Newsletter

We provide half-termly newsletters to inform parents and carers about the activities happening at Pre-School. Here is an extract from our January 2012 newsletter:

Welcome back to Pre-School and we hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year break. We are also delighted to wish a warm welcome to Joseph, Samuel, Annabelle, Oliver and Jack who will be joining us this term.

No doubt by now you will have all noticed that Pre-School has been re-decorated. On 10th and 11th December, a small but very willing working party, ably led by Chris Beaton of Fix-it-For-You, spent the weekend cleaning and painting the Pre-School room. After all their hard work, we now have a room to be proud of and as some parents have remarked, “It looks amazing – it looks twice as big” and “It highlights all the children’s work – a beautiful clean canvas.” Many thanks must go to Emily and Andre Wigley for their very generous donation of all the paint, to Chris for his skill and expertise and to the parents, ex parents and staff who gave up their time to clean, decorate and make the room ready for Pre-School on the Monday – Emily Jackson, Tim and Alice Lockley, Steve and Gael Conway, David Thompson, Simon Nash, Eugene Murphy, Mike Banbury, Robin Kerslake, Zoe Mehra, Jezz Gulliver, Angie and Mark Clifton, Bud and Adam Jackson and Carolyn and Neil Murray. The new flooring laid during the holidays by Southam Carpets has now completed the look!

The cold and wintry weather has eluded us a little bit this year so far, but we will be creating our own Winter Wonderland which will no doubt be reflected outside in due course. We will be using ice in the water tray and looking at and using cold colours in our creative areas. We will also be talking about the weather conditions, investigating ice, snow, rain, puddles and wind, as appropriate, and discussing the sort of clothing that we might need to keep ourselves warm. We will be singing winter songs and reading stories about cold climates and wintry weather. In wet or snowy weather, please bring named wellies for going out to play.

The story will be re-enacted in the role play area, which will be turned into an old fashioned cobblers and shoe shop. Donations or loans of different types of shoes and boots, of all different sizes, to include tiny baby shoes, would be very much appreciated, as would insoles, laces or even pieces of leather or similar for the authentic manufacture of shoes. Please bring them to Pre-School during January.

We have a variety of Chinese style clothing for the children to try on. Any other items that could be borrowed would be gratefully accepted, as would any other Chinese artefacts, so that we can help the children to learn and understand a little about the Chinese way of life. We will practise Chinese songs and create our own dragon to use for the Chinese Dragon Dance, as well as chopping vegetables for a stir fry to be eaten with chop sticks.

The weekly planning summary is posted on the notice board but, if you have any queries or wish to discuss any aspect of your child's experiences at Pre-School, please feel free to talk to Gael, Lisa or your child's keyworker before the session.