Goldstone Crescent
Dunstable
Beds
LU5 4QU
Phone: 01582 662600
Email: office@willownursery.co.uk
Latest News
Nursery News 8th March 2021
NURSERY NEWS
8th March 2021 – Edition 218
Find out About:
A: The Wider Reopening of Schools.
B. Jolly phonics
C. Video Tours.
A: The Wider Reopening of Schools.
Today we see the wider reopening of schools. We knew that many of our pupils who have been at home for the past 9 weeks were likely to return when our local Primary Schools re-opened. We are very pleased to see that most children have returned. The children are very aware of who has been missing from their colour groups and it is lovely to see the children welcoming their friends back enthusiastically. They settle down to play together really quickly.
We have had two blue group children start today who were due to start in January, and we are very pleased to meet them. As I am writing this, they are busy exploring their play space, one is playing in the water tray and the other has ventured out into the garden.
It is very pleasing to hear the children’s voices, all busy creating play with each other.
It will be busier outside school now. Please do your best to be on time and we can keep our systems running smoothly.
Be kind to each other and help to keep all our children safe.
There will be additional cars passing our school now that the Vale Academy and Hadrian Academy are fully opened. Please take care.
B:Jolly phonics
For those children that have just returned:
We began teaching the children one phonic sound per week from the 1st February. So far we have taught the sounds s,a,t and i. Please click on the attachment sent with this newsletter to access the Jolly Phonics sound sheets for the sounds s,a,t,i.
We sent out detailed information regarding our phonics program in the Nursery News Edition 214 1st February. This is still accessible on our website.
C. Video Tours
Government advice is that parents should drop children at the school gate. Whilst this system is operating well I am aware that the number of parents who have not seen inside our school is growing with each new intake of children. In pre-Covid times I would personally show parents around our school, and answer any questions
parents may have. In this way I was able to meet most families before enrolment, and I was able to find out what was important for each family, and what they wanted for their child during their time at Willow.
The government recommends that we keep parents in touch with what is going on in school by electronic means. As a school we have always protected our pupils by choosing not to publish images of our pupils on our website.
I have decided to try and make some slide show/ video room tours to show the interior of the school. I have produced a video tour of Room 1, a room used by the Main Nursery children.
My aim is to produce a video tour of each teaching area at Willow and publish them on our website, and / or add them to our newsletter.
Whilst I have the skills to produce these slide shows etc, as a staff we are not very ‘Tech-y’ so please bear with us. We hope to get our first room tour on our website today, if not we will have to get some help from our ICT Technical support service that we buy into, so there could be some delay.
If I can get this system working I hope to show regular slideshows of all the work going on in school. So fingers crossed….
Nursery News 1st March 2021
NURSERY NEWS
1st March 2021 – Edition 217
Find out About:
A: Dunstable Locality Children’s Centre
A: Dunstable Locality Children’s Centre.
It is difficult, as a parent, to make connections with other parents at the moment due to the pandemic. We know traditional Parent and Baby Groups are not operating as they normally would. Often having a chat with other parents can help parents feel less isolated.
The Central Bedfordshire Council organises services for children and families at their children’s centres.
Dunstable has two Children’s Centres:
1. Westfield road, Dunstable LU6 1DW Telephone: 0300 300 8106
2. Oakwood Avenue, Dunstable LU5 4AS Telephone 0300 300 8104
The Children’s Centres usually run lots of face to face sessions, but during the pandemic they have moved to offering online sessions.
The Children’s Centre co-ordinator has asked us to share the Children’s Centre Virtual Timetable with all our parents.
(Please see the attached PDF document for the full timetable.)
Here are some of the sessions that the Children’s Centre are running virtually which are suited for preschool aged children:
Chattertots – For support in speech and language.
SEND coffee morning- A support group for parents with children with additional needs to get support and advice from our Children’s Centre SEND professionals.
Bookstart Story and Rhyme – Is a 3 week course for families to attend and will receive a free Bookstart pack once the course is completed.
Time for Two’s- A 5 week course for two year olds which supports their development. They will receive an activity pack, delivered each week to use in the session.
Parent Puzzle- A parenting course for families to attend.
Also there are other sessions that parents may find helpful, an Antenatal support group, a 3x 1 hour post natal course, or just a weekly coffee morning session on a Friday.
If you are interested in ‘virtually’ attending any of these sessions, give the centres a call, or look on Facebook: Dunstable Locality Children’s Centre
For the timetable, please click here
Nursery News 22.2.21
NURSERY NEWS
22nd February 2021 – Edition 216
Find out About:
A: Planning for Summer Term.
