FAIRFIELD PARENT NEWSLETTER SPRING TERM 2025

As we are coming to the end of the Spring term with the sunshine and daffodils in full bloom it is hard to imagine the first week back after Christmas which saw us with heavy snow and ice, we have lots to celebrate over the coming months as our oldest children get ready to fly the nest on to their new adventure in reception. It is always a sad time of the year as we reflect on the milestones achieved by all our children and look forward to what their future will bring for them. 

We will be taking as much opportunity as we can to spend outdoors in nature during this colourful time of the year, exploring plants, nature, animals, tuning in to the environment listening to the birds tweeting, watching aeroplanes form patterns in the sky and enjoying the social aspects of dining alfresco with our friends. When we spend time outdoors it gives the best opportunity for our children to notice changes and understand the different seasons throughout the year. 

Please ensure that your child now has a summer hat at nursery clearly labelled with their name and that permissions are given for your child to have nursery suncream applied (dermatologically tested) we have created a hat box in the nursery foyer with all the winter hats that will now need to be taken home as we don’t have the facilities to store these until the colder months. 

Diary Dates

School Applications for September 2025-Parents will find out which primary school they have been offered for their child on Wednesday 16th April. Once you receive your letter please let your child’s key person know which school they will be going to so we can plan to send their school transition form out to the correct school.

Stay and Play "International Dance Day"

Tuesday 29th April 10-11am Preschool 

Wednesday 30th April 2.30-3.30pm Toddlers

Friday 2nd May 9.30-10.30am Babies

Closure Days

Good Friday 18th and Easter Monday 21st April

Monday 5th May and Monday 26th May Bank Holidays

Learning focus at the moment

Babies

As our babies are becoming more and more settled in to their routine and environment they have become very adventurous explorers. They have been using their increasing confidence and mobility to connect with objects learning through trial and error and sharing their experiences with the special people around them. Outdoors we have been using imaginative play when creating tuff trays to encourage babies to use their whole bodies to explore, perfecting their fine motor skills and creating a language rich environment as we learn new words. 

Toddlers

As their language develops, so do independence and social skills and the ability to start taking turns and sharing our experiences with others. Toddlers have been enjoying exploring colour in the garden and using process art to explore those big emotions and making connections between the marks they are making and starting to give meaning when sharing their creativity with others. We have been practising our independence, resilience and attention when dressing ourselves or washing our hands for snack, and when we are sitting with the preschool doing morning circle time getting ready for our transition to the focus room. 

Preschool

As the sunshine has been making more of an appearance preschool have been enjoying dining alfresco for the majority of our days, we have been perfecting our independence skills ready for when we leave to go to school, scraping our own plates at meal times, putting our own shoes on the correct feet, washing the paints when we have finished using them and being able to follow instructions during our daily routines such as tidy up time. We have been delving in to science over the past couple of weeks, creating scientific experiments to encourage children to learn cause and effect, problem solve, and experiment with different properties such as gravity, magnetics, and chemical reactions. The children have been using the loose parts to help them understand and celebrate different festivals, cultures and religions in our community.  As we are coming close to completing our Eco school project the children have been exploring growth and new life as we planted a sensory garden in preparation of the summer, the children have been eagerly watching for signs of Spring and have made lots of lovely observations so far so embed their understanding and knowledge of plants and animals. 

Project Update

Eco Schools – All our nurseries are working hard towards our annual Eco Schools award. The accreditation has recently changed and this year is more specifically aimed at those in Early Years which means that this year the resources and activity ideas are better suited to most of the children within our settings whereas in previous years, it has been aimed solely at all children in education. We have begun some really exciting lessons with the children and have been teaching them about lots of different areas such as Energy, Water, Global Citizenship and lots more. Our submission for the award will be at the end of this academic year in July and we will receive our certificate and feedback shortly after which we will share with you. 

Start Life Well – We are about to take on a new accreditation, the Start Life Well award which focuses on physical activity and nutrition in our settings. Each nursery will be assessing all areas of physical activity and nutrition before deciding on an area to improve upon. This may be improving gross motor activities indoors and outdoors or looking at staff physical activity. Each setting will choose something different following an assessment which will enable us to share best practice and ideas across the group.

SuperKind – This is another new project for us this year. The aim of this one is to bring social action and active citizenship into the classrooms through different topics and kind actions. Each child will be tasked with doing one kind action per year which can be done through a range of different activities whether that is by collecting litter, visiting a care home, donating to a food bank and many more. We will keep you updated with our progress as the project is rolled out. 

Wow news

We are very proud to have achieved our Dingley’s Promise mark of achievement award for being an inclusive nursery.

Staff News

Congratulations Beth Byram on completing your level 3.

Welcome to our Early Years Educator Hannah who has newly started working alongside the toddler team and her little boy who has joined our baby unit. 

Welcome our new students Laiba, Bethany and Alecia. Laiba is working with Chloe and Sue with the preschool children, Alecia is supporting in the toddler room with Becki and Bethany is working with the baby unit team looking after our youngest in the Fairfield family. 

Further Information

Toilet Training Survey

Please see the Guardian Survey Bog standard? Study seeks most effective toilet training methods | Parents and parenting | The Guardian

and the Parent Survey Make Science Happen! - Big Toilet Project

This is on reducing plastic nappy waste, with a focus on the environment. 

Early years food choking hazards

Please find latest advice from the Food Standards Agency here: https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/Early%20Years%20Choking%20Hazards%20Table_English.pdf PowerPoint Presentation (food.gov.uk)

This includes the latest information that popcorn is not suitable for under 5-year-olds.

Reminders

If you are planning to take holidays please can we kindly request notice of this.

A polite reminder that payments are due on the 1st of each calendar month.

Warmer weather is on the way, please make sure your child has a sun hat

Mobile Phones

Please can I remind parents that the use of mobile phones on nursery premises is strictly prohibited, you must not take any photographs or videos at nursery or at any nursery events. Using your mobile phone breaks the statutory welfare requirements and is also a breach of safeguarding policies to which we must adhere.