Goldstone Crescent
Dunstable
Beds
LU5 4QU
Phone: 01582 662600
Email: office@willownursery.co.uk
Nursery News 13th January 2025
NURSERY NEWS
13th January 2025 – Edition 357- First Newsletter of 2025
Find out About
A. Welcome back after the Christmas Break.
B. Final reminder-Big Nursery-Applying for Primary School.
C. School Term Dates
D. Labelling belongings
E. What the children are learning about this week?
A. Welcome back after the Christmas Break.
We hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas Break. Our pupil numbers grow each term as the academic year progresses, so please try to arrive on time, so we can take everyone safely inside in an organised way as swiftly as possible.
So, as a reminder, Little Nursery Should arrive for 8:45 and Big Nursery should arrive for 8:50. If you arrive late, please be patient, we will admit all those children who arrive on time first, and then come back to admit latecomers. We do understand that parents cannot be in two places at once if you have to drop off older brothers and sisters at other schools.
B. Final reminder-Big Nursery-Applying for Primary School.
Who needs to apply?
Children born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021 are due to start Primary school in September 2025.
You need to apply before 15 January 2025.
How to apply
- if Central Bedfordshire is your council, you need to apply through them.
- if Central Bedfordshire is not your council, you’ll need to apply through your home Local Authority.
You will need to look on your Local Authority Council’s website for further information on how to apply.
C: School Term Dates
The Local Authority, Central Bedfordshire, publishes details of term dates and school holidays on their website: Centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Type: ‘School term and holiday dates in Central Bedfordshire’ into your search engine to find the correct page.
We are a Local Authority School, and as such we follow the Local Authority term dates.
However, for the academic year 2024-2025 the Local Authority did not set the 5 training days when the school is closed for staff training. Schools were advised to choose our 5 training days.
Monday 2nd September 2024.
Tuesday 3rd September 2024.
Monday 4th November 2024
Monday 6th January 2025
Four of our training days have now been completed. Our last training day in this academic year is:
Monday 7th July 2025.
We have put Willow Nursery School dates for the 2024-2025 academic year on our website willownursery.co.uk on the ‘Calendar’ tab.
The Central Bedfordshire website has published dates for academic year 2025-2026. The academic calendar for 2025-2026 does not show when schools are closed for 5 training days. We have not made our decision yet as to when to schedule these training dates. When we have made our decision, the term dates for academic calendar 2025-2026 will appear on our website.
D: Labelling belongings
Label all lunchboxes clearly with your child’s name, on the top, so staff can see the name when the box is on the trolley. Label all drinks bottles and containers.
Label all coats and shoes, and any other items that children can take off-cardigans/jumpers/ fleeces. It is much easier to return items to owners when things are labelled.
Two, three and four year olds are not yet reliable when it comes to hanging up their coats, hats and scarves. Our cloakrooms are scattered with children’s belongings by the middle of the session. We do our best to keep belongings with the correct child, but it would be incredibly helpful if parents could name items, especially coats, as this is a time when children often begin to wear heavier winter coats. We do not need fancy nametags, just consider putting your child’s name (or initials), in biro, on the manufacturers label.
E. What the children are learning about this week?
The theme this week is Goldilocks and the Three Bears
In the Nursery this week the children will listen to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. There will be a role play area set up for the children to explore and act out the story. They will have the chance to dress up, pretend to eat porridge, sit in the chairs and lie down in the three beds. This will give the children a wonderful opportunity to build their confidence as they join others in play and recite memorable lines from the book.
In the Creative area, children will be encouraged to paint portraits of the characters from this story. They can choose to use character templates or to free paint using colours and styles of their own choice. The work that children produce on this topic will be showcased on the display board in Room 2, we aim to use work from children in each age group.
There are lots of variations on this story and staff will talk to the children about different endings they may have read about. They will also discuss the language of size from the book and encourage the children to think about why the characters each have different sized objects. Staff will ask the children about their own opinions on issues in the story, for example ‘would you like it if somebody ate all your porridge?’. This is a lovely way to really inspire the children to think about the feelings of other people and how our actions impact upon them.
The younger children will have a tough tray filled with porridge, spoons and bowls. They can build on their hand eye coordination as they fill and empty bowls, using big, medium and small spoons. They will be able to try their hand at painting their own bear characters from the story and have a smaller scale role play area in the classroom. Staff will help children to put on Bear hats and Bear Paw mittens so that they look like the bears from the book.
NURSERY NEWS
16th December 2024 – Edition 356. Last Newsletter of 2024 (Next Newsletter Monday 13th January 2025)
Find out About
A. Christmas Parties
B. The Elf on the Shelf……
C. What the children are learning about this week?
D. Notes for the end of term /dates for beginning of Spring Term
A. Christmas Parties
Are Finally Here!
These parties are for all our children regardless of the days you attend.
Unfortunately parents will be unable to stay during the parties as we do not have enough room! Staffing ratio’s will be maintained.
Little Nursery Party.