B. Parent Consultations: (Reminder)
C. Job vacancy: Level 3 Early Years Practitioner
A: Planning for Summer Term.
We are pleased to note that the Prime Minister will be making an announcement today, Monday 22nd February regarding his roadmap to end lockdown. Older children will be returning to primary/secondary schools, and we realise that some of our pupils who have been at home up to this point will begin to return over coming weeks. Whilst we are fully open for everyone, we would appreciate knowing what your plans are if you are considering returning your child to Willow. Please just give us a call/ send an email if you have decided on a return date for your child.
Children who have been at home for a while will need to re-settle to Nursery life when they return.
We still have a number of children who should have started in January, who are only just beginning to attend, or are still choosing to be at home.
Our settling in period has become prolonged across the entire term.
We will be inducting a new group of children ‘Orange Group’ who become entitled to 15 or 30 hours of funded education from the beginning of the Summer Term. We have 7 Orange Group already here in Catkins Class and 8 new pupils will join them from our waiting list.
Some Main Nursery Parents have asked for additional sessions for their child during the Summer Term. This will not be possible. At the moment, as a staff, we are still too vulnerable to being asked to self isolate. This puts a strain on our capacity. I would not want to overfill the school then make us at risk of closing due to not having enough staff to maintain staff to pupil ratio’s.
In Catkins Class, for our youngest 2 year olds, we feel unable to offer additional sessions to our children who already attend, as we still have a number of very young two year olds who need to settle in. We will however, in a few weeks’ time begin looking at a Catkins timetable for September, so we will be able to forward plan booking spaces for September. I just need to recruit a new member of the Catkins team, before being able to proceed with this. (See attached advert.)
B. Parent Consultations: (Reminder)
Reminder: Consultations for all the 3+ children will take place this week, between 3.00-5.00pm.
Yellow Group, Speaking with Miss Howe. Monday 22nd February 2021.
Green Group, Speaking with Mrs Patterson. Tuesday 23rd February 2021.
Blue Group, Speaking with Miss Gaffney Wednesday 24th February 2021,
Red Group, Speaking with Miss Skai Thursday 25th February 2021.
Appointments have been pre-arranged. Staff will call you at the appropriate time.
If Covid impacts upon these arrangements in any way, we will reschedule the appointments for the same time and day, but a week later.
C Job Vacancy: Level 3 Early Years Practitioner.
Job Vacancy- Willow Nursery School
Job Title: Level 3 Early Years Practitioner
School Name: Willow Nursery School
Location: Goldstone Crescent, Dunstable, LU5 4QU
Salary Range: NJC levels 5-6 £10.01 per hour
Hours: 8.30am – 3pm Wed-Fri, term time only.
Contract Type: Maternity Cover Fixed Term from April 2021 – end March 2022
Closing Date: Fri 5th March 2021
Interview Date: Week beg 15th March 2021
We are looking for a qualified level 3 early year’s practitioner to join our team looking after our youngest children in our two-year-old class.
Main Purpose of role:
· To become a key worker for a small number of two year olds.
· To observe children in their play and plan the next steps for their learning, taking into account the early year’s foundation stage curriculum.
· To work as part of a small team to maintain a child friendly and safe environment.
· To keep detailed records of children’s development.
· To liaise with parents.
· To carry out all aspects of children’s care.
We are a dedicated and committed team of early year’s specialists who are passionate about what we do. We aim to give our children the very best care and education in a positive, fun environment. If you want to be part of something ‘Outstanding’, then please apply. This school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will have to meet the requirements of the Person Specification in order to be offered the post. DBS Disclosure at Enhanced Level and a qualification check are required for this post
How to apply:
For further details and an application pack, please visit the school website at: www.willownursery.co.uk, and click on school information – vacancies. We will accept electronic or paper applications. Electronic applications to be sent to the email address below. Paper copies to be sent to Willow Nursery School, Goldstone Crescent, Dunstable, Beds, LU5 4QU. Or contact: Name: Trina Evans Tel: 01582 662600 Email: office@willownursery.co.uk
Nursery News 8th February 2021
NURSERY NEWS
8th February 2021 – Edition 215
Find out About:
A: .Staffing updates.
B. Parent Consultations: (Reminder)
C. February Half Term Holiday.
D. Creative Play
E Box Modelling
A: Staffing Updates
Miss Howe will be absent from school from Wednesday 3rd February to Wednesday 10th February. Her daughter’s bubble at school has closed. Miss Howe has to be at home to look after her.
