Latest News

Nursery News 28th Feb 2022

Monday, February 28, 2022

NURSERY NEWS

28th February 2022 – Edition 253

Find out About

  1. Thank you for the donations of materials for our box modelling area.
  2. Being considerate when queuing before the nursery day
  3. Covid update
  4. Dunstable Locality Children’s Centre
  5. What the children are learning about this week

 

 1. Thank you for the donations of materials for our box modelling area.

Thank you all so much for saving your boxes and containers for our box modelling area. We have plenty now to keep us going for a few weeks!

 

2. Being considerate when queuing before the nursery day

Just a reminder when queuing up outside the school gates, that it is a public footpath and other pedestrians may need to use it. Please stay as close to the fences as you can to allow others to pass.

 

3. Covid update

From Thursday 24 February, the Government removed the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test. However, the guidance COVID-19: people with COVID-19 and their contacts, published 24 February 2022 clearly outlines that: Children and young people and staff with COVID-19 should not attend their education setting while they are infectious. They may take an LFD test from 5 days after their symptoms started (or the day their test was taken if they did not have symptoms) followed by another one the next day (24 hours apart). If both these test results are negative, they should return to their educational setting, as long as they feel well enough to do so and do not have a temperature.

*If no negative test results are received prior to day 10 then self-isolation finishes at midnight on day 10*

 

4. Dunstable Locality Children’s Centre

The children’s centres in Central Bedfordshire have been developed in line with the needs of the local community so no one centre is the same. Children’s centres work with partners to offer a range of services to meet your child’s needs all in one place.

There is a core set of services they aim to provide:

  • child and family health services including antenatal, postnatal, breast feeding and baby weighing sessions (drop-in)
  • advice on parenting and parenting programmes
  • information and advice to parents on childcare, early years provision and 2-year-old funded places
  • early education and school readiness, early communication support e.g. speech and language drop-ins
  • outreach and family support services including home visits
  • a variety of drop-in session

 

5. What the children are learning about this week

The theme in nursery is nursery rhymes.

In Catkins, the children will be using different resources to decorate nursery rhyme pictures, while they are working they will be encouraged to sing nursery rhymes.

In little nursery, the children will use tools such as scissors, staplers and glue to make props to use when they are singing. The children will have great fun flipping pancakes for shrove Tuesday, after they have made their pancakes they will be able to eat them at the table.

In the garden, the children will have an obstacle course to complete as well as the chance to play a hook a duck game while they sing the song 5 little ducks.

In room 1, Mrs. Patterson will be making shape pictures with the children. The children will be asked to choose appropriate shapes for their pictures and Mrs. Patterson will model the correct mathematical language for these shapes.

In room 2, Miss Skai will be using toy cars dipped in paint for a mark making activity. Miss Skai will encourage the children to dip the wheels in the paint and then move the vehicles across paper. Together, they will look at the patterns left by the wheels and Miss Skai will ask the children to describe what they see.

Outside, the children will go on a nursery rhyme hunt. When the children find a nursery rhyme card, they will sing the song they have spotted. This is the perfect chance for the children to learn the words to many songs.

 

Nursery News 21.2.22

Monday, February 21, 2022

NURSERY NEWS

21st February 2022 – Edition 252

Find out About

  1. Welcome back to Mrs McGrath
  2. Get Well Soon for Mrs Davies
  3. Letting us know if someone different is collecting your child
  4. Not putting food in children’s backpacks
  5. Bookstart Treasure Packs
  6. Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Public Holiday 2022
  7. What the children are learning about this week 

 

  1. Welcome back to Mrs McGrath

Mrs McGrath is back this week after her maternity leave. She will be re-joining Catkins class part time, at the end of the week.

 

2. Get Well Soon for Mrs Davies

As you all know, Mrs Davies has been unwell. She has recently had an operation and is now recovering. She will be back with us as soon as she is able to.

