Latest News

Nursery News 3rd February 2025

Monday, February 3, 2025

NURSERY NEWS

3rd February 2025 – Edition 360

Find out About

A.Parent Consultations.

B.Remember to add younger siblings (brothers and sisters) to our contact list.

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

 

A: Parent Consultations.

We aim to hold Parent Consultations every term. Big Nursery Consultations will be taking place during the week beginning 24th February 2025. Parent Consultations are not compulsory, but if you would like an appointment please arrange this with your child’s keyworker when they are outside before sessions begin. These consultations will be on the telephone, will last 5 minutes and be at the following times:

Miss Skai Monday 24th February between 3:15pm and 3:55pm

Mrs Patterson Monday 24th February between 3:15pm and 3:50pm

Miss Howe Thursday 27th  February between 3:15pm and 4:10pm

Miss Cashmore Thursday 27th February between 3:15pm and 4:20pm

 

B. Remember to add younger siblings (brothers and sisters) to our contact list.

You may add a child’s name to our contact list at any time from birth. In light of the new 30 hours funding for working families (from the age of 9 months), we have looked closely at our admissions policy.

In the past, most families chose to take maybe one or two sessions in our two year old class. In most cases we were able to offer spaces to all those children who wanted one.

The financial changes that have been implemented by the Government means demand has grown for our nursery. We have been working towards enrolment and attendance patterns that work for families.

Currently, and moving forward, we will make offers to families at two points of entry, 2+ and 3+.

2+ intake is at the beginning of the term after a child turns 2.                                                      3+ intake is at the beginning of the term after a child turns 3.                                               This means we are enrolling two different groups of children every term.

Many of our families are working families. Almost everyone who attends Little Nursery at the moment are from working funded families. Individual children are filling 15 or 30 hours per week. Less children are filling more spaces.

So, we ask that if you have younger children, get them on to our contact list as soon as possible. In every termly intake, we work down the contact list and make offers to families. So, for example, the current 2+ intake we have been working on for April 2025:

We had 5 full time spaces to offer. So this could be 5 children attending for 30 hours, or 10 children attending for 15 hours, or a mixture of both so we could accommodate somewhere between 5 and 10 children. We had 11 children on our contact list of the age to be considered for one of these spaces. We start with the first person on our contact list who has been on the list the longest. This parent added their child’s name at the age of 4 months! This parent chose how many hours they wanted, and accepted the place. We then work down the list. Sometimes choices of attendance pattern become limited the further you are down the contact list. Child number 11 on the list had their name added one week ago. They were offered a space and accepted it.

We would recommend putting your child’s name down on our contact list as early as possible to increase the possibility of them being offered a space.

In the past we would be able to give siblings priority over others on the wait list. But we cannot afford to leave empty spaces in a termly intake at age two, to wait for a sibling who might join at age three.

For our full admissions policy please look on our website www.willownursery.co.uk

 

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

The theme this week is The Three Little Pigs

This week, the children will be listening to, and learning about the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’. Children will then be encouraged to get involved in the variety of learning opportunities on offer to retell the story in their own style.

There will be a variety of resources available for the children to use for retelling the story and this will help to build the children’s recall. Outside, the children will have the chance to explore the different houses of the Three Little Pigs. Staff will set up a house made of straw, one made of sticks and another made of bricks. The children will be asked if they would like to make a Pig or Wolf hat in Room 2. Once constructed, they can be worn in the ‘Three Little Pigs’ role play area in the garden, to represent their chosen character.

As a School, we will be focussing on manipulating tools and equipment. There will be wheelbarrows, bricks and hard hats for the children to use as they build homes out of their chosen materials. The smaller children will focus on this by creating textured artwork relating to the story. They will use forks for painting, bricks for stamping and pencils for mark making. All of these tools will improve the children’s ability to manipulate tools and materials, using fine and gross motor skills.

The skill we will be working towards this week is ‘Riding a Bike’. The children will learn how to take it in turns riding the two and three wheeler bikes. They will learn how to wait patiently for their turn, but also, that eventually they will have to give up their bike to a friend, to enable everyone to have a turn. This is a very practical way that children learn to be fair, to take turns and share. We outline the importance of riding our bikes on the roadway, and remind children not to ride too fast as they need to look out for the safety of other children. It is important that we learn how to ride safely to minimise accidents whilst playing.

