Parent News

Dear Parents and Carers

 

Thank you to everyone who attended the bonfire night. We hope you had an enjoyable time!

 

As it is nearing Christmas, the rooms will be having Christmas parties, please see your child’s room, further down in the blog to see the date of your child’s party. You are all welcome to attend the party, even if this is not your child’s usual day at the setting, however you will be asked to stay with them. Please see a member of staff within your child’s room if you would like to attend. The parties are from 3pm until 5pm.

 

We would like to welcome Amy Ellis to Castle nursery, Markenfield. Amy is NVQ Level 3 qualified and will be working within our bumblebee room. Amy is working Monday to Friday.

 

We would also like to congratulate Stani on becoming pre-schools room leader. Stani has wonderful ideas that she will be implementing into the room.

 

Please can parents also see their child’s key worker to book in a review around your child’s development. These meetings will be placed during the working day, preferably before you pick your child up in the evening or afternoon.

 

Policies

Please find attached our late/non collection of child policy.

Snails

The focus in the snails this week is treasure baskets. The children will have the opportunity to play with the new treasure baskets, exploring metal, wooden and plastic objects. Activities this week include exploring the soft toys, pop up toys, musical instruments, playing in the pop up tent and exploring the bead mazes. Outdoor activities include, playing in the tunnels and tents, exploring the sensory balls, and looking through soft books. The snails will also additionally be focusing on Christmas activities. The story of the week is ‘wibbly pig’.

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.

 

Christmas party – Thursday 18^th December.

 

Amy – Day off Monday. 

Caterpillars

This week the Caterpillars team will continue to focus on the book corner by encouraging the children to use the book area appropriately by singing, using puppets and exploring musical instruments. The children will have the opportunity to explore different activities such as, painting, exploring and learning how to use shape sorters, heuristic play, gluing and sticking, creating poppy pictures, exploring insert puzzles, playing with puppets in group time and chalking in the garden. The caterpillars will also be focusing on carrying out Christmas activities. The story of the week is ‘the rhyme 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 – Friday

Alisha – Monday

Christmas party – Thursday 18^th December.

 

Ladybirds

The current interest in the Ladybirds this week is music and musical instruments. Activities this week include soft play, roller painting on card, gluing and sticking for poppy day, painting animal footprints, exploring wiggly worms in cornflour. The ladybirds will also be focusing on role play and using the equipment effectively. The story of the week is ‘my counting wheel’.

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.

Christmas party – Thursday 18^th December.

Days off  

Abi – Monday

Naomi – Monday Annual leave and Wednesday day off

Bumblebees

This week the children will be focusing on winter and Christmas activities. The children will be encouraged to develop their mathematical skills by building towers using small blocks and counting, to encourage the children to count each step as we walk up and down the stairs, to complete a simple puzzle and to explore different colours by separating them into different pots. To help the children develop their understanding of the world, the children shall continue the car park and construction site from last week as they really enjoyed these activities. The children will also build a race track with an adult, to make crowns using interstars and wear them on our head and to play with dinosaurs using leaves and sand in the garden. Activities to support creative development include hand painting using bright colours, to see what different marks can be made in cornflour, completing an experiment using food colouring and to explore painting with our bodies. Literacy development shall be supported, this week by reading the story of the week ‘ABC Zoo’ and practicing the alphabet, playing with and talking about textures, decorating hats and scarves for our winter display and mark making using pencils, focusing on our pencil grip.

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.

Christmas party – Tuesday 16^th December.

Days off     

Jani – Wednesday

Jenni – Thursday and training Friday

Alba – Tuesday

 

Butterflies     

This week the butterflies will be focusing on music. The activities will include exploring different instruments and their sounds, creating England flags. The children will be encouraged to discuss special times and events that they have shared with their family and friends. The children will be able to explore spaghetti play, making this a sensory experience. The children will also be focusing on cooking. The children will take part in Tara’s cooking club, in which this week, the children will be making pizza wheels or scones. During group time the children will listen to music that their peers have bought in. A junk modelling activity will be set out for the children so they can make musical instruments. The children will be focusing on the letter of the week, which is, ‘R’ and the number of the week, which is number 12.

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.

Christmas party – Wednesday 17^th December.

Days off   

Stani – Friday                 

Lee – Tuesday, Thursday Afternoon and Friday                 

Tara – Tuesday

Juan - Wednesday

 

Michelle is day off Monday

 

 

Late/non collection of child

 

Aim of policy

To give clear guidance to practitioners and Parents of what will occur should late or non collection of a child occur.

 

Points to consider

 

Castle Daycare & Preschool work in close partnership with parents and recognise the importance of sensitivity and empathy should this procedure need to be implemented.

 

In the event that a child is not collected by an authorised adult at the end of the day, to cause as little distress as possible, we will ensure the child is cared for safely by an experienced and qualified practitioner who is known to the child.  Two staff members will stay with the child until the parent arrives. One member of staff will be ideally their key person the other will be a senior team member.

 

We will inform parents/carers of our procedures so that, if they are unavoidably delayed, they will be reassured that their child will be properly cared for.

 

Procedure to follow

 

If parent/guardian/carer is repeatedly late collecting their child it is the responsibility of the Nursery Manager/Deputy to discuss this with them.

 

In those instances where a parent is over 15 minutes late and has not made contact with the nursery the following procedure must be followed:

 

1.            Person in charge to attempt to make contact with parent / carer.

 

2.            Person in charge to notify the area manager who in turn will contact other management team members if needed.

 

3.            Person in charge to attempt to contact parent’s employer (if they work)

 

4.            Person in charge to attempt to make contact with those authorised to collect the child.

 

5.            If after all reasonable attempts to contact parent carers and emergency contacts have failed then the nursery manager will evaluate the situation, i.e. length of time the child has been left, whether it’s a reoccurring problem, or if contact numbers are disconnected. Upon which she will contact a member of the operations team before contacting Social Services.

 

 

6.            The last two team members on duty are required to stay with the child until collected.

 

Social services contact number: 03456 009 009

Emergency out of hours team: 01483 517898

 

Ofsted contact number: 0300 123 1231

 

7. Person in charge to keep Area Manager up to date at each stage. A full written report of the incident must be recorded by the person in charge.

 

8. Depending on circumstances, Castle Daycare & Preschool reserve the right to charge parents for the additional hours worked by our staff.

 

It is imperative that throughout the implementation of the procedure the child is not distressed.  The situation must be explained to all contacts calmly and clearly.