to and fro. There are plenty of bats and balls available for the children to use, if they wish to practice passing balls and hitting targets.

 

Nursery News 23rd February 2026

Monday, February 23, 2026

NURSERY NEWS

23rd  February 2026 – Edition 400

Find out About

A. An Apology, regarding the date of Big Nursery Children’s Bedtime Stories .

B. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Orange Group Parents: Basic Skills.

C. Can you help with some Tissues?

D. What are the children learning about this week?

E. Phonics program starts this week!

 

A. An Apology, regarding the date of Big Nursery Children’s Bedtime Stories .

I made a mistake in my last newsletter with regard to the date of bedtime stories.  So to clarify, Bedtime Stories will take place on Thursday 5th March 2026 at 5pm.

 

B. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Orange Group Parents: Basic Skills.

Miss Skai teaches Big Nursery Orange Group children ‘Basic Skills’ on a Wednesday morning. The children move to a quiet space in Room 5 where they work in small groups (approx. 8 children) to learn reading, writing, mathematical skills and problem solving. We would like to invite Miss Skai’s Orange group parents in to observe a 30 minute reading/writing activity on Wednesday 11th March. A further invitation letter will follow to Orange Group parents so that we can match up time slots, so parents can join their child’s small group. Blue Group had their Basic Skills groups in the Autumn Term 2025, Yellow Group have Basic skills in the Summer Term 2026. Eventually all parents will be invited to observe Basic skills sessions when their child is being taught.

 

C. Can you help with some Tissues?

Sometimes we ask parents for some specific donations that help our school.

I last asked parents for a donation of tissues at the beginning of November. At that time parents were very generous, and we received lots of donations. Enough in fact for 16 weeks of runny noses!  We have almost run out of tissues. So please, when doing your shopping consider picking up a box of tissues for our children.

 

D. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is police and firefighters

The learning intention this week is to show an interest in different occupations and ways of life indoors and outdoors. This can be shown by children displaying a curiosity about people and showing and interest in stories about people, animals or objects that they are familiar with or that fascinate them. It can also be investigated through pretend play, when children imitate everyday actions and events from their own family and cultural background. This can be everyday routines such as drinking tea, going to the barber, or even pretending to be an animal that they have experience with such as a cat or dog.

We will focus on the police and fire services this week as we teach the children about people who help us. Staff will set up a role-play area where the children can act out the roles of police officers, criminals and people that need help. Staff will provide lots of resources to support and recreate different scenarios that might need the support of the police. We will provide a police role-play area and a role play fire station. The children can use the resources provided and their imaginations to act out many different scenarios. As the skill this week is scissor skills, the children might choose to work on these by creating their own ID badges to support their role play.

Our 7 C’s learning intention is to be able to use their bodies to achieve goals, to have a positive sense of self and to talk about people and experiences that are important to them.

 

 E. Phonics program starts this week!

Willow Nursery School Phonics Programme

‘Phonics’ is one tool children can use when they are beginning to learn to read and write. A definition of phonics follows on the next page.

The Department for Education (DfE) produced a phonics resource called Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics, which splits the teaching of phonics into six phases. At Willow, we work on phase 1 activities all the time. Phase 1 describes using activities such as storytelling and singing songs, rhymes, music, role play and listening games. This will give the children opportunities to listen carefully and talk extensively about what they hear, see and do.  Phase 1 activities are designed to underpin and run alongside activities in other phases.  Phase 2 is an introduction to more formal phonics work and involves teaching the children sets of letters in a specified order. The first set of letters to be learnt are s.a.t.i.p.n because these letters make a greater number of words than any other 6 letters in the alphabet. We feel that the children at Willow are ready to begin focussing on letter sounds in a fun and practical way.

 

What are we going to do?

  • Each child will participate in 1 x 25 minute phonic sessions each week
  • We are going to begin teaching 6 letter sounds, s.a.t.i.p.n. and will continue with one letter sound each week until the end of term
  • We will teach the children that all letters have a name, and that these letters make a sound. For example: the letter S makes the sound ‘sss’
  •  We will use a mixture of songs, games, tongue twisters, art, drama and movement activities to teach the letter sounds.