Friday 20th December
9:00am to 10:00am
The Plan:
9:00 Doors Open
Children work in small groups for Christmas crafts.
9:20 Party Snacks.
9:30 Surprise visit from Father Christmas
Songs for Father Christmas
Father Christmas leaves gifts for all children.
9:35 Back to groups to make a decoration.
10:00 Parents arrive to collect all children.
Big Nursery Party
Friday 20th December
11:15am to 1:00pm
The Plan:
11:15 Doors Open
11:25am Party Food
11:45am Surprise visit from Father Christmas.
Songs for Father Christmas.
12:00 Christmas Magic Show
1:00pm Parents arrive to collect all children.
B. Elf on the Shelf…..
That cheeky Elf has been busy in Nursery again! Miss England has been taking photographs of him, so that I can share with you all the things he has been up to!
He spent one day hanging out, and eating pizza, with The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
He flew around the classrooms in his hot air balloon.
He spent the day as a Fashion Doll ‘Elfie’, looking out from his little pink box.
C. What the children are learning about this week?
The theme this week is Christmas and winter.
This week the children will be preparing themselves for Christmas. We will talk lots about having a break from school over the Christmas period and what the children might do with their families during this time. The children will see lots of familiar sights around the school such as our Christmas trees, festive decorations and our cheeky Elf. Staff will spend time discussing exciting upcoming events that the children might have planned; things such as visiting family, meeting Santa and sharing gifts with loved ones.
Throughout the week, the children will have the option to take part in lots of Christmas activities. There will be dressing up outfits available for them to role play as Santa or Mrs Claus and the bikes will be decorated to look like sleighs so that the everyone can take it in turns to deliver parcels to different destinations.
Everyone in little nursery will be offered the opportunity to have a ‘Christmas breakfast’ which they will prepare with an adult, it will consist of toast and fruit in a festive style. Baking will continue this week and children that haven’t yet made a mince pie will work with an adult to bake theirs. The children will not eat their mince pies in school, instead, they will bring them home to show their families what they have made.
D. Notes for the end of term /dates for beginning of Spring Term
On Friday 20th December the school will be open for the parties only. The school office will be closed on Friday 20th December.
The staff would like to say Happy Christmas!
to all our families that celebrate Christmas.
We wish all our families a safe and happy break during the school holidays and look forward to seeing you in the New Year.
Spring Term begins on Tuesday 7th January 2025
NURSERY NEWS
9th December 2024 – Edition 355
Find out About:
A. Christmas at Willow
B. Ensure all payments are up to date by Thursday 12th December.
C. School Office closed on Friday 20th December.
D. The Elf on the Shelf……
E. What are the children learning about this week?
F. Christmas Parties :A reminder
A. Christmas at Willow.
We put up our Christmas Trees last week. We have a variety of trees across the school. We have a small pink one with a fluffy pink star on the top. We have some great big tall ones with lots of ornaments on for looking at.
We also have two trees which the children can add decorations to themselves in the home corners.- We see ‘Decorations on, decorations off,’ all day long.
We start ‘Christmas activities’ today. We choose that we can sustain Christmas activities for two weeks, this makes the school feel busy, exciting and different.
So, the school looks Christmassy, and sounds Christmassy with Christmas songs playing in the background. We learn Christmas songs. We have lots of arts and crafts on offer using glitter and glue.
Traditionally, we always offer the opportunity to children to make Christmas cards and Calendars to bring home. (This did start a discussion amongst staff about: ‘Do children see as many Christmas cards in their homes now? Due to the cost of postage?’ Do adults actually write many cards now due to the technology available to us in our everyday lives? Do you still use a paper calendar in you home? Or do you use your diary in your phone?) So we have thought about it, but still decided to offer these activities.
We share lots of books and stories with a Christmas theme, because our current Willow children love stories!
We set up a Stable Role play area, with all the costumes and props required to tell the Nativity Story. We retell the story with the children over and over and over again, so everyone can have a chance to be Mary, a camel, and an angel all in one day! Everyone can get involved. After many days of practicing the staff support the children to ‘perform’ the story to an audience of their friends.
We do not have a Christmas show. We do not have the space here, and the children are not old enough to understand what a performance is. Many years ago we’d stage a Nativity but over half the children would cry and nobody but the staff would sing. It was not a happy event, so we stopped trying to do it.
So, as for most things at Willow, we try to work out what is appropriate to explore within the themes and traditions of Christmas, with 2, 3 and 4 year olds. So we end up with glitter and tinsel everywhere! And then of course we have our parties…..
B.Ensure all payments are up to date by Thursday 12th December.
Please ensure that all payments are made by 9:30am on Thursday 12th December for the remainder of this term and for the first week back.
C. School Office closed on Friday 20th
The 20th December is the school party day. The school is only open for the School parties. The office staff join in with the parties too. Staff will not be doing any administration tasks that day.
