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We would like to wish all our children and families a warm welcome to Braehead Nursery and to our first newsletter of the year.
Our nursery newsletters provide you with information about Curriculum for Excellence, forthcoming ‘contexts for learning’ (topics) and the range of learning experiences on offer for the children. The newsletters also help keep you up to date with nursery developments and provide you with important dates for your diary.
It is our aim to continually improve and develop the service we offer and we welcome feedback from families. A feedback form will be attached to each newsletter for you comment. Please share your thoughts and ideas with us so that we can continue to improve our service.
Our aim is to issue a newsletter at the start of each new context for learning (approximately 6-8 weeks). We try to provide a broad range of information for families, however, if there is any additional information that you would like to see in the newsletters please let us know.
We are now working within A Curriculum for Excellence, which is the Scottish curriculum for all children aged 3-18 years. Key-workers meet fortnightly to plan a comprehensive programme of learning opportunities, activities and experiences. Key-workers share information about their Key-children (gathered from observations) with colleagues at planning and evaluation meetings. This enables the nursery team to support individual children’s developmental needs and provide opportunities to extend their learning. Aspects of our curriculum planning are displayed on the ‘learning wall’ in the cloakroom – please take time to have a look.
Approximately every 6-8 weeks we will look at a new ‘context for learning’, such as ‘Growing and Changing’, ‘The World Around Us’, ‘Under the Sea’ or ‘Dinosaurs’.
Children engage better with contexts that catch their interest and spark their imagination, therefore, we use the children’s interests as a starting point when deciding on a new context for learning. We do this by taking time to observe and listen to their play, and talking with them about their current interests before choosing a new context. Then the nursery team start to plan a programme of learning experiences to support and extend the learning and development of all children in the nursery.
To help us get to know the new children who have just started nursery and to help them get to know us a little better, we propose to start with the context ‘All About Me – Myself and My Family’.
Through this context we plan to support children with developing social and communication skills, including:
• forming new friendships
• becoming familiar with new routines
• learning to turn take and share resources
• learning to take turns to talk and listen to each other and adults in nursery
• following instructions from an adult
• developing an awareness of the feelings of others
• developing independence and self-confidence (i.e. I can do it…..)
• developing concentration skills and perseverance
• sharing information with our Key-groups
We aim to make good connections with home through:
• investigating and talking about many of our likes and dislikes e.g. our favourite things to eat or play with
• finding out how we get to nursery
• exploring how many people are in our families
• listening to stories about families
We also plan to find out about keeping healthy as part of this context:
• finding out about what our bodies need to be healthy and to make them grow
• investigating healthy food choices and trying different types of healthy foods
• talking about and being involved in different types of exercise – finding out what we can do (e.g. jumping, balancing, catching)
• exploring bodies (e.g. finding out the names for body parts, looking at x-rays of skeletons)
There are lots of ways for you to join in with this context at home including:
• talking with your child – about feelings (what makes you feel happy, sad, angry, frightened etc.), favourite things to do, likes and dislikes
• playing board games to encourage sharing, turn taking, concentration and perseverance
• encouraging your child to follow instructions and be independent (e.g. getting dressed, putting on own shoes, tidying up their toys) and giving positive feedback when they do so
• visiting the library to find/share story books about families
• looking at family photographs and talking with your child about their own family
• talking about and trying different types of foods that are good for us
• encouraging your child to find healthy food (e.g. fruit) when you go to the supermarket and to put it in the trolley
• trying out different types of exercise together – cycling, bouncing on the trampoline, walking the dog or scooting to the shops
• visiting the library to find books about the human body and talking about bones, different body parts and what we need to be healthy
To help us get started with our new context for learning we are asking each child to bring in a photograph of their family. We then plan to laminate the photos so that the children can handle/look at them, so please do not send in any photographs that are precious.
Information Evening
We are holding an information session for parents on Thursday 8th September at 6.00. We will share information about nursery practice and procedures including the Curriculum for Excellence, our new child profiles and documentation.
