Harvard Park Day Nursery LTD.
Notes from the management team: our Managing Director’s Nicki and Tracey and our manager Carol:
We are in March and thelighter evenings are coming, thewarmer weather should be followingand we are looking forward to spring! We have a littleupdate for you - Sam from FreedomZonerecently underwent some surgery on her back and is therefore going to be away from the setting for (we think) afew months however this depends on her recovery.We have been in contact with Sam and thesurgery went well and she is now recovering inhospital, hoping to be ableto go home soon.We will update you as and when we know more and wish her a speedy recovery.
A few little reminders for March:
If you are going to be away from the setting for any amount of time - whether it is a day or a week, please let us know.It can have a knock on affect to the routine if rooms are planning walks or trips and are waiting for a child who isn’t goingto turn up.We understand it can be extremely busy and rushed in themornings but please let us know if you are not coming in via email,phone call or via ParentMail or theEyLog.If your child is sick - please try to give us an estimated day for your return.
Please DO NOT let other parents into the building via the front door. If you are in thelobby could you please not let other parents in usingthegreen button as we had someonelet a lady in who was NOT A PARENT.This is a big child safeguarding issue .Thechildren’s safety and safeguarding them is our primary concern. Please do NOT encourage children to push thebutton or open the door as this is also teaching them the opposite of what we teach when inside thesetting.Ringing thedoorbell is fine.
If you are getting rid of any children’s books - please consider donating them to us - thank you to those parents who have recently donated clothes and toys - they always come in handy and anything we don’t need, we always give to thecharity shop next door.
Health and Safety Notices and reminders:
Label your belongings: We cannot be heldresponsibleif your child’s belongings are misplaced - if there are no initials in the item, we cannot be blamed if it goeshome with someone else.A simple marker pen onthe label will help us all out. Please also label your child’s water bottles and cups to avoid mix ups.
Please do not leave bikes in the lobby: The lobby is primarily for buggies for the baby studio and where necessary, Small Steps.Children above the age of 2 and half should be encouraged to walk or scoot to nursery. Only scooters can be left at the site, bikes mustbe taken with youas wehave a limited space andscooters are easier to store.
We are updating our policies and procedures - Our policies and procedureshave now been updated and sent off to our legal team to be checked. We arehoping that we cangeta fullcopy of these out to youby the end of March.
Dates for you diary and reminders:
Thursday 2nd March: World Book Day - We will be dressing up as our favouritebook Characters to help celebrate World book day! We would like to encourage you to let your child do thesame.
Friday 17th March - Happy St Patrick’s Day!
Sunday 19th March - Happy mother’s day to all thestrong female figures in our lives!
Sunday 26th March - British Summer timebegins - hooray.Also happy Holi if you are celebrating!
Birthdays for the month of March:
Baby Studio: Happy 1st birthday to Advik for last month (we are sorry we missed you off thenewsletter).
Small Steps: Happy 2nd Birthday to Ikenna!
Freedom Zone: Happy3rd birthday to Liyanaand Happy 4th Birthdayto Sarai!
Staff: Happy birthdayto Ellie! We hope everyonehas a lovely day celebrating!
Notes from Baby Studio: Ducklings - Amanda, Mary, Afsha and Gurpreet: Focus: Communication and Language
We will be doing lots of age and stage appropriate activities focusing on the babies language and development this month. There are lots of different ways to encourage babies language and here are some of the fun activities we will be doing: going out in the local environment in the buggies and talking with the children about what we can see, song time singing action songs and rhymes, animal sound activities such as modelling animal sounds and names for the babies to copy and sharing stories together by looking at our story boxes. Don’t forget world book day too - the baby studio will also be dressing up! Please upload pictures to the EyLog - thank you to our parents who do this regularly - If you are not sure of how to do this, please come and see Amanda who will be happy to help you out and walk you through how to do it.
Reminders:
Washing bottles at home: Please wash and sterilise all bottles and cups EVERY day.We only rinse them here as and when they are used.They need a proper wash at home to avoid thebuild up of mould.
Please check your child’s bags when they are sent home from nursery: Please check to see if there is enough spare clothes for when your child comes back to nursery.Please also make surethese clothes still fit as we are taking some items out which nolonger fit your baby.Always check in there to seeif there are any outfits which also need to be washed - those sent home in little nappy bags.
At home, trim you child’s nails: Please trim your child’s nails.Best timeis bath timewhen they are soft - if you have trouble, try while they are in their deep sleep state. We are having accidents involving nails on children themselves such as scratching or itching.
Notes from Small Steps: Bunnies - Qani, Liliana, Ellie-May, Anna and Vanashree: Focus and Topic: Stories!
