Parents Newsletter

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September 2016

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@GNGNursery

Welcome Back

Children’s Belongings

We welcome all of our children and parents back from their summer holidays. We hope that you all had a great summer term. We would also like to welcome the new parents and children starting at GNG nursery. We know it can be unsettling for some children to adjust to new surroundings, so we will support your child in settling in and forming new relationships. We have lots of activities planned for this upcoming autumn term to engage all children.

All children have allocated spaces for their belongings. Please look for their name and picture and ensure their belongings are put in the correct allocated spaces.

Summer Trip Our summer trip to Lickey Hills was a great success and we hope all our parents and children enjoyed the countryside nature life. We would like to thank all parents and children who attended the trip. Our reasoning behind our outdoor nature trip was to provide our children and parents the opportunity of seeing something other than city life by exploring the wonderful life of nature and the various types of activities that can be enjoyed. Fortunately, the weather held up great and the children enjoyed exploring Beacon farm, meeting Lulu the horse and enjoying outdoor play, with an Olympic activity twist! Nappy Charge Please ensure that you provide enough nappies/pull ups for your child during nursery hours. As a charity nursery, we are unable to provide free nappies if your child does not have them in their bag. Therefore, we will have to start charging for spare nappies provided by nursery at 50p per nappy. To avoid this staff will always post a reminder on your child’s daily diary when nappies or wipes are going low. Thank you for understanding.

We also ask that parents label their child’s clothing, shoes, toys – so they do not get mixed up.

Weekend Guest Visit Each room has an allocated teddy for the children to take home over the weekend. This is situated on the blue library box, once you enter through the second door of the nursery. Please look out for your child’s name, to see if it is their turn to spend the weekend with the teddy. The baby room have Toby the dog, Sunrise has Timmy the lion and Pre-School have Tommy the teddy. If one of the toys have spend the weekend with you – we would love if you could add photos/drawings and a description of what kind of things your child and teddy got up to. This will enable children to begin forming relationships with others, to help express their feelings and learn about world around them.

Teddy Bear Day On Friday the 9th of September, we ask that your child brings in their favourite teddy from home, as we will be celebrating Teddy Bear Day. There will be fun activities taking place throughout the day. Please ensure your child's name is clearly written on the Teddy.

Grandparents Workshop We will be holding a grandparents workshop where we would like to invite children's grandparents to the nursery; workshop will be on 12th of September at 5pm. This would be a great opportunity for grandparents to get involved in activities with the children. Please sign up at reception for attendance. International Day of Peace Just like every year we will be celebrating International Day of Peace on 21st of September. This is a day countries worldwide, despite their differences engage in non-violence. This can be achieved in diverse and meaningful ways i.e. a minute of silence at 12 noon, Peace education events, Vigils, Concerts and festivals etc. At GNG, we would like parents to dress their children in their traditional ethnic clothing. This gives us an opportunity to celebrate the different types of cultures we have within our society. There will be different activities throughout the week, where children will learn about inclusion. This also will relate to promoting different diverse cultures within our nursery. Staff Changes We would like to welcome our new members of staff to GNG: Amrinder and Rafia. They will be joining us this September and we look forward to working alongside them. Sindy our apprentice, from the Sunrise Room, has left to further her education at college. We will all miss her and we wish her all the very best throughout her educational journey. Funded children - forms As the new term starts, we will be asking funded children parents to complete funding forms. All forms will need to be collected from reception. Pre-school children parents will need to complete Early Years Pupil Premium from in addition to usual funding forms, National Insurance number should be included, as this is used to check your child’s eligibility for a funded place. Please ask reception for more information.

