Week Commencing 21st December

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

Parent diary 2016

I have attached our parent diary for 2016. This diary shows some of our important dates next year along with some of the festivals we will be celebrating.

 

Forest School

Forest school will be running again from 2016 for the Pre-School children. Lee our regional forest school leader who most of the children know will still be doing the sessions. South Hill’s forest school day is currently a Tuesday. Please speak to the Pre-School team for more information.

 

Christmas Closure

A reminder that the Nursery will be closed from 4.00pm on Christmas Eve so that we can send the staff home early for Christmas. We reopen as normal on Monday 4^th January 2016. A reminder though that the school term starts again on Tuesday 5^th. However funding doesn’t start until Monday 11^th January.

 

Interactive Learning Diary

Don’t forget to check out all the exciting things your child has done this week, on their ILD profile.

We aim to put at least one observation up per week.

Follow the link below: http://www.interactivelearningdiary.co.uk/

 

Policy of the week

We will be displaying a different policy every week at the bottom of this newsletter.

If you would like to see this or any of our policies please ask Jess.

 

Our Policy of the week: Biting policy

 

 

Useful websites:

Here are the links for the Surrey Family Information Service, Free Early Education (the 15 hours funding) and Free Early Education for Two year olds.

 

www.surreycc.gov.uk/fis
www.surreycc.gov.uk/fee
www.surreycc.gov.uk/feet

 

Menus

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

See attached document for the weekly menu.

If you would like to see a copy of our allergens menu at any time please ask!

 

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/ 

 

This week’s planned activities are also on the ILD’S.

 

Buttercups

Monday – Shula’s group will be practicing their self-care skills while feeding themselves at meal times and dressing themselves

Tuesday – Charlotte’s group is singing number rhymes encouraging awareness of number names

Wednesday – Mel’s group will be investigating paint while making festive pictures 

Thursday – Shula’s group are playing bubble games promoting simple language

Charlotte is off Monday and Thursday, Mel is off Tuesday, Nilem is off Monday and Shula is in all week.

 

Bluebells

Monday – Chloe’s group are exploring media and textures while using Christmas cutters and playdough

Tuesday – Donna’s group is discovering a variety of objects, they will be encouraged to recognise the differences in the objects in front of them

Wednesday – Almu’s group will be getting themselves ready for the garden and preparing for meal times, building confidence and independence skills

Thursday – Chloe’s group are making hot chocolate for snack while talking about Christmas

Donna is off Wednesday and Thursday, Chloe is off Tuesday, Almu is off Thursday and Megan is in all week

 

Sunflowers

The Sunflowers have one detailed weekly focused activity to ensure all the children have the opportunity to take part in it.

This will work alongside their weekly planned activity list which you can see in the room and on the ILD’S.

 

This week’s activity is: Talking about Christmas time!

 

The children will be encouraged to talk about Christmas, they will share what they already know about Christmas with their peer group! The children will be encouraged to create a Christmas picture for their family.

 

 

The letter of the week is: F

 

The children will be:

Writing the letter F with stencils

Watching feathers float in the air

Thinking of objects that begin with F?

Water and fish in the water tray

Playdough fun with F stencils

Singing ‘Five Little Frogs’

Alphabet fishing

 

Leanne is off Wednesday, Becci is in all week and Hector is off all week

 

 

Biting policy

 

Aim of policy

To give practitioners and parents guidance on how we handle incidents of biting, intervene in biting attempts, help prevent future incidences and try and stop biting behaviour from occurring in the first place.

 

Points to consider

It is always the aim of Castle Daycare and Preschool to manage negative behaviour by looking at ways to stop it occurring in the first place. We feel that by having a stimulating curriculum, well trained practitioners and an interesting and suitable environment, the children should be more interested in playing, exploring and learning. However some young children, especially between the ages of 14 months to 3 years, go through a phase of biting.  For most, biting will disappear once they are able to express their feelings and needs with words, but in some cases it can continue. Biting can be a very emotional issue for children, parents, carers and staff. Staff must make sure to handle incidents in a way that respects, supports and reassures both the child and family who were bitten and the children and family of the biter. See the inclusion policy and Education policies.

 

Castle Daycare and Preschool aims to do this by

• Responding calmly and quickly.
• A member of staff will comfort and attend to the child who has been bitten.
• Another staff member will speak to the child who has bitten.  It will be made clear to the child, in a manner appropriate to their stage of development, that this behaviour is not acceptable.
• The member of staff addressing the biter, will show that this behaviour is unacceptable by the tone of their voice, body language and if the child is old enough to understand by explanation, e.g. that it is wrong to hurt others.
• Staff will supervise the reconciliation of both children as quickly as possible.
• Staff present will consult on their understanding of the facts of the incident and then record these in the incident log, stating where, when it happened, who was present and how it was dealt with.
• Both sets of parents will be informed separately and privately, without identifying the other child, at the earliest opportunity and maybe by phone or email if it is felt appropriate by the Manager.  If it is felt that the child needs medical assistance or is too distressed to stay in the setting, we will contact the parent/guardian as appropriate.
• Staff in the child’s room will need to monitor both the biter and the children being bitten. Information such as if the child is biting or attempting to bite one child or a number of children should be recorded as part of a behaviour record.
• If there is more than one incident of biting by one child in a recent period of time a behaviour record and ABC of behaviour should be started. The ABC of behaviour is a Surrey Early Years programme where preceding behaviours are identified to help see a pattern and create a solution. 

 

If biting continues in the nursery, the approach we will take is as follows:

• We will speak to the parent(s)/Carers of the child who has been biting to reassure them that we will track the behaviour to identify any pattern.  This could be due to frustration, hunger, attention, teething, curiosity etc.
• If a pattern is identified, we will draw up an action plan and a copy will be given to the parents and the staff, to be reviewed after two weeks, and we will adjust our routines accordingly.
• Strategies that we may choose to use could be,

Separating the biter and the child who is bitten, this may be of use if the biter is only biting one child.

Shadowing the biter, where staff work 1:1 or in a lower ratio with the chid

Looking at care routines, is the child hungry/thirsty or do they need their sleep routines adjusted?

• As each child is different we will look at each case of biting separately. However if the Manager feels the staff or child needs additional support they will seek advice from the Early Years and Childcare Service with the parent’s permission.

• We would speak to the parents of the child who has been bitten and explain that the other parents have been informed and we are working together to resolve the issue.

We are a fully inclusive nursery, and we will work with parents to resolve any behavioural issues.

 

 

Kind Regards

 

Jess Smith

Manager, SENCO