Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to our weekly blog, we aim to send out an update of events, developments, news and activities throughout each month; this will replace our existing weekly email.

It has come to that time of year where the weather is changing and it is starting to get a bit chilly, please can you make sure your children are well equipped with warm clothes, a coat and some wellies.   

Snails

The children will be looking at Winter and Textures, they will be decorating pine cones, painting snowmen pictures with white paint and white sand, having baby rice food play, and reading Christmas and Winter story books.

Days off – Sarah – Friday

Caterpillars

The children will continue to look at physical development, they will be painting outside with rollers, exploring cornflour with sponges, drawing chalk pictures on the pavement in the garden and encouraging kicking and throwing balls.

Days off    Abi – Monday     Jamie – Friday

Tarnia is on annual leave all week

Holly is on annual leave on Friday

Ladybirds

The children will be centring their activities on winter; they will be playing with ice cubes, wearing our hats and scarves in the garden, colouring snowflakes, making winter/snow pictures using shredded paper, decorating snowmen and reading wintertime books

 Days off – Julie – Wednesday

Julie is on annual leave Thursday and Friday

Bumblebees

The children will be watching how things grow, they will be watering and taking photos of watercress everyday as it grows, exploring the vegetable patch in the garden, reading stories about plants, colouring in pictures of how we planted our watercress playing the ‘Bean’ game in the garden, making a picture with art materials of watercress and counting how many pots we have planted.

 Days off – Krissi – Mon    Jenni – Thursday

Tash is on annual leave on Monday

Butterflies

The children will be beginning to look at Christmas, they will be practicing the nativity play, reading stories about Christmas, looking at snow pictures, cutting and sticking using pictures out of catalogues for our Father Christmas lists, making hama bead decorations which will encourage using fine motor skills. The children will also be making boxes to put our home made chocolates in for Christmas.

We would like to remind all parents that children starring in the preschool nativity next Friday will need to be here by 9:30am for start at 10am. We would also like to remind parents that we can only accommodate a maximum of 2 seats per child for the performance.

 Days off – Jo – Tuesday  Claire – Friday

Jo is on training Wednesday and Thursday

Please may we remind parents to replenish their children’s nappies and wipes on a regular basis, we are finding a lot of children without either nappies or wipes for weeks at a time. Please see your child’s communication book or room door for a reminder when they need replenishing.

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to our weekly blog, we aim to send out an update of events, developments, news and activities throughout each month; this will replace our existing weekly email.

It has come to that time of year where the weather is changing and it is starting to get a bit chilly, please can you make sure your children are well equipped with warm clothes, a coat and some wellies.   

Snails

The children will be looking at St Andrews day and Winter, they will be looking at winter clothing such as hats, scarfs, and gloves, decorating winter scenes and trees for a winter display, food play with baby rice, exploring snow like textures with animal figures, looking at winter stories and songs, exploring rain with water play and making snowflakes to decorate.

Days off – Sarah – Friday

Caterpillars

The children will be centring their activities around physical development, they will be stomping and jumping in puddles, using play dough, exploring movements to sounds and music, exploring paint with hands and tools, exploring wet and dry sand, soft play climbing and rolling. There will be Custards Music Group exploring music and movement to sounds with instruments, exploring tunnels inside and outside and painting with paint and cornflour.

 Days off  Jamie – Friday

Abi is on annual leave all week

Jamie is training on Monday

Ladybirds

The children will be centring their activities around cars and vehicles, they will be mark making using toy cars rolling the wheels in paint, reading Thomas the Tank Engine books, making a bus out of cardboard boxes, playing with different vehicles on the happyland mat and brio train track, colouring in cars, trains boats and aeroplane pictures, playing with vehicles in the garden and boats and water play.

 Days off – Julie – Friday

Julie is on training Tuesday morning

Bumblebees

The children will be looking at the story Handa’s Surprise, they will be making fruits with clay, moving like the animals in the Handa’s Surprise book (elephant antelope and birds), food tasting mangoes and pineapples, role play a safari ride using chairs in a line, counting small world animals, reading Handa’s Surprise using props and making animal masks.

 Days off – Krissi – Mon    Jenni – Thursday

Jenni is on training Wednesday

Butterflies

The children will be looking at people who help us, they will be junk modelling in the garden making an emergency vehicle, making the block area into a police station, discussing the different ways in which people help us, making the role play/carpet area into a hospital and taking turns in being the doctor, drawing emergency vehicles on the computer, small world hospital and fire station, drawing pictures of people who help us using different textures.  Could we please kindly ask for donations of pillow cases and tea towels for this year’s nativity.

Days off – Jo – Tuesday  Claire – Friday

Kay is on training Tuesday Morning

Lee is on training Monday and Thursday

Jo is on training Wednesday and Thursday

We would like to thank all parents for their patience and understanding with the 18-24’s room being out of action over the last 2 weeks. The decorating and flooring will all be finished over the weekend and we will be back to normal as of Monday

Please may we remind parents to replenish their children’s nappies and wipes on a regular basis, we are finding a lot of children without either nappies or wipes for weeks at a time. Please see your child’s communication book or room door for a reminder when they need replenishing.

