Newsletter :: February 2010

Education provision in the school is closed from Monday February 15th until Friday February 19th  Daycare provision will be open as usual

There will be holiday club places in the school building on Monday  to Friday from 8am - 4pm.  This is for children aged 3-8 years old.  Please ask in the school office if you would like to book a place.

Reminder

Education provision in the School will be closed from Monday 29th March until Friday 9th April – there will be holiday club sessions during these weeks for children 3-8 years

Daycare will be closed on Good Friday- April 2nd  and Easter Monday- April 5th

Both centres will be closed on May  3rd – bank holiday and May 7th for staff training

There is a bank holiday on May 31st

Please come to a short meeting where Mrs Kenny will talk to you about the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum for children aged 0-5. she will tell you about all the things we do to meet the learning needs of the children and how we assess where they are up to and plan for their development

There are 3 meetings

Morning        Thursday 4th  March 9.15

Afternoon      Tuesday  March 9th    at 1.15

Evening  Monday   1st  March at  5.15 o’clock

All parents are invited -  the meeting will last about an hour

Parent consultation days will be during the first

 two weeks of next term

 12-23rd April

We will discuss the progress made by your child during

January February and March

 and the individual objectives for your child during the next term

 You will be given a letter to make an appointment nearer the time

Health and safety in your car

 Your child must sit in the back seat of your car on a booster seat with a seat belt.

We have had to speak to several parents about this.

 It is illegal to have your child in the front seat

 It is illegal to have your child in the back without a booster or set belt.

the police often do spot checks around our building and parents are give an

 immediate fine if they are found to be breaking the law.

This law is in place to protect and safeguard your child- I am shocked that some parents are prepared to put their child’s life at risk by not ensuring their safety in the car

Please do not leave other children in your car with the engine running when you bring your child into nursery. This also could have serious consequences

Your child is the most precious gift you have -please please please  think about their safety and not your convenience.

Please show the children and staff courtesy by not using your mobile phone in our centres. Finish your call before you come in to collect your child.  As part of our safeguarding children procedures we need to be very careful that children are not able to be photographed by other parents and visitors so we will ask you to switch your phone off 

From March we will be using a text messaging service to give parents information and to contact in an emergency Please make sure we have your correct mobile phone number

Can I remind parents that any child suffering form sickness and diarrhoea must be clear of symptoms for 48 hours before returning to nursery. This is to prevent  the spread of further infection to children and adults

Using Cultural Differences to Raise Levels of Achievement

From January until Easter the children over 3 in our school will be involved in a project entitled ‘Celebrating Our Differences’ which is our school logo.

We are going to celebrate all the different cultural backgrounds and religions represented in our school. We will be looking at Africa, India and Pakistan, China, Britain and Eastern Europe through activities such as stick dancing, mark making using clay, a toy workshop, celebrating the Chinese New Year, visits to High Street Library for story telling sessions, visits to a Mosque or a Temple or a Church and visits to Bolton Art Gallery.

Different organisations such as Bolton Music Service, Artists in School, the Library Services, Bolton Museum and Archives and Bolton Interfaith Council will be helping us with our project. By the end of the spring term we hope to have the school decorated as different parts of the world. If parents have any items that they could bring in to school to represent different cultures we would be pleased to show them to the children and display them.

 If any parents would like to come in to read traditional stories from other countries then please speak to Mrs. Reid.

Please look at the lovely paintings and drawings the children have done

Visit Africa in the construction area and China in the role play area

The children in the under threes centre will be celebrating the Chinese new year

Our school continues to be involved in developing a School Travel Plan which aims to cut CO2 emissions whilst at the same time encouraging children to have a healthier lifestyle by walking to school. We also want to try and reduce the traffic congestion which occurs outside our school on a daily basis. Our next walk to school day will be on Thursday February 11th. As the morning children took part in a walking bus from Sunning Hill School last term we want to invite the afternoon children to take part in a ‘Walkodile’ on February 11 starting again at Sunning Hill School main entrance from 12.45pm and ending at our school.

(A Walkodile is children and parents walking and talking together in a line as they go to school)

What is well being?

This is about children’s social and emotional development. It is important that children feel safe and secure and have good relationships with adults. Children will not learn if they are unhappy or feel anxious. We follow a system developed in Belgium called Experiential Education. They have a grid for measuring well being  as low -,moderate and high on a five point scale.

We assess well being in four areas

1. relationship with adults- this looks at how children relate to their Key person and other adults. Do they get upset when their Key Person is not here/ will they talk to adults?

2. Relationships with the learning environment- this is about how children settle in to our centres/ how do they use the activities and resources /are they confident to try new things do they need adult support to do this. Can they choose resources and make decision about what they do with them/ do they show imagination and creativity?

3. Relationships with other children- can children share and take turns/can they play alongside other children/ can they play together in small groups?

4. Relationships with the family and community- we look at whether children talk about their family and things they do in their community. Do children make links between what they do at home and what happens in nursery?

we would expect that a baby would need to make strong attachments to their key person and that being dependent on them would show high well being – point 5.

…but a four year old who was still clinging to one adult would have low well being in this area -point 1 on the scale. We have developed a set of criteria to help us assess this area and all children are assessed in this area every three months.