Parent News

Dear Parents and Carers

On Sunday October 12^th Lee would like to invite all parents to our taster session for the Forest school (10am – 12pm).  During this session you will take part in activities that your children will do during their time in the forest. This is a great opportunity to discover how allowing the children to using saw and hand drills and lighting fires can be carried out in a controlled manner whilst unearthing the learning outcomes the forest school sessions enable the children to achieve.  If you would like to join us please could you advise Lee.  Thank you

Just a reminder that this Wednesday we are celebrating the nursery’s 11^th birthday with a pyjama day, asking all parents to dress their children in their pyjama’s, providing a spare set of clothes, just in case of spillages or accidents.  Thank you.

 

Policies

Please find attached our risk assessment policy.

Snails

The focus in the snails this week is sensory development. The children will explore the treasure baskets, be encouraged to play with the musical instruments, whilst the older babies will also create pictures using glue and leaves.  Outdoor activities this week include exploring the sensory mat, using shape sorters outside and soft play, encouraging the babies to roll and stretch. 

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 focus on getting to know one another as we have had a large number of children recently start with us in this age group. The children will have the opportunity to dance to action songs, be encouraged to explore every day objects whereby they will be encouraged to place them in different containers, supporting containing, transporting and enveloping schemas. The children will also be encouraged to use their spoon during meal times throughout the week, to remember where objects belong in an insert puzzle. Creative activities this week include table painting, gluing and sticking and cornflour play. The children will be encouraged to look at their family books.

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 – Wednesday        Alisha – Monday

 

Ladybirds

The current interest in the Ladybirds is construction.  The children will be encouraged to construct a bus out of large blocks, with adult support, build towers out of duplo and match objects that fit together (eg) fitting lids on teapots. The children will also be able to use mega blocks in the sand tray and will be encouraged to use their spoons at mealtimes.. The book of the week is ‘Harry and the dinosaurs go wild’.   

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 – Tuesday

 

Bumblebees

This week the children will continue to explore the new room layout whilst new children are settling in. The children will be encouraged to develop their mathematical skills by counting as they build towers with boxes, weigh ingredients to bake cookies and use the building blocks to order items by height and length . To help the children develop their understanding of the world, the children shall concentrate on the weather throughout the week, introducing new words and use torches to explore in the dark. Activities to support creative development include gluing and sticking on cd’s, using different materials in the playdough and sand painting. Literacy development shall be supported, this week by reading stories about journeys and naming fruit and vegetables in the role play area.

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 – Wednesday           

Jenni – Annual leave Mon, Training – Tues, wed, Thurs, day off Friday             

Alba – Friday

 

Butterflies                       

 This week the butterflies will be working towards creating an Autumn display. The children will explore what happens when they mix colours, disvuss what animals they may have seen in their gardens and play the eye spy game. Creative activities this week include hand printing leaves, making a big tree, a scarecrow and pumpkins put of collage materials. The children will also be focusing on the letter of the week, which is, ‘P’ and the number of the week, which is number 2.

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 – Tuesday                      Tara - Thursday

 

Risk assessment policy

 

Aim of policy

 

To give guidance on how and when to complete risk assessments.

 

Points to consider

Risk assessments are to assess hazards to anyone on the nursery premises, or in case of external trips to the children, staff and parents in our care.

 

The Heath and Safety Executive (HSE) considers risk assessment to be:

“a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people to enable you to decide whether you have taken enough precautions or you should do more. It should identify and take into account all significant factors that can affect the chance and extent of harm and reach a conclusion on whether and how the management of such factors needs to be improved to eliminate or lessen that chance”.

 

There are five points to consider when carrying out a risk assessment:

Identify the hazard

Decide who may be harmed and how

Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions

Record your findings and implement them

Review your assessment and update if necessary

 

See the current Nursery Risk assessments

 

Castle Daycare and Preschool aim to achieve this by:

 

Carrying out thorough and regular risk assessments on all aspects and areas of the nursery.

The person responsible for carrying out risk assessments in this nursery is

Kim Elliott

 

Daily Health and Safety checks should also be made to ensure no hazards arise between risk assessments.

 

The person/people responsible for carrying out these daily checks are

All Staff

 

More information on how to complete risk assessments can be found at:

www.hse.gov