Dear parents,
We had a great week exploring our family last week. We still don’t have many family photos. Please do send one in so we can share them within the group.
This week we are exploring our emotions. We will be looking at how we feel and what makes us feel happy, sad, angry etc. We have some amazing activities planned to engage the children in this theme. We will also be making apple crumble at the children’s request.
Focus sheets
Please do bring back your child’s focus sheet when we give it to you. It’s really important that we work together to ensure your child progresses as much as they can in their time at preschool and knowing about their interests and experiences at home really offers us an insight into this.
It also shows Ofsted how we work with and engage with our parents, something they will be looking for when we get our inspection.
Older children
Our older children have been starting off their small group activities. Before we move onto letter recognition we first have to start with rhyming, listening and attention skills and tapping out rhythms. There is of course lots more to it than that but these are the foundations which we build on before anything else and is so important for future reading success. Having good, strong fine and gross motor skills is also key, so we offer lots of activities to work on these. Ioana leads the sessions and works really hard to plan exciting and engaging activities. She then works to each child’s strengths to ensure they move at a pace that’s right for them.
Donations
Thank you to those who have been able to donate towards snack and other extra activities. Susies song time is £3 per week, per child and forest school is £3 per month, per child. If you can help towards this cost at all we would be super grateful. We are a charity run preschool as you know so we rely on this to be able to offer a variety of experiences for the children.
Fees
Our fees will be increasing after October half term. We will be charging £5.50 per hour instead of £5.25. We have not increased our fees for over 2 years so we feel like this is a fair increase. We understand that the cost of living is rising for everybody but that also has for us with regards to hall rent, staff wages etc, so we need to be able to adapt to that too. Please chat to one of us if you have any questions about this.
Welly weds
The children loved welly Wednesday last week. They counted leaves, made patterns, enjoyed mixing hot chocolate and much more with Hannah our forest school teacher. This week they will be working on some faces using materials they find outside with Julie.
Most children came in ready to go out and get started with the session. A few however did not. Please can you make sure they are dressed ready to go on arrival. It takes a lot of time away from the staff dressing them that could be spent engaging with the children otherwise.
We have waterproofs for sale in the foyer if you need any.
Volunteers
We have a big favour to ask. Our decking area outside is super slippery and very much in need of pressure washing off and painting with a non slip paint. Does anybody have any spare time to offer to help with this before the winter sets in?
Please let us know if you do. It is currently too dangerous for us to use so we would really appreciate it.
Thank you in advance.
That’s it for this week. Please let us know if you have any questions at all.
Leanne and team