HARLEQUIN PARENT NEWSLETTER AUTUMN TERM 2025

As we snuggle down into the Autumn term here at Harlequin, we have waved goodbye to the summer term and to our preschool children who have transitioned to school and have said hello to some new families who have joined us. The children are all doing well and we enjoyed receiving their first day at school photo’s, they looked so smart in their new uniforms. 

Autumn is always an exciting time in Early Years as the seasonal changes create awe and wonder amongst the children. They enjoy collecting conkers and crispy, crunchy leaves under foot whilst delighting in the changing colours around them. 

Diary Dates

Tuesday 18th November - Toddler room Parents Evening 

Sunday 7th December- Children's Christmas party at Play World 4.00 pm til 5.30pm

Monday 22nd December – Christmas Stay and Play 4.30-5.30pm

Christmas Closure: Closing evening of Wednesday 24th December and re-opening morning of Friday 2nd January 2026.

Our recent Stay and Plays have proved to be hugely popular with more parents than ever giving up time to call in, this has been a lovely opportunity for you to play and catch up with the staff. 

Thank you for your continued support and for being such an important part of our nursery community. We look forward to another fantastic term filled with learning, laughter, and growth.

Staff News

We have recently celebrated some staff birthdays at Harlequin. Tilly and Alice both celebrated their birthdays in September. We hope they had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends. 

Birthdays are not the only celebrations we’ve had at Harlequin recently. Nina celebrated 5 years with Portland Nurseries. The children helped to celebrate by making cards and joined in with the presentation.

Learning Focus at the moment

Babies

This coming term the babies will be focusing on seasonal changes. Exploring the world around us using their senses to explore the environment, cinnamon spice playdough has been a firm favourite. 

The babies are also working on independence for our walking babies who enjoy the responsibility of small tasks throughout the day. From putting their own wellies on to tidying up.

The babies have been busy in the garden foraging in the leaves for conkers and pine cones. Babies have enjoyed a variety of autumn themed tuff trays with a focus on learning some new autumnal animal names and noises. 

Toddlers 

Toddlers will be focusing on settling in their new children who recently moved from babies. We will be working on following instructions, sharing resources and toileting independently. Toddlers will be experimenting colour mixing and how colours changes like the leaves on the trees, shape and fine motor skills. The children will have plenty of tricky threading activities to challenge and build important skills ready for mark making.

Preschool 

Alongside transitional moves for the children moving between toddlers and preschool. We have been out and about in the local community collecting conkers, observing seasonal changes. Preschool have also enjoyed trips to Oakwood’s Acorn Library. Jemimah has been hard at work experimenting with colour changing activities during our focussed STEM time.

In cooking club the children have been perfecting their biscuit making abilities, practicing rolling their own dough and using the cutters for their desired effect. 

The preschool council will be focusing on children’s choice this coming term, talking about their interests and how we can share these interests with others in nursery. 

If you have any unwanted role play costumes and toys we would love to make use of them at Harlequin. Also if you have any unused items that could be used to set up themed activities (hair dressers, shop, vets and doctors) items such as old hair dryer/curlers/play money/purses/bags/old IT equipment such as laptops/cameras/telephones/keyboards would we would to use them, to set up themes in our role play area. 

Nursery Enrichment

We have had a number of special guest sessions over the last few weeks visit us in nursery Kixx came to lead a sports and athletics session in the garden and Mini Musica joined us for a music and movement session. 

Jade will continue with her weekly Spanish class on a Tuesday keep a look on connect for songs for you to join in with at home.

Harvest Collection

We have recently collected food for the Welcome Centre’s harvest collection. We have had such a fantastic response from our families. The donations will be collected and distributed by the Welcome Centre to families in need over the coming weeks. 

Further information

Outdoor clothing – weather appropriate 

The weather has recently become chillier, this however will not deter us from spending time outside in the garden and forest. Whilst, Harlequin provides waterproof trousers and coats, we ask that parents send in wellies for their children and weather appropriate under layers such as fleeces and jumpers. We also ask that gloves and hats are sent into nursery in your child’s bag just in case they are needed. We are very limited on the amount of spares we have and would like to make sure each child is toasty warm when enjoying outdoor playing during the colder months. There is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing! 

Well Child

We have recently experienced a prolonged period of illness within all our age groups and wanted to remind parents of our sickness and illness policy along with the company definition of a well child. 

Portland Nurseries defines a well child as follows: A well child is not reliant on Calpol, does not have a high temperature over (37.8 and above), is well enough to participate in all nursery activities, has a normal appetite, is happy and sociable, does not require a greater staff ratio and has normal bowel function.

If any of the above applies to your child then we ask for your support to help minimise the spread of illness by observing exclusion periods and keeping your child at home until they are fully recovered. Any child with vomiting and diarrhoea must be absent from nursery until they have been clear for 48 hours and a child with a temperature must be free from a fever without medicine for 24 hours before they can return. If you are unsure or require any guidance then please speak to your nursery manager. 

Reviews

I would like to take a moment to thank each and every one of you that took the time to leave us a 5 star review on day nurseries. I can confirm the Harlequin team won the in house competition for the most reviews and the staff were treat to a lovely afternoon tea at the Manor house in Lindley.