Children's Sessions We would appreciate it if all parents could provide the nursery with a written request if they want to make changes to their child’s allocated days at the nursery. We need at least one month’s notice, in order to follow up on your request. New Prices As all of our parents know – we have kept our prices frozen since we opened 3 years ago. This is a reminder that the new prices will be introduced in October. You will see these new prices on your invoice. These new prices are a reflection of the increase in labour costs due to Pension schemes, Living Wage & cost increase. eyLog Our eyLog systems have been going through an update. We have experienced a couple of minor difficulties but it seems that it has been addressed. Newer version will allows us to tag observations according to child/adult interest, there are additional frameworks that staff will be able to reference to (i.e. Phonics, Schemas) when linking observations too. We would also like to remind parents that any messages sent to you via eyLog can only be accessed via a computer or laptop. Unfortunately, you will not be able to access these messages via mobile phone devices. Competition GNG nursery will be entering the Nursery Management Today (NMT) competition. We would love to add your testimonials to our application for the Nursery of the Year awards. They can be collected from our reception area and please return these back by the 6th of September.

Dates for Diary: September 29th August - Bank holiday. The nursery is closed 30th August - Teacher training day. The nursery is closed 5th September - Funded children back to Nursery 9th September – Teddy bear day 11th September – National grandparent’s day 12th September – Grandparents work shop 21st September – International Day of peace

Reminders! Sickness If your child has a high temperature we will call you to collect your child as soon as possible. If your child’s temperature continues to rise and they have not been collected within a period of time, we will call an ambulance or 111 for assistance. Please note that you must inform us if your child has been unwell so we can ensure they receive the best suited care. eyLog We enjoy watching and seeing your children’s video and picture observations; please keep sending them!  Newsletters have now become available to parents on eyLog (when accessed via computer – Resources tab). You can also see our newsletters on Facebook, Twitter and the Nursery website. Late Fees We would like to remind all parents that a late fee is applied at a charge of £1 a minute if you are late collecting your child after the agreed time. Mobile phones Please remember that mobile phones ARE NOT allowed to be used past the point of reception.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Blossom & Rainbow Room Monthly Overview The babies have particularly enjoyed playing in the outdoor play area, where they participate in many physical activities. They freely explore the outdoor play area and take it in turns to use the slide and toy cars. Indoors, the babies also enjoy climbing on the soft play and stacking the items so that they can easily climb up. In August, as part of GNG’s 3 rd Anniversary/Summer trip, all children were invited to Beacon Farm and Lickey Hills. This was an interesting experience for the babies. They had the chance to see look and touch various animals such as cows, horses, chickens and pigs. When given the opportunity to feed the cows, the babies were hesitant at first, but with some support they helped feed them. Following from the farm, we made our way to Lickey Hills, where the babies participated in activities led by the staff members. Babies have really revelled in messy play this month; they enjoyed making gloop using corn flour and paint. We have also been performing biscuit decorating using icing sugar and sprinkles. The biscuits were sent home with the children. The babies really enjoy the nursery rhymes music; they dance and clap their hands as soon as the music starts. Some of the babies sing along to the familiar nursery rhymes.

Sunrise Room Monthly Overview During the summer term the Sunrise children have been focusing on having fun in the sun by playing outdoors. They have also been busy preparing for our “Big Cook Little Cook” week. The children have been learning the sounds of alphabet, as the first step to introduce them to Jolly Phonics. In September, we will focus on “Me and Community” where the children will learn about themselves, their families and their friends.

Preschool Room Monthly Overview Pre-School have had a lot of fun throughout the summer holidays. We have talked about what to wear in the sun and why we should stay hydrated. As a way of exploring the outdoors, the children have observed different creatures, vehicles and participated in messy activities. The children went on a trip to the library to look at various books relating to the outdoors and cooking. Pre-School love exploring their surroundings by taking walks around the community. Over the past two weeks, we have learnt about cooking by making and tasting different textures of food, experimenting with foods and creating different pictures related with foods in arts and crafts. The children have been making chocolate cornflakes, chocolate and banana milkshakes, decorating biscuits and in the near future we will be making fruit salads and cakes.

As we approach the autumn season, we would like to remind parents of the importance of thorough hand washing. Below is a brief guide detailing the importance of this and a quick step tutorial on how to teach your child how to wash their hands properly.