Nursery News 12th January 2026

NURSERY NEWS

12th January 2026 – Edition 395- First Newsletter of 2026

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A. Welcome back after the Christmas Break.

B. Change of Clothes Bag

C. School Term Dates

D. Labelling Belongings

E. What are 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. Change of Clothes Bag

Can you please ensure your child’s change bag has all necessary items we need in order to change your child if they wet or soil themselves.

There have been a number of children this week who have not had wet wipes in their change of clothes bag. It is important that all children have wet wipes in their bag, to enable staff to clean children who are wet or soiled.

Please get into a routine of checking your change of clothes bag on a daily basis to ensure it is fully stocked.

 

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.

We have put Willow Nursery School dates for the 2025-2026 and the 2026-2027 academic year on our website willownursery.co.uk on the ‘Calendar’ tab.

 

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 are 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.

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 youngest children will begin to explore the language of size, linked to the story ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’, comparing bowls, spoons, chairs and beds that are ‘Big’ or ‘Small’. Children will also be able to play with a small world house and appropriate characters to retell the Three Bears story.