D. The Elf on the Shelf……
Miss England has invited a cheeky Christmas Elf to visit Big Nursery. The children have been really taken with him. When the children arrive each day, they find the Elf in a different place.
The Elf first arrived in his reindeer pulled sleigh.
On Day 2 he set about decorating the school with Paper Chains
On Day 3 he put up a very cheeky picture turning all the teachers into Father Christmas.
Day 4 saw the Elf dress for heavy rain, a good job as a big cloud appeared with huge raindrops!
Day 5, the cheeky Elf dressed up as Mario from a computer game!
Talk to your children about the Elf, they will be excited to tell you about what he has been doing. I will add further photo’s in next week’s newsletter
E. What are the children learning about this week?
The theme this week is Christmas and winter.
There will be lots of exciting Christmas activities this week throughout the nursery and staff will be talking to the children about the upcoming Christmas party. In preparation for our Christmas party, we will be singing lots of Christmas songs and really getting into the festive spirit. When your children come home, you can ask them what songs they have learnt and have a go at singing them together.
In Big Nursery, we retell ‘The Story of Christmas’ with the children. (We are always careful with religious stories to say that ‘This is a story that a lot of people believe to be true’). Our pupil community represents a wide spectrum of religious beliefs and cultures. We aim to create an inclusive environment which is accepting, considerate and mindful of everyone’s family life.
So, for the Christmas Story staff will set up a stable role play area. The children have heard the story of ‘The Nativity’ last week, and can revisit this as they act out the story. Children can choose to take it in turns to retell the story of Jesus being born and people coming from afar to visit the new baby. This is always a very popular activity for the children to join in, which often culminates in them acting out the story in front of an audience of their friends.
Mrs Griffith’s (volunteer helper) will be coming in on Tuesday to offer a cooking activity: making Mince Pies. As the children cook, they can talk to the adults about whether they like to leave any treats out for Santa on Christmas eve.
NURSERY NEWS
2nd December 2024 – Edition 354
Find out About:
A. School Photographer.
B. Information regarding the beginning of the Spring Term in January 2025.
C. Big Nursery Parents joining us for Music Time.
D. Christmas Cards
E. Fruit for Snacktime.
F. Labelling hats, scarves, gloves, coats.
G. Lost Property
H. What are the children learning about this week?
I. Christmas Parties
A School Photographer.
The School Photographer has delivered the school photographs. The office staff will hand them to families, to ensure everyone has the correct pack.
Some packs should contain passport size photos. These have not yet been delivered to the photographer. As soon as we receive them we will pass them on to families
Some parents ordered digital downloads. If you ordered digital images, they have already been emailed to you by the photographer. If you have not received your digital images, check your spam folder in the first instance, and then if you still do not have them, call the photographer directly:
Victoria Mitchell 07845 676258
B. Information regarding the beginning of the Spring Term in January 2025.
School reopens on Tuesday 7th January 2025
During the Autumn term, all children in Little Nursery have been classed as ‘Two Year Olds’. Little Nursery Children who have had their 3rd birthday between the 1st September 2024 and 31st December 2024 are now entitled to universal 15 hours funding, or for some families, 30 hours funding. These children will be based in Little Nursery, and their keyworker will be Miss Gaffney. They will now be known as ‘Blue Group’. In January, four more children will join ‘Blue Group’ from our waiting list.
Little Nursery welcomes our 2+ January intake. We have 13 new families joining us. These children will be known as ‘Little Green Group’ whilst in Little Nursery. Their Keyworker will be Miss Tyler.
Please be aware that each new term brings additional children. There will be more families waiting at dropping off and collecting times. If we all work together we can keep our routines running smoothly. These routines rely on families arriving on time, please try your best!
C. Big Nursery Parents joining us for Music Time.
We sent out invitations to all Big Nursery parents (by email on 19th November) to join us for ‘Music’ time. The invitation detailed the date and time of the Music session that your child takes part in. If you would like to join your child to participate in our Music Activity ‘Pigs on Holiday’ then please just turn up at the date and time specified and you will be made very welcome. There is no need to book. Sessions last 25 minutes.
D. Christmas Cards
We as a staff, would like to ask parents to consider sending just one Christmas card in to school, written ‘To all my friends at Willow’. These cards will then be displayed for all to see in the library corridor.
E. Fruit for snacktime.
Thank you for all your generous donations.
F. Labelling hats, scarves, gloves, coats.
The weather has now become very cold. Children are wearing more items of clothing to school. At the end of each day we end up with a huge pile of gloves, hats and scarves on the floor. We try very hard to match them to the correct child. Please ensure that all removable items are labelled. It does not have to be anything fancy, just your child’s initials written on the manufacturers label in biro would be very helpful. Unlabelled items will be placed in our Lost Property boxes, if staff do not know who the items belong to.
G. Lost Property
We have accumulated a number of items of clothing in our Lost Property box. These items are outside in the Library area. There are three drawers in the top of a cabinet labelled ‘Lost Property’. If your child has lost an item of clothing in the Autumn term: Please check to see if anything belongs to your child, and take it home. We will dispose of any unclaimed items at the end of term.
