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Nursery News 13th March 2023

Monday, March 13, 2023

NURSERY NEWS

13th March 2023 – Edition 291

Find out About

A. Availability of sessions.

B. A reminder to renew 30 hour codes

C. Reviewing our fees, for September 2023.

D. Phonics program: Slithery Snakes!

E. What the children are learning about this week?

 

 A. Availability of sessions.

We have had a number of phone calls this week regarding the availability of additional sessions. Throughout the year, I work on admissions. A pattern has developed, and I work on each intake in turn.

We try to enrol children at the beginning of each term, to keep our paperwork, and classroom environments consistent.

When children become 3+ age (the term after they turn 3) they are all entitled to 15 hours funding and some are entitled to 30 hours funding. There is a cap on the total number of children we can have in Nursery due to our floorspace. We also have to maintain adult to child ratio’s. I have been recently working on the age group that are turning three years old between January and March. These children will begin their 3+ sessions in April in Little Nursery. I make offers to parents, and ask them to decide from a choice of attendance patterns. Planning for April 3+ intake, I had room for a total of 12 full time spaces. With our attendance patterns being offered around 15 hour or 30 hour attendance, this means I could offer between 12 and 24 places depending upon parental choice of sessions. I have recently filled all the sessions, first from children already attending Little Nursery, then filling the remaining spaces from our waitlist. I’m pleased to say this group is full. (We had to turn down 6 families from our waitlist)

Our January 3+ intake, Blue Group is similarly full.

I have had a number of parents in Little Nursery ask if they can increase their 15 hours by adding an additional half day on a Wednesday, to bring Wednesday up to a full day. Unfortunately this is not possible as we are full.

I will now begin working on the September 3+ intake. These are children who will turn 3 years old between April and August 2023. Most of the children of this age in Little Nursery have already completed paperwork, and made choices for September 2023.

We have five children of this age, who joined Little Nursery in January, who will be given paperwork this week for parents to make their choice of attendance patterns for September 2023. I would ask this paperwork to be returned by 23rd March.

I will then look at the waitlist, and begin to make offers to children from our waitlist, filling the classlists until we have filled the year group. Again, depending upon parental choice of 15 or 30 hours, we can accommodate 50 to 100 pupils.

What about Little 2 year olds –Catkins Class, in the Summer term? At the moment we have not made any decisions about additional spaces for the Summer Term.

I would say that it is very unlikely that we would enrol any new children into Catkins Class in the Summer term.

Our next enrolment point into our 2 year old class would be September 2023.

If we have any spaces available for Catkins class in the Summer Term, it is likely that we will offer additional spaces to those children that already attend, because the number of available spaces will be so small.

Any availability of additional spaces will be advised through this newsletter, but will not happen until April. We may choose to offer no additional spaces.

 

B. A reminder to renew 30 hour codes

Parents who are entitled to 30 hours free funded Nursery hours must ensure a valid code is in place by 31st March 2023 if they wish to have 30 hours funding for the summer term 2023.  Codes need to be renewed approximately every three months. The government does usually send out reminder emails directly to parents. Do check your Junk Mail or Spam folders, as sometimes the reminder can end up there.

If the code is not valid your child will not get the funding from the government, and would have to fall back to 15 hours attendance or choose to pay for the additional 15 hours.

 

C Reviewing our fees, for September 2023.

We have not increased our fees to parents since 2016.

I have chosen not to increase fees during all this time, in order to keep our fees as low as possible. However, our costs are escalating. I have discussed this with our Governors. We are planning to increase our fees for September 2023.

We receive our yearly budget from the Local Authority on the 31st March 2023. We are unable to plan our budget forecast until we hear from the Local Authority.

We will be mindful that all families are under increasing financial pressure, and our fees charged are to meet costs. We do not aim to make profit.

