Dear
Parents and Carers
Father’s
week
Next
week (15th) is Father’s week. We are looking forward to seeing all
of our Daddies at the stay and play sessions during the week or at the Full
English breakfast on Wednesday.
If
you haven’t signed up yet for the stay and play sessions, ask the staff in your
child’s room about the days and times. You can come to one of the sessions or
all of them, it’s up to you!
Room
books
I
am currently updating the room books and I need your help. The room books are
the booklets we give out when your child moves rooms or starts at the nursery
along with your key person letter.
I
am currently writing a parent information page, explaining to new parents or
reminding old parents what we do at the nursery. This is what I have done so
far, please let me know if you think these points are relevant or if you think
I have missed anything:
If
you would like to change your sessions or leave us, we require a month’s notice
in writing.
Extra
sessions/breakfast club can be booked 24 hours in advance but once booked will
be charged.
We
can only give prescribed medications, the exception to this is Calpol.
If your child is prescribed antibiotics they will need to be
away from the nursery for the first 24 hours of taking the medication.
We are happy to administer prescribed eye drops but you will
need to do the first dose at home.
We will contact you if your child needs Calpol. If they are
still poorly one hour after having Calpol we will contact you again and ask
you to collect.
We
have a duty to record all accidents and bumps. This includes when the children
come into nursery with a bump from home.
This
is part of our practice and not us pointing the finger, so please don’t be
offended!
If
you run out of nappies or wipes at nursery we have to use our spare nappies.
These
need to be replaced by you when you bring your new pack in. Please bear this in
mind as you don’t want to run out again just after bringing a pack in!
As
part of our observation system we will do an assessment on your child when they
are two.
This
works alongside the two year check the Health Visitor will do.
We
will put this check on the ILD’S and print two copies, one for the Health
Visitors records and one for your child’s red folder.
If
your child is not going to be in on their regular day please let us know.
If
we don’t hear from you, we will contact you to see if your child will be
attending.
If
you are ever unhappy with the nursery please talk to us. We have an open door
policy and you can always talk to the manager or room leaders.
If
you would like to arrange a meeting either over the phone or in person just
ask.
If
you are still unhappy you can also contact our operations manager Natalie
Chrystie on 07789 268241.
I
was also going to put information about the 15 hours funding in the Bluebells
and Sunflowers books, would you want this information in the baby room book
too?
Capital
Expenditure
It’s
the end of our financial year and as usual I have put in my (long) list for the
2015/2016 budgets.
Excitingly
everything I have asked for has been approved!
Keep
a watch out for the new garden shelter in the back garden, new equipment
indoors and outdoors, a new front hedge as well as a six seater mega buggy!
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 Caroline.
Our Policy this week
is: Suitable People and Safer Recruitment
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,
except Father’s day Breakfast on Wednesday.
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 now on the
ILD’S.
Buttercups
Monday – Mel’s group will be looking at their photo cubes
encouraging them
to recognise themselves
Tuesday
– Leanne’s group are pointing to their body parts in small groups
Wednesday
– Mel’s group are singing number songs
Thursday
– Charlotte’s group will be singing ‘The Wheels on
the Bus’ encouraging children to join in with the actions
Friday
– Charlotte’s group are looking at animal picture books seeing what animal
sounds they can make
Charlotte
is off Monday, Leanne is off Friday, Mel is off Tuesday and Nilem is off Monday
Bluebells
Monday
– Donna’s group will be looking at the photo cubes and talking about their Dads
for Father’s Day
Tuesday
– Chloe’s group is practising their ICT skills while operating the cameras and
laptops
Wednesday
– Almu’s group are going to be finger painting creating pictures of their
choice
Thursday
– Donna’s group will be practicing their listening skills while looking at
books together
Friday
– Hannah’s group will be exploring media while flick painting
Donna
is off Friday, Hannah and Almu are in all week and Chloe is on holiday
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: Cooking for our Daddies!
We
will be making delicious chocolate biscuits for Father’s Day. The children will
be taking turns and talking about cooking rules!
The
letter of the week is Ee
The
Sunflowers will be:
Thinking
about words that begin with E
Reading
‘Elma the Elephant’
Using
E stencils
Stamping
like Elephants
Making
the letter E with play dough
Having
egg and spoon races in the garden
Jess
is off Friday, Megan and Becci are in all week
Policy of the week
Suitable People and Safer Recruitment
When
potential staff apply for a position at the nursery, they are sent an
application form, which clearly states that they will be required to disclose
any criminal convictions and if successful in securing the position will be
subject to a Disclosure and Baring Service Enhanced Disclosure DBS.
New
staff who have not yet obtained their Enhanced DBS will under no
circumstances be left unattended with the children or be allowed to give
intimate care such as toileting or changing children’s clothing, until their
DBS has come through as expected.
DBS’s
will not be kept by the nursery in accordance to Data protection, however DBS
reference numbers and the dates the DBS’s were made will be recorded for each
staff member.
Any
person living on the premises, working directly with the children or who works
on the premises when the children are present (such as regular maintenance
workers) will also need to hold a DBS.
Students
and volunteers may not need to apply for a DBS as they will under no
circumstances be left unattended with the children or be allowed to give
intimate care such as toileting or changing children’s clothing. This will be
made clear to them during their induction.
All
staff will be asked each year to certify that they have received no cautions,
convictions or anything else that may change their DBS check.
All
staff are also asked to inform their manager if they feel anything may affect
their DBS, including living in the same household as another person who has
been disqualified from looking after children.
Castle
Daycare and Preschool follows the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory
Framework with regards to contacting Ofsted and other relevant bodies such as
the Disclosure and Barring Service when a member of staff is dismissed due to a
safeguarding issue.
If a
person becomes disqualified their employment at Castle Daycare and Preschool
will be terminated and Ofsted will be informed as soon as possible and within
14 days. The Nursery will give Ofsted the following details:
- Details
of any order, determination, conviction or other ground for
disqualification from registration under regulations made under section 75
of the Childcare Act 2006:
- The
date of the order, determination or conviction or the date when the other
ground for disqualification arose:
- The
body or court which made the order, determination or conviction and the
sentence (if any ) imposed and:
- A
certified copy of the relevant order (in relation to any order or
conviction)
If a
staff member fails to disclose a conviction or caution disciplinary procedures
will follow and their employment may be terminated.
So as to minimise the risk of employing or engaging
an individual who poses a predictable risk to them, the Nursery should
consider, with respect to candidates who will be working with children (either
in a paid or unpaid capacity) a safer recruitment process.
This is done by advertising in relevant and
suitable places, applying techniques that are helpful in identifying unsuitable
people and analysing information and whenever possible verifying through
references, the information is correct.
Kind regards,
Jess Smith
Third in Charge, SENCO
Castle Nursery Celebrating 20 years of care and
education 1995-2015