H. What are the children learning about this week?
The theme this week is Winnie the Witch
The children will be looking at, and listening to, the story of Winnie the Witch and learning all about Winnie and her cat, Wilbur. The story is all about Wilbur the black cat, living in Winnie’s completely black house. Winnie cannot see Wilbur and often trips over him and gets hurt. Winnie thinks the answer is to change the colour of Wilbur so he will become easily spotted in the home. Wilbur is not happy that his colour is changed again and again, until Winnie realises how sad it has made her friend. She changes him back to black and brightens up her home instead.
Staff will use this story as a teaching opportunity to introduce colour and colour mixing to the children. There will be lots of ways for the children to explore colour in the nursery, including drawing with chalks, mixing powder paints and creating spinner paintings.
As a school, we will be putting up our Christmas trees this week. This is always very exciting for the children and will link nicely with our weekly theme, as staff can talk to the children about all of the colourful lights that they can see. Our Christmas decorations are a conversation starter for the children as they often like to share their own experiences of putting decorations up at home.
I. Christmas Parties
These parties are for all our children regardless of the days you attend.
Unfortunately parents will be unable to stay during the parties as we do not have enough room! Staffing ratio’s will be maintained.
Little Nursery Party.
Friday 20th December
9:00am to 10:00am
The Plan:
9:00 Doors Open
Children work in small groups for Christmas crafts.
9:20 Party Snacks.
9:30 Surprise visit from Father Christmas
Songs for Father Christmas
Father Christmas leaves gifts for all children.
9:35 Back to groups to make a decoration.
10:00 Parents arrive to collect all children.
Big Nursery Party
Friday 20th December
11:15am to 1:00pm
The Plan:
11:15 Doors Open
11:25am Party Food
11:45am Surprise visit from Father Christmas.
Songs for Father Christmas.
12:00 Christmas Magic Show
1:00pm Parents arrive to collect all children.
NURSERY NEWS
25th November 2024 – Edition 353
Find out About:
A .Applying for a place at Primary school- A reminder.
B. School Photographer.
C. Donations of Fruit for Snacktime.
D. What are the children learning about this week?
A. Applying for a place at Primary School- A reminder
This applies to all children in Big Nursery
The deadline for on time applications is 15th January 2025.
We have heard from the admissions officer at Central Bedfordshire Council. She has told us that 15 of our families have yet to apply for a place at Primary School.
We are asked to remind all parents that they must apply before the deadline. We know everyone still has a few weeks left, but there is nearly always at least one Willow parent each year who fails to apply, and their child is left without a place when Primary School places are announced in April.
B School Photographer.
The School Photographer has collected all photo orders.
We will let parents know when photo packs are ready for collection.
C. Donations of Fruit for Snacktime.
The government provides milk for all children in nursery. We offer this during our mid-morning snacktime. We also like to offer a small portion of fruit to all children, partly to give them a boost to their energy to keep them going until lunchtime, but also to encourage them to sit for a few minutes to eat their fruit, drink their milk, practice their manners- using ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ appropriately, and chatting sociably to their friends.
Snacktime also gives a break within the child’s choice of activities. This is useful when we have extremes of temperature outside, either when the weather is extremely hot or very cold. At snacktime we encourage all children to go inside and have their snack. This means we can encourage a short rest time inside.
We need parents help to make this work. We ask parents to donate fruit that can be shared with all the children. We ask that all parents consider donating a small bag of fruit once every half term, and this will ensure that we have enough fruit for all children to have a snack.
We suggest donations of apples, pears, bananas or satsumas, as these are the easier fruits to share amongst a large group. (Generally we cut an apple into 4-8 pieces dependent upon its size, a banana provides 2-4 portions, and a satsuma is usually 2 portions.)
We happily accept other fruits and vegetables that can be shared, but please consider the preparation time required….. We prefer a bag of prepared carrot batons to a bag of uncut carrots!
We often receive lots of donations at the beginning of term, then donations begin to trail off. We are unable to offer a fruit snack if we do not have enough fruit to share with all the children. This was the case for three days last week.
I know the cost of food is increasing rapidly these days, but if all families donate a small bag we will have enough fruit. The children really look forward to their snacktime.
D. What are the children learning about this week?
The theme this week is shop role play.
It will be an exciting week in Nursery as the children will have shop role play spaces set up in different areas. The role play areas will be adapted to suit the children’s different stages of development and staff will tailor the teaching areas to suit the needs of the children.
Some children will have a greater knowledge of what happens when we go shopping, or when we order items online and get them delivered to our houses.
Other children may have a simpler perception of shopping, where they might go to a shop and put items in their basket. Staff will use these teaching opportunities to incorporate the children’s prior knowledge of what happens when we go shopping and add to them as they model different scenarios. They will give visual and verbal prompts to the children to expand their role play and communication skills. Children will learn how to build on their imagination, using real life experiences that they have had with their families.
