Dear
Parents and Careers,
Forest
School
Today was our last session of forest school for the
current group, we were all very excited to get started as we knew we would be
cooking on the fire today. We headed to the shed to get our supplies and then
found an area for our fire. We found some hazel sticks and peeled them to make
our own skewers to cook the marshmallows. We cooked marshmallows on the fire
and ate them with biscuits, they were really yummy! After this we made sure we
put out the fire and split into groups to play hide and seek before heading
back to nursery.
Parents
Forest Taster Session
A
reminder that Lee the Forest School leader will be holding the parents Forest
School taster session this Sunday 24th April at 10.00am, so please
come along and see for yourself why your children love the Forest School
sessions!
Living
Eggs
Exciting
news that the chicks will be back with us from Monday (25th)!
Over
the next few weeks we will watch them hatch and grow. Please feel free to pop
into Sunflowers to see them as much as you like!
Sun
cream and sun hats
As
summer is quickly approaching and hopefully the lovely weather will continue
can we please ask you to make sure your child has labelled sun cream at nursery
and a labelled hat when appropriate.
Annual
Survey
Survey
results
Thank
you to everyone who completed the survey this year. The results have been
invaluable and the results will go into our new focused improvement plans.
Here
are the highlights of the feedback given:
Nursery
strengths:
Communication
within the nursery.
The
staff are committed and approachable.
Stimulating
garden areas.
The
nursery atmosphere.
Nursery
areas to improve:
The
variety of the food within the tea menu.
Continue
to improve and discuss with parents our daily planned and spontaneous
activities both inside and outside.
Develop
our parent notice boards within the rooms by having a main parent display board
in the hallway.
The
nursery buggy shed is small and it can be hard to fit buggies in at times.
Key
things we have taken from the feedback and are in the process of developing:
Parent
Notice board
We
currently have communication notice boards in all the rooms for parents to
refer to regarding menus, routines etc, but we are now going to be introducing
a main parent notice board which will be located in the hallway for you all to
refer to. If there is any particular information you would like to view on a
parent noticeboard please let me know your thoughts!
Buggy
Sheds
Our
maintenance team are going to look into this, but obviously with space and our
location we are limited. In the meantime please can you make sure your buggies
are folded up when put in the buggy shed and please can you make sure that
other people who may be collecting know to do this as well. I will keep you
updated.
Tea
menu
The
new Summer menus are starting the week of 2nd May, therefore this is
the perfect chance to introduce a more varied tea menu.
After
viewing Markenfield and Shamley Green’s tea menu our aim is to continue to offer
a mixture of cooked and dried teas each week but develop a more varied menu for
all ages. As this was mentioned in our parent survey we would love your
suggestions of teas you would like to see on the new menu.
Please
bear in mind it’s the management team here that organise and prepare the teas
and our real issue is time and kitchen space, but we would love your help and
suggestions of any ideas you have. Additionally, if there are certain fillings
you would rather your child not have here at nursery then please let us know as
we can offer alternate fillings.
For
our previous autumn/winter menu we introduced soup, baked beans, spaghetti
hoops, cheesy pasta along with our ongoing favourites of warm baguettes,
crumpets and pizza and salad. For our summer menu due out we have already added
homemade cheese and marmite twists, cous cous with peppers, filled wraps,
cheese and tomato crackers. Please let me know your thoughts so we can
introduce an exciting, varied tea menu.
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.
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: Carbon monoxide evacuation procedure
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.
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:
This week’s planned activities are also on the
ILD’S.
Buttercups
Monday – Charlotte’s group will be investigating
the shape puzzles developing an awareness of different shapes
Tuesday – Charlotte’s group is engaging in
pretend play with a variety of hats supporting simple understanding and
language
Wednesday – Shula’s group are exploring a variety
of materials such as water, sand and balls while reading the ‘Thomas at the
Beach’ book
Thursday – Shula’s group will be watering the
plants in the garden with their friends and washing their hands afterwards
supporting early hygiene routines
Friday – Mel’s group is playing co-operatively
together while rolling balls to each other
Charlotte is off Wednesday, Mel is off Tuesday,
Nilem is off Monday and Shula is in all week
Bluebells
Monday – Chloe’s group will be practicing their
counting skills using counters and cupcake cases
Tuesday – Donna’s group are playing ‘Simon Says’
with their friends promoting listening and attention skills
Wednesday – Donna’s group is searching for mini
beasts and looking at patterns on trees and flowers using the magnifying
glasses in the garden
Thursday – Megan’s group are making different
coloured ice boats promoting exploration of different medias and textures
Friday – Almu’s group will be encouraged to
recognise and express simple feelings while reading the ‘How Do You Feel’ book
Donna is off Friday, Chloe is off Thursday, Almu is
off Monday and Tuesday 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: Developing our speaking
skills through reading a story and having group discussions about the Living
Eggs
The children will read the Living Eggs book
with a member of staff, they will be encouraged to maintain their attention and
join in with group discussions about how we can care for the eggs. The children
will then talk about the different stages the eggs will go through over the
next couple of weeks. The activity will be extended and the children will be
encouraged to extend their vocabulary by grouping and naming.
The letter of the week is: W
The children will be:
Setting the easel up with letter W stencils
Reading the ‘Whale and the Snail’
Playing with the water tray
Talking about our weekends
Making a W with playdough
Talking about the colour white
The Number of the week is: 1
The children will be:
Finding the number 1 around the room
Holding up 1 finger
Talking about shapes with 1 side
Writing the number 1
Making the number 1 using playdough
The shape of the week is: Oval
The children will be:
Looking at pictures of ovals
Observing the oval eggs
Talking about how many sides the oval shape has
Making a picture of an oval
Setting up oval shapes in the mark making area
Leanne is off Monday, Hector is off Thursday and
Becci is in all week.
Carbon monoxide evacuation procedure
Aim of policy
To give guidance to staff on what to do if the carbon
monoxide alarms indicate a leak.
Points to consider
It is important that all staff familiarise themselves with
the Carbon Monoxide detector in their setting as there are a wide range of
detectors available.
Castle Daycare and Preschool aim to achieve this by:
In the event that the detector shows Carbon Monoxide to be
present staff should:
- Turn off appliances or other sources of combustion at once.
- Immediately get fresh air into the premises by opening doors and windows.
- Call the gas emergency services
The number is: 0800 111 999,
A
member of staff will
- Alert all staff and children by sounding the alarm.
- Evacuate the building with the children in their care in accordance with the local setting evacuation procedure.
- Take out any registers for which they are responsible.The Manager (where the Manager is not present the most senior member of staff present) will:
- Check toilets, utility room and kitchen.
- Ensure that registers of children are complete.
- Ensure every child, member of staff and others are fully accounted for through taking registers and enquiry of staff.
- Contact the fire service and other emergency services if required.
- Act as the main point of contact for the Gas service and other appropriate services.
- Take responsibility for contacting parents/guardians/ carers.Do not reenter the premises until told to do so by an approved Gas Safe Engineer.The evacuation of the nursery is a significant event and therefore Ofsted must be informed within 14 days of the evacuation
Kind regards,
Jess Smith
Manager, SENCO
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