September 2014

Blog update September 2014

We are very pleased to announce that Lorraine will be holding the Team Leader position in the Nursery room while Lucy is on maternity leave. This officially starts from the 4^th November when Lucy goes on maternity leave; however Lorraine will be working closely alongside Lucy until then to gain valuable experience. 

Please can we briefly remind all parents/carers to clearly label all items of clothing with your child’s first and last name. Unfortunately sometimes items of clothing are accidently taken home by another child or misplaced. If your child’s clothes are clearly labelled this helps us to re locate missing garments.

As the weather has changed and is occasionally chilly and wet, please can we ask that you provide your child with appropriate outdoor clothes as we are finding that a lot of children are coming to nursery without a jacket/coat.

If you haven’t already done so, please can we ask that you provide a few family photos of family members that are special to your child so we can complete our displays around the rooms.

Upcoming event reminders:

·         Friday 19^th September – Princess and Pirate Day.

·         Friday 26^th September – Mcmillan Coffee afternoon.

 

Parking

It has been brought to our attention that some of our parents have been having difficulty with parking outside of the nursery. We understand that some periods of the day are particularly busy due to pick up times, but can we ask that we are mindful as to where we park so as not block other people in. Could we please ask that parents do not parallel park along the hedge opposite the building.

We also understand that this problem is not directly due to our parents, and that it also relates to parents doing school pick ups, for example, but would appreciate your support in minimising this issue.

Louise and the team at Clover Court

Congratulations!

We would like to inform everyone that Kelly. C has given birth to her baby boy today! Stanley Jason Whalley was born at 13.42, weighing 7lbs 1oz. We have printed off a photo which we have put up on Nursery and Pre-school's Parent Notice Boards.

School Leaver's Week:
We would also like to remind our pre-schoolers that next Tuesday and Thursday we are having packed lunch days. If your child is in on those days, and your happy for them to participate, then please allow them to bring in a lunch box. Don't worry about the contents, we will be making our sandwiches throughout the morning sessions and ordering in crisps, fruit, vegetable sticks and yogurts. Please remember, this activity includes all children and not just our school leavers. Could we also please ask you to bring in a photo of your school leaver children in their uniforms, so that we can talk to them about it and use them for a display.

BBQ:
Can you please make sure that you have returned the reply slip if you would like to attend our BBQ next Friday (18th), as we need to confirm numbers. We have actually been able to book a Hog Roast now, so we will be serving, pork, bread rolls, sage and onion stuffing, and Bramley apple sauce. 

Appropriate Clothing:
Can we please ask parents to make sure that their children are provided with appropriate clothing which means that they are able to choose from indoor and outdoor play on a daily basis. We understand that the English weather is slightly unpredictable, but just make sure they have a jumper, a rain mac and sun hats for example packed in their bags just in case! Please ensure all clothing items are clearly labelled with the children's names.

As always please feel free to leave any comments.

Louise and the team at Clover Court

World Cup Week

World Cup Week - Week commencing 23rd June:


We will be holding a World Cup Week next week, our lunch meals have been planned to focus on some of the countries competing in the World Cup, and we have also assigned a dress code to each country in relation to the colours in the flags:

	Country:	Lunch Meal:	Dress code:
Monday	USA	Hot dogs and buns	Red, Blue and white
Tuesday	England	Fish fingers, chips and mushy peas	Red and white
Wednesday	Spain	Paella	Red and yellow
Thursday	Chile	Chilli con carne with rice	Blue, red and white
Friday	Italy	Spaghetti Bolognese	Red, green and white

Some of the activities which we have planned for the week include:

·         Practising our ball skills

·         Face painting

·         Colour differentiation

·         Making flags

·         Looking at maps

·         Music and culture

·         Mark-making

·         Contributing to displays

Louise and the team at Clover Court

Clover Court Blog Update w/c 16th June 2014:

Practitioner Professional Development:
Here at Clover Court we like to encourage our practitioners to further their professional development by means of accessing further training and also by moving them within the rooms to provide them with experience of working with the full age range of 0-5 year olds that we cater for.

For this reason, we would like to inform you that Lorraine will be moving from the Baby Room into the Nursery Room, this will provide her with the opportunity to work within a larger team, and for her to develop her leadership skills as she completes her Level 4 NVQ.

Sam will be moving from the Nursery Room into Pre-school, this will provide her with the experience that she will need to complete her Foundation Degree which she will be starting in September. She will get to observe the children's development at this age and play a role in supporting their independence, self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as planning exciting learning opportunities.

On another note, Sarah in Nursery will also be starting the Foundation Degree in September, and Kelly. B will be finishing her BA Honours and starting an Early Years Teacher Status course.

Letters will be issued to those parents of children who's Key Person will be changing as a result of the room movements.

