Blog update w/c 22^nd July:

Room transfers:

We would just like to inform you that Kelly. C (from the Nursery Room), will be transferring into Pre-school, and Sarah (from Pre-school) will be transferring into the Nursery Room. Letters will be sent out regarding the assignment of new Key Persons.

As a setting, it is good practice to encourage the staff to have a swap around with rooms and age groups for their own personal development.

We appreciate your understanding and support of the staff through this process. Any questions, please feel free to speak to Louise (Manager) or Kelly (Deputy Manager).

Open Evening:

We have scheduled our next Open Evening for Tuesday 20^th August. Please remember that your attendance at these evenings is not compulsory, but it allows you as parents who know your children best, to have an input into the planning for their learning and development and to share the progress that they are making.

The evening will be organised according to timeslots of 10 minutes. Schedules for timeslots will be put up in each room (Babies, Nursery and Pre-school) for you to assign your names if you would like to attend.

Sport’s Day:

Every year we like to organise a sporting event for our over two’s and pre-schoolers, this year, this will be held on the afternoons of Tuesday 13^th and Thursday 15^th August (13.45-14.45). Parents and carers are invited along to watch and cheer for their children during the activities which include;

·         Sack race

·         Egg and spoon race

·         Running race

·         Balancing the bean bag on the head

·         Hurdles

There will also be an obstacle course for the parents to take part in.

Attendance tables will be put up by the end of the week in Nursery and in Pre-school. If your child is booked in on that day and you would like to attend, please put your name down, and the amount of people that will be coming (max. of 3 per child).

If your child is not yet booked in, and you would like them to take part, then please speak to Louise (Manager) or Kelly (Deputy). Equally, if your child is only booked in for the morning session, then it may be possible to extend it, in order for them to join in.

Communication Books:

The nursery team have re-introduced the use of communication books. Each child will have their own communication book that will be written in on a regular basis by your child’s key person. If you would like to write in the communication book in return, there are baskets on the shelf in Beach room for you to place the communication book.

Treasure Bags:

We are currently implementing a sensory area within our Ash Room (physical room). As part of this we are putting together treasure bags which will contain different sets of sensory items; for example, metals, woods, natural objects, etc. We would like to ask the parents to help us collect objects for these bags;

·         Paper / cardboard objects: Egg boxes, notebook, sturdy cardboard tubes, greaseproof paper.

·         Wooden objects: Door wedge, small turned bowl, dolly pegs, egg cup, wooden egg, spoons, curtain rings, coaster, bracelet, block, napkin rings, dowel, empty salt and pepper cellars.

·         Leather, textile, rubber, or fur objects: Small knitted toy, bean bag, piece of flannel, velvet powder puff, bags of herbs, bag of lavender, leather key ring, coloured ribbons, leather purse.

·         Rubber objects: Ball, bath plug with chain, soap holder, door stop, coaster.

·         Metal objects: Honey drizzler, an egg cup, curtain ring, egg poacher, measuring spoons, tea strainer, whisk, powder compact, bells, lemon squeezer, small bowl,

·         Natural objects: A lemon or orange, coconut shell, grass rope, sheepskin, pumice stone, loofah, shells, pine/fir cones, driftwood, avocado stone, large pebbles.

·         Brushes: Scrubbing brush, pastry brush, baby's hair brush, nail brush, makeup brush, paint brush, shaving brush, wooden toothbrush.

·         Other objects: small vanilla essence or food colouring bottle, hair rollers, small mirror, scent bags, bone shoe horn, ceramic bowl

We would really appreciate your support with this.

Lost Property:

We are missing a pair of shorts from the pre-school room. The shorts are from Next, sized 3-4, and are brown/khaki green. If you think your child may have gained a pair of shorts which match this description, could we please ask you to return them to the pre-school room. Thank you!

Louise and the team at Clover Court

June 2013

Blog update – W/c 24^th June:

Lost Property:

We have a substantial amount of lost property (clothes) in preschool, in particular hooded jumpers. If you think your child may have left an item of clothing at preschool, then please speak to a member of staff as we will be more than happy for you to rummage through our collections!

End of Term:

Just to remind parents that our end of term in relation to the free entitlement for three year olds is Friday 12^th July. Therefore, unless you have asked for your child to be booked in as ‘term time’ only, then sessions will be charged at full cost. If you wish to make any amendments to your child’s sessions during the 6 week school holiday, then please speak to either Louise (Manager) or Kelly (Deputy).

School Leavers:

Clover Court Pre-school will be holding an open evening for our school leaver’s parents to attend on Thursday 11^th July. The evening will provide you with a 10 minute slot with which to spend with your child’s key person. You will be presented with their Learning Journal containing an end of term development summary in preparation for the transition to ‘big school.’

