New Road Nursery Newsletter
Summer Edition 2014
www.newroadnursery.co.uk
Notes from the editor, please enjoy the latest round up of life at New Road Nursery.
Dates for your diary – Next events
*Wed 11th June 2-3 pm Scarecrow workshop, at NRN, Come and help us build our scarecrow for the Kington Langley scarecrow trail. All families, parents, grandparents welcome. Let us know if you can make it, we will provide everything needed and even some tea and cake.
*Sat 14th & Sun 15th June Kington Langley Scarecrow trail at Kington Langley. This is a great family day out, as they have live music, lovely homemade burgers, children’s rides, and lots more. Plus you will be able to see NRN very own entry proudly on display.
*Thurs 24th July 5-6.30pm, School Leavers concert and BBQ at NRN. We would like to invite the whole nursery to come along and hear the older children sing and join us for their presentation, followed by milkshake and hotdogs. (other options will be available, it just sounded cool)
*Fri 15th Aug, 7-8.30pm Open evening for Caterpillar parents, this is a social evening to come along join us for a glass of pimms and meet the staff, the management team and other parents. You will have a chance to look round the baby unit, ask questions and enjoy the outside play area too.
Parent Questionnaire–Thank you to all those who filled in the questionnaires we had 27 returned (35%) it would have been good to have had some more but the ones we had, had lots of info and ideas on. A very brief summary of the results are that luckily you all feel very welcome and we seem to be getting it right in your eyes too, which is good to hear. 13 graded us outstanding and 14 very good, thank you very much. Some of the suggestions were more staff info on website, maybe pictures of children doing things, to a canopy over doorways and free access to prams so staff don’t need to worry. The full results are attached and also available on our website. Thank you once again for all the feedback, both positive and constructive.
The Parent Group, the next meeting Thurs 12th June is being held at the new Rivo Lounge bar in Chippenham. Everyone is welcome. Meet from 7.30pm at the restaurant. Please feel free to come along for a social evening and get together. The more the merrier.
Door policy – I would like to remind every one that you must not let in other parents even if you recognise them? I am sorry to be harsh as many of you will be friends too, but the policy is there to keep the children safe. Thank you. P.S don’t forget to shut the big wooden gate in the playground too if you go out that way.
Bristol Standards – As a result of the questionnaire it showed that 16 of the returns were unaware that we took part in the Bristol Standards, so hopefully this will hi-light a little more info.
What is it? – It’s a national quality improvement programme aimed at under 5’s settings.
What does that mean? – As a nursery we are already very reflective and wanting to improving on what we offer and provide for the children. So we use the Bristol standards to formally record this process, - of us looking at our strong points, hi-lightening weaknesses and what we can do to improve them.
How do you do it? - Each member of staff is involved and will put their views forward, the questionnaire results will form part of it as the parents voice and we inc the child’s voice too. We follow a set template and input our data with supporting evidence, which can be in form of photos, observations, written comments, statements etc. We end up with a file that is submitted to the panel and we wait to hear the verdict. As a result we also draw up an action plan of what we plan to do in the following year.
Why do you do it? – Well its good practise, it shows you that we value and want to improve. It raises our profile and yes its hard work too!
Thank you once again for all collecting your vouchers for us, the box is looking very healthy. Would anyone be willing to take them home bundle them up and count them out for us? We don’t ask much, not only do you have to collect them, we then ask you to count them too!!!
20% Early Bird Holiday Club discount-if you know any families with school age children please let them know about our 20% off if they book into the summer holiday club before the 9th June. Holiday club is open Mon 4th Aug – Fri 22nd Aug (3 weeks) and open to all children aged 5-11years.The holiday club is on site at Ivy Lane but all children from all schools are most welcome.
Chatterbox week round up –Thank you very much to all the parents who came to the recent information evenings and bring your parent to nursery sessions (BYPTN) We are hoping to organise an evening for our bi-lingual families, and have made a change to baby handover from requests. We had a great time making dens, getting messy and having stories, we hope you did too. If you have any feedback from the events we would love to hear your views, so we can make any changes for next time. We wanted to raise the profile of early communication and how important the role of the parent is. ALSO don’t forget the staff have made some lovely bags, full of activities for you to borrow and do at home with your children. Please do ask your key person we want them to be used and loved! Caterpillars have signing bags, Butterflies have some lovely story sacks and Ladybirds have sound bags, all very exciting.