 

 

NURSERY NEWS 27th January 2025

Monday, January 27, 2025

NURSERY NEWS

27th  January 2025 – Edition 359

Find out About

A. Parent Consultations.

B. Mrs McGrath is now on Maternity Leave.

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

D Willow Lending Library.

 

A: Parent Consultations.

We aim to hold Parent Consultations every term. Little Nursery Consultations will be taking place during the week beginning 10th February 2025. Parent Consultations are not compulsory, but if you would like an appointment please arrange this with your child’s keyworker when they are outside before sessions begin. These consultations will be on the telephone, will last 5 minutes and be at the following times:

Mrs Cashmore Monday 10th February between 3:15pm and 3:35pm

Mrs Brinkley Monday 10th February between 3:15pm and 3:50pm

Miss Gaffney Tuesday 11th February between 3:15pm and 4:30pm

Miss Tyler Tuesday 11th February between 3:15pm and 4:05pm

Details of Big Nursery Consultations will be in next weeks’ newsletter.

 

B.Mrs McGrath is now on Maternity Leave.

Mrs McGrath is now on Maternity Leave. She has just a few weeks before baby is due.

We are very lucky to have Miss Allen on our staff, who currently works part time. She will be increasing her hours, to enable her to step in and look after Mrs McGrath’s Little Nursery Yellow Group children.

 

So whilst Miss Allen is not new to us, she will be a new Keyworker for some parents to get to know. Mrs McGrath plans to return in November.

 

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

The theme this week is The Three Billy Goats Gruff

The children will have the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff read to them in school and there will be lots of learning and activities based on the book.

Children will be able to act out and retell the story. There will be a wobbly bridge outside for the children to ‘trip trap’ across, pretending to be a Billy goat and they can take it in turns to be the angry troll. They can act out each character’s role and use repeated refrains such as ‘who’s that trip trapping over my bridge?’

There will be small world scenes set up for the children to get to know the story and the characters, they can use their imagination to extend their play and invite others to join them. For the children that want to explore the story in different forms, we have activities on the screen and also a magnetic board.

This week, the children will also be learning how to use tools safely and beginning to understand the concept of size, mass and capacity. They will work towards finding out which items are heavier/lighter, longer/shorter and more/ less. There are many ways to explore these concepts and we will have resources in each area to support this.

 

On Wednesday 29th January, it is Chinese New Year. We will be teaching the children about Chinese New Year and that this is the year of the snake. We have a very big Chinese dragon costume that the children can use to dress up in and dance around the playground.

 

 D. Willow Lending Library.

We have had a number of new families joining us this term, so we just wanted to remind parents that we operate a lending library of children’s books.

 

Willow Lending Library

 

Welcome to Willow outdoor lending library. We are open every day from 8.15-8.45am and from 3.00pm-3.30pm.

Please choose 1-2 books with your child and write the names of the books under your child’s name in their colour group folder before taking them home to read together.

You can change the books as frequently as you wish.

Please look after our books.

*Please ensure that you have left the library area at 8.45am prompt before children start to enter the school gates in the morning. THANKYOU J

 

Top Tips for Reading with your child

  • Let your child choose what they would like to read.
  • Make sure there are no distractions.
  • Sit close together. Encourage your child to hold the book and turn the pages too.
  • Look at the pictures. Talk about what can be seen on the page.
  • Ask questions and talk about the book. Give your child time to talk.
  • Have fun – there is no right or wrong way to share a story.

 

 

Nursery News – 20th January 2025

Monday, January 20, 2025

NURSERY NEWS

20th January 2025 – Edition 358

Find out About

A: Request for Box Modelling Materials

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

C, Local Community Wellness Group.

 

A: Request for Box Modelling Materials.

We are running very short of recycled materials for our box modelling area. We would be very grateful for recycled materials that the children can use to create models.  Children love boxes, but not too big please. The biggest boxes we can store are cereal boxes. Tiny boxes are useful, or unusual shapes.  Plastic bottle tops make good buttons and wheels. Yogurt pots, butter tubs and other plastic containers are interesting to glue together, but please ensure they are clean. Toilet roll tubes become superhero cuffs, covered in foil. Egg boxes are great places to glue coloured tissue.