Term Dates:
For those of you who's children receive either the two-year-old free entitlement or the three-year-old free entitlement, the cut off date for this term is Friday 18th July.
The Autumn term begins on Monday 8th September and finishes on Friday 19th December, there is a half term period within this term, the week of the 27th October, where the free entitlement is not applicable.

Maternity Leave:
Kelly. C - As some of you may already be aware, it will be Kelly. C's last day with us on Friday 20th June, as she will be taking maternity leave. Kelly's baby boy is due on 19th July, we'll keep everybody posted as soon as he arrives! We would like to wish Kelly the very best of luck on her journey through to parenthood!

Kim - Kim has taken a year off on maternity leave, but will be returning to us on Monday 14th July. We look forward to having Kim back with us in the Baby Room.

Early Drop-offs:
Could we please remind parents not to drop their children off before their session start times unless this has been previously arranged. This is extremely important in order for us to maintain our ratios within our rooms for the safety of the children, and our staffing is arranged on the basis of pre-booked sessions.

Cosmic Club Open Evening:
For those of you who's children will be leaving us to attend 'big school' in September, we are holding an open evening over at our after-school club on Monday 30th June. This will provide you with an opportunity to have look around and meet the staff, if you require before/after school provision. We will send letters out  to all of our school leavers with further details and attendance slips.

Potty Training Bags:
Could we please remind our parents that if you have borrowed one of the potty training bags from the Nursery Room, that these are returned so that other parents can borrow them to support their children with this learning process.

Lost Property:
Please could we ask you to double check any girls pink cardigans, as one has been missing from pre-school for a week now. The details of the cardigan are:

• cerise pink
• has full sleeves
• from Primark
• aged 3-4

It does have a child's name written on the label. If found please return to pre-school.

Louise and the Team at Clover Court

Welocme to Hannah

Dear Parents/Carers,

We would like you all to join us in welcoming Hannah to Cosmic Club. Hannah is a new member of bank staff who you may have already seen at Cosmic Club. Hannah is looking forward to undertaking the Play work NVQ. Hannah is a professional dancer, she enjoys art, and is able to play a selection of musical instruments. She is very energetic and has lots of ideas for activities and the play environment.

We hope you are seeing lots of positive changes at Cosmic Club, and that the children are enjoying themselves!

 

Louise and the team at Cosmic Club

Easter Tea

We hope you are all well and enjoying the sunshine which we have had recently, Spring is here!

 

We would like to remind you of our activity plans for next week's Easter Celebrations.

Easter Teas:

Babies and Nursery Room will be holding an Easter Tea on Monday 14th April, Pre-school will be holding an Easter Tea on Thursday 17th April. We would like to invite our parents along to these events, your children do not have to be booked in. The children will enjoy an Easter Party Tea, whilst our parents will have the chance to socialise with the staff members and with one another. There are attendance lists up in each room, please ask the girls for more details.

We hope you can make it!

Friday 14th March

Art folders:

May we please encourage our parents to check their children's art folders regularly for any art work to be taken home to avoid them building up.

Peg pictures:

Can we remind parents to encourage their children to find their peg pictures when they arrive at Nursery. This not only provides the children with a sense of belonging but also allows the staff to find their bags and coats quickly.

Labelling clothing:

Can we please remind parents to label their children's clothing as our 'lost property' boxes are overflowing and we would like to return the items of clothing to the rightful owners!

Easter half-term schedule for pre-school:

We have put together an Easter half-term schedule for our pre-school children. The first week of which focuses on the season of Spring with activities planned to engage the children in environmental processes such as, life cycles. We plan to take the children out on a nature walk and encourage them to identify with the wild life around us.  We also have plans to involve the children in the planting of seeds which we will observe as they change and grow throughout Spring.

The second week focuses on the build up to Easter, including a traditional Easter Bonnet Parade! We'll also be doing some Easter cooking activities, and arts and crafts.

These schedules have been e-mailed out, but we have printed off some paper copies so please ask if you would like one.

If you would like to book your child in for an extra session in order for them to participate with any of the half-term activities, then please speak to Louise or Kelly.

Open Evening:

We have scheduled our next termly Open Evening for Wednesday 30th April. Open Evenings provide a great opportunity for you to catch up with your child's Key Person and share progress of learning and development. Parent Partnership is important to us here at Clover Court, and we very much value your input into the planning of 'next steps' for your child. Shared Input forms will be e-mailed out to all parents, please ensure that these are returned before Open Evening. If you do not receive e-mails from us, then please ask your child's Key Person for a paper copy.

Time slots have been put up in each room (Babies, Nursery and Pre-school). These will be allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis. Can we please remind you all that these are 10 minute timeslots, if you feel that this is not a sufficient amount of time, then please speak to your child's Key Person about arranging a separate time.

If your child attends pre-school, we will also be having an Open Evening on Tuesday 29th April to allow for our high volume of Key children. We will put timeslots up for this evening also, so you will have a choice between the two, again first-come, first-served.

