Nursery News 2nd June 2025

NURSERY NEWS

Monday 2nd June 2025 – Edition 373.

Find out About

A. Summer Heat and Nursery.

B.Is your child ready to learn?

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

A. Summer Heat and Nursery.

We now find ourselves in the last seven weeks (and 2 days!) of the Summer Term. Higher temperatures will now be arriving. Staff are bracing ourselves, as the Summer extreme hot weather brings its own problems.

Across the school, children respond differently to the heat. Some children can take the heat in their stride, and are happy and content. Some children really struggle with the heat, they get too hot, become flushed and sweaty. The intense heat can sap children’s energy. Some children can become extremely grumpy and tired in the hottest part of the day. Staff spend most of their time worrying about keeping everyone safe.

So to help:

• Ensure children have their water bottles with them every day.
• Provide a hat for your child, please put their name on it somewhere.
• Please keep the donations of fruit and vegetables coming in for snack time. These help to keep the children hydrated, and snack time inside is a restful pause away from the heat. I think we have enough fruit in the fridge for two weeks so please don’t buy any just yet!

• Donate some Ice Pops, again these can create a reason to pause and sit quietly. The ice also helps the children to cool down.

This is something we have done for many years at Willow. The children look forward to the ice pops as a treat mid-afternoon.

However, we are aware that the government is introducing a new Nutrition Policy for all Early Years settings in September 2025. There are very strict guidelines that we will have to follow. So this may be the last year we will be allowed to give ice pops to the children. The Nutrition Policy will be implemented in September. We will share the new guidance with you. Some of the staff are worried that if we give children ice pops this summer some of the them who will still be here in June 2026 will be disappointed when we explain ‘No Ice pops’ next year.  I know some parents have already sent some ice pops in, so we already have some in our freezer.

So, I have decided that we will go ahead with Ice Pops this summer.

B. Is your child ready to learn?

Parents always look eagerly towards finding out which Primary school their child will be attending. Parents of children leaving us in July 2025 have found out which school their child is going to. We work very hard in school to prepare children for the next stage in their learning at their new school. There are some preparations that parents should be aware of, and can work on with your child in order to make your child ‘School Ready’.  So together, as teachers and carers, we need to make sure all our children receive the very best possible start.

Central Bedfordshire Council has put together a leaflet which describes some essential skills that your child should be working towards in order to get the best out of school. This leaflet is known as the ‘sixteen ticks’ as it has sixteen things to work towards. These ticks are relevant to all our pupils, even the youngest, because they are all eventually going to go on to Primary School.

I have attached a poster along with this newsletter which details the sixteen ticks and suggests some points for you to consider.

There is an additional link sent with this newsletter. This is the 16 ticks poster.

Please have a look at it, to see the variety of skills children need to have in place in order to have a successful start in their primary school.

 C. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Our learning intention this week is for expressive arts and design: to enjoy joining in with moving, dancing and ring games and our 7C’s learning intention is for the children to be able to challenge themselves safely.

We will have some caterpillars visiting us at school and the children will have the chance to watch them grow and change. This may seem familiar to the children, as we have been sharing the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. There will be lots of artwork and activities that relates back to this book, including creating symmetrical butterfly paintings and retelling the story.

We will be learning lots of songs and expressing ourselves through music this week. The children will be encouraged to sing and dance to music, learn how to follow simple dance routines and to understand rhythms as they play instruments. There will be opportunities for the children to make and play their own instruments in the box modelling area and we can play them together as we listen to the children’s choice of songs.

There will be lots of exciting ways for the children to challenge themselves throughout the nursery this week as they work hard to create obstacle courses and practice balancing on the climbing equipment in the garden. The children will be able to challenge themselves inside as they use scissors and other resources to create artwork. As they complete different tasks throughout the school, everyone will be encouraged to consider their own safety and the safety of those around them. Staff will prompt the children to remember to stay safe as they work and play.