Nursery News 27.9.2021

NURSERY NEWS

27th September 2021 – Edition 236

Find out About:

A: Big Nursery and Little Nursery.

B. No changes to sessions for children attending Big Nursery

C. Applying for Primary School note from Hadrian.

D. Little Nursery offers.

E. Parent consultations for little nursery

F. Please keep Unwell children at home.

A. Big Nursery and Little Nursery

We have everyone here now, well almost, we are just waiting for two more tiny two year olds to start in the coming week. I can now begin explaining things about Nursery to all parents.

There were some government requirements we had to follow in the last academic year in order to keep children safe during the Covid pandemic. One requirement was to keep different year groups in separate bubbles. Most requirements have been relaxed now. We found some real positives in the practice of keeping year groups separate, so this is something that the staff wish to continue with.

We need to find some language that everybody can understand when we describe particular groups of children/ physical areas of the building.

We have decided to use terms that the children can understand.

Big Nursery is for the children in their final academic year at Nursery. So, current Big Nursery children are Mrs Patterson’s Blue Group, Miss Skai’s Orange group, Miss Howe’s and Mrs Cashmore’s Yellow Group. All the children in Big Nursery are entitled to 15 hours Universal funding because they are 3 or 4 years old. Some are entitled to 30 hours funding if both parents are working.

Big Nursery children all queue outside the school on the pavement between the front gate and the school car park. All these children will leave Willow Nursery School in July 2022 to join their chosen Primary School in September 2022. The physical areas of school used for this age group are Room’s 1, 2 and 5 and part of the outside area.

No additional children will be added to Big Nursery once the year begins. Big Nursery becomes very settled and we can really move the children forward as the year progresses.

Little Nursery is for all the children younger than the Big Nursery children. The children in Little Nursery will leave Willow Nursery School in July 2023, or for the very youngest two year olds, July 2024. At the moment all the children in Little Nursery are Catkins age children. Children who are Catkins age are not yet entitled to the universal 15/30 hour funding that children receive in the term after they turn 3 years old. The oldest children in Little Nursery turn 3 years old in September 2021.

Some Catkins age children are entitled to 15 hours funding for two year olds. Parents entitled to this funding are usually informed by the Local Authority- Central Beds Council. (This funding is based on parents with a low income or in receipt of certain benefits).

Little Nursery will have additional children added to it as the year goes along.

Little Nursery children who turn 3 years old between the 1st September 2021 and 31st December 2021 will be entitled to Universal 15 hours or 30 hours funding in January 2022. They will stay in little Nursery until July 2022 In January 2022 they will cease to be known as Catkins children, and will become known as Green Group. Green Group’s Keyworker will be Miss Gaffney. Some children from our waitlist who are Green Group age will join Little Nursery in January too.

Little Nursery children who turn 3 years old between the 1st January 2022 and the 31st March 2022 will be entitled to universal 15 hours funding or 30 hours funding after the Easter Break from the 20th April 2022. They will stay in Little Nursery until July 2022. In April 2022 they will cease to be known as Catkins children, and will become known as Red Group. Red Group’s Keyworker will be Mrs Brinkley. Some children from our waitlist who are Red Group age will join Little Nursery in April too.

Little Nursery children who turn 3 years old after 1st April 2022 will remain as Catkins age children for the entire academic year from September 2021 to July 2022..

B. No changes to sessions for children attending Big Nursery.

We have had a few enquiries from families in September regarding having additional sessions either now or perhaps in January. When I make offers to families I try to offer a choice of 15 or 30 hours to as many families as possible. When you make your choice of sessions, I add this to a big timetable. I then ensure we have enough staff on duty to meet ofsted adult to child ratio’s in every session. We cap the number of children in lunch due to the space we have available. We had a t least 6 families ask for more sessions when we returned and I said no to every one of them. I finished the timetabling for this year group before the Summer holidays. This year group is now fixed.

Within two weeks of the start of term I begin looking at the next intake of children, and these will join Little Nursery in January.

C. Applying for Primary School.

Apply for a lower or primary school place in Central Bedfordshire

When to apply for starting school in 2022

Children born between 1 September 2017 and 31 August 2018 are due to start school in September 2022.

You need to apply before 15 January 2022, even if your child already attends a nursery or pre-school on the school site.

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 our home Local Authority.

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

This applies to all children in Big Nursery.

D. Little Nursery offers.

I will soon be writing to all parents in Little Nursery, whose children will become entitled to universal 15 hours funding (or 30 hours funding for working parents) in January or April, to make offers to you regarding your child’s attendance when they become entitled to universal funding. There will be a choice of attendance patterns. Look out for these letters in the next week or so.

E. Parent consultations for Little Nursery

We plan to offer Parent Consultations to parents of children in Little Nursery during the week beginning 4/10/21. Catkins staff will contact parents, either at the front gate at the beginning or end of sessions, or by telephone to arrange a suitable appointment time.

Parent Consultations for Big Nursery children will follow later in the term: more details next week.