Welcome to Our December 2016 Newsletter

Welcome to our December 2016 Newsletter

Christmas Celebration

Just a little reminder that our Christmas Celebration will be on Saturday 3rd December in Hyndland Community Hall (Novar Drive). All of our families are welcome. We request our kindergarten children are dropped off at 2pm to allow us time to change them into their costumes. From 2pm - 4pm there will be mulled wine and mince pies for the grown-ups to enjoy and a few stalls to pick up some last minute presents while we get the children ready. The concert will take place between 2.30pm – 3.00pm; then more mince pies will follow. Remember to bring your singing voices! We will be accepting donations for Shelter this year.

Christmas Parties

Our Kindergarten Christmas party will be held on Tuesday 20th December from 10 -11.30pm. There will be a visit from Santa & Mr Giggles will entertain our children. There will be party games and many more fun activities. If your child is in the Red, Yellow or Blue Group and does not usually attend nursery on a Tuesday, you are welcome to drop them off at 10am and collect them at 11.30am. Our babies and toddlers will enjoy small parties in their rooms throughout the week and Santa will drop off their presents on Tuesday 20th December.

Christmas Tree

We would like to invite all of our families to bring in one Christmas Decoration from home to help decorate our nursery tree. Thank you to Hyndland Primary for sharing this lovely idea with us!

Christmas Holidays

Please note that the nursery will close for 2 weeks on Wednesday 21st December at 6pm and will re-open on Thursday 5th January 2017 at 8am. Have a wonderful holiday!!!

Winter Clothing

Now that the chilly weather is with us please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for outings. The children love getting out in all weathers, so please send them to nursery with a warm jacket, hat, scarf, gloves and wellington boots where appropriate. We will continue to use our high viz jackets and torches for going out early evening.

Photographs

Thank you to everyone for returning your order forms so quickly. Alison is planning to drop off the pictures over the next few days. If you have not already returned your proof card and would like to order prints, please return to the office as soon as possible. Unfortunately late orders are not guaranteed for Christmas.

Staff News

Miss Olga has accepted a promoted post within another nursery and will finish up with us on Friday 2nd December. We would all like to wish Olga the very best of luck, she will be missed by all at Acorn Park. We will also be saying farewell to Miss Camilla and Miss Chloe on Wednesday 21st December. We would like to wish Camilla and wish her all the very best with her move to Mallaig and Chloe all the very best with her change of career, Chloe has accepted a position with Emirates Airlines and is moving to Dubai in January. We hope once Chloe has the travel bug out her system she will return to Acorn Park.

Community Events.

3rd Dec – Acorn Park Christmas Celebration, Hyndland Community Hall, Novar Drive, 2pm – 4pm. All Welcome.

10th Dec – The Snow Child By Pavla’s Puppets, Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre 2pm.

12th Dec – Blue Group children will visit Scotstoun Primary for their Nativity, 10am.

16th Dec – 18th Dec – Christmas Wonderland at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

19th Dec – Acorn Park Carol Singing, An Clachan, 10am. All Welcome.

Food Bank

This year we would like to collect for Glasgow South West food bank, giving families in need the opportunity to celebrate Christmas Day without worry. We are inviting all parents to pop a non-perishable food item under our Christmas tree in the main hall from the 1st December. Below I have listed some suggestions of items we are collecting: Spices, tinned fruit, soup, pasta sauces, jam, cereal, pasta, rice, toiletries and baby toiletries. Glasgow South West Food bank will collect from nursery on Friday 16th December.

Christmas News

We love to hear all our children’s exciting news from home! We have changed our “Family News” sheets to “Christmas News” for the festive season. Please ask our ladies for one if you wish to take a sheet home, fill it in with your child and return it to nursery. Our children love to share their news with their friends and the “Christmas News” sheets are a great way to do this.

Parents Evening

Our Parents evening was a huge success with many of our Parents taking the opportunity to engage with staff and to spend the time looking at all the wonderful learning that has been happening this term. We aim to host another event next year, a date will be confirmed asap. A huge ‘Thank You’ to all staff who stayed late to support this event.

This month we are monitoring - How Good Is Your Early Learning and Childcare: Priority 3: Wellbeing.

Q1. In what ways do we support your child and your family’s wellbeing?

Q2. What more could we do?

This month the policies we are reviewing are: Recording and Reporting of Incidents/Accidents Policy.

Q1. If your child has had an incident/accident were you confident our procedures were followed?

Q2. Would you be interested in attending a First Aid training evening?

We will be asking our staff: Fire and Emergency Evacuation Policy.

Q1. Are you confident that in the event of a fire you can evacuate the building safely?

Q2.How often do you think we should participate in practice drills?

Did you know….

‘Superhero Play’ is a favourite with 4-5 year olds?

There is a lot to be learned from this type of play and, as parents, it’s important you know that it is nothing to be alarmed about. ‘Superhero play’ can appear to be aggressive but it is actually harmless play fighting. Read the article below for the importance of superhero play as well as how to support this at home and when playing with their friends. If this is one of you or your child interests, please let staff know in order to share knowledge and learning to extend what we offer in superhero play at nursery.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all

A Very Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2017.

Recording and Reporting of Incidents/Accidents Policy

In the event of an accident/incident a full report will be completed and a member of the Management Team will be notified.

The Accident/Incident report includes:

·  Time and Date.

·  Brief description of accident/incident.

·  Name of child.

·  Names of staff present and witness statement.

·  Details of action taken/First Aid.

Parents will be informed of the incident/accident and asked to sign the report when they collect their child.

In the event of a more serious accident or incident taking place staff will administer first aid and a member of the management team will be informed straight away. If it is deemed necessary the child will be taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, 1345 Govan Road, Glasgow, (0141 201 1100) in a taxi with a senior member of staff. Parents will be called and asked to meet their child at the hospital.

We have notices identifying first aiders in all rooms in the event of an emergency situation.

We follow the care inspectorates best practice guidance on managing choking episodes in babies and children (published April 2014).

Date Last Reviewed: November 2015