FAIRFIELD NEWSLETTER SPRING TERM 2023

Welcome

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope you have had a wonderful Christmas break. A big thank you for your kind and most generous gifts of gratuities and cards; they have been very much appreciated and enjoyed by the staff team.

We are currently wrapping up warm and cosy in our new outdoor wear and enjoying outdoor play sessions in this wonderful season, staff are planning lots of exciting outdoor adventures across the age groups.

I look forward to meeting all the new families that have recently joined us. We have some exciting events and stay and plays planned for the year ahead that we would love for our families to join us, please see the diary dates for details of these events and also the nursery closure days for 2023.

If any parents/carers would be interested in coming into the nursery to participate in upcoming events, story times etc. please speak to your key person.

Please don’t forget to download the parentzone app to keep up to date with your child’s learning journey.

Babies

The baby unit have been exploring the big scale bauble painting activity, using their gross motor movements to roll the baubles across the floor. We used lots of single words and phrases to encourage children to copy and anticipate events e.g. “ready steady, go!”

Babies love to investigate, to make links between home, community and nursery we made a Christmas tuff tray, lots of different Christmas objects to explore using all our senses. The older babies enjoyed filling and emptying, practising their fine motor skills and begin to use the language of size.

Toddlers

Toddlers had a wonderful time at their Christmas party, we have been talking about snow and snow men so the children really enjoyed making melted snowmen biscuits with their families at stay and play. We made a Calendar to take time all by ourselves and were very proud of our creations.

Since joining with Pre-school, Toddlers have been exploring all the new environment, in particular the home corner. We are learning independence and practising skills such as cutting cake, washing our hands, and dressing babies. Using language to keep play going with our friends when we are sharing a picnic, and learning to share the new resources, how to put things back where they belong is a something we are working really hard on.

Pre-school

Pre-school have been reading the run away iceberg, this has sparked a great interest in the ice process – using STEM to encage the children in their learning. We have been exploring ice in lots of different ways, we have been melting it, painting our own ice bergs using ice, we have been outside in our new puddle suits playing in the snow and ice, looking at spiders webs and playing what time is it Mr Penguin.

As we were all excited for the run up to Christmas we did lots of different activities, we enjoyed decorating out preschool tree – we had lots of conversations starting around what they have at home, what they have seen when they have been out and in the community and noticing differences and similarities with themselves, their friends, and their families. We have been writing letters to Santa, talking about stamps and post boxes and have even been practising our fine motor skills and different ways to approach things when facing challenges as we wrapped up “Presents”

We have been practising our fine motor skills and mark making skills to paint our own penguins, we have been talking about penguins habitat, hot and cold weather, different clothing we wear for different temperatures. We have explored sinking and floating In the water try and using lots of different media and materials to make ice melt.

Diary Dates

Nursery Closure Dates

Monday 1^st May (May Day Bank Holiday)

Monday 8^th May (Kings Coronation Bank Holiday)

Monday 29^th May (Spring Bank Holiday)

Friday 7^th April- Monday 10^th April Easter bank holiday

Thursday 6th April -Training Day Closure

We close the nursery for staff training on two occasions each year.

In order to provide a high quality service to parents and children we demand high standards of our staff. We encourage everyone to continue with training throughout their career and ensure that staff regularly update their skills and attend a number of relevant courses.

Training days have proved invaluable, especially when we want to embed new ways of thinking throughout the company.

Finance

Our preferred payment method is by bank transfer (please use your child’s name as reference), TFC and Voucher. Please be reminded that fees are due on or before the 1^st of the month and payment can take 3-4 days to clear, particularly TFC and Voucher payments.

Nursery Education Funding

All 3 and 4 year olds are already entitled to 15 hours of free early education for 38 weeks of the year. There is an additional 15 hours of free childcare available for families that meet the Government's eligibility criteria, this will also be for 38 weeks of the year.

More detail information can be found on the GOV.UK website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/482517/Childcare_Bill_Policy_Statement_12.03.2015.pdf

Application and funding process - You will need to apply online via HMRC they have a dedicated helpdesk to support parents apply if you are unable to apply online. The link to the website is below.

https://childcare-support.tax.service.gov.uk/par/app/applynow

Eligible parents will be given a code which will be valid for 3 months, you will be asked to re-confirm your eligibility towards the end of the 3 month period. HMRC will send reminders to parents.

Please be aware that if you would like to increase your child’s attendance with your eligibility for 30 hours we have limited places until September 2023

Parentzone update…

Following the launch of Parentzone we hope you are enjoying receiving pictures of your little ones and seeing some of the activities they chose to do at nursery. If you would like to look at what parentzone offers, follow this link - ParentZone Resources - Connect Childcare to the Connect website where you will find lots of information. Alternatively, go to connectchildcare.com and click on the links to the parents guide which you will find in the ‘support’ section.

**Please remember that questions and queries regarding sessions, finance, etc cannot be answered through this app. Please contact nursery directly with these queries or questions.**

Our aim is to publish two ‘snapshots’ of your child each month and a ‘learning story’ three times a year. We have just held a parents evening in which we went through the learning stories. If you have any further questions please email fairfield@portlandnurseries.co.uk

National storytelling week

National Storytelling Week takes places every year and this year is from 30^th January to 6^th February.

National Storytelling week is “a celebration of the power of sharing stories. Stories teach us about the world, they allow us to step into someone else’s shoes and feel empathy, they help us to relax and escape and they can help develop essential literacy skills”.

Children's Clothing

Outdoor Clothing

Please can we remind parents to bring a named hat, scarf and a pair of gloves in your child’s nursery bag during this cold weather.

Indoor/outdoor footwear

Please ensure your child has shoes for indoors and wellingtons for outdoors.

Spare Clothes

Please can we ask parents to label all your child’s clothes clearly and to return any borrowed from nursery. Thank You.

Spring / Summer Menu

Every child at Portland Nurseries enjoys a well-balanced healthy diet in order to build a strong body and mind. We provide nutritious and wholesome meals and snacks in carefully designed, seasonal rotational menus, prepared by experienced cooks.

We always welcome any new and exciting recipe suggestions. We are especially keen to offer more and more culturally diverse foods to allow the children to continually experience and enjoy new flavours and textures.

We welcome all suggestions; from humble home favourites and Grandma’s secret recipes, to versatile vegan eats and culturally diverse delights!

Please email any ideas to us or drop off a recipe with a member of staff