Parent News

Dear Parents and Carers

Many thanks for your support last week during the refurbishment of the Bumblebees room. It looks fantastic. 

Next Friday, September 5^th, 2pm – 4.30pm, grandparents are invited in to play with their grandchildren, in celebration of grandparents day (Sept 7^th).  A selection of refreshments and cream tea shall be served.

Menus

Please find the attached proposed menus for autumn and winter. These will go live week commencing 6^th October. If you have any questions or queries regarding the menus, please see a member of the management team in the office.

Policies

Please find attached our procedure for Child protection and Safeguarding.

Snails

The focus in the snails this week will be music and settling in new starters. The children will have the opportunity to play with musical instruments, create sounds from heuristic toys, custard music class, having cuddles from their keyworker, hide and peep cubes. Creative activities, this week, include cornflour play, mixing paint colours using hands and fingers. The younger children will also be given the opportunity for tummy time whilst the older babies will be encouraged to pull themselves up to standing position. 

Planned activities within the Snails surround each child’s current interest in conjunction with supporting and extending their development.  To find out what activities are planned for your child for this week, please see your child’s keyworker who will be happy to take you through the planning.

 

Amy – Day off   Monday            

 

 

Caterpillars

This week the Caterpillars team will be focusing on finding hidden objects, whilst supporting new children during their settling in period. The children will have the opportunity to play with shredded paper to find the hidden happy land characters, to build structures using balancing pebbles, to explore toys with touch buttons which create different sounds. Creative activities this week include, mark making in wet sand and gluing and sticking.  The book of the week is ‘My first 123 flap book’.

Planned activities within the Caterpillars surround each child’s current interest in conjunction with supporting and extending their development.  To find out what activities are planned for your child for this week, please see your child’s keyworker who will be happy to take you through the planning.

Days off    Jamie – Thursday          Alisha - Monday        

Ladybirds

The current interest in the Ladybirds is ‘Farm animals’.  The children will have the opportunity to explore happy land farm yard, animal flash cards, hiding farm animals in the sand, play dough with animal shape cutters, animal zip ups.  The book of the week is ‘Over on the farm’.   Creative activities this week include, gluing and sticking, string painting, finger painting on animal masks and cornflour using small farm animals.

Planned activities within the ladybirds surround each child’s current interest in conjunction with supporting and extending their development.  To find out what activities are planned for your child for this week, please see your child’s keyworker who will be happy to take you through the planning.

Days off   Abi – Monday                

Bumblebees

This week the children will develop their fine motor skills by using pens and pencils to mark make, chalking on the chalk boards, gluing and sticking on different animal pictures, hand painting and colouring in farm animals. To help the children develop their understanding of the world, the children shall pretend to be farm animals.  To encourage the children to develop their Literacy development they shall be supported, this week using, letter lollies to identify the first letter of their name, to copy the letter of their name, cutting with scissors and reading animal stories. The book of the week is ‘On the farm’.

 Planned activities within the Bumblebees surround each child’s current interest in conjunction with supporting and extending their development.  To find out what activities are planned for your child for this week, please see your child’s keyworker who will be happy to take you through the planning which is now displayed on the large notice board outside the Bumblebees room.

Days off      

Jani – Wed                        Jenni – Thurs                              Abla - Tues  

Jani will be covering at one of our other sites on Tuesday.

 

 

Butterflies                       

 This week the children’s interest is ‘Transport’.   The children will be making origami boats and aeroplanes, building roads for cars to move along. Within the garden there will be traffic lights for the children to use whilst on their bikes. In a group discussion the children will be asked about transport and what they went on to get to their destination. The book of the week is ‘Little red train’s race to the finish’.

Planned activities within the Butterflies surround each child’s current interest in conjunction with supporting and extending their development.  To find out what activities are planned for your child for this week, please see your child’s keyworker who will be happy to take you through the planning.