 

D. Phonics program: Slithery Snakes!

Phonics began last week in Big Nursery. Your child will have made a sock Snake hand puppet, which they will have hopefully brought home. We try to make our sessions interactive and playful. Children will remember the ‘SSSSSS’ sound if they have fun playing with their snake, making a ‘SSSSS’ sound. Adding a movement to the sound does help children to recall it at a later date. Spend just a few minutes each week going over the sounds at home. Each letter sound will come home on a Jolly phonics page, which allows the child to colour in a picture associated with the sound, has some dotted practice letter shapes to write over, and has a little picture at the side of the page to show how the movement should be made that supports the memory of this phonic sound. If you build up your child’s letter knowledge, week by week, adding new letters to the already familiar letters, they will progress with their phonic knowledge.

Give this a go. This will REALLY help your child to learn their phonic sounds which will in turn help them to read and write!

Look out for some ‘Ants on my arm’….. this week.

 

 

E. What the children are learning about this week?

The theme in Little Nursery is Hospitals.

Mrs. McGrath will set up a hospital role play for the children in Catkins, she will provide hospital beds, bandages and dressing up clothes for the children to use as they play. She will also set up a Peppa Pig small world hospital for the children to use and expand their imaginative play.

In the link, Mrs. Brinkley will be focusing on literacy with the children. She will be supporting them as they begin to make marks on paper and write their initials. She will support the children with holding their pencils effectively and model how to write different letters.

In Room 3, Mrs. Watson will also have a hospital role play area set up and she will model lots of language for the children. As the children play, Mrs. Watson will talk to them about various medical professionals that they might meet and their job roles, encouraging children to take an interest in different occupations.

Miss Gaffney will be outside with the children where they will be building up their physical skills. Miss Gaffney will be playing action songs for the children to dance along to and she will encourage them to try hopping, skipping and jumping as they move.

The theme in Big Nursery is the Three little pigs.

In Room 1, Miss Skai will be completing a shared read of The Three Little Pigs with the children. After they have read their books with Miss Skai, the children will cut, stick and sequence images onto paper to create their very own story books.

In Room 2, Miss Howe will be showing the children how to mix ingredients to create beautiful, shiny paintings. She will show the children how to mix icing sugar with water and drizzle it on paper, then using pipettes they will drip paint onto the icing sugar. The children can then bring their artwork home and tell you all about it.

Mrs. Cashmore will set up a tough tray with all the materials that the Three Little Pigs used to build their own houses. She will provide small world figures to allow the children the opportunity to discuss the story of The Three Little Pigs and begin to have extended conversations together.

Mrs. Patterson will be outside playing What’s The Time Mr. Wolf? With the children. She will also provide materials for the children to build three houses just like the Three Little Pigs in the story. Mrs. Patterson will use these teaching opportunities to extend ideas that the children have and model lots of different vocabulary for them.

 

Nursery News 6th March 2023

Monday, March 6, 2023

NURSERY NEWS

6th March 2023 – Edition 290

Find out About

A. Reminder: An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Red Group Parents: Basic Skills.

B. Bedtime Stories Event, held last Thursday

C. Dressing up outfits from home.

D. What the children are learning about this week?

E.  Phonics program starts this week!

 

A.Reminder: An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Red Group Parents: Basic Skills.

Miss Skai teaches Big Nursery Red Group children ‘Basic Skills’ on a Wednesday morning. An invitation letter has been sent out to Red Group parents so that we can match up time slots. Parents can join their child’s small group this week, on Wednesday morning.

 

B. Bedtime Stories Event, held last Thursday

I just wanted to briefly say thank you to all that attended, as the event was a success. The children’s behaviour was amazing. One of our school governors was here, and she commented that every room was so calm. The staff do find it a little daunting, reading to a big group, including so many adults, as it is not something they do regularly. I just want to thank the staff, as they give up their own time to stay and put on these activities for the children. They did such a good job.

 

C Dressing up outfits from home.

Last week we saw an increasing number of children wearing their own dressing up outfits in school. Role play is an important part of young children’s play as they imaginatively try out storylines and scenarios. However, we do have problems when children bring their own toys and playthings in to school, so we do try to discourage this. I would like to share with you why.