 

 

3. Letting us know if someone different is collecting your child

 

It is really important that you tell us if someone different is collecting your child. If we do not know about someone different collecting your child, we will not let your child leave until we have spoken to you. We have to keep the children safe.

 

4. Not putting food in children’s backpacks

Due to a serious allergy in big nursery, we do not have any food in the classroom. Please do not put any food in your child’s backpack/school bag. If any food needs to be passed on to a grandparent or childminder, please hand to a member of staff who will ensure it goes home with the child.

 

5. Bookstart Treasure Packs

If your child attends the Big Nursery and is in Blue, Orange or Yellow Group they will bring home a big envelope containing a book from the Book Trust on WEDNESDAY 23rd February. This book is for your child to keep.  Book Trust is the UK’s leading reading charity. Every year they give over 5 million books and resources to children across the country.  Children receive this pack in their final year in Nursery, so our younger children will receive them in future years.

 

6. Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Public Holiday 2022

As you will be aware, an additional bank holiday has been announced for 3rd June 2022 for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The Department for Education (DfE) has laid regulations to reduce the minimum number of sessions schools are required to meet in the academic year 2021/22 as a result of this additional bank holiday.

Most schools will be on their half term breaks in the week commencing 31 May 2022 and the DfE has advised that schools and councils should observe the Bank Holidays on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd June. In practice, this means that where this additional bank holiday falls during half-term week, schools will be able to identify another day of ‘holiday’ elsewhere in the year on which staff will not be required to work and will be given an equivalent day’s paid leave.

To reflect the additional bank holiday, the School teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) 2021 reflects a change in the number of days that teachers must be available to work under their terms and conditions for this academic year. Teachers will be required to be available to work on one less day for the academic year 2021/22, An extra day of holiday, therefore, will need to be allocated by individual schools.

After discussion with the staff and governors, Willow Nursery School will be closed for an additional days holiday on Monday 27th June 2022.

 

 

7. What the children are learning about this week?

The theme in little nursery this week is showing care and concern for wildlife.

In Catkins, Miss Tyler will be talking to the children about wildlife and what animals they can see in the garden. Miss Tyler will support the children in threading cereal hoops onto pipe cleaners which will build on their fine motor skills and using these to feed the birds. The children will bring these bird feeders home for you to put in your gardens.

 

Mrs. Watson will be doing a similar activity, using lard and bird seed to make a different type of bird feeder. Mrs. Watson will talk with the children about ways in which we can look after wildlife in our surrounding areas.

 

In little nursery, Miss Gaffney will be helping the children to remember the school rules, reminding them to be kind to each other and share when they play. These are very important social skills for the children to learn.

 

Mrs. Brinkley will be making binoculars with the children for them to use in the garden. These will help them to spot any local wildlife.

 

The theme in big nursery is Goldilocks and the three bears.

 

In room 1, Mrs. Cashmore will have a goldilocks and the three bears role play area set up for the children to act out the story. There will also be an area for the children to think about maths and the language of size. The children will work on creating patterns with different sized bears, focusing on the language of big, medium and small.

 

In room 2, Mrs Patterson will be working with the children to create images of the different characters. The children will be using paint and materials to create their pictures. There will be a sensory opportunity for everyone to explore the texture of porridge oats, when filling and emptying different sized bowls.

 

Outside, Miss Skai will be focusing on movement and playing the game ‘move like a bear’, where the children need to move in different ways around the playground. Miss Skai will also have some laminated bears of different sizes for the children to apply their threading skills.

                       

Nursery News 7th February 2022

Monday, February 7, 2022

NURSERY NEWS

7th February 2022 – Edition 251

Find out About

  1. Parent Consultations for Big Nursery – reminder
  2. Phonics Programme begins this week for the big nursery children
  3. Water Bottles
  4. Thank you for your donations!
  5. Half Term Break
  6. What the children are learning about this week

 

1. Parent consultations for Big Nursery – reminder

If you made a telephone appointment to speak to your child’s keyworker, here is a reminder of the day to expect your call…

Miss Howe – Monday 7th February

Mrs Cashmore – Tuesday 8th February

Mrs Patterson – Wednesday 9th February

Miss Skai – Thursday 10th February

 

2. Phonics Programme begins this week for the big nursery

 

Phonics at Grouptime….

