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Nursery News 16.11.2020

NURSERY NEWS

16th November 2020 – Edition 206

Find out About:

A: Covid-19 Review.

B. 3+ Enrolment.

C. Job Vacancy- Teaching Assistant Level 1- Lunchtime support.

D. School Photographer.

E. What the children are learning this week.

A: Covid-19 Review.

We constantly review our practice at Willow, in order to improve organisational strategies and the experiences for the children. We have government advice which we must follow on a day to day basis throughout the pandemic. We have a risk assessment which we review and update as necessary.

So what have we achieved?

Firstly, I want to thank all the parents for being so supportive with all the measures we have put in place. The Arrival and Departure routines are working well. The children arrive and depart in a certain order so that we can fill each classroom in turn for registration. On Wednesdays, we try to send home all Main Nursery children’s artwork, because that is the day that everyone is in. Staff have to help their keyworker children find their coats and belongings at the end of the session, help them to dress, and then take artwork from individual folders to give to individual children to take home. Parents may have found out that the going home process on Wednesdays takes a little longer because of this additional task.

The children follow our extensive hand washing routines. They are aware of the need to Catch it, Kill it, Bin it, using our tissue stations to blow their nose and dispose of the tissues in specific tissue bins in each classroom.

We are finding that we have less colds circulating, we have less snotty noses than we usually have at this time of year! The staff feel that there is a more hygienic than normal school environment because of these strategies and because people are mixing less in their home environments. So all good.

We have assessed all the children in Main Nursery against all curriculum areas. There are some materials that we are not allowed to play with at the moment during the pandemic. Children are not allowed to share malleable materials such as playdough or clay. We are not allowed to use materials that children could put their hands into, add germs, then another child puts their hands into and pick up the germs. We are really missing playdough! The children learn lots about shape and quantity from rolling, chopping, shaping, and stretching dough. These physical movements help strengthen hands in readiness for writing. Children learn to share with playdough. Children play imaginatively with playdough, often making cakes and cookies. So, if possible, we would encourage all parents to try and provide playdough/ plasticine at home, or even have a go at making some simple flour and water dough together. I know it is messy, but the children really need this experience. It is a gap in their experience. We are also not allowed to play with sand, again because germs stay in the sand and it cannot be washed. The children are really missing digging!

Some materials and opportunities are restricted here during Covid 19, but the staff try hard to think of innovative ways of working, to give children a broad experience of the curriculum.

So what are we focussing on?

Some children missed a whole term of school between May and July, in both Main Nursery and Catkins class. We are determined to help children catch up with any experiences that they missed. Our aim is to give this years children all the skills and expertise they need to progress successfully to their next stage of education.

What can be improved?

Both our local schools: Hadrian Academy and The Vale Academy, now ask all parents to wear a face mask when dropping their children off to school.

There are positive Covid 19 cases recorded in the Dunstable Icknield Ward (the council ward our school is in) on the Central Bedfordshire Council website.

Advice is that face masks should be worn if Social Distancing of 2 metres cannot be maintained. There is no way all our families can queue outside with a 2 metre distance between families. If we asked that, families would be queuing right down the path to the Vale Academy! So we would ask where social distancing is not possible parents consider wearing masks.

Some parents wait over the road and join their colour group queue when their child’s keyworker arrives to take children in. This is very sensible. At Parent Consultations we were reminded that some parents are Clinically Vulnerable and should be shielding, but they want their children to access education. Please be aware of others need to social distance, when everyone is waiting outside. Overall I am pleased with our school’s community spirit. I see only courteous, polite and thoughtful behaviour. Please may it continue.

B. 3+ Enrolment.

Government advice is that Early Years Bubbles can be of any size, but where possible year groups should be kept apart where possible. We have adopted this way of organising the children, which is different to how we would usually operate. The children leaving us in July 2021 all attend the Main Nursery and have formed one Bubble. We decided that no younger children would join Main Nursery, in order to establish and maintain, a consistent group throughout the year.