 

We will use ‘Jolly Phonics’ with the children. Jolly Phonics is the name of a program used to teach phonics. Each week we will:

  • Tell the children a story, which includes focussing on the sound we are trying to teach.
  • Teach an action to represent the sound
  • Send home a picture (linked to the story) for the children to colour, and they can practise writing the letter which represents the sound.

For example: The ‘s’ story involves finding a snake which goes ‘ssss’. The action for ‘s’ involves making a snaking movement with your hand and forearm and saying ’ssss’. The picture to take home is a picture of a snake

 

Helping at home:

The picture your child brings home will explain to you how to make the action to represent the sound. Talk with your child about what they have learned at school. Learn the actions along with your child. Making the movement may help your child to remember. Have fun!

 

Phonics

What is phonics?

Phonics is the word used to describe the sounds the letters make. In simple terms, the word ‘cat’ can be read from its three sounds: c-a-t.

These are not the names of the letters as we say them in the alphabet, but the sounds these letters make. The word ‘thick’ is made up of three sounds: th-i-ck, where pairs of letters combine to make a single sound. Similarly, ‘rash’ is made up of three sounds: r-a-sh.

There are 40+ sounds in English but only 26 letters that are used to represent these sounds.

 

The five basic skills for reading and writing are:

  • Learning the letter sounds
  • Learning the letter formation
  • Blending
  • Identifying sounds in words
  • Spelling the tricky words

 

When reading, children need to understand the meaning of the words. Before they can do this, they have to be able to work out what the words say. The phonic skill for this is to look at the letters, say the sounds and hear the words. This is called blending.

 

The main phonetic skill for writing is to start with the spoken word, then listen, identify and write the sound in that word. The ability to hear the sounds in words is called phonological awareness. For example, with the word ’bin’ if you listen you hear the sounds ‘b……i….n’. Then if you know how to write those letter sounds, you can write the word ‘bin’ without help. This is the opposite to the skill needed for blending.

 

The letters for the 42 Sounds of English:

See below:

a ……ant, sand, caravan

ai……aim, aid, drain, (long a)

b……bat, bend, crab

c ……cat, cot, duck

d……dog, dip, sudden

e……egg, end, shed

ee……eel, creep, tree (long e)

f……fog, lift, fluff

g……goat, gap, digger

h……hop, hit, hill

i……ink, indian, drink

ie……pie, tie, die (long i)

j……jelly, jet, jumper

k……king, kind, kettle

l……leg, lost, shell

m……man, mill, shrimp

n……nut, nip, spin

o……orange, on, spot

oa……oak, oats, boat (long o)

p…….pig, pet, step

q……queen, quick, quin

r……run, rabbit, barrel

s…..sand, sun, twist

t……top, tug, mat

u…….up, under, lung

ue……due, Tuesday, cue

v……van, vet, give

w…..wind, went, swim

x…..x-ray, ox, flex

y……yell, yes, yellow

z……zoo, zebra, buzz

sh……ship, shop, wish

ch……chop, chick, much

th……this, then, with (voiced th)

th……thin, thick, thimble (unvoiced th)

ng……song, bang, string

oo……look, room, foot (little oo)

oo……moon, spoon, shoot (long oo)

ar……art, arm, start

er……kerb, stern, sister

or……order, corn, storm

oi……oil, ointment, spoil

ou……out, cloud, found

 

Nursery News 9th February 2026

Monday, February 9, 2026

NURSERY NEWS

9th February 2026 – Edition 399

Find out About

A. Continuing Problems with our Phones and Internet

B. Parent Consultations. **CANCELLED**

C. February Half Term Holiday dates

D. Birthday Sweets /Cakes

E. . Children’s Personal Bikes parked in pushchair/bike area.

F. An Evening Event, For Big Nursery Children: Bedtime Stories Thursday 5th March 2026 at 5pm

G. What are the children learning about this week?

 

A. Continuing Problems with our Phones and Internet

We continue to have problems with our telephones and Internet. We are convinced that our internet connection fluctuates. Every time our internet speed drops our telephone cuts off. Sometimes we can have a full 10 minute telephone conversation, but at other times the telephone call cuts off after just a few seconds.