On Thursday 25^th July, Clover Court Pre-school will be holding a party afternoon in celebration of our school leavers. The afternoon will consist of a mini-disco session, party games; pass the parcel and a party tea.  If you would like to book your child in extra for this session, then please speak to Louise (Manager) or Kelly (Deputy).

 

 

Drop-offs:

Can we please remind parents/carers, that unless your child is booked in with us before 8.00, not to drop them off until your child’s session starts, otherwise this impacts on our staffing and adult: child ratios. If you do require your child to be dropped off before 8.00, then please speak to Louise (Manager) or Kelly (Deputy) about possibly extending the session. We appreciate your understanding of this.

Baby Room:

We are very proud of our babies who have recently found their feet, and those who are making great progress in rolling and crawling.

The babies have been enjoying participating in outdoor activities; playing with the large cars and road map, experimenting with the trikes and push along toys, and crawling through the new tunnel maze.

Nursery:

In nursery last week, the children really enjoyed playing with their new outdoor tunnel maze, they used this to role-play fireman Sam, rescuing each other from the tunnels. The children also enjoyed using the recycled materials to create models; in particular, they focused on different modes of transport.

New Resources:

We have recently been given a grant with which to purchase resources to develop our outdoor learning environments in Nursery and Pre-school. With this grant, Nursery has purchased a tunnel maze, a road map for their cars, a secret den hideaway, sand toys, a water tray and water toys. Pre-school have purchased a new tricycle, a new scooter, a story mat and cushions, a tuff tray unit for sand, water and messy play and a mini basketball net. You may start to see some of these resources coming in within the next few weeks.

As always, please feel free to add any comments!

Louise and the team at Clover Court

Clover Court Blog; week commencing 27^th May:

Open Evening:

We would firstly like to say a huge thank you to those parents who made it along to our Open Evening which we held on Wednesday the 22^nd May. We really appreciate your input into your children’s learning and development and it’s also great to have a bit more time to share with your child’s Key person. ‘Next Steps’ for your child’s learning and development are currently being completed by your child’s Key Person so you should receive a copy shortly.

Chatter-packs:

We would like to comment on the effectiveness of our chatter-packs systems which have been implemented in both Nursery and Preschool. We have a selection of books available for you to borrow (just like the library). This selection will continue to grow.

Baby Room:

This week in baby room, we are really pleased with the progress that our new starters have been making. We would like to say a warm welcome to Jackson, Esme and Maisie! The babies have also enjoyed interacting with the toddlers this week as we have spent a lot of time playing together in the garden.

Nursery Room:

This week in nursery, we have been exploring different textures in the creative room, playing with flour, hair gel and dry spaghetti. We have also really enjoyed using different tools to paint with such as sponges and our fingers and hands!

We have enjoyed hunting for wiggly worms in our garden as the weather has been quite damp!

We have had a big spring clean in Nursery and have changed our learning environment around slightly, we hope you like it!

Preschool:

We have a lot of children that will be leaving preschool in September to go to ‘big school.’ For this reason, we will be incorporating activities into the next few weeks which will encourage the children to think about and discuss how they feel about moving up to ‘big school.’ We will be creating a role-play schools opportunity for example, and will talk about what schools we are going to and what colour uniforms we will be wearing etc in preparation for this transition.

We will also be supporting the younger children in our room with transitions that they may be experiencing in their lives; moving house, new babies etc.

Louise and the team at Clover Court

Blog update week commencing 6^th May:

Ruth (Nursery Room):

We would like to inform you all that Ruth from the nursery room will sadly be leaving us here at Clover Court. Her last day will be the 4^th June 2013. Ruth will be moving to Burgess Hill and has found a job at a nursery within the local area. If Ruth is your child’s Key Person then Ruth will inform you of their new Key Person at the Open Evening on Wednesday 22^nd May (if you are not able to attend this evening then please speak to Ruth after this date).

We’d like to ask you to join us in saying thank you to Ruth for her time here (7 years), and wish her the best of luck with her new job.

6.00pm finishes:

Can we please remind parents to ensure that if their children are booked in until 6.00pm, that they are picked up on time, as our staffing is done so in accordance with ratios. If you find that you struggle to collect your child by 6 o’clock, please speak to Louise (Manager) or Kelly (Deputy) about possibly extending your child’s session until 6.30pm to cover yourself and avoid late fee charges. If you are running a few minutes late, we really appreciate it if you can give us a call to inform us.

End of term:

For those of you who’s children are three and receive the free entitlement sessions, please be informed that these sessions do not include half term/end of term weeks. Therefore we would like to inform you that the end of term for the funding is Friday 12^th July. Any sessions booked within the summer holidays will be charged at the full rate. If you would still like your child to attend during the summer holidays, but would like to reduce their weekly attendance, then please speak to Louise (Manager) or Kelly (Deputy).