School is all about learning to share and take turns. We have a good selection of dressing up outfits, and these are part of our everyday nursery provision for all children to access. Sometimes children would all like a turn with a particularly popular outfit, like our Gruffalo suit. We talk about being fair, encouraging children to have a turn for a while, and then taking it off to allow a friend to have a turn. We ensure that all dressing up clothes are tidied away ready for grouptime and lunchtime. We ask the children not to wear our dressing up clothes in the garden as some are not suitable to be worn outside for safety reasons, or some of the more elaborate costumes would become damaged if used outside. (We do have some simpler sets of dressing up outfits that are specifically planned for use outside)

 

So a child comes in wearing an outfit from home…..

Their friends would love a turn.- We explain they can’t as it belongs to one child. They don’t understand…. We share at Nursery? Children say.

Their friends borrow an accessory. ‘I want my cape back’. Again, we can’t talk about sharing, we just have to give the item back to the owner.

Children become envious. ‘I want that’. Children told me last week they asked parents for particular outfits to wear to school.

Some families can’t afford to buy outfits…… They should not have to, we have plenty here!

Did I miss a dress up event? Two parents asked,- No you didn’t.

I know it was World Book Day last week and that would be why some children wanted to dress up as they saw older siblings dressing up for school. Of course that is OK.

 

However, something for parents to think about?

I know in the outside world, some people have, and some people have not, but in school we like to think that all the children can access all play materials equally.

 

D. What the children are learning about this week?

The theme in Little Nursery is ‘Maths’.

In Catkins, Mrs. Field will use large foam building blocks to teach the children about their colours. Mrs. Field will help the children build different structures and point out the colours of the blocks that are being used as they work. She will encourage the children to use their colour recognition skills to talk about other colourful items around the school.

In Room Three, Mrs. Brinkley will provide the children with a variety of counting resources. She will model counting to the children and provide opportunities for them to practice on their own. The children will also use balancing scales as they begin to explore comparing weights and quantities.

In the link, Miss Gaffney will teach the children using stamps and number printing. She will work with the children on practising their counting and recognition of numbers 1-5 and 1-10. The children will create art work based on their number knowledge.

Outside, Mrs. Watson will work with the children to search for numbers hidden around the garden. As the children find the numbers they will practice counting with Mrs. Watson and talk about which number they might find next.

The theme in Big Nursery is ‘At the bakers’.

In Room One, Mrs. Patterson will set up a baker shop role play area for the children to explore, she will provide a range of breads and cakes, as well as tills, trolleys and outfits to support their play. Mrs Patterson will also have an exciting activity set up for the children where they will be asked to count out raisin buttons for their laminated gingerbread men. Once the children have ensured that the ginger bread man has enough buttons, Mrs. Patterson will allow the children to eat the raisins.

In Room Two, Miss Skai will be showing the children how to create collages. They will use this knowledge to create their very own gingerbread man collages using a range of materials. Miss Skai will discuss the size of the collage that the children are creating and compare different sizes, while modelling lots of mathematical language.

Outside, Miss Howe will be playing a beanbag hoop game with the children. They will be shown how to aim and throw their bean bags into hoops. Each hoop will have a number attached to it and the children will be encouraged to identify the numerals on each hoop.

Mrs. Cashmore will be focussing on group activities and playing tag with a twist. One child will wear a knitted gingerbread man hat and will sing the words ‘run, run, as fast as you can. You can’t catch me I’m The Gingerbread Man’ as the other children run and try to catch them. All children will take turns being chased and can create their own variations of the game.

 

E Phonics program starts this week!

Willow Nursery School Phonics Programme

‘Phonics’ is one tool children can use when they are beginning to learn to read and write. A definition of phonics follows on the next page.

The Department for Education (DfE) produced a phonics resource called Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics, which 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 opportunites 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 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:

See below:

 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, found

 

 

Nursery News 27th February 2023

Monday, February 27, 2023

NURSERY NEWS

27th February 2023 – Edition 289

Find out About

A. Reminder: An Evening Event, For Big Nursery Children: Bedtime Stories Thursday 2nd March 2023 at 5pm

B. Can you help us with some sellotape?

C. What the children are learning about this week?

 

A. Reminder: An Evening Event, For Big Nursery Children: Bedtime Stories

Thursday 2nd March 2023 at 5pm.

