Newsletter April 2022
Welcome back to Pre-school. I hope you all had a lovely Easter break.
I would like to welcome Melody, Lydia and Henry to Pre-school this term.
Focus: this term we will explore the topic of ‘mini-beasts,’ learning about lots of different insects. We will go on mini beast hunts with magnifying glasses and also have some real caterpillars that we will watch as they grow, turn into cocoons and become butterflies. During the next few weeks we will also be concentrating on developing all the children’s fine motor skills, collecting lots of tiny things for collages, ripping paper, threading beads, using tweezers to collect objects both inside and out, snipping and cutting with scissors, using the tap a shape set and exploring the playdough. These experiences help develop the co-ordination needed to develop things like pencil control and managing fastenings on clothes.
Some of the children will be taking part in more focused phonics sessions at their own level where we will be practising listening skills as a priority but also learning letter sounds and copying/writing letters from their names and other words if the children are ready. The children will also learn about rhyme. We will be basing some of our plans around the early stages of the ‘Read Write Inc’ phonics’ programme which is used in Bollinbrook Primary School and if you google ‘Read Write Inc guide for parents’ there is lots of information on the website.
We will be planting seeds in our new outdoor pots and each child will plant their own seed and bring it home to watch it grow. We will be turning our outdoor house into a garden centre for the children to use with lots of flowers and other garden equipment to sell! On the last day of this half term, Thursday the 26th May, we will be celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee a little early. We hope to be able to have our own garden party outside, weather permitting of course, and we will provide a picnic lunch for the children on that day.
Next Steps: You will be receiving a next steps sheet this week and would appreciate it if you could complete this and return it to us. This helps us plan for your child’s individual needs as the term progresses and will be useful to share at parent’s evening.
Parent Questionnaires: We will shortly be sending out some simple questionnaires about our setting for you to complete. We use the replies to these in helping to plan for improvement so would really appreciate you taking the time to fill them in.
Photographer: Our photographer, Dawn, will be taking photographs of the children on Friday 10th June. These will be ready for purchase a couple of weeks later. This session will hopefully take place outside. The children leaving for school will be photographed individually and in small groups and the small group pictures are then compiled into a group one. Younger children will just have their photographs taken individually. If your child does not usually attend on a Friday but you would like them photographed then please bring them in for 9 am. More details and consent forms will be sent out closer to the date.
Parent’s Evening: We will be holding a parent’s evening on Thursday5th May from5-7.30pm in Pre-school. We will be putting up time slots on the cloakroom door for you to book in to see your child’s keyperson. Each slot will be 10 minutes long. If you do not usually drop off or collect your child just let us know what time would suit you via email and we can book you in.
Toddler Group: Bollinbrook Primary School is starting a weekly toddler group on Thursday 21st April. It will run from 9.30 until 11 am. All are welcome from new-born to pre-school age children and tea and coffee with be served for the grown- ups and snacks for the children.
School Leavers summer trip: On Friday 8th July we will be taking our school leavers to Gruff outdoor learning centre in Marton for our summer trip. If you would like to have a look on their website you can see what the children will be getting up to- www.gruffoutdoorlearning.co.uk
I will be sending more details about the trip in the next few weeks with consent forms and pricing etc. If your child is not a school leaver and normally attends on a Friday we can rearrange their session for another morning/day that week. The exception to this is 3 year olds who have a full time place with us and these children will be invited to come on the trip with us
Sun Cream: If the weather forecast is for sunny weather could you please ensure you have applied sun cream to your child before they come into Pre-school and that they have a named bottle of sun cream in their bag. Could you also send them in with a sun hat. If your child is in Pre-school all day we can help them re apply cream after lunch.
Caroline Bickerton Pre-school Manager
