Dear Parents/Carers
Welcome back! We hope you’ve all had a relaxing Christmas and everyone within our Wraparound Service would like to wish you all a Happy New Year!
TOPIC
This half term we will be learning Nursery Rhymes. We have picked one to cover each week of the half term and we will concentrate our activities upon it. Please could we also ask you to sing them at home with your child. Here's a list of the rhymes:
Week 1 - Incy Wincy Spider. Week 2 - Humpty Dumpty
Week 3 - Hey Diddle Diddle. Week 4 - Jack and Jill
Week 5 - Hickory Dickory Dock Week 6 - This Old Man
Our activities will include: number work, sinking and floating, exploring musical instruments, looking at time - how long is 5 minutes? Problem solving, e.g. how to put Humpty together again. We are also going to look at toys with moving parts and buttons and much more.
However, we need your help! Are you able to provide us with some of the resources we will need?
· Old watches/clocks.
· Kitchen roll tubes (Not toilet rolls tubes please).
· Small boxes.
· Old phones - mobile or household.
· Friction or remote controlled cars and toys that make movements when buttons are pressed or when they are pushed. Please remember these items will be played with; therefore only send them in if you, and your child, are happy for other children to be playing with them. Please do not bring anything that is likely to cause upset if it gets broken!
In addition to our topic, we will also be looking at your child’s interests and likes and we will use these in our weekly planning. You can see this in more detail in our little room on the cupboard door.
DATES FOR YOUR DAIRY
Friday 10 January – No Pre-school lunch available. Your child will need to be collected at 11:45 am.
FUNDRAISING FOR WRAPAROUND - ALEX HEYWOOD & CHRISTMAS DINNER AND QUIZ
We would like to say a BIG thank you Alex for raising £202 for Wraparound by completing a very very long walk. Thank you also to everyone who sponsored Alex. It’s so important that we continue to fundraise whenever possible because without this fundraising it would prove extremely difficult to keep our service afloat.
We had a very enjoyable evening at the Dyke Neuk for our Christmas Dinner and Quiz Night. It was great fun with a fantastic turn out, it was lovely to see lots of new faces. Our evening raised a successful £464 and all money raised will be used to purchase much needed resources.
A MESSAGE FROM CAROLINE DOWER
Thank you all so much for the lovely card and generous gift as we left Cambo in December. It has been a really sad transition and we will miss the Cambo community and the lovely atmosphere in school and Wraparound. Our small school relies on parental involvement and I have really enjoyed my roles in school over the years. I want to encourage new families to the community to come forward. We are so lucky to have the Wraparound provisions - run by local families for local families. Do get involved and shape how they evolve going forward. We hope to be back for Fetes and Fairs. Wishing you all well, Caroline, Tom, Sam, Leo and Arthur
OUTDOOR CLOTHING/INDOOR SHOES
Please can we remind you to ensure your child has appropriate clothing e.g. wellies, coat/waterproofs, hat and gloves in Pre-school. We would also ask that your child has a pair of indoor only shoes. Footwear can get rather wet/dirty after we’ve been having fun outside and it would really help if they had some indoor shoes to change into – these could be plimsolls, crocs or slippers etc.
STORY BOXES
Our Story boxes are now complete! They consist of favourite Pre-school stories with props which can be shared at home. The children will all have the chance to bring one home for a few days.
SCHOOL ADMISSIONS - REMINDER
Children whose date of birth falls between 01/09/2009 and 31/08/2010 will be due to start school in September 2014 and parents will need to apply for a place. The closing date to apply is 15 January 2014. If this deadline is missed then you may not be considered for place in your preferred school. If you have not received details on how to apply please do not hesitate to speak to a member of the Pre-school team.
SNACK CONTRIBUTION
Pre-school will continue to provide your child with a healthy snack and the charge is 40p per child, per day. To continue providing snack this way we really need you to pay on the day, or in advance, for your snack as we use the money you pay to buy to snack we provide!
We would still very much welcome any homemade cakes, scones and biscuits!
TAPESTRY – Pre-school’s Online Personal Learning Journal
Tapestry is now well up and running and it really is the best way to see what fun your child is having within our setting. We post both pictures and videos of what we are doing and you can comment on these if you wish. You can also post your own pictures and videos of any fun you have at home. If you would like to view Tapestry before you sign up, please just ask a member of the Pre-school Team.
CONTACTING PRE-SCHOOL
Please could we ask that you always contact Pre-school in the first instance with any information/changes regarding your child 07887 409641. The school office should not be contacted unless it is an emergency and you have been unable to contact Pre-school.
ABSENT OR SICK CHILDREN
If your child will not be attending Pre-school we would be really grateful if you could ring, email or text us to let us know – Pre-school Mobile: 07887 409641.
If your child has had sickness or diarhorrea please allow 48 hours before they are brought back to Preschool. If they have any infectious illnesses such as chicken pox could you please let us know so we can alert other parents.
If your child takes poorly during Pre-school, staff will judge whether they need to be taken home and will inform parents in the first instance. Please be aware that we cannot administer Calpol etc, only medication prescribed by a doctor and with a full medical form filled out by the parent/carer beforehand.
LEARNING FROM HOME
You will have received an email (or letter if you do not have email) about our Learning at Home initiative. A leaflet on how to make different types of play dough for your child was sent home for the holidays – any photographs of your homemade play dough and what exciting things you made with it would be greatly appreciated. We will begin to send home regular ‘Learning at Home’ items with your child this half term, if you do not wish to participate, please speak to your key person.
SCHOOL LUNCHES
Pre-school children are welcome to stay for lunch. The cost for lunch is £2.00 per day and this MUST be paid either in advance or on the day your child is staying. Children staying for lunch must be picked up by 12:45 pm prompt.
HEAD LICE
Please keep checking your child’s head for lice and inform a member of staff if your child has head lice.
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
We have a Complaints Policy for parents to follow within our Wraparound Policies. These are held in the lever arch file beside the Wraparound desk in the Hall. We also display Ofsted contact details for parents who have any queries or issues regarding Early Years.
PARENT HELPERS
We always welcome any parent/carer wanting to help in Pre-school, it could be to read a story, sing some songs, anything you like! Please see a member of staff if you are interested and can spare the time. If you would like to be a regular helper in Pre-school, you will need to have a DBS (CRB) check. This is part of our Safeguarding Policy for adults who come into contact with children on a regular basis and is a statutory requirement. If you need more details please see a member of staff.
CHANGE OF DETAILS
If your details change e.g. email/mobile phone number, can you please let a member of our staff know so we can update our records.
Sending correspondence via email helps us reduce printer ink cost as well as saving paper etc. If you would prefer to receive a hard copy of our correspondence please speak to your key person.
PRE-SCHOOL SESSIONS
Our session begins at 8:45 am and finish at 11:45 am. Please can you ensure you drop off and pick your child up promptly at these times, if by any reason you are late in picking your child up, please let us know by calling the Pre-school mobile 07887 409641. If parents are continuously late in picking their child up we will have to consider charging for this to cover staff wages.
STAY & PLAY
This will continue to run every Tuesday and Thursday is led by Sharon Birdsall.
If you have any queries on any of the above, please do not hesitate to speak to your key person or me.
Johanne Hodgson
Wraparound Manager
Your Pre-school Team: Johanne Hodgson, Ailsa Forsyth, Sharon Birdsall,
Jayne Wright & Caroline Laing