Newsletter - Information for parents

Dear Parents,

It is a busy time for us at pre-school this term! As you may already be aware, the government is increasing free childcare for 3-4 yr olds from 15hrs per week to 30hrs per week, from September 2017 depending on certain criteria. As a result, we have been involved in negotiations with the Village Hall over recent months to see if we can offer 30 hours to any parents who wish to take this up. We are pleased to tell you that with the help of the Village Hall Development Committee, plans to extend onto the side of the Village Hall in order to provide pre-school with a dedicated area from which we can operate Monday-Friday, are being taken forward. This will not be ready for September 2017, but we will keep you informed of progress when we know more. We will be giving out a questionnaire this week to parents with children who will be returning to pre-school after the summer holidays, to see if there is a requirement to extend our opening hours in the autumn term, so that we can offer up to 25 hours of child in the meantime. If this applies to you, we would really appreciate it if you could return this to us as soon as possible so that we can plan ahead – thank you.

We will be holding our termly parents meetings before the Easter break, so please look out for the schedule by the signing in book, and select a suitable time to meet with your child's keyperson. This is your chance to look at the Learning Journals and discuss your child's progress, and well as talk to us about any concerns or worries you may have. If you have difficulty finding a time that suits you, please talk to us and we will do our best to make alternative arrangements with you.

We will be having our usual 'Easter Bonnet Parade' on Thursday 6^th April, and all children will be welcome to take part, regardless of whether they normally come to pre-school on a Thursday. If this is not their normal session, please bring your child and their bonnet to pre-school at 9:15, and then return for them at 12:15. Any children that usually attend on Thursday will stay for their normal amount of time. Please encourage your child to have as much input as possible into making/decorating their bonnet, as we love to see their handiwork! Bonnets will be judged during the morning, with a small prize for all entries as well as prizes for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places. Any questions, just ask – good luck!

After the Easter break our new topic will be 'The Rainforest', and to tie in with this, our new sound will be 'R' – if your child would like to bring in items for 'show and tell', we would really appreciate it if you could help them to find objects that begin with the 'r' sound, to help us to focus on this. Also, if you have any toys or props connected with our rainforest topic that we could borrow for the role-play area, they would be very welcome! Using the money you raised at the Christmas raffle, we are hoping to book in a visit from 'Zoolab' during this time, so that the children can learn about creatures in the rainforest in a very hands-on way! We will give further details nearer the time.

Some important reminders:

Can we please request that payments are made as soon as possible after invoices are received. Reminders will be sent out if payments have been overlooked, but if two payments have been missed after reminders have been sent, we regret that we will not be able to continue to offer your child a place for the following term. Your assistance with this is greatly appreciated. Can we also kindly request that children are picked up promptly at the end of their session, as we only have a limited time to tidy up and leave the hall once pre-school is finished. We appreciate that there are times when you may be held up, but if you could phone to let us know on these occasions it would really help us – thank you.

Can we remind you that pre-school uniform, including the new hoodies, is available to order via our website, so please take a look if you are thinking of making a purchase!

Lunchboxes – we promote a healthy diet at preschool, so please try to provide at least one portion of either fruit or vegetables in your child's lunch, and they will be encouraged to eat this before moving onto items such as crisps or biscuits. If you could cut up fruit or veg that would be very helpful, particularly grapes which are a potential choking hazard. Please do not supply sweets or fizzy drinks in lunchboxes as they will be returned home. We are happy for you to supply a squash or fruit juice drink for your child to have with their lunch, but we will always make sure that water is supplied at lunchtime for any children without a drink.  In line with other settings, we are a nut-free pre-school, so please check labels if you are unsure whether anything contains nuts.

We hope to provide more outdoor messy play, such as sand and water, as the weather hopefully improves! With this in mind, please could you make sure that your child always has some spare labelled clothing at pre-school in case they get wet – thank you!

Thank you for all your continued support,

Becky, Katie, Diane and Siobhan.

Dates for your diary:

Easter break: Monday 10^th April – Friday 21^st April

Half-term: Monday 29^th May - Friday 2^nd June