News from the groups -Caterpillar news
As the warmer weather is approaching. could we please ask all parents to provide a named sun hat and sun cream as we will be spending lots of time in the garden enjoying various activities in the sunshine. As many of you may have noticed the staff changes in Caterpillars, Lucy has gone onto new pastures and Kerry has joined us Monday to Thursday from pre-school. The children have adapted well to their new keyworkers and the new starters have settled smoothly. We have been enjoying lots of springtime crafts and activities and most recently under the sea, the children made different crafts to create an under the sea display. Pop into the classroom to see this wonderful display if you haven’t already done so. May I take this opportunity to welcome our new families to caterpillars and please do ask if you have any queries. The children are all enjoying music bugs learning new songs and actions using different hand puppets. We all enjoyed the recent visit from the mobile farm who came to our playground. We are also going to use the world cup as an opportunity to share cultures, taste new foods, and learn some new physical skills.
Many Thanks Kerrie and the caterpillar team.
Butterfly news – Hi everyone. I would like to first re-introduce myself. My name is Jess, and I have just returned from maternity leave, to join Butterflies, as room leader alongside Lucy. I am very excited to be returning to Butterflies and look forward to lots of fun over the summer. Butterflies have been very busy this past term. They had a visit from some farm animals, where the children were able to stroke and learn about different animals. The children also put their ‘green fingers’ to use, helping the gardeners plant some peas and re-potting some plants, ready for the summer months. We have been continuing our interest lead themes, and have just finished the ‘musical instruments and sounds’ theme, which was a huge (very noisy) success. They especially enjoyed making shakers, and then singing and shaking them in the garden.
We have moved on to a ‘me and my family’ theme, where we will be exploring a wide variety looking in mirrors, dressing dolls and making a big hand print nursery family tree. In the coming months we will be moving on to ‘celebrations’ and ‘summer holidays’. Please feel free to come and join in with our fun, maybe you would like to share a photo album with the children (wedding, holiday etc) or you could come in and read a story. The children really enjoy having visitors, and we have been very lucky to have had some visitors playing different musical instruments this past term. Which the children listened to really well. Butterflies continue to love playing with the play dough, listening to stories and playing in our role play corners. We are all having great fun together… exploring and creating little adventures through lots of play and imagination. Jess, Lucy, Barbara, Susan, Julie and Sarah.
Ladybird news – The last couple of months have been busy with the Ladybirds enjoying the improved weather; the gardeners, Tricia and Julian, (Lucas’s grandparents) have been visiting each Thursday afternoon to help the children to plant and care for a variety of plants and vegetables which they will eventually give to Jackie to prepare for lunch. On the same note, if you have not already done so, please could we ask that you supply a small bottle of sun screen and a sun hat to be left at nursery for the summer months
During the next 8 weeks the pre-school will be investigating “People Who Help Us, in our Townâ€. We are awaiting replies from the Fire station and the police to see if we can visit them or for them to visit us. If you know anyone who works locally for a service, (such as a postman/lady, a milkman/lady, a lollypop person, a sports coach etc) who would be happy to come into the nursery to discuss their work please speak to us to arrange a mutually convenient time. Visitors are always welcome.
It doesn’t seem long ago that we were welcoming the Ladybirds into their new groups and now we are starting the final term for those who will be leaving us this summer to start primary school, and preparing the younger Ladybirds for their transition into the oldest groups. During this term it is usual for the children to attend taster sessions at their chosen school. Please could we ask that you advise us when you know the dates and times of the visits so that we can arrange activities for them outside of those times. Also if you know your finish dates please could you let us know, thank you.
Don’t forget to save the date for our leavers BBq and sing a long on Thurs 24th July 5-6.30 at New Road Nursery garden. The children will be practising some songs nearer the time which they would like to share with you, we will present the levers with their certificate followed by some hotdogs from the BBQ.
During June the key people for the older Ladybirds will be preparing their transfer to school forms which will highlight how talented your children are! Once completed, they will be sent home for you to add your voice, before returning to us to send off to the schools. Your child’s key person will be able to explain anything that you are unsure of.
As a final note from us, it is with regret that we have to tell you that Sarah will not be working with us for the next month or so, as personal commitments mean that she is taking some time off to be with her family. We wish her and her family well and look forward to her return. Julie and Kerry will stand in and I will be helping with the Learning Journeys. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Yvonne and the Ladybird Team
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