In January we have another cohort of children joining the school, those children who turn three between September and December 2020. These children will leave Willow in July 2022. In past years these children would have joined Main Nursery. This year the children will form a Bubble based in Catkins Class. Additional classroom space, Room 3 has been allocated to this Bubble.

Recently, parents of children in Catkins class who will be three by the end of December 2020 (Blue Group), were asked to choose an option for their child’s attendance pattern from January 2021. All parents have been allocated their child’s first choice, (including the 30 hour option if this was requested.)

Similarly, parents of children in Catkins class who become three between January 2021 and March 2021 (Orange Group), were asked to choose an option for their child’s attendance pattern from April 2021. All parents have been allocated their child’s first choice. (including the 30 hour option if this was requested.)

I will write to all Blue and Orange group parents individually to confirm your child’s attendance pattern.

Children in these age groups on our waiting list have been invited to enrol, and to choose an attendance pattern for their child. This part of the enrolment process is now complete.

C. Job Vacancy- Teaching Assistant Level 1- Lunchtime support.

Due to the induction of more children in January, we now need some help at lunchtime in Catkins class. We would like to employ a Level 1 teaching assistant, from 11:00am to 12:30pm Monday to Friday, term time only, from January 2021 to the end of term in July 2021. The rate of pay will be £9.25 per hour.

The job may suit one of our parents, as no formal childcare qualifications are required. Your experience of bringing up your own child is sufficient experience.

The role requires supporting Catkins children outside in the playground from 11:00 to 11:30 with other Catkins staff. You would then help settle the children for lunch. You would support four of the youngest children to eat their packed lunch, and then help them beginning to play at the start of the afternoon session.

If you are a Main Nursery parent, and you are interested in the job, we would be able to accommodate your nursery age child at lunchtime to allow you to work. For example, if your child attends mornings at Willow we would look after your child until you finish lunch duty at 12.30, then they would go home with you. Similarly, if your child attends for 2 ½ days, your child could arrive with you at 11 o’clock on the days you need to work, on the days your child doesn’t normally attend, and be looked after by Nursery staff until 12.30 when you would go home together.

If you are a parent in Catkins class, and interested in the position, we may be able to help with childcare, but staff ratios in Catkins are tighter.

If anyone is interested please get in touch with me, Mrs Davies, this week. There is an application form to complete, and there would be a short interview. If this

newsletter does not generate any interest in the position, I will have to advertise more widely. We are a friendly group of staff, I hope it would be a nice job for someone!

D. School Photographer

Our school photographer spent quality time with all the children to capture good images. She remained 2 metres away from all the children, so special thanks must go to the classroom staff who supported the photographer, as they were responsible for organising children into position, adding props and trying to get the children to smile.

Proofs of the photos will be returned in about a weeks time. Parents can take the proofs home with an order form. Orders are to be returned to the school by a specific date. This will be advised on the order form. I will update with more information next week.

E. What the children are learning this week.

Catkins will be focussing on the song ‘Five Currant Buns in the Bakers Shop’. Children will be doing lots of counting with the song. Children learn about ‘subtracting’ using these repetitive songs. Children will be learning about Matching pictures.

Main Nursery will be talking about their local community. We will be talking about what they see on their way to school, and they will have the opportunity to make some 3D representations of local shops using box modelling materials. Mrs Patterson will be organising a role play supermarket. We will use boxes and packaging, baskets and trolleys, cash registers, play money, pretend credit cards, purses and bags. It will be very popular! We expect the stock to be sold out in minutes! Miss Howe plans to take the children bug hunting in the garden. There are plans to go digging for worms! Children will have clip boards and complete an Autumn hunt, having a check list of things to look for, making marks on a tally sheet to record how many of these things they have found.

Nursery News 9.11.2020

NURSERY NEWS

2020 – Edition 205

Find out About:

A: Phone Line fault fixed

B. Green Group consultations rescheduled

C.Groupcall

D. School Photographer.

E. Keeping warm at school.

F. What the children are learning this week.

G Informing the school if your child is tested for Covid-19 .