B. Parent Consultations: (Reminder)
Reminder: Catkins Consultations for two year olds are scheduled to take place on Friday 12th February between 1:00pm and 2:30pm. Appointments have been pre-arranged. Staff will call you at the appropriate time.
C. February Half Term Holiday.
Half Term Holiday is fast approaching. The school will be closed from Monday 15th February to Friday 19th February. The best place to find School holiday dates for our school and other schools in Central Bedfordshire is on the Central Bedfordshire Council website. Type ‘Central Beds Academic Calendar’ into your search engine, and it will take you to the following pages:
https://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/info/3/schools_and_education/529/school_term_and_holiday_dates_in_central_bedfordshire
D. Creative Play
At Willow, we engage in lots of Creative play with the children. Lots of play can be considered Creative play, from role play, to dance and movement activities, arts and crafts, music and messy play. We can continue with most activities during the pandemic, but some activities have to be avoided to reduce the potential spread of the virus. One type of play that has been affected is malleable play, using playdough, clay, and other malleable materials. It is not possible to use these materials during any kind of infectious outbreak, the idea being that children could be kneading and poking their germs into the playdough, and then these germs could then be passed on to other children who share the playdough.
We usually have playdough available every day in our normal working conditions, but for the past year we have not been able to provide it. We feel this is a great loss to the children. So much so, that Mrs Patterson has decided to teach the children about playdough this week. Mrs Patterson has made a big batch of ‘home made’ playdough. She has decided to work with small groups of children, no more than 8 at a time, to learn about playdough. Each child will be provided with their own individual portion of playdough. They will have their own workspace at a table, and their own tools. Children will be made very aware that they must not touch each others playdough.
(I have just been in to the room that they are working in. They are so engaged in what they are doing. There were some ‘cakes’ being made. Others were decorating their dough with jewels. Some were investigating how to shape their dough using tools and cutters.)
Children will then bring home their dough. Mrs Patterson will attach our playdough recipe to the bag, so you can have a go at making it at home too, if you’d like to try.
Main Nursery children will be having an opportunity to take part in these playdough workshops at some time during this week.
Malleable play is so important for children’s mathematical development. They become aware of size, shape, weight and how these can change. By manipulating the dough, they find out a small ball of dough, can be rolled into a very long thin sausage, or can be squashed to make a flat, round plate shape. This learning is best done hands on in an investigational way. Children learn about quantity, filling a 12 hole bun tin with blobs of playdough, sharing and adjusting the amount of dough into portions, in order to make 12. Children strengthen their finger muscles by manipulating dough, helping to make hands ready to hold a pencil, ready to write. Slamming a lump of dough down hard onto a table, or hammering the dough with a wooden mallet is great for stress relief! Using tools to shape the dough encourage children’s fine motor control. Playing with playdough covers all areas of the curriculum!#
E Box Modelling
Another area of creative play which the children really enjoy is box modelling. This is something the children in Main Nursery can explore every day. We have a box modelling area that is full of resources for the children to join together using glue and sellotape to make 3D creations. We rely on parents to bring in recyclable materials from home for the children to be able to build. I was wondering if parents would be able to collect some materials at home, to bring in to school for us to use in our box modelling area. We will quarantine all materials provided before giving them to the children to use.
Things we can use:
Empty boxes- Generally Cereal boxes or smaller, Toothpaste boxes and small boxes intrigue the children.
Empty toilet roll tubes.
Washed empty yogurt pots, bottle tops, foil cake cases, margarine tubs.
Nursery News – 1st February 2021
NURSERY NEWS
1st February 2021 – Edition 214
Find out About:
A: .Covid updates. Planning for The Summer Term April To July 2021
B. Mrs McGrath is expecting a baby!
C. Parent Consultations for: Green, Red and Yellow Group- Main Nursery, AND Blue Group (our January 2021 Intake). (via telephone).
D. Willow Nursery School Phonics Programme. Starts this week!
A: Covid updates.Planning for The Summer Term April To July 2021
A number of our families are choosing to keep their nursery children at home at this time due to the pandemic. All families have different situations. Some families are choosing to stay at home, to avoid mixing. Other families are home schooling older children and it is just not practical to do a school run for a nursery pupil when an older sibling is having a zoom lesson.
Some families are choosing to be at home until the wider reopening of schools. At first we believed this may have happened by the 22nd of February, but we now know this will not be the case. The earliest date for the wider reopening of schools will be the 8th of March. This may effect when our pupils choosing to be at home will return.
