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Nursery News 31st March 2025

NURSERY NEWS

31^st  March 2025 – Edition 367

Find out About

A. A reminder Last day of Spring Term Friday 4^th April. School Re-opens on Tuesday 22^nd April 2025 for the Summer Term.

B. For families of children leaving us in July 2025 (Big Nursery Red, Green and Yellow Groups): Finding out the results of your application for Lower or Primary Schools.

C. What are the children learning about this week?

A. A reminder: Last day of Spring Term Friday 4^th April. School Re-opens on Tuesday 22^nd April 2025 for the Summer Term.

The last day of term for all children is Friday 4^th April. The Nursery is open for normal hours on this day. School reopens for the Summer Term on Tuesday 22^nd April. Our next Newsletter will be published on Tuesday 22^nd April.

B. For families of children leaving us in July 2025 (Big Nursery Red, Green and Yellow Groups): Finding out the results of your application for Lower or Primary Schools.

Parents that have applied for Lower/Primary School Places will find out the results of their application during the school holidays. There is a National day when results are released.

This Information copied from Central Bedfordshire Local Authority website.

Finding out the results of your application for lower or primary school

When you’ll find out

16 April 2025 is the national offer day for on-time school applications.

If we have your email address

You’ll receive an email with the outcome of your application.

If we don’t have your email address

We will post your decision letter to you.

C.  What are the children are learning about this week?

The theme this week is Easter

Our youngest children, in our two year old class, will be learning about Easter through decorating egg baskets. They will use fine motor skills to decorate simple baskets and bring home an egg from the Easter Bunny. We will be encouraging the children to bring their egg baskets home, so that they can show their families what they have made.

The older children will be working in small groups to take part in an Easter egg hunt around the garden. They will search high and low while outside, to find a chocolate egg that the Easter Bunny has left just for them. When each child has found an egg, they will come to sit with their friends where they can eat their treasured find.

The learning intentions this week are for the children to be able to use language to recall past experiences that are important to them and to have a positive sense of self when sharing these experiences. To achieve these outcomes, staff will use books and other resources to teach about milestone events, such as birthdays or celebrations. Staff will support child led conversations to promote the sharing of experiences. Staff will continue these conversations in age appropriate ways by questioning and sharing their own memories as they talk. Through having these positive interactions with children, we are boosting their self-esteem and confidence.

Nursery News 24th March 2025

NURSERY NEWS

24^th March 2025 – Edition 366

Find out About

A. Term dates. Last day of Spring Term Friday 4^th April. School Re-opens on Tuesday 22^nd April 2025 for the Summer Term.

B. Willow Nursery School Academic Calendar 2025-2026 is now available on our website.

C. What are the children learning about this week?

A. Term dates. Last day of Spring Term Friday 4^th April. School Re-opens on Tuesday 22^nd April 2025 for the Summer Term.

The last day of term for all children is Friday 4^th April. The Nursery is open for normal hours on this day. School reopens for the Summer Term on Tuesday 22^nd April.

B. Willow Nursery School Academic Calendar 2025-2026 is now available on our website.

If parents look on our website www.willownursery.co.uk  and click on the calendar tab, you will be able to see  our academic calendar for 2025-2026.

As a school, we always follow the calendar that Central Bedfordshire Local Authority suggests, however this year each school was required to select their own 5 training days.

(Training days are when schools are closed to pupils, to allow teachers and support staff to receive training.)

Therefore, please be aware that Willow’s training days may be different to other schools in the local area.

C. What are the children are learning about this week?

The theme this week is Easter

The younger children will be working very hard this week on noticing objects in their environment, staff will hide Easter related images around the garden for them to find. There will also be lots of numbers in the area for the children to look at and practice number recognition and counting.

Throughout the school, the staff will be encouraging everyone to remember their manners. As part of our seven C’s curriculum we teach our children to use good manners as part of their everyday vocabulary. Staff will model a polite vocabulary to the children and encourage them to be considerate of each other.

Children will be asked to try and help each other with tasks that may be difficult and to be as independent as possible when getting changed or putting on coats to go outside. As a school, we aim to support our children in being school ready, this includes knowing how to dress and undress themselves, feed themselves and also to take themselves to the toilet successfully. We will be offering an afternoon snack through the week and staff will prompt children to peel their own oranges and bananas. This will be the perfect opportunity for the children to offer their friends some support if needed.

Nursery News 17th March 2025

NURSERY NEWS

17^th March 2025 – Edition 365

Find out About

A. Role Play Linked to Our Core Books.

B. Big Nursery Children: Does anyone want to increase their child’s sessions for the Summer Term in Nursery from 15 hours to 30 hours?

C. Could you help us with some tissues?

D What are the children learning about this week?