A: Phone Line fault fixed.

Our telephone line is now working again. (We had no telephone line here on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.)

B. Main Nursery Green Group consultations rescheduled.

Green Groups Parent Consultations could not go ahead last week as we had no telephone line. The telephone consultations have been rescheduled to take place on Tuesday 10th November. The time you booked will remain the same.

C. Groupcall.

Groupcall is a text alert system. We can use this text system to communicate messages very quickly to all our current families.

We used Groupcall on Tuesday 3rd November to send out a text message to all families, so they knew our phone line was down.

The message is sent to the parent named as the 1st contact on the New Starter Form that parents complete when their child first starts at Willow.

If your family did not receive a groupcall message, please contact the school office and we will look into it.

Please ensure the school has your up to date contact details, including your home address, mobile phone number and email address.

D. School Photographer

A school photographer will be here on Wednesday 11th November, for Main Nursery children, and Thursday 12th November for Catkins children.

E. Keeping warm at school.

Winter is approaching and conditions are becoming generally wetter and colder in the nursery gardens. We go outside every day, in all weather conditions, so please make sure all children are appropriately dressed. A warm winter coat is important, preferably with a hood.

At home, please encourage your child to put their coat on themselves. We know many of the Main Nursery Children have the ability to do this, but they often ask for help. Please try to teach them to fasten their coat for themselves. Mittens are easier for children to put on themselves, rather than gloves. We do not mind helping children to wrap up warm, because they love to play outside. Children enjoy the outside space even when it is freezing!

Our school is generally warm, but unlike your homes we have a lot of outside walls in each classroom and lots of windows. Room 1’s door to outside is opened and closed all day long, so a lot of heat escapes. During the Covid 19 pandemic, we are required to ensure all classrooms are well ventilated. Advice is that windows should be opened, even just very slightly to ensure clean air moves into rooms. This helps to reduce the virus spreading in classrooms.

So, at this time of year consider sending your child to school in warmer clothing than they would need at home.

Please remember to label all items of clothing, especially mittens, hats and scarves, as these often end up on the cloakroom floor. We do not need fancy name tags, just try and put your child’s name on the size/washing instructions tags with biro. Even just your child’s initials or first name on the labels will help narrow things down!

F. What the children are learning this week.

This week, Colour and Light will be the theme across the whole school. Catkins class will be making some firework inspired artwork. Catkins class will have the opportunity to try spinner painting, (Main Nursery tried this last week). A disc of paper is put into the base of a salad spinner. A few drips of different coloured paint are added. The lid is put on. Children turn the handle, making the internal basket spin. The spinning action makes the paint spread out in a spidery fashion. The effect is quite clever, and the children are often surprised by the outcome. Catkins will also be trying scratch painting, scratching paint away to make patterns.

Main Nursery are trying a new art activity, painting onto blocks of ice. Mrs Patterson has frozen a variety of different 3D shaped blocks of ice. Children will use regular ready mixed paint to paint onto the ice. The artwork changes as the ice melts. We have not tried this before so we are looking forward to seeing the end result. Children will be making rocket shapes to represent fireworks. Divali is known as the Festival of Light and fireworks form part of the Divali celebrations. Throughout the year we teach the children about ‘Celebrations’ that some of their classmates may participate in. We also learn about some of the stories and tales behind the celebrations. Main Nursery will be learning about the story of Rama and Sita. Children will be able to make face masks depicting characters from the story and have the opportunity to hear and retell the story.

G. Informing the school if your child is tested for Covid-19 .

So far, we have had no confirmed cases of Covid 19 amongst the staff or pupils at Willow. Cases are becoming more widespread, so we must be prepared to act quickly should we need to track and trace contacts.

So, if your child develops coronavirus symptoms, we would ask that you organise a test for your child.

If the test result comes back positive, please let the school know immediately, even if it is in the school holidays. Send an email to: office@willownursery.co.uk. This email address is monitored during the school holidays.