If you have any questions regarding the above discussion points then please ask.

Louise and the team at Clover Court

Blog update – week commencing the 22^nd April:

Sam (Nursery Room):

We are pleased to announce that Sam (Nursery) has given birth to a beautiful baby girl. Sam gave birth to Madison, weighing 8lbs 1oz on Tuesday 8^th April at 8.04am. Both Sam and Madison are doing really well.

Kim (Baby Room):

We would like you all to join us in congratulating Kim (Baby Room) with her pregnancy announcement. Kim is due to give birth on the 18^th October this year.

Chatter-packs:

Clover Court Pre-school and Nursery will soon be implementing a chatter-packs system which will allow parents and children to choose from a selection of story books to take home and share together. The chatter-packs will also include prompt cards to encourage parents and carers to make the most out of the learning experiences that can be taken from stories.

Sunshine:

At last we have been experiencing some pleasant spring/summer weather! We are all enjoying the sunshine, but can we please remind parents/carers to provide us with some sun cream that is suitable for their child and fill out a permission form for us to apply the named sun cream. Please could we also ask you to bring in named sun hats, thank you! Let’s hope the nice weather lasts!

Toys from home:

Can we please ask you to discourage your children from bringing in toys from home. Although it is nice for the children to bring one toy in to show their friends at ‘news time,’ we do not wish to be responsible for any lost toys. We hope you can appreciate our reasoning for this request. Obviously we are happy for children to bring in any comforters, dummies, blankets etc.

Louise and the team at Clover Court

'Footprints in the Forest'

‘Footprints in the Forest’

Today, the children at Clover Court Pre-school went on an adventure to Ivy Cottage’s Forest School. Before we left, we made sure that everybody had been to the toilet to prevent any accidents whilst we were out, we then wrapped ourselves up as much as we possibly could in all our ‘winter’ finery, ready to brace the ‘spring’ weather. We made sure that all the children and the adults were fully equipped with the necessary tools that would guarantee a successful ‘bug hunt.’

We were ready, and all very excited indeed!

When we arrived, we set up camp in the middle of the forest and begun our exploration. A couple of our friends needed some reassurance as we were feeling a little bit scared and frightened of the forest, in particular the trees.

We soon discovered that most bugs use the big, heavy logs as their secret hiding places as the soil is nice and moist there. As a result of our highly skilled ‘bug hunting,’ we found lots of big, juicy worms, woodlice, beetles, and snails, and Jo was very impressed with her find of 5 baby newts!

Whilst investigating the natural environment, we also discovered the ‘Gruffalo’s Cave’, and came across some gigantic ‘Gruffalo footprints,’ which could easily have been mistaken for rabbit and foxes holes!

All aboard the ‘Tree Train’ for our mid-morning snack!

By this point we were all feeling a little bit sorry for ourselves as we were understandably getting a bit chilly, so we decided to start making tracks.

When we got back to pre-school, we discussed and evaluated our findings by compiling individual sticker charts. After lunch we drew pictures of our favourite bugs which we will use to create a display in Willow Room.

All in all, we’ve had a lovely day together, and the children have been very well behaved.

Photos of our adventure will be published shortly!

 

The Team at - Clover Court Pre-school

Blog Update w/c 18^th March

Easter Celebrations:

Week commencing the 25^th March, Clover Court Nursery and Pre-school will be providing the children with learning experiences that promote the festivities of Easter. We will be holding an Easter Bonnet competition and parade on the Thursday 28^th March. Other activities planned for the week include:

·        Cooking – making Easter Nests with shredded wheat, chocolate and mini eggs.

·        Easter cards

·        Decorating paper mache eggs

·        Easter egg hunts in the garden

Forest School Trip:

On Thursday 4^th April, Clover Court Pre-school have planned a trip to visit Ivy Cottage’s Forest School. Ivy Cottage is another setting within the Cranbrook Company group, and they are lucky to have a small forest attached to the back of their garden. We would like to take the children to explore the forest and do a little bit of bug hunting which is a strong interest amongst the children at the moment. The pre-school team will be handing out permission letters for the trip, please complete and return them to confirm your child’s attendance.

Buy and Sell:

We have had one of our parents suggest that we add a buy and sell page to our blog for the parents to use. We’d just like to ask who would be interested in us setting this up. If we get a good amount of responses then this is something we’d be willing to put into place. Likewise, if anyone has any other suggestions as to how we can make our blog more interactive, then we’d welcome the feedback.

 

Red Nose Day:

We would like to say a huge thank you to our parents for supporting our Red Nose Day activities and for your kind donations.

Louise and the team at Clover Court