Any parent who has been talking to us on the telephone recently will be aware how frustrating this is! Mrs Evans has been pushing everyone to get this resolved.

After a thorough investigation from Partnership (our ICT consultants), BT (Phone Supplier), Open Reach (internet cable provider) and Talk Straight (broadband provider) the conclusion is that we need move from a copper wire connection to full fibre broadband. We are instructing this upgrade to go ahead.

We have been told that it will take at least 30 days to upgrade to a fibre system……

So:

B: Parent Consultations. **CANCELLED**

After discussion with all the staff we have decided to cancel all parent consultations scheduled for the coming weeks.

The telephones are working very erratically. We fear the experience of these phone consultations would be very poor, and would feel very unprofessional for the staff involved.

Obviously, staff are happy to talk to parents before school, and if you have something important to discuss with your child’s keyworker that requires privacy, or more time, please speak to your child’s keyworker about this, and we will try to arrange something for you.

 

C. February Half Term Holiday dates

We are approaching our February Half Term Holiday. The school will be closed from Monday 16th February 2026 to Friday 20th February 2026

 

D. Birthday Sweets/Cakes.

We are working very hard within school to meet all the allergy requirements of our pupils, to keep everyone safe.

Last week, as part of birthday treats at our front gate, one of our pupils, with an egg allergy, took a cake and ate some of it before their childminder realised it may contain egg. On this occasion the child did not have a reaction, but it has highlighted to us that this event may have had a very different, more serious outcome.

For safety reasons, we are now asking that parents no longer bring sweets or cake to celebrate their child’s birthday, to share with other children at school.

We know some of our parents are creative, and will suggest handing out other non-food treats. We are going to say no to these suggestions too. We want to make going home time as swift and safe as possible for everyone.

What do we do in school for Birthdays?

We have a ‘Birthday Board’ in school where we display the names of staff and pupils who will be celebrating their birthday within the current month. We celebrate every individual child’s birthday during Keyworker time, with their colour group. We have a very real looking iced ‘fake’ cake with candles on. Staff make a fuss of the children on their special day (or near to it if their birthday falls at the weekend or in the school holidays). The birthday child is invited to sit at the front of the group, with their Keyworker. Everyone sings ‘Happy Birthday’ and the birthday child blows the candles out. The birthday child receives a special birthday sticker.

 

E. Children’s Personal Bikes parked in pushchair/bike area.

We have a place where children can leave their bikes from home at the front of the school, when they ride their bike to school in the morning. Please can we remind all parents that our pupils should not be allowed to ride other children’s bikes.

 

F. An Evening Event, For Big Nursery Children: Bedtime Stories Thursday 6th March 2025 at 5pm

All Big Nursery children are invited to bring a parent along for a bedtime story at Willow Nursery School. (Big Nursery children are Blue, Orange and Yellow group, those who will leave Willow in July 2026.)

Children and parents will join your child’s keyworker for a bedtime story. Children can come in their pyjamas and bring a teddy bear or favourite cuddly toy with them. Older and younger brothers and sisters are welcome, but please remember the stories will be aimed at 3 and 4 year olds. Parents will be asked to monitor the behaviour of brothers and sisters, and will be expected to take noisy or wriggly children out of the story circle so as not to upset the quiet atmosphere created. We expect stories to last approximately 30 minutes (perhaps less for the youngest children) and we will then have warm ‘Hot Chocolate’ and cookies together.

If we know your child has a food allergy, your child’s keyworker will talk to you prior to the event and make necessary adjustments to meet the needs of your child.