Role pay opportunities such as this are perfect for supporting the children with learning good manners, children will be reminded that when we buy thing in shops, sometimes we have to queue and wait for our turn to pay. It is also a good time to remind our children that we should always try and remember our manners and say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ to all people that help us, including shop keepers.
There will be lots of opportunities for the children to expand their skills through play, as they write shopping lists, interact with other children and recall familiar experiences.
NURSERY NEWS
18th November 2024 – Edition 352
Find out About:
A School Photographer.
B. Walk in the Dark event
C. BBC Children in Need.
D. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Green Group Parents: Basic Skills. A reminder
E. Open School Event: For Big Nursery Children ‘Music Time’. Week beginning 2nd December
F. What are the children learning about this week?
A School Photographer.
The School Photographer has returned ‘proof card photo packs’ of your child’s image to school.
We are distributing these to individual children (and their parents) when they attend school. Any Parent is welcome to come in and collect their child’s ‘proof card photo pack’ during school office hours (8:30am to 2:50pm) Instructions of how to order are included in the photo packs.
B. Walk in the Dark event.
Thank you to all the families who joined us for our Walk in the Dark event last week!
It was dark and chilly in the garden which made it all the more exciting.
The event was very well attended.- with 112 people signed in! It is one of the staff’s favourite events during the school year. We hope you enjoyed it too.
C. BBC Children in Need.
Friday 15th November was Children in Need day. Miss Gaffney shook her little red box with a picture of Pudsey Bear on the front, to make a collection for the Charity.
We raised £50:00
D. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Green Group Parents: Basic Skills. A reminder.
Mrs Patterson’s Green Group parents have been invited in to observe a 30 minute reading/writing activity on Wednesday 20th November.
An invitation letter was sent out last week to Green Group parents advising the time of their child’s group. We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.
E. Open School Event: For Big Nursery Children ‘Music Time’. Week beginning 2nd December
At the end of every morning session children in Big Nursery participate in a planned group time. Throughout the year children will participate in groups such as: Storytimes, Big Books, Oxford Reading Tree, Theraplay Sunshine Circles, Music Time, Phonics, Maths Stories, Dance, Number time. We plan for 5 different activities each week. We usually offer these activities in blocks of 10 or 20 weeks across the year.
For example children will have one 25 minute music session per week for 10 weeks. The sessions are carefully planned, to increase children’s skills and abilities with music, week on week, building upon what they had learned in previous weeks. For Music Time the staff received tuition from the DeCapo organisation, and we then worked together to plan music sessions around the resources they provided us with.
We would like parents to come in to school and see how we teach your children. Throughout the year we are going to invite parents in to school to join in/observe our grouptimes.
We would like to invite all Big Nursery parents to join us for ‘Music’ time. Each parent of a child in Big Nursery will receive an email tomorrow detailing the date and time of the Music session that you can choose to attend, during week beginning 2nd December. If you would like to join your child to participate in our Music Activity ‘Pigs on Holiday’ then please just turn up at the date and time specified and you will be made very welcome. There is no need to book. Sessions last 25 minutes.
F. What are the children learning about this week?
The theme this week in nursery is ‘Keeping Ourselves Safe’.
Staff will teach the children about staying safe as an overall theme but teaching will include road safety, using equipment safely, stranger danger and maintaining privacy when changing or using the toilets.
Throughout the nursery, the staff will be encouraging the children to be as independent as possible in all areas. They will be supported where needed, but encouraged to practice getting changed by themselves, put their hats, coats and gloves on to go outside and to be independent with toileting needs. These are important steps for the children to take to become independent and school ready. As the children learn to do these tasks for themselves, they will be reminded of the importance of keeping themselves safe.
When changing, we encourage the children to take off and replace underwear as swiftly as possible, so their genital areas are exposed for as short a time as possible. We encourage similar privacy when children are using the toilet, ensuring children know that there should be only one child in each toilet cubicle.
There will be lots of safety talk in the nursery as the children will learn the significance of staying safe while on the roads, in their homes and out in public. They will learn about the importance of wearing seat belts in cars, crossing roads with adults, holding our adult’s hands when walking and not talking to strangers.
NURSERY NEWS
11th November 2024 – Edition 351
Find out About:
A. Walk in the Dark event THIS WEEK
B. BBC Children in Need.
C. Wipes and Nappy Sacks
D. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Green Group Parents: Basic Skills.
E. What are the children learning about this week?
A. Walk in the Dark event THIS WEEK.
Miss Howe is organising a ‘Walk in the Dark’, an activity for children and their parents to attend together, after school, on Thursday 14th November at 5:00pm. Children will need to arrive, wrapped up warmly, ready to search the Nursery Garden for hidden soft toy animals. Children will need to bring a torch, because the garden is very dark in places! Brothers and sisters are very welcome too.
We will provide refreshments for everyone who attends. (Free of charge). We plan to offer hot dogs/ cheese rolls, biscuits and squash.