(for those children who leave us in July 2022 to go to primary school )

This week, staff begin our phonics program delivering structured phonics activities at grouptimes. Children will focus on learning one new sound each week. Every Wednesday, we will send home a worksheet introducing the new sound to be practiced. We use the Jolly Phonics program.  Each letter has a name, a sound and an action. The sheet we send home explains this and shows you, their parents the action to perform. Making a movement linked to a sound helps children to recall the sound. Please encourage your child to learn the new sound and action. Have a go at writing the letter shape and colour in the picture. Keep the sheets together, perhaps in an A4 ring binder. Learn the new sound each week, but also go over all the previous sounds.

Your children are still very young, so only do this with your child at an appropriate time and not for too long.

You need to present the activity to your child as a fun task that they should look forward to doing with you. ‘Little and often’ is a good way to learn letter sounds.

 

Information from Miss Howe regarding our phonics program:

‘Phonics’ is one tool children can use when they are beginning to learn to read and write.

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

What are we going to do?

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

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

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

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

 

Helping at home:

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

 

Phonics

What is phonics?

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

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

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

The five basic skills for reading and writing are:

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

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

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

The letters for the 42 Sounds of English

a ……ant, sand, caravan

ai……aim, aid, drain, (long a)

b……bat, bend, crab

c ……cat, cot, duck

d……dog, dip, sudden

e……egg, end, shed

ee……eel, creep, tree (long e)

f……fog, lift, fluff

g……goat, gap, digger

h……hop, hit, hill

i……ink, indian, drink

ie……pie, tie, die (long i)

j……jelly, jet, jumper

k……king, kind, kettle

l……leg, lost, shell

m……man, mill, shrimp

n……nut, nip, spin

o……orange, on, spot

oa……oak, oats, boat (long o)

p…….pig, pet, step

q……queen, quick, quin

r……run, rabbit, barrel

s…..sand, sun, twist

t……top, tug, mat

u…….up, under, lung

ue……due, Tuesday, cue

v……van, vet, give

w…..wind, went, swim

x…..x-ray, ox, flex

y……yell, yes, yellow

z……zoo, zebra, buzz

sh……ship, shop, wish

ch……chop, chick, much

th……this, then, with (voiced th)

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

ng……song, bang, string

oo……look, room, foot (little oo)

oo……moon, spoon, shoot (long oo)

ar……art, arm, start

er……kerb, stern, sister

or……order, corn, storm

oi……oil, ointment, spoil

ou……out, cloud,

 

3.Water Bottles

Just a reminder to label all children’s water bottles. It helps the staff to distinguish which bottle belongs to which child!

 

 

4.Thank you for your donations

Thank you to everyone that has brought in a box of tissues or some materials for our box modelling area. Please continue to save your recyclable materials for us over the half term break and bring them in on our return!

 

5.Half Term Break

The nursery will be closed for half term from Monday 14th February until Friday 18th February 2022. We return to nursery on Monday 21st February 2022.

 

 

6.What the children are learning about this week?

The theme in little nursery this week is The Gruffalo.

In Catkins, the children will be making Gruffalo rice crispy cakes with Mrs. Field. They will also be drawing and colouring Gruffalo pictures with a focus on pencil control and building on fine motor skills.

In little nursery, the children will be reading The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. They will be using playdough and other resources to create their own versions of characters from the story.

Outside, the children will be going on a character hunt. The children will talk about characters from The Gruffalo story and search for their pictures in the garden.

 

The theme in big nursery is keeping healthy.