 

 G. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is Chicken Licken

This week the children will learn the story of Chicken Licken and his friends, and how they go on an adventure to tell the King that the sky is falling. Staff will read the book throughout the week and the children will be supported in retelling and exploring the tale in a variety of ways. These include making hats based on their favourite character, playing duck themed maths games and using the magnetic story board to sequence the story. We will also look at how all of the characters in the book have rhyming names and the children will be encouraged to think of any other rhymes they know including nonsense words.

Each room will have lots of conversation starters to engage the children, staff will urge the children to think about the characters in the story and consider their personalities. Were they kind and trustworthy or were they sneaky and not to be trusted?

The learning intention this week is to explore a range of their own marks and signs to which they ascribe mathematical meanings. This includes using number words like one or two and sometimes responding accurately when asked to give one or two items. Children may also begin to notice numerals in the environment. There will be some Chicken Licken hunts available for the children to put these skills into practice as they mark down how many of each character they find.

Nursery News 2nd February 2026

Monday, February 2, 2026

NURSERY NEWS

2nd February 2026 – Edition 398

Find out About

A Continuing Problems with our Phones and Internet.

B. Parent Consultations.

C. Remember to add younger siblings (brothers and sisters) to our contact list.

D. What are the children learning about this week?

 

A. Continuing Problems with our Phones and Internet.

We are still having ongoing problems with our phone and internet. Our telephone provider BT has confirmed that our telephone system is working correctly at their end. Our problems are not due to our telephone service.

Open Reach attended on Tuesday and Wednesday last week to check the external broadband cabling that connects us physically to the broadband network.

We are now returning back, to follow this up with our Broadband provider.

We are sorry for the inconvenience caused, and I would like to thank parents for their patience when trying to speak with us on the telephone.

 

B: Parent Consultations.

We aim to hold Parent Consultations every term. Big Nursery Consultations will be taking place during the week beginning 23rd  February 2026. Parent Consultations are not compulsory, but if you would like an appointment please arrange this with your child’s keyworker when they are outside before sessions begin. These consultations will be on the telephone, will last 5 minutes and be at the following times:

Mrs Patterson Monday 23rd  February between 3:15pm and 4:15pm

Miss Cashmore Tuesday 24th February between 3:15pm and 3:55pm

Miss Howe Thursday 26th February between 3:15pm and 3:45pm

Miss Skai Friday 27th February between 3:15pm and 4:15pm

 

C. Remember to add younger siblings (brothers and sisters) to our contact list.

You may add a child’s name to our contact list at any time from birth.

Currently, and moving forward, we will make offers to families at two points of entry, 2+ and 3+.

2+ intake is at the beginning of the term after a child turns 2.                                             We offer families a choice of 15 hours per week (part time) or 30 hours per week (full time)

3+ intake is at the beginning of the term after a child turns 3. For 3+ intake all families are offered a 15 hour part time space.

We are enrolling two different groups of children every term.

We would recommend putting your child’s name down on our contact list as early as possible to increase the possibility of them being offered a space.

In the past we would be able to give siblings priority over others on the wait list. But we cannot afford to leave empty spaces in a termly intake at age two, to wait for a sibling who might join at age three.

For our full admissions policy please look on our website www.willownursery.co.uk

 

D. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is The Three Little Pigs

This week, the children will be listening to, and learning about the story of The Three Little Pigs. Children will be encouraged to take part in a variety of learning opportunities to retell the story in their own style.

There will be a variety of resources available for the children to use, which will help to build upon their attention and recall skills.

In the garden, the children will have the chance to explore the different houses of the three little pigs. Staff will help the children to set up a house made of straw, one made of sticks and another of bricks. They will have the opportunity to make pig or wolf hats to support their story telling.

As a school for our learning intention, we will be focusing on manipulating tools and equipment. there will be wheelbarrows, bricks and hard hats for the children to use as they build homes out of their chosen materials.

Our skill to focus on this week is riding a bike. Children will be encouraged to take turns and to practice riding the bicycles and tricycles using the pedals to move and handlebars to steer. We emphasise the importance of keeping our bikes on the track and not riding too fast to ensure the safety of all children in the playground.