 

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

The theme this week is Nursery Rhymes

We will be looking at learning lots of nursery rhymes this week throughout the whole school. The children in Little Nursery will have access to lots of song sacks and finger puppets. They will get to choose which rhyme or song that they would like to sing.

The older children will be given the option to create a nursery rhyme book, there will be different nursery rhyme pages for them to make in each room and the children can choose which pages they want to add to their books. All pages will be organised and made into a lovely keepsake for the children to take home.

We will have resources such as magnetic boards, puzzles and the screen to support the children with learning new and different rhymes. As we sing and learn, we will also discuss the rhythm of the words we are using. Staff will model how to tap out rhythms as we sing, children will then be encouraged try and do this themselves.

We will be giving lots of reminders about the school rules this week, we will explain to the children that it is important to follow these rules as they help to keep us safe.

School rules:

*Walking feet

*Looking eyes

*Listening ears

*Little voices

*Kind hands

 

C. Local Community Wellness Group.

Last week we included a flyer for Balance and Breathe, a Wellness group run by Shelley, one of the parents of a child in little Nursery.  Shelley says that the taster session was a very successful event. This week we have included a flyer for the main class.

Shelley says:

“Use code TASTE for a discount when booking on Monday 20th Balance & Breathe class”

 

 

 

 

 

Nursery News 13th January 2025

Monday, January 13, 2025

NURSERY NEWS

13th January 2025 – Edition 357- First Newsletter of 2025

Find out About

A. Welcome back after the Christmas Break.

B. Final reminder-Big Nursery-Applying for Primary School.

C. School Term Dates

D. Labelling belongings

E. What the children are learning about this week?

 

A. Welcome back after the Christmas Break.

We hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas Break. Our pupil numbers grow each term as the academic year progresses, so please try to arrive on time, so we can take everyone safely inside in an organised way as swiftly as possible.

 

So, as a reminder, Little Nursery Should arrive for 8:45 and Big Nursery should arrive for 8:50. If you arrive late, please be patient, we will admit all those children who arrive on time first, and then come back to admit latecomers. We do understand that parents cannot be in two places at once if you have to drop off older brothers and sisters at other schools.

 

B. Final reminder-Big Nursery-Applying for Primary School.

Who needs to apply?

Children born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021 are due to start Primary school in September 2025.

You need to apply before 15 January 2025.

How to apply

  • if Central Bedfordshire is your council, you need to apply through them.
  • if Central Bedfordshire is not your council, you’ll need to apply through your home Local Authority.

You will need to look on your Local Authority Council’s website for further information on how to apply.

 

C: School Term Dates

The Local Authority, Central Bedfordshire, publishes details of term dates and school holidays on their website: Centralbedfordshire.gov.uk

Type: ‘School term and holiday dates in Central Bedfordshire’ into your search engine to find the correct page.

We are a Local Authority School, and as such we follow the Local Authority term dates.

However, for the academic year 2024-2025 the Local Authority did not set the 5 training days when the school is closed for staff training. Schools were advised to choose our 5 training days.

Monday 2nd September 2024.

Tuesday 3rd September 2024.

Monday 4th November 2024

Monday 6th January 2025

Four of our training days have now been completed. Our last training day in this academic year is:

Monday 7th July 2025.

We have put Willow Nursery School dates for the 2024-2025 academic year on our website willownursery.co.uk on the ‘Calendar’ tab.

The Central Bedfordshire website has published dates for academic year 2025-2026. The academic calendar for 2025-2026 does not show when schools are closed for 5 training days. We have not made our decision yet as to when to schedule these training dates. When we have made our decision, the term dates for academic calendar 2025-2026 will appear on our website.

 

D: Labelling belongings

Label all lunchboxes clearly with your child’s name, on the top, so staff can see the name when the box is on the trolley. Label all drinks bottles and containers.

Label all coats and shoes, and any other items that children can take off-cardigans/jumpers/ fleeces. It is much easier to return items to owners when things are labelled.

Two, three and four year olds are not yet reliable when it comes to hanging up their coats, hats and scarves. Our cloakrooms are scattered with children’s belongings by the middle of the session. We do our best to keep belongings with the correct child, but it would be incredibly helpful if parents could name items, especially coats, as this is a time when children often begin to wear heavier winter coats. We do not need fancy nametags, just consider putting your child’s name (or initials), in biro, on the manufacturers label.