In room 1, the focus will be on healthy eating and the children will take part in a shared read of Handa’s Surprise. The children will each have a book and will practise reading with an understanding that we read from left to right and top to bottom. There will be a range of other activities available that will build on fine motor skills, such as using scissors and threading string through pictures of fruits and vegetables.

In room 2, Mrs. Patterson will be looking at emotional wellbeing and encouraging the children to identify different emotions. The children will have mirrors to look at themselves and the different expressions they make; they will be able to paint these images using the easels.

Outside, the children will be focused on physical fitness and Miss Skai will set up an obstacle course. The children will be able to think about the effects exercise has on their bodies while building on their developing physical skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nursery News 31st January 2022

Monday, January 31, 2022

NURSERY NEWS
31st January 2022 – Edition 250

Find out About
A. Parent Consultations for Little Nursery.
B. Parent Consultations for Big Nursery.
C. Request for boxes of tissues
D. Box Modelling
D. What the children are learning about this week

A. Parent consultations for Little Nursery – reminder
If you made a telephone appointment to speak to your child’s keyworker, here is a
reminder of the day to expect your 5 minute call…
Mrs Cashmore – Monday 31st Jan
Miss Gaffney – Monday 31st Jan
Miss Tyler – Tuesday 1st Feb
Mrs Field – Wednesday 2nd Feb
Mrs Brinkley – Thursday 3rd Feb
Mrs Watson – Friday 4th Feb

B. Parent consultations for Big Nursery
Just a reminder about Parent Consultations (on the telephone) to parents of children
in Big Nursery during the week beginning 7/2/22. Big Nursery staff will contact
parents, either at the front gate at the beginning or end of sessions, or by telephone
to arrange a suitable appointment time. Appointments will last no longer than 10
minutes. We only have one phone line so the consultations will be at the following
times:
Yellow Group, Speaking with Miss Howe
Monday 7th February 2022.
Yellow Group, Speaking with Mrs Cashmore
Tuesday 8th February 2022.
Green Group, Speaking with Mrs Patterson
Wednesday 9th February 2022.
Orange Group, Speaking with Miss Skai
Thursday 10th February 2022.

C. Request for boxes of tissues
We are running very low on boxes of tissues. We seem to have lots
of runny noses! We would be very grateful for any donations of
boxes of tissues for the children to use.

D. Box Modelling
We are running very short of recycled materials for our box modelling area. We would
be very grateful for any of the following that you can offer…
 Boxes, not too big. The biggest boxes we like are cereal boxes.
 Plastic bottle tops
 Yogurt Pots, butter tubs and other plastic containers
 Toilet roll tubes
 Egg boxes

E. What the children are learning about this week:
What are the children learning about this week?
The theme in little nursery this week is winter and ice.
In Catkins, the children will be exploring different textures. There will be toys encased in ice, which
will become available as the ice melts. They will also be able to explore a tray of flour using their
hands and utensils to gain an understanding of the contrasting textures.
In little nursery, the children will have a winter wonderland theme where there will be lots of
different books for the children to look through.
Outside, Miss Gaffney will have an igloo tent for the children to explore and extend role play ideas.
Miss Gaffney will also be teaching the children to recognise amounts without counting, the children
will do this using natural resources such as twigs and leaves.
In the link area, Mrs Brinkley will support the children to create their very own Rainbow Fish collage
using a variety of art materials, including card and foil. The children have been reading this
wonderful story over the last week with Mrs Brinkley.
The theme in big nursery is people who help us – hospitals, dentists and opticians.
In room 1, Miss Skai will have a doctor’s surgery set up with an ambulance van for the children to
play in, extending role play ideas and prompting the children to take turns. She will also be playing a
hospital themed version of Kim’s Game, using medical equipment which will support the children in
learning the correct names for the doctor’s instruments.
In room 2, Mrs Cashmore will be supporting the children to create their very own Snellen Eye Charts
and glasses. These activities will focus on letter formation and improving fine motor skills. The
children will also have the chance to take part in some maths activities by giving a specific number of
eyes to aliens. There will be some aliens on the table with a number attached to them, this number
represents the amount of eyes they will need to be given.
Outside, Mrs Patterson will be celebrating Chinese New Year with the children. 2022 is the Year of
the Tiger and the children will celebrate in true style by moving through the playground with our
traditional Dragon head, which is a symbol of good luck.