Staffing
We have said a fond farewell to Wilma Gemmell, our Early Years Pedagogue, who has taken up a teaching post at Doune Primary, and also Mhairi Banks, our ECA, who is now working in Primary 1 at Braehead.
We are also giving a warm welcome to Jackie Dupont, our new Early Years Pedagogue (teacher). Jackie will be working with the Early Years team at Braehead between October and December this year as we develop a new profiling system to record the children’s individual successes and achievements.
Playground Safety
Please remember that in there is no cycling permitted in the school grounds. All children must dismount bikes, trikes and scooters before coming into the playground.
Safety
When dropping off or collecting your child from nursery please ensure that external doors are securely closed behind you. Some of our younger children become very excited when they see their parents in the playground or sometimes become upset when other parents arrive before their own mum or dad. For many of these children an open door can look very inviting. We are obviously eager to ensure that no children ‘escape’ into the nursery garden or beyond, so please, please close the door behind you. Thank you.
Cloakroom Request
Please leave all wet umbrellas in the box in the entrance area rather than the cloakroom – we use the cloakroom as our music and dance area during the session. Please remove any items that could be potentially harmful from bags and backpacks left on children’s pegs (e.g. anti-bacterial hand gel or sun screen) and any medicine (e.g. sachets/bottles of Calpol) and give them to your Key-worker for safe storage. Please remind the person collecting your child to pick the items up at the end of the session.
Entrance Area
Please note that the entrance to the nursery is also a fire exit. We are required by law to ensure that this passageway is kept clear at all times and as such no bikes, dolls prams or scooters etc. can be left there during the nursery session.
Nursery Hours
Morning session 9.00-11.30 Afternoon session 12.45-3.15
Parents, or other adults collecting children, are requested to be prompt when collecting their children. Staff only have 15 minutes to tidy the nursery at the end of each session. If you arrive to collect your child after these times you will need to collect them from the school office (using the main entrance to the school).
Illness
If your child is ill we request that you keep them at home until they are feeling well again – the nursery is a very busy and noisy environment and not the best place for a young child to be when they are feeling ill and needing comfort and a quiet place to sit. It is vital that you provide us with up to date emergency contact numbers in the event that we need to contact you (or one of your emergency contacts). If your child has sickness and/or diarrhoea they must remain absent from nursery until 48 hours (2 days) after their last bout of sickness/diarrhoea. We appreciate that this is difficult for working parents, but it is vital to prevent the spread of infection to both staff and other children.
Gym Hall
The nursery has two gym sessions each week – Monday at 1.00 for the children in the afternoon session and Friday at 10.45 for the children in the morning session. All children must wear trainers or plimsolls for gym. Also for safety reasons children are not allowed to wear any jewellery in the gym hall. Please do not send your child to nursery wearing jewellery on their gym day.
Nursery Handbook
Our nursery brochure is available to read on the school website. If you do not have internet access, please ask a member of the nursery staff for a paper copy of the handbook.
Thurs 8th Sept – Parent Information Evening – 6.00-7.00 in school dining hall
Fri 7th Oct – Last day of term
10th-14th Oct – October holiday – nursery and school closed
Mon 17th Oct – Start of new term
Mon 7th/Tues 8th Nov – Staff Development days – nursery and school closed
Wed 23rd/Thurs 24th Nov – Parent’s evening (times to be arranged)
Braehead Nursery – Parent/carer Questionnaire
August 2010
Evaluating and improving the service we provide for children and families is an ongoing process in both the school and nursery. As part of the nursery’s evaluation and monitoring programme we would appreciate if you could share your views on:
• The settling in process for children starting nursery.
• The range of information provided for families, including the nursery welcome brochure, newsletters, letters from the school, parents’ information board and learning wall (both located in the cloakroom), verbal communication with Key-worker and/or other members of the nursery team.
Name:_________________________ Date:___________
Completed questionnaires can be returned to your Key-worker or placed in the box in the entrance hall. Questionnaires can be left anonymous, however if you wish a personal response or to discuss your views with a member of staff please complete your name at the bottom of the questionnaire.