Castle Nursery South Hill: W/c 19th November

Dear Parents and Carers,

Nursery News:

Family books

All the rooms are going to be creating new family books, please can we ask you to bring in a few photos so we can make one for every child. Feel free to email them across and I can print them off for you. We aim to have this complete by the end of November. Thank you in advance.

Autumn/Winter Menus

The Autumn/Winter menus will be going live next week. If you have any questions about the new menus please let us know.

Spare Jars

The bluebell team will be making some snow globes for Christmas over the next month, if any of you have spare jars or suitable pots for this that you no longer need, please do let us know.

Nativity and Carol Service

It has reached that time of the year again where we are starting to organise the Christmas productions! Buttercups and Bluebells will be holding two carol service’s on Monday 10^th December at 3.00 and 4.30. The Sunflowers will be performing their nativity on Tuesday 11^th December at 9.45 and 4.15. We thought we’d give you plenty of notice so you can make arrangements with work. The 4.30 carol service and 4.15 nativity are full up, there is a waiting list in place for these. There are still tickets for the 9.45 and 3.00 shows.

Children in Need

Thank you to everyone who took part in raising money for children in need this week, a big thank you to all your generous donations. We will let you know the winners of the fun competitions and how much we raised next week. With our donations we will make a real difference to the lives of children all across the UK.

Dates for your diaries

6^th December – Babies and Bluebells Christmas Parties

7^th December – Pre-schools Christmas Party

10^th December – Babies and Bluebells Carol Service – 3.00 and 4.30

11^th December – Pre-School Nativity Play – 9.45 and 4.15

This week’s activities and event-

In2 sports – At in2sports this week the children were building their motor skills and balancing while balancing different items on our bodies. The children then practiced their dribbling skills with balls.

Nature club – During this week, four new nature clubbers, started nature club. We explored our new environment and found rabbit holes!! We even made a picture out of leaves, flowers and fairy dust.

Forest School – For Forest this week we have been using tools to make a name disk out of wood. We had to listen carefully to instructions from Owen, wear protective gloves and work with a friend to saw and drill our wood. We even had time to play hide and seek.

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: Bonfire Night

Monday – Sammy’s group are developing their fine motor skill by selecting small craft items to create bon fire pictures

Tuesday – Leanne’s group will be taking turns to explore Sunflowers computer, practising their mouse and typing skills

Wednesday – Sammy’s group are exploring their body parts by painting their hands and feet to create marks on large sheets of paper.

Thursday – Jamie’s group are building on their mark making skills by creating marks with a range of media.

Friday – Hannah’s group will be have a role play tea party, promoting chatting babbling and the use of single words.

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

Bluebells

Topic of the month: Music

Monday – Megan’s group are playing shape Bingo, building their knowledge of shapes, numbers and amounts.

Tuesday – Donna’s group are choosing their own stories to read, developing their listening and turn taking skills

Wednesday – Chloe’s group will be building their understanding of routines by getting ready for the day, acting out the experience with their peers.

Thursday – Ruby’s group are going on a trip to Guildford Library, they will be observing the world around them during the walk and then reading stories once they reach the Library.

Friday – Carla/Ruby’s group will be getting creative, making marks with paint.

Donna is off Friday, Chloe is off Monday and Tuesday, Megan is off Thursday and Friday, Ruby is off Monday and Carla is in all week.

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 is creating their own creations. They will be encouraged to look at shapes and sizes and talk about what they are making.

Ines’s group will be building their mathematic skills while playing number and shape games. The children will be developing their counting skills and shape recognition through group games.

Topic of the month: Autumn

The letter of the week is: y

The children will be:

Talk about the letter y

Writing the letter y

Exploring the letter y alphabet shaker

Finding the letter y in words around the room

Using the colour yellow

The Number of the week is: 8

The children will be:

Counting to number 8 on our fingers

Exploring number puzzles

Grouping together 8 objects together

Writing the number 8in the sand tray

The shape of the week is: Rectangle

The children will be:

Talking about the rectangle shape

Counting the sides and corner

Looking for rectangles around the room

Drawing the rectangle shape

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

Jenni and Ottilia are in all week.

I am at a Managers training on Monday, I will be working early shifts Tuesday and Thursday and all day on Wednesday, Friday I will be working 9-30 – 3.30. If you have any queries when I am not here please speak to your child’s Room Leader or Jamie.

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:

Government/ local authority free entitlement policy

Aim of the policy

To outline what government/ Local Authority entitlements are available for parents.

Points to consider

Parents are eligible to claim for Nursery Free Entitlement from the term following their child’s 3^rd birthday up until they start school.

All children, from the term after they turn three, are entitled to 15 hours per week (for 38 weeks); this is known as the ‘Universal Offer’. This is currently offered as 3 hours per half day session for 38 weeks of the year (during term time).

Some children will be eligible to receive 30 hours per week (for 38 weeks); this is known as the ‘Extended Offer’.

The Extended Offer is only available to families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family) and each parent is working for a minimum of 16 hours per week and have an annual income of less that £100,000.

HMRC have developed an online system that parents can use to apply for the extended entitlement. If they are eligible, they will be given an eligibility code, which they will need to present to the Childcare and Learning Group setting of their choice.

Parents will need to reconfirm their eligibility every 3 months via the HMRC online system.

https://childcare-support.tax.service.gov.uk/par/app/applynow

It is possible for parents to claim for Free Entitlement at two settings as long as the maximum hours that the child is entitled to are not exceeded.

Childcare & Learning Group settings also offer the extended funding for those eligible. It will be stretched across 51 weeks of the year so children will be entitled to a maximum of 22 hours per week.

In order for children to use the extended funding at our settings, they will need to attend the nursery for a minimum of 3 full days per week and the remaining hours will be charged and include the cost for meals.

For parents wanting the extended funding on a term time only basis, we will only be able to offer this to children attending full time term time only and these children will be entitled to a maximum of 30 hours per week and the remaining hours will be charged and include the cost for meals.

We are unable to provide any ‘funded only’ sessions for the extended offer.

Two year old Free Entitlement

This is an eligibility based funding from the term after the child’s second birthday. Applications for two year old funding are made via the local authority and places can only be allocated once eligibility has been confirmed. Any sessions used outside of the funded hours will be charged at the full fee rate. The session times that the funding can be used, will be decided by the setting.

Free Entitlement using the ‘Universal Offer’ only

Each setting has a limited number of Free Entitlement only sessions available under either the three and four or two year old funding depending on the setting and local authority.

Registration fees do not apply for Free Entitlement only sessions. Free Entitlement only sessions will have no fees attached to them, unless the children attend over the Free Entitlement only sessions or choose to attend during the school holidays. Free Entitlement only sessions are set sessions put aside by the setting management. Parents will be offered only the sessions available that have been created for the Free Entitlement only sessions.

The setting manager will be able to provide further information on the sessions available and how they are applied.

Kind Regards,

Jess, Jamie and the South Hill Team

Castle Nursery & Pre-School

Childcare and Learning Ltd

14 South Hill | Guildford | Surrey | GU1 3SY