Goldstone Crescent
Dunstable
Beds
LU5 4QU
Phone: 01582 662600
Email: office@willownursery.co.uk
Latest News
Nursery News 2nd December 2024
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
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
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
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
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!