Days off   Stani – Friday   Tracy – Covering at one of our other settings all week Lee returns to work on Thursday September 4^th

 

 

Child protection/ Safeguarding

 

When starting at the Nursery we record the following information for each child:

·         Child’s name

·         Child’s address/es

·         Gender

·         Date of birth

·         People with parental responsibility

·         Legal contacts

·         Who the child normally lives with

·         Any other setting the child attends

·         If a CAF (Common Assessment Framework) has ever been done on the child.

The Manager is responsible for ensuring this information is updated annually.

 

Information relating to individual children with regards to child protection concerns or cases will be kept in a secure location with access limited to those deemed suitable.

 

Child protection is an extremely sensitive and complex area.  However, during the course of their work, staff may be concerned about a child’s welfare.  All agencies that work with children have a duty and responsibility to report and assist in child protection investigations.

 

Identification of child abuse is difficult and will normally be a combination of both social and medical assessment.  No list of signs or symptoms can be exhaustive.  The following are for guidance only.  It must be remembered that alternative medical or social explanations may exist for the problems listed here.  However, if anyone has a concern about a child, they must report it to the Manager (or Duty Manager) so a referral can be made.

 

It would be normal to look for evidence of abuse in 2 categories:

 

·         Physical signs

·         Behavioural symptoms

 

Signs and symptoms

 

Significant harm can be the result of:

1.      Neglect

2.      Physical abuse

3.      Sexual abuse Emotional abuse

 

1. Neglect

 

Neglect results from failure to meet basic needs of the child.  This may include failure to provide food, warmth, clothing or consistent caring.

Signs and symptoms may include:

 

·         Inappropriate or inadequate clothing

·         Poor hygiene

·         Developmental delay, poor speech and play skills

·         A child whose parents persistently fail to seek or follow medical advice

·         Some cases of failure to thrive have a basis of neglect

·         A child whose parents persistently fail to ensure the child’s safety

 

 

2. Physical abuse

 

Most injuries to children are accidental and can be explained.

Factors associated with injuries, which may arouse suspicion that they are not accidental, may include:

 

·         Where the explanation is not consistent with the injury or with the stage of development of the child

·         Where there are changes of explanation or no explanation

·         Where there is a history of frequently repeated injury

·         Where there has been considerable delay in seeking medical advice

·         Where there are bruises of different ages on the child at any one time, other than on the common sites of accidental injury in a child of that age (e.g. on shins and forehead)

·         Where there is facial bruising, other than over the bony prominences, particularly around the mouth, eyes or ears

·         Where there are unexplained burns, bite marks, severe bruising or any combination of these

·         Where there are bruises on the buttocks or thighs

·         Any bruising in a baby not yet mobile, reluctance to move limbs or tenderness on handling

 

3. Sexual abuse

 

While there are many signs associated with sexual abuse, many of these are also associated with other problems.  It is rare for sexual abuse to be recognised by one symptom rather it is a matter of developing a full picture of the child.  A child who is or has been sexually abused does not always display behavioural disturbance.

Factors that may arouse suspicion of sexual abuse may include:

 

·         Over sexualised behaviour

·         Sexual awareness and knowledge in advance of developmental age

·         Withdrawn behaviour

·         Drawings or play activity which are explicitly sexual

·         Compulsive masturbation

·         Wetting and soiling (once toilet trained)

·         Recurrent urinary tract infections

·         Sexually transmitted disease

·         Genital or anal inflammation or irritation

·         Genital or anal bleeding or lacerations

·         Change in behaviour

·         Anxiety during nappy or toileting times

 

4. Emotional abuse

 

There is an element of emotional abuse in all forms of abuse, but some children may be very well physically cared for whilst being emotionally abused.  An emotionally abused child may be subjected to constant criticism and scapegoating.  There may on the one hand be continuous withholding of approval and affection, accompanied by severe discipline, or on the other hand a total lack of appropriate control.  Alternatively a child may be exploited to fulfil the parents’ emotional needs.

