Goldstone Crescent
Dunstable
Beds
LU5 4QU
Phone: 01582 662600
Email: office@willownursery.co.uk
Latest News
NURSERY NEWS 27th January 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
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
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
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
Nursery News 9th December
NURSERY NEWS
9th December 2024 – Edition 355
Find out About:
A. Christmas at Willow
B. Ensure all payments are up to date by Thursday 12th December.
C. School Office closed on Friday 20th December.
D. The Elf on the Shelf……
E. What are the children learning about this week?
F. Christmas Parties :A reminder
A. Christmas at Willow.
We put up our Christmas Trees last week. We have a variety of trees across the school. We have a small pink one with a fluffy pink star on the top. We have some great big tall ones with lots of ornaments on for looking at.
We also have two trees which the children can add decorations to themselves in the home corners.- We see ‘Decorations on, decorations off,’ all day long.
We start ‘Christmas activities’ today. We choose that we can sustain Christmas activities for two weeks, this makes the school feel busy, exciting and different.
So, the school looks Christmassy, and sounds Christmassy with Christmas songs playing in the background. We learn Christmas songs. We have lots of arts and crafts on offer using glitter and glue.
Traditionally, we always offer the opportunity to children to make Christmas cards and Calendars to bring home. (This did start a discussion amongst staff about: ‘Do children see as many Christmas cards in their homes now? Due to the cost of postage?’ Do adults actually write many cards now due to the technology available to us in our everyday lives? Do you still use a paper calendar in you home? Or do you use your diary in your phone?) So we have thought about it, but still decided to offer these activities.
We share lots of books and stories with a Christmas theme, because our current Willow children love stories!
We set up a Stable Role play area, with all the costumes and props required to tell the Nativity Story. We retell the story with the children over and over and over again, so everyone can have a chance to be Mary, a camel, and an angel all in one day! Everyone can get involved. After many days of practicing the staff support the children to ‘perform’ the story to an audience of their friends.
We do not have a Christmas show. We do not have the space here, and the children are not old enough to understand what a performance is. Many years ago we’d stage a Nativity but over half the children would cry and nobody but the staff would sing. It was not a happy event, so we stopped trying to do it.
So, as for most things at Willow, we try to work out what is appropriate to explore within the themes and traditions of Christmas, with 2, 3 and 4 year olds. So we end up with glitter and tinsel everywhere! And then of course we have our parties…..
B.Ensure all payments are up to date by Thursday 12th December.
Please ensure that all payments are made by 9:30am on Thursday 12th December for the remainder of this term and for the first week back.
C. School Office closed on Friday 20th
The 20th December is the school party day. The school is only open for the School parties. The office staff join in with the parties too. Staff will not be doing any administration tasks that day.
D. The Elf on the Shelf……
Miss England has invited a cheeky Christmas Elf to visit Big Nursery. The children have been really taken with him. When the children arrive each day, they find the Elf in a different place.
The Elf first arrived in his reindeer pulled sleigh.
On Day 2 he set about decorating the school with Paper Chains
On Day 3 he put up a very cheeky picture turning all the teachers into Father Christmas.
Day 4 saw the Elf dress for heavy rain, a good job as a big cloud appeared with huge raindrops!
Day 5, the cheeky Elf dressed up as Mario from a computer game!
Talk to your children about the Elf, they will be excited to tell you about what he has been doing. I will add further photo’s in next week’s newsletter
E. What are the children learning about this week?
The theme this week is Christmas and winter.
There will be lots of exciting Christmas activities this week throughout the nursery and staff will be talking to the children about the upcoming Christmas party. In preparation for our Christmas party, we will be singing lots of Christmas songs and really getting into the festive spirit. When your children come home, you can ask them what songs they have learnt and have a go at singing them together.
In Big Nursery, we retell ‘The Story of Christmas’ with the children. (We are always careful with religious stories to say that ‘This is a story that a lot of people believe to be true’). Our pupil community represents a wide spectrum of religious beliefs and cultures. We aim to create an inclusive environment which is accepting, considerate and mindful of everyone’s family life.
So, for the Christmas Story staff will set up a stable role play area. The children have heard the story of ‘The Nativity’ last week, and can revisit this as they act out the story. Children can choose to take it in turns to retell the story of Jesus being born and people coming from afar to visit the new baby. This is always a very popular activity for the children to join in, which often culminates in them acting out the story in front of an audience of their friends.
Mrs Griffith’s (volunteer helper) will be coming in on Tuesday to offer a cooking activity: making Mince Pies. As the children cook, they can talk to the adults about whether they like to leave any treats out for Santa on Christmas eve.