A. Role Play Linked to Our Core Books.

We have been having so much fun in the last few weeks with the imaginative role plays the staff have been putting together. This group of children this year are really interested in dressing up in role and creating storylines. We’ve been looking at traditional tales, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Gingerbread Man, The Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. All these stories are great for re-telling and acting out as they have lots of repeated refrains in the stories. Even children not using very much language will join in with ‘Run, Run, Run’, or ‘Huff and Puff. All children can access these stories in some way. We are moving on with some role plays linked to our Core Books. A few weeks ago we looked at the book ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea.’ We had role plays set up all over the school including outside! Mrs Patterson has a collection of stainless steel teapots that the children were exploring. She has asked for a note to be put in the newsletter

…..We’d be very grateful for any stainless steel teapots that we can use with the children. We don’t want new ones, but they may be the sort of thing you have at home in your cupboards that never get used….

Next week we will be looking at the story of ‘We’re Going On A Bear Hunt’.

Mrs Patterson will transform Room 2 into an immersive role play experience. Children will listen to the story being retold, then experience walking through the long grass, the short prickly grass the thick oozy mud, the water of the river before arriving at the Bear Cave. They then find ‘A Bear!’ (One of the children dressed up.) The children get so excited with this activity. One of the best in our year!

B. Big Nursery Children: Does anyone want to increase their child’s sessions for the Summer Term in Nursery from 15 hours to 30 hours?

We are looking at our pupil numbers for the summer term. We do have some spaces available if anyone in Big Nursery is interested in increasing their child’s hours from 15 to 30 hours for the Summer term. This can be funded in its entirety if your child is entitled to 30 hours funding for working parents or you could choose to pay for the additional 15 hours. (£16:14 per session, so £80 per week.)

Some parents request this opportunity each year, because they feel it prepares their children for Reception class in September, staying for full days and having a packed lunch. Usually we do not have any spaces available, but this year a number of Big Nursery children have left due to moving house.

If this is something you might be interested in, please speak to Mrs Davies, Mrs Evans or any of the office staff, or send an email in to school to: office@willownursery.co.uk If you are interested please don’t delay- If you want to use 30 hour funding for working families, your code must be in place and valid by 31^st March 2025, to be able to be used for the Summer Term. Please speak to us by Wednesday 19^th March.

C. Could you help us with some tissues?

We are asking if parents would consider donating a box of tissues for the children to use, as we only have a few boxes left in the school!

D What are the children are learning about this week?

The theme this week is ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’

The children will be listening to Were Going on a Bear Hunt, written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. They will be exposed to lots of different ways to learn the story and staff will encourage the children to retell it in their own way. There will be various resources provided throughout the setting to support this. We hope to spark the children’s imagination and promote lots of role play. There are many repeated refrains in this story and we will be encouraging the children to join in with them as we share this wonderful book.

Through the week, the children will also be working on their pencil grip. They will work on holding their pencil effectively and making meaningful marks. Since the children have started phonics, they have shown a real interest in writing letters and cards to each other. They are very keen to write down the most recent letter that they have learnt. We are encouraging the children to use their name cards to write their own name on their work, as this instils a sense of pride in their work and the children are excited to show each other what they have done.

Nursery News 10th March 2025

NURSERY NEWS

10^th March 2025 – Edition 364

Find out About

A. A reminder: An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Red Group Parents: Basic Skills, on Wednesday 12^th March.

B. Bedtime Stories: A well-attended event.

C. Fees Increase from April 2025

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 are learning about this week?

A. A reminder: An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Red Group Parents: Basic Skills, on Wednesday 12^th March.

Miss Skai teaches Big Nursery Red 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 15 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.

Mrs Patterson 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.

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 2025

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 1^st 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. Last year the school governors decided that we will increase our fees annually from 1^st April each year, to be in line with the hourly pupil funding rates we receive from Central Bedfordshire council.

We receive £7.88 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 £5.38 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 2025 will be: £16.14 for a three hour session for 3+ aged child, and £23.64 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 31^st March 2025 if they wish to have 30 hours funding for the summer term 2025.  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- the 15 hour Offer in Little Nursery– Parents must ensure their valid code is in place on 31^st 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 – 3rd March 2025

NURSERY NEWS

3^rd March 2025 – Edition 363

Find out About

A. An Evening Event, For Big Nursery Children: Bedtime Stories Thursday 6^th March 2025 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 6^th March 2025 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 Green Red and Yellow Group, those who will leave Willow in July 2025.) 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 fruit, tissues, bringing in boxes for our box modelling area or volunteering their time and helping out in the classrooms. 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 be listening to the story of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, written by Judith Kerr. They will have lots of opportunities to retell the story in many different ways.

The children will have a comprehensive role play area set out where they can explore Sophie’s house and also a café. The children will dress up as the different characters and act as they might in the story. Children will play alongside each other as they re-enact the narrative that is becoming so familiar to them. There will be pretend food for the children to order from the café, just like Sophie and her family did in the book. Children will be offered the chance to make and eat their own sandwiches in the café.

We will be encouraging everyone to pay close attention to their environment this week and to discuss what they can see. We will be promoting conversations about the natural environment including animals and insects that we can see and flowers that may be starting to bloom.

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.