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Welcome to our October Newsletter
We would like to take the opportunity to welcome all the new families who have joined us at the Pre-School Centre at the start of the Autumn term. We hope that your time with us is an enjoyable experience.
Staff training day
Our annual staff training day was led by the incredible Shonette Bason Wood an exceptionally talented Early Years motivator and educational trainer.
It was a very interesting day, with the entire team embracing Shonette’s motto ‘Spread the Happiness’. Her exuberance is infectious, we were laughing, singing and at times being very silly. It reminded us of what it felt like to be children and how we ourselves can bring the joy into everyday activities. You can expect to hear about Flipper Flappers over the coming months!
Famous for her fine muscle exercise Dough Disco, Shonette also introduced the team to a range of new ideas to make learning and development fun, not only for the children but the adults as well.
Primary school admission 2025
If your child was born between 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2021, please ensure you apply for their place at primary school using the link below.
myHappymind Silver Accreditation
We are proud to announce that we are a myHappymind Silver Accredited Pre-School!
This means that as a setting we consider the mental health and wellbeing of our children as one of our top priorities. We have created a culture that helps build our children's resilience, confidence and self-esteem as well as teaching them how to self-regulate in stressful times.
Remember, to access these materials, just go to the myHappymind Parent Resources and enter your name, email, and authentication code. Your authentication code is mhm057.
Black History Month
During October we will be looking at Black History and working with rooms to help develop the children’s knowledge and understanding. We will celebrate influential people and look at the many contributions they have made in society. Find out more on the Black History Month website.
Baby Room
Exploring
The babies in the Baby Room have loved exploring our ‘That’s not my giraffe’ tray. The babies were interested and engaged in Helen’s wonderful interactive story time, watching Helen point out the tactile patches, sign the word giraffe and they explored different textures in the tray. This is one of our books of focus for the term, and we will continue to encourage and promote the love of stories and rhyme encouraging language development.
Crèche 1
Rustle and crunch
As the new term begins, we have picked the ‘That’s not my hedgehog’ book as one of our focus points for activities and learning. The children are really interested in the book and enjoy the sensory tactile pages.
We decided to extend the hedgehog theme by making our own pictures. The children went out searching for leaves in the garden. We explored the different colours and textures. They enjoyed the rustle and crunch of the dry leaves.
Fine motor skills were developed as the children used twigs as glue spreaders, before carefully placing the leaves to create their hedgehogs.
Crèche 2
Let’s get physical
In Crèche 2 we have been focusing on developing the children’s physical skills. This has included large gross motor activities, such as dancing with scarves, floor activities including mark making on a large scale, and table top activities, developing co-ordination with puzzles and the lock boxes.
We took a group of children down to the sports field with some footballs. The children were able to run freely on the sports fields using the space to kick, roll and throw the footballs. We also saw a tractor which was very exciting. The children were eager to explore, and it was a great experience which we will repeat.
Nursery 1
Wiggles
Inspired by Shonette on our staff training day, the team in Nursery 1 have encouraged the children to draw pictures of themselves. We will revisit this activity after Christmas to see the difference in the children’s drawings and observe any developmental changes, for example, the addition of extra features (a smile on the face/feet on the end of legs etc).
We have also introduced 'Wiggle me into Squiggle', a combination of music and large movements, this activity is designed to encourage the muscle development which will positively impact the children’s fine motor skills later in childhood.
It’s a very fun activity, so we put on ‘The Only Way is Up!’, a very lively song and gave the children two crayons each, we encouraged them to move their crayons up and down and side to side using big movements to make marks on the paper. We also encouraged them to cross their arms whilst drawing. We then used the up, up, up motion with our arms.
Nursery 2
Mark making fun
In Nursery 2 we have explored flour, colour, and mark making. The children used different sized brushes to mix and stir the colours into the flour and were fully engaged when watching the colour change. They watched each other and chatted as they mixed. Then they watched as we modelled how to make shapes, lines, and names in it. They all fully understood the simple directions and worked as a team to make patterns in the flour. The children enjoyed the activity, and even helped to sweep up the flour that had fallen on the floor!
Pre-School 1
Leaf Man
Over the last few weeks, we have been talking about autumn and the changes we can see in our environment. We have been focusing on a book called Leaf Man and the adventures the leaves have as they fall from the trees and the wind blows them along on their journey. We have also been reading a rhyming story called Going on a leaf hunt, we had fun in the garden as we went on our own leaf hut exploring all the different colours, shapes, sizes, types and textures of leaves as they had fallen from the trees. We then used these leaves to create our own representations of Leaf Man.
Pre-School 2
Crumble
We picked some of the apples from the apple tree outside our room and made an apple crumble. We all helped to peel the apples, chop the apples with the children’s knife and helped to mix the flour, butter and sugar to make the crumble topping. When the apple crumble was cooked, we enjoyed trying it for our pudding after lunch.
This simple but effective activity introduced a number of educational concepts, the children worked well as a team taking turns and they learnt how to follow a recipe, understanding that print has meaning. Cutting the apples and using other equipment to mix the ingredients increased physical skills. Maths was incorporated with weighing and measuring. These activities can easily be done at home. Here’s a recipe for you to try.
Pre-School 3
We have recently incorporated Dough Disco into our room and the children love it, not only is it a great way to get them focused but it develops their listening skills and encourages them to follow instructions. Dough Disco also helps develop muscle strength in the hands which later helps contribute to pencil grip and control and it also aids fine manipulative skills.
You can read more about the benefits of Dough Disco on Shonette’s website. We thoroughly enjoyed and were very inspired on our training day with her.
Upcoming Events
Teddies Club
Teddies will be commencing on Friday 11 October. The sessions run from 10am until 11.30am every Friday morning during undergraduate term time and will take place in the Fylde College Common Room. Further details can be found on the Pre-School Centre website.
Photograph days
Photograph days will be happening on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 October. If your child does not attend the Pre-School Centre on either of these days, please contact the office to book an appointment if you wish for your child to have their photograph taken.
Any families with school siblings and are wishing to bring them in will also need to book an appointment with the office. We are unable to accommodate any children who are not in attendance to have their photo taken without an appointment being booked.
Reminders
Pre-School website and newsfeed
We would like to remind parents that you can access regularly updated information from our website and on our X and Instagram feeds.
Funding
A reminder that parents in receipt of working families funding need to revalidate their eligibility every three months from the date of issue. Failure to revalidate your code will result in a loss of funding.
Important dates
Full year booking term dates
Autumn term 2024
Tuesday 27 August to Monday 23 December 2024 inclusive
Spring term 2025
Thursday 2 January to Wednesday 16 April 2025 inclusive
Summer term 2025
Wednesday 23 April to Friday 22 August 2025
Undergraduate Term Booking Term Dates
Autumn Term 2024
Monday 7 October to Friday 13 December 2024
Spring Term 2025
Monday 13 January to Friday 21 March 2025
Summer Term 2025
Monday 28 April to Friday 27 June 2025
Invoice dates
Autumn 2024 term
27 August to 27 September 2024
30 September to 25 October 2024
28 October to 22 November 2024
25 November to 3 January 2025
