Castle Nursery Markenfield
Friday, 25th September
2015
Dear
Parents and Carers,
Please may we ask parents to
encourage the children to hold onto the blue rail whilst walking up and down
the stairs, we have noticed that the children have been holding onto the red
rail or the wall, this is to ensure the children’s safety. Thank you
Please can we ask that parents
picking up at 1 or 2pm to be on time as we are having an increasing amount of
children being picked up late which is putting us over ratios as we have children
that also come in at 1pm.
We have some exciting times ahead in
our babies and 18-24’s room with both Amy and Abi starting a project through
surrey county council called the Wonder years programme. This will entail us
looking at the provision in both rooms and bringing in lots of new ideas. This
starts with an Audit of both rooms which will take place on Wednesday 23rd
September.
You may have noticed a couple of new
faces at nursery in the last 2 weeks; we have had 2 new starters, Holly in our
Caterpillars room and Sona in our Ladybirds room. We also have a new staff member
starting with us in the coming weeks; Amanda will join the Bumblebees team on
the 05th October.
It is with sadness that Jenni will be
leaving the nursery to try a new career path. Interviews are currently being
scheduled for Jenni’s replacement. Jenni’s last day with us will be Tuesday 13th
October. I am sure that you will join me in wishing Jenni the best of luck for
the future. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Dates for your diary:
Friday 16th October – Kids
Klub will be here to take a video of the children on a Christmas sleigh. If you
would like to attend please see Michelle for a time which would be suitable for
you. Kids Klub will be here all day. Please may we ask parents not to dress
their children in blue or purple on the day as this will interfere with the
colour settings on the film.
Thursday 5th November – We
will be holding a bonfire party between 6pm – 7pm. There will be sparklers and
a bonfire for all to enjoy. We will be providing food; if you have any dietary
requirements please see Michelle. We look forward to seeing you there!
Policies
Please
find attached our social networking policy.
Snails
The
focus in the snails this week is crawling, wooden blocks and musical
instruments. The children will be able to experience a range of activities,
including treasure baskets, singing songs, ICT toys, exploring the cosy black
and white area, puppet play, bead mazes, rattles, musical instruments, story
books, mirrored blocks, and shape sorters. Garden activities this week include
sand play, sensory blocks, cloth books, and mirror play. 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 – Monday
Caterpillars
This
week the Caterpillars team will focus on the construction area. Activities this
week include building towers and knocking them down, cornflour play, duplo,
gluing and sticking to create a bonfire, exploring ICT toys, table painting,
large Lego, mirrored pebbles, and water play. Garden activities this week
include water play, bikes and trikes, sand play, tunnels and tents and water
and sand play encouraging the children to mix it together. 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, training Friday
Alisha – Monday
Holly – Friday
Stacy – Off all week
Ladybirds
The
current interest in the Ladybirds this week is leaf play. The children will
have the opportunity to take part in exploring leaves in the builders tray,
sponge painting, singing action songs, water play with leaves, leaf painting,
playdough and rollers, gluing and sticking creating a collage of leaves and
cornflour with leaves. Garden activities this week include collecting leaves,
exploring the ball run, trains and track, pedal bikes, dancing with ribbons and
pom poms. 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,
training Friday
Hannah –
Wednesday
Kim – Annual
leave Mon-Thurs
Bumblebees
This week the children will focus on autumn activities.
Activities this week include emotion flash cards, leaf play, and painting with
leaves, finding leaves in the garden, exploring colour change, counting what we
find (leaves), drawing lines and circles, playing on the computer, gluing and
sticking. Garden activities this week include finding leaves, playing with
water and guttering, chalk drawing on the floor, water painting, sand play,
role play picnic, balancing games, and parachute and ring games. The story of
the week is ‘Hugless Douglas’. 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.
Bumblebees will be beginning the planning of their
autumn display board, so if you are out and about over the next few weeks and
would like to bring in any leaves or twigs that you may find, this will be very
much appreciated. Thank you
Days off
Jenni – Monday
Jani- Annual leave all week
Butterflies
This
week the butterflies will focus on animal stories. The activities include
animal masks, animal stories through role play, animal puppets, animal music
and movement, making puppets to create a story, moving like animals in the
garden, singing animal based nursery rhymes, number bingo game, sand play –
using different tools and equipment, drawing shapes, water painting and
building a story around the doll’s house. The letter of the week this week is
‘Aa’ and the number of the week is ‘3’. 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
Jade – Annual leave Monday, Day off
Thursday
Tara – Training on Tuesday, day off
on Monday
Leanne is annual leave all week
Michelle is off Friday
Social
Networking
Aim of
policy
To give clear guidance to staff and parents about
how social networking is used.
Points to
consider
Social networking is a part of many people’s, as
well as businesses, everyday lives.
It can be difficult to understand where professional
and personal lines are to be drawn. This policy aims to clarify these lines.
The term social networking applies to sites such as,
but not exclusive to: Facebook, Twitter, linked in. This policy works alongside the
confidentiality policy, mobile phone policy and the using images policy.
Castle
Daycare and Preschool aim to achieve this by:
- Asking every staff
member to maintain confidentiality when using social networking sites.
Under no
circumstances are staff allowed to discuss Nursery life on their personal
social networking media.
- Asking all current
parents and staff to maintain the professional boundaries and not make
links (friends) on social networking media.
- When using the
Castle Daycare and Preschool’s social media sites such as Facebook and
blogs, confidentiality is to be maintained and only information deemed
suitable and that has the suitable parental permissions is to be shared.
- Any images used on
Castle Daycare and Preschool’s social media sites, must have the correct
parental permission and be of a suitable nature.
- Staff may not use
social networking sites during work time unless on breaks, with the
exception of Nursery related social networking sites.
Failure
to follow this policy may result in disciplinary action
