OAKWOOD HOUSE NURSERY NEWSLETTER SPRING TERM 2023

Welcome to 2023 and I do hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. On behalf of all the Oakwood House team I welcome you all back to the nursery for the spring term.

I would like to say a huge thank you to you all for all our lovely cards and gifts. Our Christmas celebrations once again were very much enjoyed by everyone; we had some lovely feedback, thank you.

A warm welcome to all the new children and their families, as well as new staff who have joined us recently. We can't wait to learn all about your interests, and grow and develop together.

We are looking forward to a busy new term with lots of different learning activities and play indoors and outdoors. We hope all the children settle quickly, meet their key person, enjoy new experiences, and attain with confidence the following steps in their learning journeys.

Diary Dates

NURSERY CLOSURE DATES

Monday 1^st May (May Day Bank Holiday)

Monday 8^th May (King’s 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. The date for our next staff training day will be

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.

Stay and Plays/Events

Tuesday 31^st January – Bobble hat sing along

Babies - 9.00-10.00am

Toddlers – 10.00-11.00am

Preschool – 4.30-5.30pm

Monday 30^th January – Monday 6^th February - National Storytelling Week

• Babies Friday 3rd February - 9.00-10.00am
• Toddlers Wednesday 1^st February – 4.00-5.00pm
• Preschool Thursday 2^nd February - 4.00-5.00pm

Monday 6^th February- Friday 10^th February -Children’s wellbeing week

• Babies - Wellbeing Wednesday 8^th February, 9.00-10.00am
• Toddlers - Wellbeing Tuesday 7^th February, 9.00-10.00am
• Preschool - Wellbeing Thursday 9^th February, 4.00-5.00pm

Thursday 2nd March – World Book Day (children to come to nursery dressed as a character from a book)

Monday 13^th – Friday 17^th March – Science Week

• Babies Tuesday 14^th March, 4.30-5.30pm
• Toddlers Monday 13^th March, 4.30-5.30pm
• Preschool Wednesday 15^th March, 4.30-5.30pm

Friday 17^th March – Red nose day Charity event

*Please note full details for all stay and play events will be emailed to families and put onto parent zone prior to the event dates.

Fundraising

Thank you to all parents and relatives who have supported our charity fundraising events during the Autumn term. All funds raised will go towards our nominated charity ‘The Yorkshire Children’s Charity’ .

Nursery Education Funding

Community Library

Our wonderful Community Lending Library box in the grounds of Oakwood is now open!

The books in the library box are for ages birth-5 years. Those suitable for babies on the bottom shelf, toddlers in the middle and preschool at the top! You and your children are welcome to access the community lending library at any point during our opening hours and if you have any books you’d like to donate, please pop them in the box!

Reading books together is key to developing early communication and language skills and we hope our lending library will help promote literacy while building community spirit.

Green Tree Silver Award

We are so pleased to announce that Oakwood House has been awarded Silver in the ‘Green Tree Schools Award’, a programme organised by the Woodland Trust.

The ‘Green Tree Schools Award’ as organised by the Woodland Trust, encourages schools and nurseries to take part in environmental projects. The ‘Green Tree Schools Award’ inspires children to learn about their own environment, how it impacts the local wildlife and what we can do to help.

You can find out more about The Woodland Trust here: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

Babies

A huge welcome to all our new starters who are all settling in so well!

The babies have been getting very messy and creative. They have taken part in lots of creative activities and have made some lovely art work. The activities varied from finger and body painting to making marks in the sand. All the babies have enjoyed getting creative and have had lots of fun!

Also this month, the babies have enjoyed spending lots of time outside exploring the natural resources and developing their physical skills by doing lots of walking, climbing, crawling and cruising.

In the coming weeks we are planning to focus on combining both our creative and sensory skills by developing our “Creative Corner” where the babies will be able to self-select the activities they enjoy doing such as getting messy in the sand and water or participating in painting and drawing activities.

Toddlers

We would like to welcome our new children who started in January and also the babies who have recently moved through to Toddlers. Our children have been practising exploring the nursery environment, finding their own coat pegs and wellingtons and getting used to the new routines.

Toddlers have also been enjoying exploring lots of different textures in our malleable trays, describing what they can see and feel.

They have also been enjoying spending lots of time in the garden recently, exploring the winter environment, different textures and materials, mixing water and mud to make mud pies and milkshakes.

Preschool

We would like to welcome the new children that have moved to pre-school from toddlers, they have all settled extremely well and are enjoying being ‘pre-schoolers’.

This month we have been busy doing lots of fun-filled activities based on ‘Winter’. We have talked about the seasons and how they change and have had lots of fun exploring the rain outside and talking about how cold can affect people and the environment around us.

As part of preparing our pre-schoolers for their transition to school we are planning various activities over the coming months encouraging independence, self-confidence, planning, and problem-solving. All vital skills children need to develop before going to school.

Forest School

For the upcoming term, with Spring hopefully around the corner, we will be spending increasing amounts of time in the garden, planting a range of bulbs and vegetables and encouraging the children to tend to and take care of their environment and gain an understanding of where their food comes from and making healthy choices.

We will also explore different habitats of the mini beasts.

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.

The Cooks are currently preparing our Spring/Summer menu and 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!

Finance

Please note that our childcare software ‘Connect’ have terminated their contract with Worldpay, so we can no longer accept payment by this method. 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.

Door Entry

Please can we remind parents that it is extremely important to ensure that the door to the building is properly shut when entering and exiting the building especially now the windy weather has arrived please push it closed behind you. For security reasons we would also ask that parents do not let anyone else in and out of the building.

Staff News

Welcome to Alex Jacques who has joined our Baby Room team as Nursery Assistant.

Website

Please check the ‘News’ section on our website for the full stories on all the latest news, information and updates from Portland Nurseries. http://www.portlandnurseries.co.uk/news/