Alexandra Nursery School & Children's Centre :: "Celebrating our differences"

Newsletter :: January / February 2009

Vacancy for governors

We have two vacancies for parent governors and these are open to parents of all children in both buildings

What will I have do if I am a governor?

You must commit yourself to attending 6 meetings a year

Each term we have committee meetings

We have two committees and each governor is on one committee

• Learning and development

• Finance and staffing

These meetings are from 5-7pm usually ( but not always ) on a Monday

It is important that governors attend committee meetings because this is where decisions are made.

If we don’t have enough governors on the night then decisions cannot be made and we have to arrange further meetings. Each governor will have an area of responsibility and needs to make sure that this area is discussed at committee meetings – for example there is a priority on the School Development Plan that says we are monitoring children’s achievement to make sure all children make progress. One governor will remind the committee to check that this is happening and ask where we are up to with this

There is also a full governors meeting once a term usually October February and May again from 5-7pm

This is to discuss requirements and policies required by the council and to inform the governor support officer of decisions made by committees.

•We also like governors to come into our buildings to see what we are doing and get to know the staff

•Please think about whether you would like to be a governor. If you take on this commitment then it is for 2 years, and you need to attend all the meetings. This is an important role that carries some responsibility to make sure the school and staff are doing the best for the children.

•If you are interested and would like more details then please contact the school office 01204 332678 or email staff@alexandra.bolton.sch.uk

Ask at the school office for a form to apply to be a governor

Diary Dates

Education provision in the school is closed from Monday February 16th until Friday February 20th 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 close from Monday 6th April until Friday 17th April

Daycare will be closed on Good Friday- April 10th and Easter Monday- April 13th

Both centres will be closed on May 8th for staff training

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.

Free Nursery hours increase

You may have heard through the media that the government is increasing the amount of free nursery education for 3 and 4 year olds to 15 hours.

Some schools and nurseries in Bolton are trialling this as part of a pilot from September 2009 to see what the implications are for staffing etc..

We are not part of this trial so the free entitlement for your child will stay at 12.5 hours. It is hoped that all children will receive 15 hours free entitlement from September 2010

Polite Reminders

We apologise for sending boys home in girls knickers but this is because we are short of underpants because parents do not return them. If we change your child and they come home in our clothes can you please return them. All our clothes have ALEX written on the back. We would be grateful for underwear and socks when your child has grown out of them

Please do not send sweets or food with your child. We have to make sure that children do not eat things that they are allergic to

We often find children sharing out sweets that they have in their pocket. This could be dangerous for some children.

Illness

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

Cheesy Biscuits

Ingredients

Grated cheese

Butter or block margarine

Plain flour

Pinch of salt

Using an equal weight of all three ingredients, either weigh on scales or use a cup

mix together with a pinch of salt to form a firm dough

Allow to chill, then roll thinly and cut into triangles

or use a shaped cutter

Egg wash and sprinkle with seeds or flaked almonds

Roll small amounts into balls and then flatten using a fork

Egg wash and sprinkle with seeds

Roll the dough into a sausage shape, roll the sausage in seeds slice into thin rounds

Bake in a pre heated oven at 180° /350°/ gas 4 for 10-15 minutes until golden

Store in an air tight tin or freeze

We hope you enjoyed the biscuits your child made for you at Christmas. You should have had a recipe in with the biscuits. Baking with your child is a good way to help them learn all sorts of things. Here is the recipe again with the learning potential you can achieve with your child at home.

Learning opportunities in the six areas of learning

Area 1 Personal and social and emotional development

Becoming confident to try new things

Feeling sense of pride when they have achieved something

Area 2 Communication language and literacy (speaking and listening)

Talking together

Naming household objects such as cup, rolling pin, cutter etc

Area 3 Problem solving reasoning and numeracy ( PRSN) maths

Weighing and measuring using scales or cupfuls

Counting – how many cups of flour /how many biscuits in each present

naming shapes

talking about heavy and light

talking about putting things in on

talking about thin fat flat round

Area 4 Knowledge and understanding of the world ( science)

Looking at how things change when you mix them together

Talking about what happened when you cook things and how they are different

Understanding about making things to give as presents

Area 5 Physical development

Using tools

Becoming confident with cutters, knives etc.

Wrapping the biscuits and tying the ribbon

Area 6 – creative development

Deciding what shape to make the biscuits

Choosing how to decorate the biscuits

Events this Month

Half term holiday for education only children 16th – 20th February

Nat Biney a musician from Ghana will be in both centres to work with

the children showing them how do to African drumming in February.

He will be in the under three’s centre on Monday 2nd February

and the over three’s centre on Thursday 5th February

Advance notice Parent consultations

for over three’s- week beginning March 9th

Under three’s week beginning – March 16th

You will be sent a letter asking you to make an appointment to see your

child’s Key person to discuss your child’s progress

Our Staff

Miss Susannah Powell is now on Maternity leave- her baby is due on February 27th

She will be back with us in early 2010

Mrs Hena Rabadia returns to the over three’s centre from maternity leave on March 3rd

We are advertising for a new member of staff to cover for Miss Powell

Assessments

All staff had a training day at the beginning of January to review our assessment arrangements. We looked in particular at WELLBEING

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 low 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?

On the training day we looked at the five point scale and the four areas and decided what this looks like for our groups of children. For example:

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 will be

assessed during January and February. The assessments will then show us which children need extra support and will help the staff to plan for individual children. We will assess them again in June to show the progress.

This kind of assessment will help us to meet the area identified in the OFSTED report