Nursery News 8th September 2025

NURSERY NEWS

8th September 2025 – Edition 381

Find out About:

A. Welcome

B: Newsletters

C: School Term Dates

D: Labelling belongings

E: A Good Start

F. What are the children learning about this week?

 

A. Welcome

Hello Everyone!

Welcome back to those families who were with us last term. We are very lucky to have such helpful and sensible children in our school. Even with just a six week break we notice the children have developed greatly in that time. In September we see all existing children move keyworkers. Your child’s Keyworker will greet you and your child(ren) within their colour groups, when families begin to assemble outside in the morning. I expect Keyworkers to be outside 5 minutes before school begins, so if you have something brief to pass on to your child’s Keyworker, this will be possible.

A warm ‘Hello’ is extended to all our new families. We are still having a few tears, as children are learning to spend some time away from their parents, perhaps for the very first time. So far, we have been very impressed with the children’s behaviours and attitudes, so ‘Thankyou’ to all parents for the support you are giving to your children to make their transition into Nursery successful.

 

B: Newsletters

I (Mrs Davies) write a weekly Newsletter to parents to help keep parents up to date with everything going on in Nursery. This weekly newsletter will be emailed to all families on Mondays.

Copies of this newsletter will also be placed on our website willownursery.co.uk in our ‘Latest News’ section. Previous Newsletters are also available within the latest news section, should you need to search back for some information.

Please do read the weekly newsletter as we share important dates, including parent consultations, open school events etc

 

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 2025-2026 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. We have planned our 5 training days to be:

Monday 1st September 2025.

Tuesday 2nd September 2025.

Monday 5th January 2026

Monday 22nd June 2026

Monday 20th July 2026.

We have put Willow Nursery School dates for the 2025-2026 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.

 

E. A Good Start!

What has happened so far?….

We have enrolled all our new starters into Big Nursery. We have had 5 families join this year group that are new to the school. There are 43 children who are Big Nursery Pupils. We are getting to know everyone, trying to settle everyone in, and helping children to learn the daily routines that enable the nursery to run smoothly.

What happens next?………….

Little Nursery continues to enrol new pupils this week. We are expecting 13 new families in this year group.

We will have 28 children who are Little Nursery pupils.

I do have lots of information to share in these newsletters, but I will not share too much until everyone is enrolled in school.

We are so enjoying meeting all our pupils and getting to know them, and hopefully, over time we will get to know all their parents too.

 

F. What are the children learning about this week?

Mrs Cashmore is the teacher who writes an article every week in the newsletter to share with parents the experiences your children will be having in school. This is to enable you to be part of your child’s learning journey, so you can talk together about their new learning when you are at home.

So for this week:

The theme this week is settling in and nursery rules.

This week, the children will be settling in and learning the rules and routines of school life. It’s all very exciting, as the children have moved into their new classrooms, met their key workers and are making new friends. Our school rules are designed to provide a happy and safe environment for everyone and they are displayed in each classroom. Staff will be reminding children of the rules throughout the week and explaining how important it is that we follow them at all times.

Children will be learning where to put their coats and bags as they come into school, each child has their own peg which clearly displays their name and a picture to them to help with peg recognition. It is important that children can identify their belongings, so we ask parents to label all property clearly to support this.

As the lunches are stored together according to colour groups, we request that parents clearly label lunch boxes on the outside, on the top so names can be seen quickly. This supports children with their lunchtime transition, enabling us to help them to swiftly find their lunchboxes and take them to their assigned seats. Please also remember to label your child’s drink bottle as many children do not yet know which bottle is theirs and may get mixed up with someone else’s drink.

As the children settle into their new routines, they will become more secure and confident to leave their parents. While they are at school, some children may have toileting accidents, or eat and drink less than usual but this is often due to them adjusting to their new environment. We understand that each child progresses at their own pace and we thank you for your continued support and patience with these matters.