All Big Nursery children are invited to bring a parent along for a bedtime story at Willow Nursery School. Children and parents will join your child’s keyworker for a bedtime story. Children can come in their pyjamas and bring a teddy bear or favourite cuddly toy with them. Older and younger brothers and sisters are welcome, but please remember the stories will be aimed at 3 and 4 year olds. Parents will be asked to monitor the behaviour of brothers and sisters, and will be expected to take noisy or wriggly children out of the story circle so as not to upset the quiet atmosphere created. We expect stories to last approximately 30 minutes (perhaps less for the youngest children) and we will then have warm ‘Hot Chocolate’ and cookies together. (There is no charge for this event.)

 

B. Can you help us with some Sellotape?

We are very grateful to those parents who are already supporting the school, by donating fruit, tissues, bringing in boxes for our box modelling area or volunteering their time and helping out in the classrooms. We have a number of children who enjoy making box models, using Sellotape to join their boxes together. We probably have more children who just enjoy exploring the sellotape and the sellotape dispensers!

Please could I ask that all parents consider donating some Sellotape to school? We prefer the 3 inch / 7.5cm diameter rolls as these fit on the dispensers. We would be very happy with the cheaper brands, I have seen 5 rolls for £1 in ‘The Works’ recently.

 

C. What the children are learning about this week?

The theme throughout nursery is Nursery rhymes.

In Little Nursery….

In Catkins, Mrs. Cashmore will be focussing on fine manipulation and control skills while learning the song ‘Wind The Bobbin Up’. There will be cotton reel templates for the children to wrap wool around, as they wrap their wool around their cotton reels, Mrs. Cashmore will sing along with the children.

In the link, Miss Gaffney will be supporting the children with creating props to match nursery rhymes i.e. an egg for Humpty Dumpty. The children will be working with one handed tools such as scissors and sellotape, Miss Gaffney will encourage the children to be as independent as possible when working.

Mrs. Brinkley will be teaching the children lots of new nursery rhymes. She will set up a magnetic board with nursery rhymes and pictures on. The children will choose a nursery rhyme from the board and will sing together with Mrs. Brinkley.

In Big Nursery…..

In room one, Mrs. Patterson will be working with the children to create a book of nursery rhymes. The children will make and decorate a few different nursery rhyme pages to put inside their book and will sing the songs as they work. At the end of the week, they will be able to bring their completed work home to show you all.

In room two, Miss Skai will be using paint and toy vehicles to represent ideas like movement and noises. The children will roll the wheels of their vehicles through the paint while Miss Skai encourages them to express themselves at different volumes, making noises such as beeping and rumbling.

Outside, Miss Howe will be focussing on maths and discussing routes and locations. She will set up an area for Humpty Dumpty to sit and ask the children to place him in different spaces around that area. Miss Howe will encourage the children to think about where Humpty is in relation to themselves and other objects.

Mrs. Cashmore will be encouraging the children to remember and sing entire songs. She will focus on ‘5 little speckled frogs’ and ‘1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive’. The children will be encouraged to crouch on the wooden bridge and jump into the water at appropriate times in the song. They can use the same bridge to sit on as they fish, while singing.

 

Nursery News 20th February 2023

Monday, February 20, 2023

NURSERY NEWS

20th February 2023 – Edition 288

Find out About

A. Changes taking place to Breakfast and After School Club at Hadrian Academy that will impact upon Willow Nursery School pupils

B. An Evening Event, For Big Nursery Children: Bedtime Stories Thursday 2nd March 2023 at 5pm

C. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Red Group Parents: Basic Skills. Wednesday 8th March. (Time to be confirmed in personal invitation.)

D What the children are learning about this week?

 

A. Changes taking place to Breakfast and After School Club at Hadrian Academy that will impact upon Willow Nursery School pupils.

There are some changes happening to the Before and After school club that operates from the Hadrian Academy school site.

In the past, the Before and After school club was open to pupils from Hadrian Academy, and Willow Nursery School pupils (once they were 3+ age).

The Principal of Hadrian Academy, Mr Ross Griffin, has written to me explaining that at the moment they have a waiting list on most days at their Breakfast and After School club meaning that they are turning away families.  Due to the space, they cannot increase their numbers beyond 45.