We sadly have to say goodbye to two members of staff, Benita has moved on to pastures new and, with annual leave and time owing to her to take, will not be returning to Castle Nursery. Holly will be leaving us on Wednesday 12^th December for a new life in Blackpool.

We are currently interviewing for both positions and replacements will be announced shortly, for the interim period Jamie from Caterpillars will be supporting Julie, Elly and Amy in the Ladybirds.

If Benita is your child’s keyworker please see Michelle and for Holly’s key children please see Abi who will advise you of who will take over their key role.

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to our weekly blog, we aim to send out an update of events, developments, news and activities throughout each month; this will replace our existing weekly email.

It has come to that time of year where the weather is changing and it is starting to get a bit chilly, please can you make sure your children are well equipped with warm clothes, a coat and some wellies.   

We will be holding our annual cake sale for Children in Need on Friday 16^th November in our Preschool from 3pm, any parents wishing to donate cakes for the day please see Leanne or Claire.

We will also hold a dressing up day on Friday 16^th November, we ask everybody to wear spots just like Pudsey bear and donate £1.

Snails

The children will be looking at animals they will be exploring happy land animals in sand and water play, painting animal pictures using animal figures for foot prints, animal puppets exploring sounds that the animals make, naming animals from looking at pictures and animal puzzles.

Days off – Sarah – Friday

Alisha is on Annual leave on Monday

Caterpillars

The children will be centring their activities around language and communication they will be saying Ta and Thank You at meal times and when sharing toys. They will be reading stories exploring books and words, pressing buttons on ICT toys, moving their bodies to sounds they enjoy, role play with phones and handbags, making animal sounds with puppets and singing songs with actions.

 Days off  Abi – Monday

Jamie is on annual leave all week

Ladybirds

The children will be centring their activities around creative play, they will be playing with musical instruments at circle time, gluing with leaves, coloured ice play, soft play in the garden, coloured cornflour play, finger painting using different coloured paint and dancing and singing to action rhymes.

 Days off – Benita-Friday   Julie – Thursday

Julie is on training Tuesday

Benita is on training Thursday

Bumblebees

The children will be looking Diwali, they will be making lanterns, colouring in an indian picture using bright paint and sequins, dressing up with scarfs to create sari’s, trying different types of indian food such as naan bread and curry, using torches in the dark and reading stories about Diwali.

 Days off – Krissi – Mon    Jenni – Thursday

Nikki and Tash are on training Wednesday.

Butterflies

The children will be looking at cultural diversity/children in need. The children will be making a poster to invite parents in for tea on Friday, using our multi-cultural puppets to talk about different communities and cultures, making giant spots to decorate the nursery, icing biscuits to make them look spotty and using spots outside to make a treasure hunt counting how many spots we can find.  

Could we please kindly ask for donations of pillow cases and tea towels for this year’s nativity.

Days off – Claire – Thursday   

Jo is on annual leave all week

Kay is on training Tuesday

The 18-24’s will be re-decorated this Thursday and Friday the children will be split between the 12-18’s and the 2-3’s, please see the staff for where your children will be playing on the days.

We have introduced a new dietary form this week which adheres to the new menu, we have made them a lot simpler to try to minimise the number of dietary requirements catered for.

Please can we remind parents to replenish their children’s nappies and wipes on a regular basis, we are finding a lot of children without either nappies or wipes for weeks at a time. Please see your child’s communication book or room door for a reminder when they need replenishing.

.

Please find below a copy of the parental feedback from our recent survey

Parental survey feedback

Areas we excel in	Areas we need to improve upon	Comments/Actions identified
You feel that you are able to contact the nursery at any time to find out how your child is	Handovers at the end of the day are not very informative and at times inconsistent.	This is an issue across the board especially during busy periods.  The introduction of communication via email continually through the day should be parents are better informed.  Due to be introduced :- Mid 2013
Many of you are interested in training for parents on subjects such as 1st Aid.	You are unsure who your child’s keyworker is.	Letters introducing your child’s primary and secondary key persons shall be distributed in the early part of November 2012
You are confident i the open door policy of the setting.	You would like to see more events that are room based as opposed for the entire nursery to help parents get to know one another.	This is on the agenda to be discussed at the next staff meeting with implementation of events during 2013.
	You are unaware of the company policies and procedures and do not have the opportunity to contribute to them.	Each month a copy of a policy shall be attached for parental input.  Starting Jan 2013
	There is a lack of access of things going on in the community.	An area shall be designated with posters of events happening in the local community.  Parents shall be advised of where this shall be by Dec 2012
	There is a lack of information surrounding your child’s development.	This should improve with the introduction of the electronic developmental files, however further research shall take place, with immediate effect, regarding strategies to tackle this issue.  Should parents have any ideas, please see Michelle.