Notes from the management team - our Directors Nicki and Tracey and our Manager Poonam and Deputy Manager Jeanna:
At the end of January, we sadly said goodbye to Cathy -we apologise for not letting you know any sooner than we did, we just had to make sure things were in place to cover her absence before we could confirm her lastday. We would like towish her all the best with her new adventure. Moving into February, we would like to welcome our new families to Harvard Park as well as encourage you to get posting on your child’s EyLog profiles. Our Early Year’s Educators work hard to provide you with observations, pictures and video’s of your children’s learning with us and we would like you to share their learning experiences outside of the Pre-School. If you are unsure of how you are able todo thisplease come and ask us.
A few reminders and notes:
Could weremind all parents at both settings not to be on your phones when you are collecting your children even if you are at the gates, once you are collecting children you should be able to hand your child to the practitioner with important information for the day ahead and you should be able to receive your child at home time and listen to anything the practitioner has totell you. It is important for your child to be seen heard and appreciated andyou are unable to do this when you are talking or scrolling on your mobile phones.
If your child is due to go to reception class this year - If you have not applied you MUST make you application ASAP. Please come and See Poonam if this is you and we will help you as much as we can. We cannot apply for you, this is all down to you as parents and guardians.
If you are going to be absent from pre-school for whatever reason - even if it is one day, please make contact with us via email, text, phone call or registering it on ParentMail. It is important for the setting to know how many children we will be expecting.
Term dates and closures:
Please see your copy of the term dates:
We will be closed on Monday 13th February for 1 week. We will re-open on Monday 20th February. We will also be open on strike days unless you are informed otherwise. All children are expected to attend.
Birthday’s for the month of February :
We have no birthdays for the month of February!
Happy Valentines day for the 14th!
Happy Pancake day for the 21st of February as well!
Reminders:
Label all your belongings - Please ensure all coats, hats and gloves have your child’s initials in them so that they are not misplaced or go home in with the wrong person. We cannot take and responsibility for items going missing or going home with thewrong family.
If your child will not be in for any reason, please make sure you contact us to inform us as to why.
The children have been sharing their family albums, if you haven’t already please send in photos so all children can have the opportunity to share their family photos with their friends.
If you haven’t already you could invest in a book bag to join the reading club to take your child’s favourite book home to share with them. Readingreally helps with your child’s language development and builds up their vocabulary and we have a variety ofbooks to take home and swap when finished.
Notes from your Pre-School Teachers: Jeanna, Roshelle, Lara, Lucy, Cathy and Rhea: We have been learningabout winter, hibernation,day and night and Chinese new year, thechildren have been so busy exploring thedifferent activities around this topic and have especially enjoyed reading theowl babies story.You may notice your children coming home with lots of artworkplease give them the opportunity to share their experience of creating theartworkby talking to your children. We will continue with our last 2 weeks of thelearning plan:
Week 5 (30th to 3rd Feb) and Week 6 (6th to 10th Feb): Space - We are learning about space this term at preschool.We will be looking at thestory whatever next.If you have this book could you read it with your child and let them have opportunities to talk about thepictures and recall thestory from knowledge.We will be looking at rockets, planet’s, astronauts andthedifferent space equipment and vehicles they have.We will be making our own planets using paper Mache, talking about theshapes colours and sizes.we will be exploring space and developing our imagination by roleplaying in our space ship by dressing up and acting out going to the moon in a space rocket.We have been also singing thesongs zoom, zoom, zoom and 5 little men in a flying saucer.If you know these songs please sing them with your child at home to help them come familiar with our new songs.
Home work – could you make a rocket with your child at home using junk modelling. Please don’t forget to take pictures and upload to the eylog.
We will then being our next learning plan after retuning from February half term:
Week 1 (20th to 24th Feb): Traditional Stories and Pancake day on the 21st - This week we will be looking at “Once upon a time …” stories.Goldilocks and the2 bears and Jack and thebeanstalk mayfeature.For our older children we will begin to look at the way stories are structured and the younger children will beableto roleplay thestories.We will also plan a few activities based around pancake day suchas food tasting and pancake tossing in the garden.
Week 2 (27th to 3rd March): Favourite Stories -We will be continuing to explore stories and books but encouraging thechildrento pick out their favourites.This will tie in with World Book Day which is on Thursday 2nd March - dress up and bring in your favouritestory! We will alsobe helping thechildren to create their own stories as well.
Please upload pictures to the EyLog - thank you to Chase, Louis and Tamika’s parents who do this regularly - We would love to see moreparents contributing to their child’s learning journals and will be checking in with you to seeif you know how to do this.
Reminders:
Birthdays and celebrations: Can we please remind you that fresh cream cakes are a nono.Simple character cakes, cupcakes or tray bakes from a supermarket are sufficient.There is less wasteand children prefer them.Party bags - we would like to discourage you from providing partybagsand suggest that fruit snacks or small books as gifts are a much better and healthier choice.
Forest School: Forest school has been a success and we will be starting another group after half term so look out for your email!
Parent’s in Partnerships will be making a come back - we will be inviting parents to join us at some stageso please be patient while we figure out our plan of action for theyear.Please be assured that everyonewill getto have a turn and come in.
School Readiness: Wewill also be starting our School readiness withthechildren who are due to go to reception this year. You can support us by introducing “learning time” at home.This can be anything from mark making to writing their name, mathematics to having a story together.Itsimply means setting time aside where your child hasto sit and attend to an activity of your choice. This is something we implement in our routine while at nursery and we are encouraging you to start athome too. Next month we will be encouraging you to focus on your child’s routine surroundingbed times.