Nursery News 24th January 2022

Monday, January 24, 2022

NURSERY NEWS

24th January 2022 – Edition 249

A. Find out About Parent Consultations for Big Nursery

B. Letters for Catkins children starting Big Nursery in September 2022.

C. Big Nursery Blue group begin Forest Schools

D. Mrs Davies Absence

E. What the children are learning about this week

 

A. Parent consultations for Big Nursery

We plan to offer Parent Consultations (on the telephone) to parents of children in Big Nursery during the week beginning 7/2/22. Big Nursery staff will contact parents, either at the front gate at the beginning or end of sessions, or by telephone to arrange a suitable appointment time. Appointments will last no longer than 10 minutes.

 

B. Letters for Catkins children starting Big Nursery in September 2022.

If your child is in Catkins Class, in Little Nursery, with a date of birth between 01/04/19 and 31/08/19 they will be eligible for their universal funded 15 hours in September 2022. Some families are entitled to 30 hours of funded nursery education if both parents are working. All children in this date of birth group will begin Big Nursery in September 2022. Mrs Davies will be passing out letters to parents this week, with information and forms to complete. Parents will have a choice of attendance options. Please fill in the forms and return these to the school office as soon as possible,  by the 2nd February at the very latest.

 

 C. Big Nursery Blue group begin Forest Schools.

Last week, Blue group began their program of Forest School activities. Mrs Brinkley leads the Forest School work and she explained to the group that they will be having a Forest School activity group every Wednesday at 9:00am, for the next 7 school weeks. One of the boys was a little concerned that this involved going off site, but Mrs Brinkley reassured him that all the activities would take place in the Catkins garden.

Big Nursery Orange group completed their Forest School tasks last term, and Big Nursery Yellow group will have their turn in the Summer Term.

 

D. Mrs Davies Absence

Mrs Davies is currently unwell. In her absence, Miss Howe will be taking over the running of the nursery school.

 

E. What the children are learning about this week:

The theme in little nursery this week is the shoe shop.

In Catkins, the staff will set up a shoe shop role play area. This gives the children a great opportunity to role play as a shopkeeper and customer while building on the children’s language and communication skills. Mrs. Brinkley will help the children get creative by using paint to create colourful footprint pictures.

In room 3, Mrs. Watson will have lots of old shoes for the children to decorate with a range of artistic resources. They will then be using their newly decorated shoes to practice drawing skills, the children will draw around their shoes and colour in the shoeprints that they have made.

Miss Gaffney will be planting daffodils in the garden with the children and talking about how the bulbs will change as they grow.

 

The theme in big nursery is people who help us / fire and police services.

In room 1, Mrs. Patterson will have the police and fire service role play area set up for the children to use. The children can use their imagination to become police officers or fire fighters. This will show that the children understand different occupations and the responsibilities of people in the community.

In room 2, Mrs Howe will be supporting the children with expressing their emotions through painting while listening to music. Miss Howe will encourage the children to think about which colours might express happy/sad or angry feelings and use these in their artwork.

Mrs Cashmore will support the children with building a dialogue while playing. They will do this by making their own walkie talkies and using these to role play as police officers and fire fighters. The activities in room 2, will support the children with different ways of communicating and expressing their feelings.

Outside, the children will be able to undertake some responsibilities of a fire fighter, such as rescuing kittens from trees. They will have different outfits and accessories to utilise, to immerse them in their role play.