 

The child may:

 

·         Have an impaired ability for enjoyment and play

·         Lack curiosity and natural exploratory behaviour

·         Be delayed in language development and play skills

·         Have low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness

·         Show eating disturbances or growth failure

 

If you suspect abuse you must go to the CPLO straight away. If you suspect the CPLO of abuse you must go to the manager. If the Manager is the CPLO you need to report your suspicions to the Area Manager:

Natalie Chrystie on: 07789268241 or 01293 772561

Following these discussions, the Manager or CPLO has a duty to refer the matter to OFSTED.  No report of child abuse requires a manager to make a decision regarding its validity.  All such reports must be referred to the OFSTED office. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn/ Winter  2014 Week 1	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Lunch	Chilli Beef	Chicken in a creamy tarragon sauce	Roast Gammon	Creamy tomato and herb pasta	Fish fingers
Meat Free	Quorn Chilli	Mushrooms in tarragon sauce	Quorn Roast	As above	Veggie fingers
Served with	Rice	New potatoes and broccoli	Roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips	Cheesy garlic bread	Beans and potato wedges
Dessert	Ice cream with warm chocolate sauce	Ginger sponge with vanilla sauce	Yoghurt	Bread Pudding	Jelly with fruit pieces
Tea	Soup and bread	Crumpets with jam and marmite	Spaghetti hoops and triangles	Homemade herby sausage roll with tomato sauce	Various filled rolls
Pudding	Tropical fruit platter	Fruit mousse	Banana cake	Cheese, grapes and biscuits	Fromage frais

 

 

 

 

Autumn Winter 2014 week 2	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Lunch	Chicken and chorizo pasta	Vegetable curry	Roast Turkey	Beef Goulash	Mac and Cheese
Meat Free	Spicy Quorn sausage pasta	As above	Quorn Roast	Mushroom Goulash	As above
Served with	Salad	Rice and Pitta	New potatoes, peas and carrots	Mash Potato	Minted Peas
Dessert	Fruit Salad	Chocolate Pudding with a hot chocolate sauce	Milk Jelly	Cherry and apple crumble with cream	Spotted dick with custard
Tea	Sausage in a bun	Jackets with a hot filling	Mini Pizzas	Homemade soup and Roll	Homemade cheese scones with ham and pickle
Pudding	Ginger bread Biscuits	Spiced baked plums	Fairy cake	Fruit mousse	Flapjack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn winter 2014 Week 3	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Lunch	Carbonara pasta	Mince and mash	Roast Turkey	Creamy veg and Rice	Fish cakes
Meat Free	Mushroom Carbonara	Quorn	Quorn	As above	Veggie fingers
Served With	Tomato and Cucumber Salad	Mashed potato and peas	Roast potatoes, Sweetcorn and cabbage	Pitta	New Potatoes and spaghetti hoops
Dessert	Jelly with cream	Rice pudding with fruit compote	Banana custard	Cheese and grapes	Steamed jam sponge with cream
Tea	Pizza crumpets	Homemade soup and bread	Pork and apple sausage rolls	Savoury muffins	Filled Wraps
Pudding	Rock cake	Apple and raisin cake	Selection of fruit	Homemade cookies	Fromage Frais

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn winter 2014 Week 4	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Lunch	Vegetable Stew and dumplings	Sausage and mashed potato	Roast beef	Chicken Curry	Jacket Potato
Meat free	As above	Quorn	Quorn roast	Quorn	As above
Served with	New potatoes and cabbage	Broccoli,  onion gravy and mashed potato	Roast potatoes and cauliflower cheese	Rice	Tuna in a warm creamy sweetcorn sauce
Dessert	Fruit mousse	Cheese and biscuits with grapes	Lemon layer cake with lemon sauce	Stewed apple and raisins	Carrot cake with a frosting
Tea	Filled rolls	Homemade pasties with spaghetti hoops	Homemade broccoli soup and a cheese straw	Homemade cheese and marmite wheels	Crudités with dips and pitta’s
Pudding	Fromage Frais	Short bread biscuit	Cherry scones	Crunchy chocolate mousse	Grape and pear salad