URGENT UPDATE – 3RD NOV 2020

3.11.2020

Unfortunately our phone line is currently down. If you need to contact us please email: office@willownursery.co.uk

We will monitor our emails regularly during the school day.

If we need to contact you, we will email you.

In an emergency, we will contact you using a staff mobile phone.

Telephone parents consultations will not go ahead unless phone line is fixed 

Please check here for updates.

Nursery News 19.10.2020

NURSERY NEWS

19th October 2020 – Edition 204

Find out About:

A: October Half Term Break

B. Parent Consultations.

C. School Photographer.

D. What the children are learning this week.

A: October Half Term Break Approaching:

Time has flown six weeks of this school year has passed already. Next week will be the Autumn Half Term break. School will be closed from Monday 26th October to Friday 30th October. School is also closed for staff training day on Monday 2nd November.

OUR NEXT NEWSLETTER WILL BE PUBLISHED ON MONDAY 9TH NOVEMBER

B. Parent Consultations- A reminder.

We offer parent consultations once a term to all children in the 3+ age group.

We ask you to telephone the school office to make an appointment for your child.

Telephone 01582-662600

Staff with have a list of times available. You may select an available time. Staff will ask you for some details: your name, your child’s 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:

Green Group, Speaking with Mrs Patterson.

Tuesday 3rd November 2020. Appointments available from 3:00pm to 5:10pm

Red Group, Speaking with Miss Skai

Wednesday 4th November. Appointments available from 3:00pm to 5:10pm

Yellow Group, Speaking with Miss Howe.

Thursday 5th November. Appointments available from 3:00pm to 5:10pm

C. School Photographer

A school photographer will be here on Wednesday 11th November, for Main Nursery children, and Thursday 12th November for Catkins children. If your child is in Catkins Class but does not attend on a Thursday, and you would like your child to come in just for a photograph, please talk to Miss Tyler or Mrs Brinkley and they will suggest a time. Our photographers name is Victoria Mitchell and she is based in Dunstable. She uses colourful backdrops and props within her photography.

D. What the children are learning this week.

We use our newsletter to share information about what the children are learning at school. We do this so you can take an interest in current topics and maybe support this learning at home.

We generally have a specific focus for each week that we plan activities around. To begin with we talk to the children about what they know. We encourage them to talk about their families and homes. We then try to show the children where toys and equipment can be found (and hopefully where they can be returned to!). We have had a week looking at favourite toys, and a week exploring the Maisy Mouse storybooks. This week, in the Main Nursery we will be learning about ‘Who’s Who?’ in school. The children will be learning all the staff’s names, and their role in school.

One activity this week will be to provide a ‘staff hunt’. Children will have a clipboard with a worksheet of photo’s of the Main Nursery staff. Individual children move around the school, and write a pencil tick next to the staff photo when they find them. The children find it fun, and it is a meaningful mark making exercise. We will attach staff photo’s to the trees and play equipment around the garden and play movement games with the children, asking them to run to the photo of Miss Howe, or jump to the photo of Mrs Patterson etc. We will also have a mud kitchen in the garden this week. Children explore soil and water, mixing it in bowls, saucepans and other containers. In maths, children will explore Bee Bots. These are programmable toys that move forward and turn on the spot to change direction. Children program a set of instructions in the Beebot to control how it moves.

The theme this week in Catkins Class will be the Incy Wincy Spider Nursery Rhyme. Children will be making spider webs. Children will share the story of ‘Pip and Posy and the Scary Monster’ as a group read. In Catkins Class we have some sets of 4 books that are the same, so a member of staff can read a book with a small group and they can each have a copy of the book to hold. Children learn how to look at the illustrations to find out information, they can look at the pages and notice where the words are. They can learn to hold the book the correct way up and begin to turn pages one at a time in the right direction.

Nursery News 12.10.2020

NURSERY NEWS

12th October 2020 – Edition 203

Find out About:

A: Catkins Refunds due to Lockdown March 2020.