The changes they are introducing are as follows:

1) They are no longer accepting ‘new children’ from Willow Nursery School to attend the Hadrian Academy Before and After school provision. Children from Willow Nursery School who currently attend can continue to do so until the end of the Summer Term 2023.

 

2) From September 2023, Hadrian Academy will not be able to offer this provision to children at Willow Nursery School. The After school and Breakfast club from September will just be for children who attend Hadrian Academy.

 

Mr Griffin said it was a very difficult decision to make, but wanted me to pass this on to Willow families swiftly to give you as much notice as possible.

 

B. An Evening Event, For Big Nursery Children: Bedtime Stories

Thursday 2nd March 2023 at 5pm.

All Big Nursery children are invited to bring a parent along for a bedtime story at Willow Nursery School. Children and parents will join your child’s keyworker for a bedtime story. Children can come in their pyjamas and bring a teddy bear or favourite cuddly toy with them. Older and younger brothers and sisters are welcome, but please remember the stories will be aimed at 3 and 4 year olds. Parents will be asked to monitor the behaviour of brothers and sisters, and will be expected to take noisy or wriggly children out of the story circle so as not to upset the quiet atmosphere created. We expect stories to last approximately 30 minutes (perhaps less for the youngest children) and we will then have warm ‘Hot Chocolate’ and cookies together.

 

C. An Open School Event: For Big Nursery Red Group Parents: Basic Skills.

Miss Skai teaches Big Nursery Red Group children ‘Basic Skills’ on a Wednesday morning. The children move to a quiet space in Room 5 where they work in small groups (approx. 8 children) to learn reading, writing, mathematical skills and problem solving. We would like to invite Miss Skai’s Red group parents in to observe a 30 minute reading/writing activity on Wednesday 8th March. A further invitation letter will follow to Red Group parents so that we can match up time slots, so parents can join their child’s small group. Green Group had their Basic Skills groups in the Autumn Term 2022, Yellow Group have Basic skills in the Summer Term 2023. Eventually all parents will be invited to observe Basic skills sessions when their child is being taught.

 

D. What the children are learning about this week?

The theme in Little Nursery is showing care and concern for the environment.

In Catkins Mrs. McGrath will be investigating in the garden and on the lookout for leaves on the ground. She will show the children how to paint the leaves collected in the garden, then push them onto paper creating leaf patterns. Whilst out in the garden, Mrs. McGrath will support the children to look high and low for lots of different creepy crawlies.

In room three, Miss Gaffney will use a range of resources to help the children make their own interpretations of a bird. The children will think of the anatomy of a bird when building their model. Miss Gaffney will discuss the importance of taking care of animals in the environment.

In the link, Mrs. Watson will have hedgehog templates ready for the children to decorate. She will ask all children to collect a handful of sticks from the garden, which will then be used as prickles for their hedgehog pictures.

Outside, Mrs. Brinkley will be bird watching. There will be binoculars for the children to use, but they must remember to take it in turns. We are very lucky and sometimes see a Red Kite fly near our setting and Mrs. Brinkley will point it out to any children if it makes an appearance.

The theme in Big Nursery is the fairytale story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’.

In room one, Miss Howe will set up the house of the Three Bears for the children to role play in and retell the story of Goldilocks. She will also be using compare bears to recreate patterns. Miss Howe will make some intentional mistakes when she recreates some patterns to see if the children can spot the mistakes. Mrs. Cashmore will make porridge with the children, using water and oats. All children will have the opportunity to make the porridge and then go for a walk in the Nursery garden whilst it cools down, just like in the story.

In room two, Mrs. Patterson will have the easels set up for the children to paint portraits of characters from the story of ‘Goldilocks’. She will urge the children to think about the colours and features of each character and use appropriate colours for each painting. Mrs. Patterson will also have dry porridge oats on the tuff tray for the children to explore in a sensory manner.

Outside, Miss Skai will be playing the ‘walk like a bear’ game. In this game the children have to think about the size of steps that each bear would take and walk like them e.g. small steps for Baby Bear, medium size for Mummy Bear and big steps for Daddy Bear. She will also have some numbered bear shapes set out for the children to practice threading and build on their fine motor skills.