Impact on children who have free funded hours.-(Main Nursery Children and Blue group)
The Government understands that whilst we are open, not all parents are choosing to attend. We receive funding for all the children registered with us. So from a financial point of view we receive funding payments for individual children regardless of whether your child is attending or not at the moment.
Impact on our Two Year Olds who pay to attend:
As I have said in the past, this Spring Term will be unique. I will waiver fees for children not attending in Catkins Class due to parental choice, for this term only. Just before term started in January, the announcement came that the majority of schools would be closed to all but Keyworker and vulnerable children. Our parents had to make a very quick decision about how they wanted to proceed at Nursery. I did not want parents feeling pressured into their child having to attend Nursery because they had to pay for their child’s space.
Some time has passed now, but we are, as a community, still not sure when our local schools will reopen. I need to be practical, as the Catkins fees directly pay for the Catkins Staff. In this financial year we have lost £16,000 from Catkins Income.
We can afford this loss of income from this financial year, but this situation is not sustainable going forward into the next financial year.
I now need to think about, and make plans for the Summer Term, and indeed the new school year from September. From April, all spaces must be paid for whether your child attends nursery or not. The only exceptions will be if we close the school, or if your family is self isolating at home for 10 days due to a contact with an infected person, or a household member having covid.
However, I understand that some families will not be ready to send their children back to nursery. I have some suggestions for those families with children enrolled in Catkins class but currently choosing to keep their two year old children at home. Please consider the following options:
From April:
1) You can choose to withdraw your child from Catkins, so that they have no spaces booked. We could then contact you when your child is due to start free funded 15 or 30 hours, in the term after they turn three.
You could choose to re-enrol in Catkins at the beginning of a term in the future. School terms begin in September, January and April.
2) You can keep your current sessions in Catkins, but you will be expected to pay for all booked sessions from April throughout the Summer term.
3) You can choose to reduce the number of booked sessions in Catkins class. We would allow you to drop any number of sessions, even down to just one session per week. The session(s) booked would be regular booked sessions every week, and we would expect you to pay for these sessions from April throughout the summer term.
I will be contacting Catkins families, choosing to be at home at the moment, in the coming week, to ask what they plan to do from April onwards, and try to find a positive solution for all those involved.
B. Mrs McGrath is expecting a baby!
I have some lovely news to share, Mrs McGrath is going to have a baby at the end of May 2021. Mrs McGrath was planning to work right up to when the baby is due. However, the government guidelines ‘Action for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus outbreak.’ added further advice for pregnant staff in its January update. They advise that childcare workers who are pregnant move into the ‘Extremely Clinically Vulnerable’ category once they enter their third trimester of pregnancy (28 weeks) and so should work from home when they reach this point. So,Mrs Mc Grath will not be in school, and working from home from Friday 5th March 2021. In the meantime, we are trying to reduce her contacts as much as possible, so I am asking her to distance herself from parents at drop off and collection. You may pass on messages to her, via the other Catkins staff, or choose to communicate information by email, if you have something more detailed to say.
C.Parent Consultations for: Green, Red and Yellow Group- Main Nursery, AND Blue Group January 2021 Intake. (via telephone).
Please note, these Consultations are only for those families who are currently attending nursery. If you are choosing to keep your child at home at the moment, please do not make an appointment, as this consultation is for staff to discuss progress being made in school.
All 3+ Nursery age children (this includes blue group too) will have their parent consultations during week beginning 22nd February. We offer parent consultations once a term to all children in the 3+ age group.
As parents are unable to come into school at the moment due to the covid pandemic, we are following government guidelines and offering parent consultations on the telephone. Parents will have the opportunity to have a 5 minute phone consultation with their child’s keyworker.
We ask you to telephone the school office to make an appointment for your child.
Staff with have a list of times available. You may select an available time. Staff will ask you for some details: your name, your childs name, and the phone number you would like us to call you on for the consultation.
We have only one phone line at school so the consultations will be at the following times:
Yellow Group, Speaking with Miss Howe.
Monday 22nd February 2021. Appointments available from 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Green Group, Speaking with Mrs Patterson.
Tuesday 23rd February 2021. Appointments available from 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Blue Group, Speaking with Miss Gaffney
Wednesday 24th February 2021, Appointments available from 3:00 to 5:00
Red Group, Speaking with Miss Skai
Thursday 25th February 2021. Appointments available from 3:00pm to 5:00pm
If Covid impacts upon these arrangements in any way, we will reschedule the appointments for the same time and day, but a week later.
D. Willow Nursery School Phonics Programme
Phonics at Grouptime….
(for those children who leave us in July 2021 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) has 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,
