W/c 17th Sep

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

Nursery News:

Parent’s Evening

A reminder that it is parents evening on Thursday 27^th September.

Pop in anytime between 6.30-8.15, to chat to your child’s key person.

The Pre-School team will be completing a ‘Going to School’ presentation at 6.30pm to let you know what we do in the Pre-School to get your child ready and excited for school.

You can also have a look at the next room if your child is due to move up and have the chance to talk to other parents.

Hope to see you all there!

Sammy’s Charity Sky Dive

In September Sammy will be completing a charity skydive to help raise money for the British Heart Foundation in memory of Megan’s mum. The target to reach is £500 so if you would like to read Sammy’s story or donate please visit the link below.

Thank you in advance for all your help and support. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sammyrogers.

 

Dates for your diaries

27^th September – Parents evening

1^st October – Grandparents week

This weeks activities and events

Forest School – This week during Forest School the children had their last session, to celebrate their final session the children had a fire and toasted marshmallow’s.

Nature Club – During Nature club this week, we took our new group for the first time. We learnt about Nature Club rules and we explored our new environment, by looking, listening touching, and talking about what had interested us.

French – This week was our first French class of the term, Miche was teaching us how to say “Bonjour” to each other and how to pronounce “ oui” and “non”. We then played a game where we had to close our eyes and a friend would roll a ball to us, when we opened our eyes Miche would ask who we thought had rolled the ball to us? We had to answer “oui” or “non”.

 

Next 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 

 

Topic of the month: Vehicles

Monday – Jamie’s group are building on their interest in balls by throwing, rolling, kicking and catching different shaped balls in the garden.

Tuesday – Leanne’s group are developing their interest in books by reading “Farm yard Friends” and making the different animals sounds.

Wednesday – Sammy’s group are exploring song and story sacks, Sammy will be reading stories and singing songs with puppets and props.

Thursday – Hannah’s group will be investigating our sensory bear, by turning, poking and twisting the different parts of the bear building on our motor and coordination skills.

Friday - Hannah’s group will be using a range of media to mark make and create cars and trucks.

Leanne is off Monday, Jamie is off Wednesday, Sammy is off Thursday and Hannah is off Monday. 

Bluebells

 

Topic of the month: Nursery Rhymes

 

Monday – Megan’s group will be going on a treasure hunt, exploring the whole nursery. they will be using their listening skills to find clues and to work together to find the treasure. 

Tuesday – Donna’s group are choosing their own stories to read, they will be encouraged to talk about the stories and their pictures.

Wednesday – Ruby’s group are singing “Miss Polly had a dolly” alongside the nursery rhyme book. Afterwards they will get creative making their own paper dolls

Thursday – Donna’s group are developing their sharing skills by exploring the jungle animals in groups, they will sing “ the animals in the jungle go” as they explore the different animals.

Friday –  Chloe’s group are discussing together what their favourite animals are, before creating animal masks using different media.

Donna is off Friday, Chloe is off all week, Megan is off Thursday and Friday, Ruby is off on Tuesday.

 

Sunflowers

 

In the Sunflower room each Key Person plans and implements their own Key Group activity, but the room works on the same area and aspect to ensure the activity is individual to each Key Group and therefore meets the specific Key Group’s individual needs.

 

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

 

Becci’s group will be reading the Gruffalo story and then they will be making Gruffalo Tusks (fruit kebabs). The children will be developing their understanding of health and self-care by washing hands, fruit and discussing what foods are good for us to eat.

Ines’s group are playing a dance game, they will be dancing to music, using streamers. When the music stops Ines will shout out an action to carry out (e.g. make yourself small, tall). 

Topic of the month: Jungle Animals

 

The letter of the week is: Pp

The children will be:

Talk about the letter P

Make mud Pies in the mud kitchen

Cutting Pears for snack

Making Pig masks

The Number of the week is: 14 

The children will be:

Counting to 14

Collecting 14 leaves in the garden

Writing the number 14

Talk about the number 14

The shape of the week is: Triangle 

The children will be:

Make a Triangle with our hands

Count the sides of the Triangle

Make pictures out of Triangle shapes

Look at different types of Triangles

Becci is off Wednesday, Ines is off Tuesday and Eva is in all week.

