Parent News

Dear Parents and Carers,

On Friday May 15^th we have our photographer here (9am – 11.30am approximately) to take graduation photographs of our school leavers.  If your child is leaving us for school this year, however does not normally attend on Fridays, please see Michelle to make arrangements for your child to have their photo taken.  After the individual photographs there will be a class photograph taken of each group within the nursery.  As we cannot judge how long the photos will take we estimate that the group photographs will begin at approximately 10.30 am.  If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Michelle. 

Please note that we close at 18.00 on Friday May 1^st and re open on Tuesday May 5^th at 08.00am.

Date for your diary

On Saturday September 20^th (a long way ahead, I know) we are holding a hog roast at Shalford Community Centre to celebrate 20 years of Castle Nurseries.  We shall be inviting present and past parents and children from all 3 nurseries with lots of fun activities and entertainment.  Further details shall follow however if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Michelle.

Friday 19^th June we are holding a Father’s Day Breakfast between 8am-9am, we will be serving bacon sandwiches, pain au chocolat, croissants and variety of juices. Please see a member of staff within your child’s room if you wish to attend.

Wednesday 24^th June we have Mill Farm coming to the setting so the children can experience and take part in activities with the range of animals, such as, petting, brushing, feeding and holding them. A permission slip will be within your child’s room, please see a member of staff so this can provide consent that you are happy for your children to touch the animals.

 

Policies

Please find attached our arrival and departure policy.

Snails

The focus in the snails this week is settling in new starters. The children will be able to experience a range of activities, whilst bonding with their new keyworker. The activities will be building blocks, knocking them down and building them up again, exploring the noises they make, playing and exploring with the ICT equipment, pressing the buttons and pushing parts to close, exploring sensory play by playing with cornflour and reading the story of the week which are ‘touch and feely books’. 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 – Annual leave all week

 

Caterpillars

This week the Caterpillars team will focus on sensory play by carrying out activities and to support the children learning about their body parts during play. Body painting is an example of the weekly focus, whereby the children are able to explore the paint using their whole bodies. Activities this week include, puppet play, singing with instruments, cornflour play, heuristic play, sand play, sensory bags and the balancing pebbles. 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 – Wednesday, annual leave Thursday and Friday

 

Ladybirds

The current interest in the Ladybirds this week is farmyard animals. The children will have the opportunity to play and explore with farmyard zip ups, animal feet painting, animal hide and seek, counting how many animals they can see, water play with ducks and animal glove puppets. Outdoor activities this week include, magnetic fishing, moving the way animals do, chalking on the pavement and playing with the happy land 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 – Thursday      

Naomi – Friday

 

Bumblebees

This week the children will continue to focus on,  cooking, mark making and  role play. Activities this week include making ham and cheese twists, connecting together insert puzzles, building towers with big blocks, singing counting songs, playing Gruffalo bingo!, self-selecting activities in the role play area, identifying the colour of the week, which is Yellow, in all areas of learning. The letter of the week that we will be practising is ‘B’, the number of the week is ‘2’ and the story of the week is ‘Owl babies’. Outdoor activities this week include sweeping using the water and brushes, painting with dinosaurs, puzzles and compare bears, climbing frame and the bikes. 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.

Days off     

Jani – Friday

Jenni – Thursday

Amy E – Annual leave Tuesday and Wednesday

 

Butterflies     

This week the butterflies are going to focus on the human body. The activities include looking at the life cycle of a human, completing activity sheets about skeletons, using the light box with different resources, tracing around our bodies and naming the parts. The children will be focusing on the letter of the week, which is, ‘B’ and the number of the week, which is number 14.

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                                 

Tara – Tuesday

Jade – Friday

Arrival and departure procedure

 

Aim of policy

To give clear guidance on how we record arrivals and departures to the setting.

 

Points to consider

At Castle Daycare and Preschool we do not allow children under 18 to collect children from the setting.

We keep records of each child’s full name, address and date of birth as well as hours of attendance.

 

Castle Daycare and Preschool aim to do this by:

We ask every parent and carer to record their child’s arrival and departure on our registers. Staff will check these registers frequently to ensure the children have all been signed in and out correctly.

 

Staff are also required to sign in and out of the premises.

 

All visitors to the setting are required to sign the visitor’s book and record: their full name, the name of their organisation or link to child, the purpose of their visit and accurate details of arrivals and departure times.

 

During the settling in sessions Parents are asked who, if anyone, is allowed to collect their child. Parents set their own password which can be given to people the parent  have nominated to collect their child. Parents are asked to inform the nursery of who will be collecting their child even if it is one of the nominated people.

 

In rare circumstances the nursery may allow a child to be collected by someone other than the Parent or nominated person, if requested to do so by the parent.        In these circumstances we will:

• Ask the parent to give the person collecting the password
• Ask the parent for  the person collecting full name and description
• When the person collecting arrives we will check the password and ask for ID before allowing them to collect the child.
• The person collecting will be asked to sign the child out and record the correct departure time.