We would like to start by welcoming Ines, Theodore and Nina intoour room - they moved up during thelast month and have adapted to our room very well! We would like to say goodbye to Micaiah,Felipe and Kyrie who have now moved up to Freedom Zone. Could you all please send us an updated mummy and child pictures for our mother’s day gifts please - as soon as possiblewould be great.To kick off our topic for March we will be looking at different stories and World book day on the2nd. We will be focusing on The3 littlepigs (which is currently thechildren’s favourite), Dear Zoo and Peace at Last. If you haven’t before, try visiting your local library and registering with them so you can expand your books and find new ones you have never tried before.Thelibrary also runs activity days and groups during theweek that you could visit.Lastly, encourage your child to pick their favourite story and bring it in to share with us.We can read them at group timetogether or maybe a parent could join us to read!
Please upload pictures to the EyLog - thank you to Rajishanti, Poppy and Nina’s parents who do this regularly - We would love to see more parents contributing to their child’s learning journals If you are not sure of how to do this, please come and see Qani who will be happy to help you out .
Reminders:
Pull ups are for Potty training ONLY: If your child is potty training please use pull ups as this is easiest for thechildren.If you are not potty training please use nappies.It takes a lot of time to change 12 children and pull ups hinder this process.Italso hinders thepotty training processwhen it comes to it as children do not understand the difference between a pullup and a nappy.
Breakfast finishes at 9:00am: Please be aware that breakfast finishes at 9:00am - any later than this and it has a knock on affect to therest of theday. If you wanted detailed feedback please make sure you are picking up at 5:50pm - we still have to clean the room and put everything awaybefore we finish our shifts.
1 parent inside at a time: We are beginning to inviteparents back into the building however please be aware this will be oneat a timeas we don’t want to overwhelmthe children.This is something they are not used to and may cause upset in thebeginning so please be patient.
Harvard Park Day Nursery LTD.
Notes from Freedom Zone: Cool Cats - Viviana, Charlotte, Sam, Sherry, Ellie, Elvia, Hannah, Harriet, Amy G and Danielle:
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyonewho participated in thespace project.All the entries we had were amazing and we feel it was a really positive learning experience for thechildren.They were excited to do a show and tell in their littlegroups.Our next project will be based around easter but we will let you know of thedates closer to the time. Your key worker will also be approachingyou during thefirst 2 weeks of March about their upcoming Mother’s Day Parent in Partnership sessions - for Sam’s key-children,you will have a new keyworker in place in her absence.If you are not sure who this is, please come and see Viviana or Charlotte and they will introduceyou.
We are continuing with our next learning plan which is as follows:
Week 1 (20th to 24th Feb): Traditional Stories and Pancake day on the 21st - completed.
Week 2 (27th Feb to 3rd March): Favourite Stories-We will be continuing to explore stories and books by encouraging thechildren to pick out their favourites.This will tie in with WorldBook 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.
Week 3 (6th to 10th March): International Song Week - We will be exploring music from around theworld and different cultures, genres and tempo’s.Through a range of activities including making our own instruments, we will be looking at the traditional music from different countries and learning how we can move in different ways to certain types of music such as classical and electronic,noticing how they make us feel.
Week 4 (13th to 17th March): Mother’s day and St Patrick’s day - We will be creating gifts with everyoneand for our older children,looking at why we celebrate these 2 specific celebrations.Mother’s day falls on theSunday of this week and St Patrick’s day is on Friday.
Week 5 (20th to 24th): Everything Role Play - Play is still an importantpart of a child’s learning and for thenext two weeks we will be focussing on differenttypes of roleplay.In this wewill be incorporating different occupations,scenario’s and environments from everyday life.We will be setting up a café,vet’s surgeryand an airport to name a few! If there is anything about your jobyou would like to come and share with us - talk to Viviana and she will be ableto setup a session for you to come in and demonstrate your skills.
Week 6 (27th to 31st March): Everything Role Play (continued). This will also be where we evaluate our last setof targets - please remember we ask for your support with these outside of thesetting and we would greatly appreciate any evidence you have to support thelearning which happens outside of the nursery.Thank you to those parents who regularly do this- we can really seehow much thesupport helps.
Reminders:
Coats, Hats and Gloves: As theweather is forever changing please continue to provide warm coats as well as hat and gloves even if thesun is shinning.We do not have spares on site so please provide them and writeyour child’s name in thelabel.If they are not provided, your child will not be ableto access walks around the local area.
School Readiness: Wewill also be continuing our School readiness with thechildren 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. Please upload pictures to the EyLog - thank you to Amarr, Diyar, Harjind,Leo and Sarai’s parents who do this regularly - We would love to seemoreparents contributing to their child’s learning journals. If you are not sureof how to do this, please come and see Viviana,Charlotte, Amy S or Ellie who will be happy to help you out and walk you through how to do it.
Dates for you diary and reminders:
Thursday 2nd March: World Book Day - We will be dressing up as our favourite book Characters to help celebrate World book day! We would like to encourage you to let your child do the same.
Friday 17th March - Happy St Patrick’s Day! Sunday 19th March - Happy mother’s day!
Sunday 26th March - British Summer time begins - hooray! Also happy Holi if you are celebrating!