 

Nursery News 6th February 2023

Monday, February 6, 2023

NURSERY NEWS

6th February 2023 – Edition 287

Find out About

A. Big Nursery Parent Consultations –A reminder.

B. February Half Term Holiday Monday 13th February 2023 to Friday 17th February

C. Visit from Batman!

D What the children are learning about this week?

 

A. Big Nursery Parent Consultations –A reminder.

Big Nursery Consultations will be taking place during the week beginning 6th February 2023. These consultations will be on the telephone, will last 5 minutes and be at the following times:

Miss Howe Monday 6th February between 3:15pm and 4:15pm

Mrs Cashmore Tuesday 7th February 3:15pm to 4:15pm

Mrs Patterson Wednesday 8th February 3:15pm to 4:15pm

Miss Skai Thursday 9th February 3:15pm to 4:15pm

 

B.February Half Term Holiday Monday 13th February 2023 to Friday 17th February

A reminder that the school will be closed from Monday 13th February to Friday 17th February for the Spring Term Half term Break.

 

C. A Visit from Batman!

As the year rolls out, we have different themes that we work on with the children. We built a plan across the year to ensure our curriculum covers significant learning in all subject areas. We also look at exploring different ways of learning. Last week we had a really imaginative week looking at Princesses and Superheroes. The week was really successful. The children will have sensed a difference as to how they were challenged. Mrs Patterson set up a role play Superhero HQ in the garden. There were lots of capes and masks that the children could choose to wear. There were also ‘Mission Cards’ for Superheroes to help people solve problems. The amazing thing was it really became exciting, and it was fuelled by the children’s imagination. There were few props, but there was very high involvement, with lots of children moving about purposefully, solving issues.

Then on Thursday morning, something very exciting happened…. The children were all shouting that Batman was in the garden. Children were quickly grabbing their coats to go outside. I left my office to see what was going on, to find two of the oldest girls saying ‘It’s Ok, it’s just Mrs Patterson dressing up!”

By the time I got outside there was a crowd of children shouting to Batman. Mrs Patterson had surprised us all!

(She had not told any of the staff, so we were as equally surprised as the children!

 

D. What the children are learning about this week?

The theme in little nursery is The Gruffalo.

In Catkins, Mrs. Field will be reading The Gruffalo story to the children and she will encourage them to join in with the story. Mrs. Field will provide Gruffalo character masks for the children to decorate after their story and they can be used to support play throughout the week.

Miss Gaffney will be telling the story of the Gruffalo in room three. She will have images from the story for the children to cut, colour and sequence. Miss Gaffney will check how much of the story the children can remember and retell.

In the link, Mrs. Watson will be exploring different materials with the children as they create character collages. The children will show how creative they can be as they discover different textured and coloured material to fasten to their work.

Outside, Mrs. Brinkley will set up a table with puppets in order to allow the children to retell the Gruffalo story. She will model how to act out scenes from the book such as the animals talking to each other and meeting the Gruffalo.

The theme in big nursery is keeping healthy.

In room one, Miss Howe will discuss some key elements for staying healthy with the children. She will discuss healthy eating, getting enough sleep, oral health and daily exercise. Miss Howe will talk about the importance of a healthy balanced diet and will then offer the children some fruit or veg and explain that it is good to try new foods.

Mrs. Cashmore will be playing ‘what’s in the box?’ with the children. The aim of the game is for the children to guess what is in the box, using only their sense of touch and recalling what they have learnt about through the week. Hidden in the box will be a range of objects that help us lead a healthy lifestyle and Mrs. Cashmore will discuss all answers with the children.

In room two, Mrs. Patterson will be talking to the children about their emotions. She will encourage them to talk about what makes them happy, sad, excited and angry.

Children will then be encouraged to paint pictures expressing their emotions using a range of fine and gross motor movement as they work.

Outside, Miss Skai will set up an obstacle course for the children. She will show the children how to navigate the outdoor gym while emphasising the importance of staying safe. Miss Skai will encourage the children to take calculated risks as they move up and over equipment in different ways to complete the course.