If you plan to come, please send an email to Mrs Selth cselth@willownursery.co.uk entitled ‘Walk in the dark’ detailing your child’s name and how many adults and children will be coming, so we can buy enough food….
We find this is a very enjoyable event for the children, and for all the adults. It is a simple idea, but the children never usually see their school or garden in the dark.
B. BBC Children in Need.
Friday 15th November is Children in Need. As in previous years, we will collect money in Charity buckets, should anyone wish to donate.
C. Wipes and Nappy Sacks
Please remember to put a pack of wet wipes and nappy sacks in your child’s change of clothes bag.
Nappy sacks are important, so that we have somewhere to place your child’s wet clothes to send them home. School is busy. Nappy sacks are not just used for toileting ‘slips’. Clothes become wet or messy through fun nursery activities or can become wet or muddy due to the weather conditions in the school garden.
If we are unable to find a child’s nappy sacks or wet wipes inside a child’s change of clothes bag, we will place a reminder note inside the bag to remind parents to include some.
The Local Council is pushing childcare settings to charge parents for consumable items such as nappy sacks and wet wipes. I am resisting this, as I feel free childcare should be just that – ‘Free’ . However this means parents must help us by providing these consumable items for their own child.
D. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Green Group Parents: Basic Skills.
Mrs Patterson teaches Big Nursery Green 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 Mrs Patterson’s Green Group parents in to observe a 30 minute reading/writing activity on Wednesday 20th November.
A further invitation letter will follow to Green Group parents so that we can match up time slots, so parents can join their child’s small group.
Big Nursery Red Group will have their Basic Skills groups in the Spring Term 2025 and Big Nursery Yellow Group will have their Basic Skills groups in the Summer Term 2025.
E. What are the children learning about this week?
The theme this week is ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?’, which is one of our core books, and we will be focusing on reading skills.
Children will have the opportunity to read this story in the classroom, it will be offered to them as part of a group read. When we share ‘group reads’ it means that staff sit with a small group of three or four children, and we look through books together. We will make sure the children follow the pace of the book at the same time, turning pages and looking at the words and pictures on each page as a group. Our core book will also be available for children in the library, for those that want to sit quietly and enjoy the book at their own pace.
The children will learn about all of the animals and colours from the story as they hunt for story characters hidden around the garden. Once children find an animal character, they will be reminded of the story and asked to share what they can remember. Staff will model lots of descriptive words when they talk to the children about the characters and prompt children to do the same.
One of our learning intentions this week is to learn ways to be kind and caring towards others. This can involve reminders to use kind hands, share resources and be considerate of the feelings of others. It is important to us, that our students treat each other with kindness and respect at all times.
NURSERY NEWS
4th November 2024 – Edition 350
Find out About:
A. School Photographer visiting.
B. Parent Consultations, Big Nursery this week.
C. Walk in the Dark.
D. Volunteering as a Parent Helper in Nursery
E. BBC Children in Need.
F. What are the children learning about this week?
A. School Photographer visiting.
A little reminder that a school photographer will be here on Wednesday 6th November and Thursday 7th November.
B. Parent Consultations, Big Nursery this week.
Big Nursery will be having their Parent Consultations this week! Parents have made appointments with Keyworkers, here are the times staff will be speaking to parents on the phone, as a reminder:
Tuesday 5th November Miss Skai’s Red Group Consultations, between 3:15pm and 4:00pm
Tuesday 5th November Miss Howe’s Yellow Group Consultations, between 3:15pm and 4:25pm
Thursday 7th November Mrs Patterson’s Blue Group Consultations, between 3:15pm and 4:25pm
Thursday 7th November Mrs Cashmore’s Yellow Group Consultations, between 3:15pm and 4:25pm
Each appointment lasts only five minutes. Please help staff to remain on time.
C. Walk in the Dark.
Miss Howe is organising a ‘Walk in the dark’, an activity for children and their parents to attend together, after school, on Thursday 14th November at 5:00pm. Children will need to arrive, wrapped up warmly, ready to search the Nursery Garden for hidden soft toy animals. Children will need to bring a torch, because the garden is very dark in places! We will provide refreshments for everyone who attends. Brothers and sisters are very welcome too. If you plan to come, please send an email to Mrs Selth cselth@willownursery.co.uk entitled ‘Walk in the dark’ detailing your child’s name and how many adults and children will be coming, so we can buy enough food….
D. Volunteering as a Parent Helper in Nursery
At this time of year, we ask if any parents are interested in volunteering their time to be a parent helper in school.
Becoming a parent helper isn’t possible for all parents. We know a number of you are working parents and so are very busy. A good number of parents have younger children to look after too, so are unable to commit to help.
However, we, as a school really value the help if parents can contribute their time.
