Week commencing 28th July

Dear Parents

 

You are my Sunshine

Please can you make sure that your child has a named hat and sun cream at nursery. We only have a limited number of nursery hats and we don’t want anyone to go without one. Thank you.

 

Nursery News

From August/September some of the teams are having a change around:

 

The Sunflowers team will become Jess, Becci and Sophie. Jess’s day off will become a Friday and Sophie will stay as a Monday. Becci will be in all week.

 

The Bluebells Team will be Donna, Leanne, Rose and Chloe. Donna will keep her Fridays off, Leanne will be off on Wednesday, Chloe will be off Thursday and Rose is in all week

 

The Buttercup team will remain as Charlotte, Julia, Nilem and Magda. Their days off will be Charlotte on Monday, Julia on Thursday, Magda on Tuesday and Nilem on Friday.

 

Megan will remain as our floating staff member and Alison will also be covering in different rooms until she starts Forest School in November.

If there is any change to your child’s key person due to the staff moves you will be informed by your room in the next few days.

 

Learning Journey update

The Interactive Learning Diaries will be started from August/September time. You will receive your passwords to log on later in the term so the staff have time to get everything up and running. For those of you who missed the newsletter previously explaining what the Interactive Learning Diaries are, here is some more information and you can always ask your key person!

From September it will be easier to see what your child has been learning at Nursery and how this links to the Early Years Foundation stage.

Using a secure online program called the Interactive Learning Diary, ILD, we will be able to record observations, add photos and videos (videos!!!) and link them all to the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Each parent will then be given a password enabling them to see their child (and only their child’s) learning journey.

Parents will be able to add their own observations, photos and videos so that we will be able to create a picture of each child’s development at both nursery and home.

This system will enable the staff to link to the Early Years Foundation Stage much quicker, to do more frequent observations that are less time consuming and spend more time with the children and less time on paperwork.

The system is very secure, with the same level of security as internet banking. You can see them in action at  http://www.interactivelearningdiary.co.uk/

 

Forest School

After the October half term we are going to start running Forest School sessions for the Sunflowers.  Lee, who already runs the Forest School at our Markenfield  Road Nursery will be leading the sessions with Alison.

The children will take part in the Forest School sessions in groups of six, on a 1:3 ratio. They will be accompanied by a qualified member of the Forest School team, Lee and Alison. 

Your child's forest school sessions will run once per week for six weeks, during term times only. The duration of these sessions will be 1 ¾ hours per week.

At Castle Nursery we pride ourselves in giving all of the children within the setting the opportunity to explore the outside world. The Forest School has been set up in order to enhance that experience.

Forest School is not just about taking the indoor classroom outside, but letting the children explore a new and exciting environment, whilst learning new skills that they may not have access to during their everyday lives. Forest school is based on the actual process of learning rather than the content of the lesson plans. This means that genuine Forest School practice is allowing the children' sessions to be unplanned, unexpected and ultimately unlimited. The children are given every encouragement to direct their own learning. As good practitioners we are able to do this by stimulating outdoor play through 'scaffolding' a child's learning, this is achieved through simply observing how a child behaves in the outdoor environment.

A woodland environment is central in supporting this dynamic approach to learning ,the dynamic nature of an outdoor environment - an infinite source of smells, textures, sounds and tastes; a range of visual stimuli from near to far, high to low, very big to very small.

Later in the term we will be giving out more information and permission letters to the Sunflower Parents. To start with, the sessions will run on a Wednesday morning but as we get up and running we are hoping to add in more sessions on other days. Forest School is optional but I hope you will be able to see how beneficial it will be for the children’s learning. Parents with CRB checks (we can help you get these) will be able to join in the sessions as well.

 

To give you the best idea about Forest school we are running a parent session on Sunday 12^th October from 10-12. More information about this session will follow!

 

Breakfast club

One of the points raised on our annual survey was about extended opening hours.

So from September we will be offering breakfast club, giving you the chance to drop off from 7.45 am.

There will be a charge of £2.50 per session and sessions will need to be booked 24 hours in advance so we can organise staffing.

 

Menus

There are no planned changes to this week’s menu.

 

This week’s activities

Each key person will be responsible for designing an activity based on their key children’s needs; however, all children who are in on that day will have the opportunity to access the activity too.

If the key person is on holiday or off, another staff member will be able to lead the activity in their place so that the children do not miss out.

For more information on the Early Years Foundation stage, the guidance we use to support our planning and practice, please visit:

http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/   

 

Buttercups

Monday – Charlotte’s group is playing imaginatively with toy aeroplanes together

Tuesday – Nilem’s group are building gross motor skills as they use the big foam bricks In the garden

Wednesday – Julia’s group will be building social skills as they roll balls to each other

Thursday – Charlotte’s group is looking at the books “What can you see Spot?” and “Beep, Beep!”

Friday – Magda’s group will be exploring musical instruments and practising turn taking.

Charlotte is in Monday and Thursday, Julia is off Monday, Magda is off Tuesday and Nilem is off all week

 

Bluebells

Monday – Leanne’s group are exploring sounds as they use the instruments

Tuesday – Leanne’s group will be using number puzzles to develop number and counting skills

Wednesday – Sophie’s group is making cards to celebrate Eid

Thursday – Donna’s group are cooking star biscuits for Eid

Friday –Rose’s group will be looking at the favourite books together and talking about what happens

Donna is off Friday, Leanne is off Wednesday, Sophie is off Thursday and Rose  is off Monday and Tuesday

 

Sunflowers

Book of the Fortnight

21^st July – 28^th July – Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jnr

4^th -11^th August – Super Daisy by Kes Gray and Nick Sharratt

18^th – 25^th August – My Mum is Great by Marks and Spencer

1^st – 8^th September – My Dad by Family World

15^th – 22^nd September – Always and  Forever by Debi Gliari and Alan Durant

Monday – Chloe’s group is making star biscuits to celebrate Eid

Tuesday – Becci is supporting the children’s creative and physical skill as they paint using different tools

Wednesday – Jess’s group will be baking cheese and marmite straws

Thursday – Jess’s group are reading stories from around the world and look at maps to see where they come from

Friday – Chloe’s group will be exploring shapes in the environment

Jess is off Friday, Chloe is off Thursday and Becci is in all week

 

Have a good weekend

Caroline and the South Hill team