Kelly. C (Pre-school Practitioner):

We would like to let you all know that Kelly. C is expecting her first child. She is having a baby boy who is due on the 19th July. She will be going on maternity leave on the 20th June.

Jessica:

We would like to introduce our new member of bank staff to the Clover Court team. Jessica has a Level 2 qualification in child care, and is now working towards her NVQ Level 3. She has lots of experience in working with children aged 0-5 in day care settings, and also has her own little boy.

Food:

We have recently updated our menus for lunch and tea, these are displayed within the nursery, but please ask if you would like a copy to keep at home so as to avoid any clashes in mealtimes.
We now source our meat from the local butchers, and our groceries from Cheesmans who independently source from Covent Garden Market, in order to provide the children with more high quality food.

Tasha:

We are pleased to say that Tasha (pre-school) has been promoted to Supervisor over at Cosmic Club (our after school and holiday club). You will however still see Tasha around in pre-school in the mornings before she goes off on the afternoon school run. Tasha will be keeping her school leavers with regards to being a Key Person, but otherwise, your child's Key Person will now be April who recently joined our Pre-school team (please see previous blog). Tasha will be sending out letters to provide more confirmation on this.

Blog Update Monday 17^th February:

New Staff members:

Renee:

You may have noticed that we have a new member of staff within the nursery room, her name is Renee. Renee has a good knowledge of the role of a Nursery Practitioner; liaising with parents, planning activities and supporting children’s learning and development. She is looking forward to gaining a qualification in childcare in the near future.

April:

We are pleased to announce that we also have a new member of staff joining our pre-school team on 3^rd March. April has lots of experience in childcare, and is looking forward to sharing her knowledge with her new team. She has a level 4 qualification in childcare, and has experience of working with all age groups from babies to pre-school age.

Sam:

Week commencing the 17^th March, Sam (from the baby room) will be returning to us on a full time basis.

Millie:

We have also recruited an apprentice who is due to start with us on 24^th February. She’ll be spending time in all of the rooms, as part of her apprenticeship, learning about all age groups from babies to nursery, to pre-school and Cosmic Club – after school provision.

Millie has previously been on placement here, spending most of her time within the pre-school environment.

Toilet Training Bags:

The nursery room have recently introduced ‘Toilet Training Bags’ to support children through this crucial stage of development. These can be borrowed from the setting and returned on a weekly basis. Please ask the staff members in the Nursery Room should you require more details.

Chatter Packs:

The Nursery Room also have a Chatter Packs system in place which enables children and parents to borrow books from the setting. This system works really well within pre-school, but seems to have faded within the Nursery Room. Please feel free to provide the Nursery Room staff with feedback on this system, why you tend not to make use of it; books/stories inappropriate for the age group, positioning of the book rack etc?

Reminders:

Signing in/out:

Can we please remind our parents/carers to sign their children in/out of the setting as part of our procedure for safeguarding the children. If you are unsure of where the register is for each room, then please ask a member of staff who will be more than happy to help.

Dropping off before 8am:

Again, can we please remind our parents/carers, not to drop their children off at nursery/pre-school before 8 o’clock unless booked in beforehand. Our staffing changes from week to week based on how many children are booked in throughout the day in order to maintain the ratio of children/adults.

We appreciate your cooperation with this.

Louise and the team at Clover Court

 

Happy New Year

Blog update: Friday 10^th January

Happy New Year:

We would firstly like to welcome you all into the New Year! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas break!

Thank you very much for all of our Christmas cards and gifts.

Open Evening:

Can we please remind parents/carers that our next Open Evening is on Thursday 30^th January Timeslot tables are up in each room; please allocate yourselves with your child’s Key Person. If you cannot make the Open Evening but would still like to catch up with your child’s Key Person then please speak to them to arrange a suitable date/time.

ICT Area:

We are currently focusing on developing an Information and Communication Technology Area within the Nursery Rooms to support the children with their interests and learning within this area of development.

Could we please ask parents/carers to support us in resourcing this area by having a look at home or at work for any old unused equipment that you would be able to donate to us. For example; computer monitors, keyboards, mouse, cameras, telephones, mobile phones etc.

We would like to thank you in advance for your support with this.

Taylor’s Travels:

Some exciting news about Taylor within the nursery room she has decided to go off and explore Thailand. We will be very sad to see Taylor go but wish her much happiness for the future. Taylor's last day will be the 30th January. Cat will be taking over all of her key children; please do not hesitate to talk to Lucy the team leader within the room if you have any questions.

Peg pictures within the nursery room:

Please can we remind you to find your child’s peg picture together when you arrive at nursery in the morning? We are finding lots of parents do not do this and it proves difficult to know every child’s bag and coat. Also we would like you to remove the picture at the end of your child’s day to the board.