We find help most useful when parents can make a regular commitment each week to help out for a morning or afternoon session. Some parents offer a few hours of their time every week, some parents offer time every other week. If you become a regular parent helper we allocate you to one of our staff members who you will work with each time you come in. In this way staff can plan activities for you to become involved with, from arts and crafts, -little ‘makes’, which children love, to playing table top maths or language games, exploring construction toys, playing in the sand or water trays with the children.
Adult time can make a huge difference to a child’s education. Our staff’s first priority is to maintain safe and stimulating environments. At the beginning of the school year it is very difficult for them to focus on sustained interactions with small groups of children at the activities I have outlined above. Staff really appreciate the help of Parent Volunteers as it means we can offer wider Adult led or Adult supported opportunities in each play space.
So what can the volunteering opportunity offer you?
- We are a friendly team. You might like to come and spend a few hours working with other adults.
- Come in to school, and find out what your child experiences day to day.
- Maybe take your first steps towards being an Early Years Practitioner. See how rewarding the job really is!
- Spend some time with our wonderful pupils. They just love to chat with new adults and share what they have been doing.
Please do not feel you are too shy, or that perhaps your English Language skills are not strong. We would encourage you to come forward and give it a try.
If you think you might be interested please mention this to your child’s keyworker, or to any of the staff.
Miss Gaffney is our Parent Volunteer co-ordinator. She will then get in touch with you and invite you to a meeting with other interested parents.
E. BBC Children in Need.
Friday 15th November is Children in Need. Parents often ask us what we are doing for Children in Need. –So as in previous years, we will collect money in Charity buckets, should anyone wish to donate. We do organise activities with a Pudsey Bear theme, and we try to share with the children that we are fundraising to help other children. Sometimes the Nursery children want to dress up because they see their older brothers and sisters dressing up for their school’s event. We are happy for children to dress up, or not to dress up. We do not wish any family to feel under pressure.
F. What are the children learning about this week?
The theme this week is Festivals and Autumn.
The children will be sharing experiences that they may have had over the half term holidays including celebrating Diwali and bonfire/fireworks night.
This year Diwali is being celebrated on October 31st, which falls during half term. Diwali is the Hindu festival of light, which lasts for five days. When the children return to school, those that have celebrated will be able to draw upon their own experiences and share them with others. Children will be taught the story of Rama and Sita, decorate Rangoli patterns and look at some Diwali artefacts that we display to support their learning.
Children return to school on the 5th of November, which is bonfire night. Many children may have celebrated bonfire night with their families or by attending an organised display. Staff will share their own experiences of this celebration with the children and prompt them to share their personal stories. We will use vocabulary that describes the sights and sounds that the children may have seen over the half term holiday, and discuss the colours of all the lights and fireworks.
In our creative areas, children have the chance to take part in junk modelling, we have noticed that our box modelling resources have become very low. We would like to take this opportunity to ask that parents donate recyclable materials for us to restock this area. We would gratefully accept small and medium boxes, such as toothpaste boxes and cereal boxes, as well as toilet roll tubes and egg cartons. These provide so many creative opportunities for the children and develop their imaginations. Thank you for your support!
NURSERY NEWS
21st October 2024 – Edition 349
Find out About:
A. Important dates, a reminder.
B. Update: Parent School Governor.
C. Parent Consultations
D. Pumpkin Patch
E. Hand, foot and mouth disease. What to look out for:
F. What are the children learning about this week?
A. Important dates, a reminder.
Mon 28th October 2024 to Fri 1st November 2024: Autumn Half term – School Closed
Mon 4th November –Teacher training day- School Closed.
Wednesday 6th November and Thursday 7th November-School Photographer to visit.
B. Update: Parent School Governor.
Two parents approached me to volunteer to be a parent governor. We now have a full governing body! Thank you!
C. Parent Consultations
Little Nursery will be having their Parent Consultations this week! Parents have made appointments with Keyworkers, here are the times staff will be speaking to parents on the phone, as a reminder:
Monday 21st October Mrs Brinkley’s Orange Group Consultations, between 3:15pm and 3:55pm
Tuesday 22nd October Miss Gaffney’s Blue Group Consultations, between 3:15pm and 4:20pm
Wednesday 23rd October Mrs Cashmore’s Little Yellow Group Consultations between 1:00pm and 1:25pm
Thursday 24th October Mrs McGrath’s Little Yellow Groups Consultations, between 3:15pm and 3:35pm
Each appointment lasts only five minutes. Please help staff to remain on time.
D. Pumpkin Patch
The children have had so much fun with the pumpkins that parents have donated. They have enjoyed moving them in wheelbarrows and rolling them around the garden. Mrs Patterson carefully cut the top off of a big pumpkin and left it in the mud kitchen for children to investigate. They had their hands and arms fully in it, scooping out the seeds and the flesh. Another popular activity is where we provide golf tees and little hammers so children can hammer the golf tees into the pumpkin.
The children transported the pumpkins into the big sandpit then used them as building brick to build a ‘Pumpkin Castle’, packing sand around the piled up pumpkins to build walls.
Children decorated the biggest pumpkins with chalk, so this week we will wash them and have a go at painting them.