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: www.interactivelearningdiary.co.uk

 

Facebook

Castle Nursery and Preschool Facebook page promotes the company, engages with parents and team members across our nurseries.

If you would be interested in following this page, here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/Castle-Nursery-and-Preschool-790319011138020/. We will be regularly adding events and photos to the page.

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!

Useful websites

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

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

www.surreycc.gov.uk/eypp

 

Our Policy of the Week: 

Use of information technology in the setting and prevention of children accessing harmful online material policy

Information Technology includes: iPads, tablets, computers and any other technology capable of accessing online content.

Aim of the policy

To give staff clear guidance on how information technology is to be used and restricted in the setting both with and without children.

To ensure children in the settings are protected from accessing harmful online material.

Points to consider

Using tablets and computers is now part of our role as practitioners for:

·        Observing, recording and assessing children’s development

·        Researching and learning with children.

·        Planning curriculum

·        Communicating with parents

·        Sharing professional information with colleagues

The extent of the use of information technology is restricted and all other policies. E.g. confidentiality, social networking, come before and work alongside this policy.

Childcare and Learning Group aim to achieve this by:

All settings will have an IT Designated Responsible Person. Where an IT Designated Person is not in place, the responsibility will be with the Nursery Manager.

In this setting, the IT Designated Responsible Person is: Jess Smith

When using IT without children:

As the children’s learning journey is now an online portal system on the Interactive Learning Diary ILD, the use of IT devices is now commonplace in the setting.

Practitioners must use IT devices responsibly. It is important to make sure that practitioners do not “hide behind” the iPads, preventing them from interacting with the children in their care. The iPads are there to enhance the practice not impede it. Practitioners must make sure that they are only using the iPad for short periods of time when on the floor working with the children.

Observations/photos and videos can be saved so the work is not lost, meaning work can be picked up on at different times.

Each room will need to look at the best times that writing up observations can be completed by practitioners. Each room will also need to work together to ensure that when a practitioner is using the iPad to record observations, the rest of the team are working with the children.

Only websites/apps that have been approved by the manager are allowed to be used by practitioners.

Music should only be downloaded using the nursery iTunes account so that the manager or IT Designated Responsible Person can monitor and ensure that only appropriate music is being listened to by the children.

The Wi-Fi on the IT devices must be disabled unless it is specifically required for an approved activity. Immediately after the online use has ended, the Wi-Fi must be disabled.

When IT devices are not in use, they must be stored out of reach of children.

When using IT with children:

At all times that children are engaged using IT, they must be directly supervised.

Wi-Fi will only be enabled during times that online material needs to be accessed during adult led investigation and research with children.

Only apps that are able to be used offline will be downloaded for children’s use.

The children are not allowed to watch videos, e-books or television on the tablets. Any IT use must be ‘active engagement’ (interacting with the programme or app), not ‘passive engagement’ (watching the programme or app).

If IT devices are available to children to access independently, the Wi-Fi must be disabled and secured so that it cannot be turned on by a child.

In all situations:

All IT devices should be securely stored when the setting is closed.

If a manager has given specific permission for an IT device to go home to enable a practitioner to use it for training, catching up on work or another professionally approved reason, the IT Designated Responsible Person or the manager, must check the internet history prior to it leaving the nursery and on return.

To ensure the IT devices continue to be used appropriately by practitioners their user history should be checked every week with these checks recorded.

The role and responsibility of the IT Designated Responsible Person is as follows:

·        Checking the IT devices website history weekly. (This does not include the nursery main office administration desktop computer/s)

·        Ensuring that only setting approved apps are downloaded on the device

·        Approve music and app downloads in agreement with the setting manager and in line with setting budgets.

·        Referring any issues with operation to the manager

·        Referring any concerns with online material accessed to the Designating Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and the manager.

Important note: When using IT with children, like all aspects of work with children, be alert to children’s messages considering the Prevent Duty and Safeguarding Children practices.

Jess Smith

Nursery Manager

Castle Nursery & Pre-School

Childcare and Learning Ltd

14 South Hill | Guildford | Surrey | GU1 3SY

Tel: 01483 533344 | Fax: 01293 772971 | Email: southhill@castledaycare.co.uk | Web: www.castledaycare.co.uk