News

We would like to thank you all for your support this term. We hope everyone has a lovely summer holiday and wish our school leavers the very best of luck in their new journey to big school.   In this newsletter you will find information on sun cream and sun hats, updates to COVID policy, our new types of observations and some summer activity ideas. Sunflowers Sickness We would like to kindly remind all parents to keep their children at home if they are unwell. Sending your child into nursery when they are unwell will affect the whole nursery, not just your child. Our sick child policy is in place alongside the COVID-19 guidelines should your child become unwell while at nursery. Dependant on symptoms, we will inform you of the procedures to be followed. The policy will be attached. Sun Cream and Sun Hats While we are experiencing warmer weather, we ask that you provide a sun hat and some sun cream for your child. For morning and afternoon sessions we ask that you apply sun cream before bringing your child to nursery. For school day sessions we ask that you apply sun cream before nursery and provide us with cream that we can top up through the day. For our full day children, we will apply the sun cream that you provide as needed throughout the day. Covid-19 Update As you may already know, the Coronavirus restrictions in the UK have recently been lifted. We understand that although the restrictions are no longer in place, there is still a high infection rate in the UK and in the Essex area. We are continuing with drop offs and handovers at the door and would like to ask parents to continue to wear masks when dropping off and collecting their children. We would also like parents to queue at the bottom of the ramp as before whilst waiting to collect your child. Please note, the Government Guidance for nurseries regarding Covid-19 has not changed— if your child develops a new and continuous cough or temperature over 37.8 while with us, we will ask you to collect them and they will need to self-isolate for 10 days. If you would prefer to have your child tested, they will be able to return to nursery once they receive a negative Covid–19 PCR test. We will not accept lateral flow test results for symptomatic children. Children must be Calpol and temperature free for 48 hours to return to nursery. We ask that if children are unwell or develop symptoms whilst at home that you keep them home and inform us straight away.   Observations From September 2021, there will be official changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage. Due to this change, we have started to change the way your child’s learning journey is recorded. This works hand in hand with our ‘In the moment’ planning style and Weekly Focus Child method. Photo opportunities: We will be uploading photos of activities and experiences that the children have participated in with a title to explain what can be seen in the picture. This way you will be able to see more of what your child enjoys and has been up to through the day. You may also see some group pictures as we feel it is beneficial to show how the children engaging with their peers and enjoying group activities as well as with adults and alone. Wow moments: these are moments that we feel have relevance for your child development-wise. When a child does something significant, we class this as a Wow moment or when they do something for the first time. Teachable moments: these are instances where we have aided your child’s learning and supported them to either attempt something or to do something they were trying to do. It is a teachable moment because we have had some input to scaffold and extend the learning taking place.  

Summer Activity Ideas

While the weather is nice and warm and the sun is out, why not set up some water exploration for your baby. You can add various different objects such as balls, cups, spoons and sieves for your baby to use in the water and discover how they all behave in water.   Toddlers will love this frozen sea animal rescue activity. Simply freeze some animal figures in water and give your toddler different tools to help free the animals. You could also give them warm water to squeeze and drip onto the ice to make it melt. You could get creative and freeze different figures that fit with your child’s interests, it is up to you! You could take your Pre-schooler out to look for minibeasts this summer. Encourage them to think about what insects and minibeasts they might see and where they might find certain creatures. You could create a list beforehand that they could mark off while they explore!