B. Parent Consultations.

C. Catkins spaces

D. What the children are learning this week.

A: Catkins Refunds Due to Lockdown March 2020

Catkins class closed during the Summer term 2020 due to the covid pandemic. Any parent who had paid fees for the summer term was sent a refund cheque through the post. Some of these cheques have not yet been cashed. Please, if you have one of these cheques present it to your bank as soon as possible. Generally, banks will only cash cheques within six months of the issue date.

B. Parent Consultations.

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:

Green Group, Speaking with Mrs Patterson.

Tuesday 3rd November 2020. Appointments available from 3:00pm to 5:10pm

Red Group, Speaking with Miss Skai

Wednesday 4th November. Appointments available from 3:00pm to 5:10pm

Yellow Group, Speaking with Miss Howe.

Thursday 5th November. Appointments available from 3:00pm to 5:15pm

C. Catkins Spaces.

We still have some morning spaces available in Catkins. At the moment we still have morning spaces available on Wednesdays Thursdays and Fridays. Get in touch with the office if your child attends Catkins and you would like an additional session.

Encourage friends and family to call if they are thinking of enrolling their two year old in a setting, we’d love to see some new faces.

D. What the children are learning this week.

We use our newsletter to share information about what the children are learning at school. We do this so you can take an interest in current topics and maybe support this learning at home.

This week though, I’d like to talk about the whole class grouptimes that we are teaching at the moment.

In the Main Nursery, (Green Red and Yellow Groups) we plan to teach the children five grouptimes across the week. Children attend in different patterns: some do 5 mornings, some do 2 ½ days M-W, some do 2 ½ days W-F and some do 5 full days. We arrange children into groups across the week to ensure they all experience the 5 different grouptimes.

Children have free choice to move around the school both inside and outside during the majority of the session time. In the morning we stop and come together at 11:00am and split children into 3 groups for grouptime. Grouptime is 25 minutes long. These are our current groups.

Music- The children will experience 10 music sessions that are carefully planned to build on what they have learnt in previous sessions. The staff had training from the De Capo music organisation. We use De Capo materials , music, songs, picture cards, beat cards, etc. to teach children through singing, movement, using instruments and playing rhythm games.

Oxford Reading Tree- Oxford University Press publish a reading scheme to help early reading. We have a set of picture cards to introduce the main characters in the storybooks. The children discuss the detail in the pictures. The staff tell a story about each picture. Staff write a caption under the pictures for the children and staff to read together. We have some whole class size books for early readers which the staff read with the children. (We have a number of Oxford Reading Tree books in our library that the children can re-visit by themselves.)

Theraplay Sunshine circles- sunshine circles are planned activities to encourage children to listen carefully, take turns and join in with co-operative activities. These activities help children’s wellbeing.

Big Books- We have a good selection of children’s storybooks (such as The Hungry Caterpillar and Elmer the Elephant) that are big enough for the whole class to share at the same time. Staff read the stories to the children, discuss the text, look at the pictures, and play some rhyming games with the children.

Listening with Lola- Lola is a little soft toy Leopard. Each week Lola introduces a new listening game.

Catkins also have a grouptime at the end of each morning session. However, the attention span in Catkins class is much shorter, and we aim for grouptime to last for about 8-10 minutes. Some children are not ready for grouptime when they first begin in Catkins. This is fine, these children stay with play with staff in the main classroom. So in Catkins the grouptime sessions are:

Lola – Lola first appears in Catkins, with some very simple listening activities.

Lift off to language- A program of activities to encourage Two year olds to become more confident using language. The sessions are planned to give all children the opportunity to speak and be listened to.

Signing- We teach the children some basic sign language, so they can make their needs known if they are reluctant to speak. The signs we teach cover words to make their basic needs known such as being hungry or thirsty. We also teach signs for emotions so that they can express their feelings, such as feeling happy or sad. We teach the program using a scheme developed by Luton Council. There are books and stories which involve two little characters, and we have two soft rag dolls representing the characters, that the children meet at storytime.

Music time: Children learn nursery rhymes and songs, they play along with basic instruments such as shakers and bells, and they dance to different kinds of music.