E. Hand, foot and mouth disease. What to look out for:
We have had a number of cases of ‘Hand, foot and mouth disease’ in Little Nursery. It is a very common viral illness in childhood.
It is generally a mild illness. In rare cases it can be more severe.
I have included some information below from the East of England Health Protection Team regarding this illness:
The individual may develop a fever, reduced appetite and generally feel unwell. One or 2 days later a rash may develop with blisters, on hands, feet, insides of their cheeks, gums and on the sides of the tongue. Not all cases have symptoms. The incubation period is 3 to 5 days. Persons affected are most infectious during the first week of the illness.
The illness is usually mild and clears up by itself in 7 to 10 days.
If the individual develops the rare additional symptoms of high fever, headache, stiff neck, back pain, or other complications then they should seek prompt medical advice.
Spread is caused by direct contact with the secretions of the infected person (including faeces) or by aerosol spread such as coughing and sneezing. Younger children are more at risk because they tend to play closely with their peers.
Advice from the Health Protection Team is:
If a child has a temperature they should stay at home.
Children with hand foot and mouth disease may attend the Nursery if they feel well.
We are encouraging more frequent hand washing. We are encouraging the frequent use of tissues to keep noses clean.
I am hopeful that the half term break may stop the spread through the school
F. What are the children learning about this week?
The theme this week is keeping healthy.
Staff will teach the children about the importance of keeping healthy by exercising and eating well. There will be some activities focused on dental hygiene, which will involve showing the children how to brush their teeth correctly, for how long and how often. They will learn all about visiting the dentist and how they help us to look after our teeth. Looking after our teeth and staying healthy both link to eating well, and staff will use resources to teach the children about balancing their diet and keeping snacks as a treat item, only to be had every so often.
The children will learn value of exercise and rest. As they work and play, staff will talk to the children of the effects exercise has on their bodies. They will encourage the children to pay attention to how fast their hearts beat after exercise and the importance of staying hydrated.
We will also be focusing on scissor skills. The children will learn how to use scissors safely and effectively. We will be providing lots of cutting opportunities to upskill our children and encourage them to cut appropriate materials such as paper, card and boxes in the creative areas. Scissor skills are tricky to master so we aim to provide as much practice as possible.
NURSERY NEWS
14th October 2024 – Edition 348
Find out About:
A. Would you be interested in becoming a School Governor?
B. Parent Consultations
C. What are the children learning about this week?
A. Would you be interested in becoming a School Governor?
As yet, nobody has said that they might be interested. We are a friendly group! Please come and have a chat with me if you are thinking about offering your time. We value everyone’s contribution, and no particular skills are required.
We have a good crowd of parents here. This doesn’t have to be a long term commitment. Maybe you would like to volunteer for just one year? It might give you an insight into what goes on behind the scenes in the management of schools, or you might just learn a little more about what all the children do in school.
We still have a vacancy, so I have to continue to try to fill it! Will one of you consider stepping up?
B. Parent Consultations
We aim to offer all parents the opportunity to have a Parent Consultation with their child’s keyworker once per term.
Now it is time for Big Nursery parents to book appointments to speak with your child’s Keyworker.
These consultations are offered to talk about how your child is settling in and the progress your child is making. They are not compulsory, but if you would like an appointment please arrange this with your child’s keyworker when they are outside before morning sessions, or after afternoon sessions.
These consultations will be on the telephone, will last 5 minutes and will be available at the following times:
Tuesday 5th November Miss Skai’s Red Group Consultations, 5 minute telephone consultations between 3:15pm and 4:00pm
Tuesday 5th November Miss Howe’s Yellow Group Consultations, 5 minute telephone consultations between 3:15pm and 4:25pm
Thursday 7th November Mrs Patterson’s Blue Group Consultations, 5 minute telephone consultations between 3:15pm and 4:25pm
Thursday 7th November Mrs Cashmore’s Yellow Group Consultations, 5 minute telephone consultations between 3:15pm and 4:25pm
C. What are the children learning about this week?
The theme this week focusses on the storybook ‘Happy In Our Skin’. The children will be using mirrors to look at their reflections and adults will take these opportunities to talk to the children about what they can see. This can then evolve into an opportunity to discuss things that make us different, and any similarities that we may have with each other. Children will be learning the names of their friends and will be able to take photographs of each other using the ipads. After the photographs have been taken, the children can analyse them to identify familiar features such as eye and hair colour.
Mrs Patterson and Miss Gaffney are planning to set up a Pumpkin Patch in our outside area and are requesting donations of pumpkins. They are looking for pumpkins of all sizes to add to the patch, so, if you are able to add one to your shopping list, please do! There are so many activities that can stem from having a collection of pumpkins, including; transportation of pumpkins in wheelbarrows and on bikes, pumpkin painting, hammering items into the vegetables and even opening up the pumpkins to see what’s inside. It will be a very exciting week, full of art, science and cognitive and physical development. Thank you for your support!
