December Newsletter

Welcome to this edition of our newsletter. With darker skies and cold crisp mornings, the seasonal changes bring a host of new experiences for us to share with you.

Exploring Autumn

The babies and toddlers have been busy exploring the Campus. Wrapped up and cosy in Snowsuits they visited the Nature trails. On their journeys they observed the changes in the trees and collected fallen leaves, sticks and conkers. Back at Pre-School the treasures they collected filled new sensory blocks and the leaves were used to enhance mark making with paint. Bags filled with lavender and cinnamon sticks provided lovely new scents to discover.

Halloween & Bonfire Night

Halloween and Bonfire night also featured this term. The activities created by the talented teams were wide and varied. Fine motor-skills and good hand eye co-ordination were required when using tweezers to rescue small spooky items out of the giant spider web. Sticky slime and gruesome goupe hid a host of creepy crawlies. The children in PS3 were intrigued to discover a skeleton in the sand tray, this required further investigation and captured their imaginations.

The children excitedly discussed events they had been to with family and friends. We also chatted about how it made us feel. Not everyone liked the loud bangs of the fireworks, but everyone enjoyed carving pumpkins and dressing up.

Super Stew and Awesome Apples

Encouraging the children to make healthy choices and try new foods has been a big success in Pre-School. The children really enjoyed both preparing and eating the food they made. Chopping and cooking a range of vegetables to make a Super stew full of ingredients to keep us healthy was great fun and being involved in the process from start to finish created a real sense of achievement and satisfaction.

We were lucky to find some delicious red apples growing in our garden and they were picked and used to make vegan apple turnovers. A very tasty treat for the children in PS1.

Special Visitors

Harvey visited for an educational session with the children about road safety. His clear messages which he delivers in such a fun interactive way always have a positive impact on the children and we are pleased to be able to offer them.

Following on from the road safety road show we had a visit from two of our local police officers who discussed their roles and how they protect us and keep us safe. The children were most impressed when staff member Abi was handcuffed!

Always keen to ensure the children understand how things are made and the processes that are required to achieve a finished product we were delighted when a parent brought in a spinning wheel and wool to give a demonstration. The children were fascinated and they learnt so much.

Successful Recycling Initiative

Mark, the petrol station team leader from Pye Motors, has passed on a thank you to all who kindly collected empty crisp packets for recycling. So far a total of 40,909 have been collected and Mark hopes to reach 50,000 by the end of the year. £220 has been raised so far for St John's Hospice so please keep the packets coming!

Maths and Messy Play

A recent workshop, held for families to explore maths and messy play in Nursery was enjoyed by all who attended. The team provided a range of fun activities with a maths

based theme and explained why introducing mathematical language and concepts from an early age is so beneficial, with loads of suggestions for how it can be easily incorporated into everyday routines such as pairing socks.

Diwali

Celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights the children enjoyed making Rangoli patterns with brightly coloured rice. The symmetry involved in the complex patterns provided opportunities for discussion and comparison. Clay Diya lamps were carefully crafted by the children in Pre-School 2.

Christmas Information

Christmas Baking with Chef

Children from the Pre-School rooms will be decorating Christmas cookies with Stuart – Head Chef on Wednesday 4th December. This is a fun and festive way to start the Christmas fun!

Christmas Parties

Christmas Parties will take place on Tuesday 10th December. All parents have received an email invite and we request that you advise the staff in your child’s room if your child will be attending no later than Wednesday 4th December.

The times for the parties are:-

Baby Room 10.00am until 11.00am

Crèches 10.45am until 12.45pm

Nurseries & Pre-Schools 10.30am until 1.00pm

Harvey Rush Children’s Entertainer will be attending the Nursery and Pre-School children parties.

If your child does not normally attend Tuesday morning it will be necessary for them to be accompanied by an adult for the duration of their party. Parents will also need to order a party lunch box with the main office paying £2.00 (cash only).

Can we please request for parents bringing and staying with their child that they park in the visitor spaces on campus and not in the Pre-School lay-by to ensure that the lay-by is available for parents dropping off and collecting their children.

Christmas Play

This year’s Christmas Play ‘Whoops a Daisy Angel’ is being performed by Nursery and Pre-School children in the Nuffield Theatre on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th ~December.

Tickets will be available to purchase on Monday. Due to high demand tickets are initially limited to 2 per family for the performance in which your child is participating.

A recording of both performances will be made and is available to purchase at a cost of £8 per DVD. Order forms will be included with your ticket purchase.

Further details regarding the performances have been emailed to parents.

Cinema Visit

On Monday 23rd December at 10am the children from Nurseries and Pre-Schools will be visiting the Elizabeth Livingstone Lecture Theatre to watch a screening of the Snowman. If your child does not attend that session you can join us, please note however that you must accompany your child at all times. Additional places will be limited so please advise us in the main office if you wish to attend.

Chirstmas Jumper Day

On Friday 13th December, all staff and children are invited to wear their Christmas Jumpers donating £1.00 to help raise money for Save the Children.

General Information

Centre Closure

A reminder that the Pre-School Centre will close at 5.30pm on Monday 23rd December, re-opening on Thursday 2nd January for Christmas.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our parents and children a Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukkah.

We look forward to welcoming everyone back in the New Year!