 

E. What the children are learning about this week?

The theme this week is Goldilocks and the Three Bears

In the Nursery this week the children will listen to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. There will be a role play area set up for the children to explore and act out the story. They will have the chance to dress up, pretend to eat porridge, sit in the chairs and lie down in the three beds. This will give the children a wonderful opportunity to build their confidence as they join others in play and recite memorable lines from the book.

In the Creative area, children will be encouraged to paint portraits of the characters from this story. They can choose to use character templates or to free paint using colours and styles of their own choice. The work that children produce on this topic will be showcased on the display board in Room 2, we aim to use work from children in each age group.

There are lots of variations on this story and staff will talk to the children about different endings they may have read about. They will also discuss the language of size from the book and encourage the children to think about why the characters each have different sized objects. Staff will ask the children about their own opinions on issues in the story, for example ‘would you like it if somebody ate all your porridge?’. This is a lovely way to really inspire the children to think about the feelings of other people and how our actions impact upon them.

The younger children will have a tough tray filled with porridge, spoons and bowls. They can build on their hand eye coordination as they fill and empty bowls, using big, medium and small spoons. They will be able to try their hand at painting their own bear characters from the story and have a smaller scale role play area in the classroom. Staff will help children to put on Bear hats and Bear Paw mittens so that they look like the bears from the book.

 

Nursery News 16th December 2024

Monday, December 16, 2024

NURSERY NEWS

16th December 2024 – Edition 356.   Last Newsletter of 2024                                                                                 (Next Newsletter Monday 13th January 2025)

Find out About

A. Christmas Parties

B. The Elf on the Shelf……

C. What the children are learning about this week?

D. Notes for the end of term /dates for beginning of Spring Term

 

A. Christmas Parties

Are Finally Here!

These parties are for all our children regardless of the days you attend.

Unfortunately parents will be unable to stay during the parties as we do not have enough room! Staffing ratio’s will be maintained.

 

Little Nursery Party.

Friday 20th December

9:00am to 10:00am

The Plan:

9:00 Doors Open

Children work in small groups for Christmas crafts.

9:20 Party Snacks.

9:30 Surprise visit from Father Christmas

Songs for Father Christmas

Father Christmas leaves gifts for all children.

9:35 Back to groups to make a decoration.

10:00 Parents arrive to collect all children.

 

Big Nursery Party

Friday 20th December

11:15am to 1:00pm

The Plan:

11:15 Doors Open

11:25am Party Food

11:45am Surprise visit from Father Christmas.

Songs for Father Christmas.

12:00 Christmas Magic Show

1:00pm Parents arrive to collect all children.

 

 

B. Elf on the Shelf…..

 

That cheeky Elf has been busy in Nursery again! Miss England has been taking photographs of him, so that I can share with you all the things he has been up to!

He spent one day hanging out, and eating pizza, with The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

He flew around the classrooms in his hot air balloon.

He spent the day as a Fashion Doll  ‘Elfie’, looking out from his little pink box.

 

C. What the children are learning about this week?

The theme this week is Christmas and winter.

This week the children will be preparing themselves for Christmas. We will talk lots about having a break from school over the Christmas period and what the children might do with their families during this time. The children will see lots of familiar sights around the school such as our Christmas trees, festive decorations and our cheeky Elf. Staff will spend time discussing exciting upcoming events that the children might have planned; things such as visiting family, meeting Santa and sharing gifts with loved ones.

Throughout the week, the children will have the option to take part in lots of Christmas activities. There will be dressing up outfits available for them to role play as Santa or Mrs Claus and the bikes will be decorated to look like sleighs so that the everyone can take it in turns to deliver parcels to different destinations.

Everyone in little nursery will be offered the opportunity to have a ‘Christmas breakfast’ which they will prepare with an adult, it will consist of toast and fruit in a festive style. Baking will continue this week and children that haven’t yet made a mince pie will work with an adult to bake theirs. The children will not eat their mince pies in school, instead, they will bring them home to show their families what they have made.

 

D. Notes for the end of term /dates for beginning of Spring Term

 

On Friday 20th December the school will be open for the parties only. The school office will be closed on Friday 20th December.

 

The staff would like to say Happy Christmas!

to all our families that celebrate Christmas.

We wish all our families a safe and happy break during the school holidays and look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

 

 

Spring Term begins on Tuesday 7th January 2025