Term 3 Newsletter
We would like to extend a warm welcome to the children and families who have joined us recently. We hope you will quickly begin to feel a sense of belonging within this community and will play your part in ensuring it has continued success. The team here at Thornlaw strive to ensure that we provide the same standard of care which we would expect for our own children and grandchildren, ensuring your time here with us at Thornlaw Nursery is happy and productive.
NURSERY ARRIVAL AND COLLECTION TIMES
We have noticed an increase in the number of children arriving to/being collected from nursery late. Arriving to nursery late has an impact on and is disruptive to children’s learning. Similarly arriving late to collect your child has an impact on children’s learning and on the running of our nursery. We are ratio driven and must adhere to how many children we have in the building at any one time. Arriving late for your child can cause unnecessary upset for your child. Please be mindful that staff have lunch breaks and have their own children and families to go home to at the end of the day, as such we would appreciate you adhering to the arrival and collection times below.
Unless you have been given different instructions from your child’s key worker – sessions are as follows;
MORNING SESSION
08.00-12.45
AFTERNOON SESSION
13.00-17.45
MORNING CHILDREN
Please ensure your child is in nursery no later than 09.15. This ensures that your child’s and other children’s learning is not interrupted.
AFTERNOON CHILDREN
Please ensure your child is in nursery no later than 13.15. This ensures that your child’s and other children’s learning is not interrupted. Please note that the nursery door is not manned between the hours of 13.15 and 14.00, due to staff lunches as such there will NOT be a member of staff available to let you into nursery after 13.15 therefore you must have your child in nursery before 13.15 for their afternoon session.
Collection time is between
15.00-15.30
and
16.30-17.30
FUND RAISING
Thank you to all our families who participated and donated to our various Christmas fund raising events. We managed to raise a total of £491.00, this was made up of £107.00 from our raffle and £384.00 from our sponsored event.
The money raised from these events was spent on a special Christmas gift for each child, food for our Christmas parties and baking activities.
TOY FUND
Toy Fund is a voluntary suggested contribution of £2 per week, however you may pay more or less if you wish. Toy Fund helps us provide extras that we would not normally be able to do such as outings, celebrations and gifts, all children benefit from the toy fund, so please try to contribute when you can. If we have no Toy Fund then we will be unable to continue with seasonal shows or seasonal / birthday treats for the children and outings, there will be no baking or cooking activities.
Toy fund can be paid weekly on a Tuesday in nursery to Jane Gunn, Clerical Support Assistant.
Toy Fund contributions are banked each week, and the books and receipts are always available for inspection. The toy fund is audited annually according to the council’s financial regulations.
SICKNESS AND ILLNESS POLICY REMINDER
Any child who is unwell should not attend, regardless of whether they have a confirmed infection. Children with diarrhoea and/or vomiting should be excluded until they have had no symptoms for 48 hours after an episode of diarrhoea and/or vomiting. Coughs and runny noses alone need not be a reason for exclusion but if the child is unwell, they should not attend. Skin rashes should be professionally diagnosed, and a child should only be excluded following appropriate advice. Children should only be excluded when there is good reason. Families will be contacted if children appear unwell or complain of being unwell, for any reason, and unable to cope with nursery.
If your child is unwell at home and is unable to attend nursery, it is important that you let us know as soon as possible.
HOME LEARNING
Our ‘Play Along Maths’ programme began last term. Pre-school children are involved in our ‘Play Along Maths’ programme, all parents of Pre-school children have received a letter with details. Those families who have participated so far have found this fun and purposeful.
Our lending library is up and running. All children are invited to choose a book from our lending library; you are encouraged to read the book at home with your child. You will keep the book at home for one week, and then return it to nursery, enabling your child to choose a new book.
Our ‘Science Bears’ will continue this term. Those of you who have taken a Science Bear home, have really embraced the learning at home and we have loved seeing all your efforts posted on Learning Journals, Well Done! We have six ‘Science Bears,’ so your child will not have a ‘Science Bear’ every week but will receive their turn at some point during the nursery year.
Each home learning link has an evaluation form, we encourage you to complete this as your feedback allows nursery staff to evaluate progress in learning and the impact of our home learning link, making improvements where needed.
Remember you can post any learning or achievements from home on your child’s learning journal, just click on ‘Parent Contribution’ and load your pictures and comments, we can celebrate these learning / achievements in nursery too!
PARENT PARTNERSHIPS
We value the contributions that parents and families make to nursery life. Our Community Gardening Group initiative will begin in March, day and time TBC. This group could include parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles who are green fingered. The aim of this group is to bring our community together, building relationships, whilst growing our own plants and eventually vegetables. We will be starting off with planting some hanging baskets with sensory plants such as lavender and peppermint. If you are interested in joining, please speak to a member of staff.
Bookbug sessions – Helen will be offering the next Bookbug session on Wednesday 4th February at 2.15pm. Parents are expected to attend these sessions with their child. If your child does not normally attend at this time, you are more than welcome to come along. Remember our Bookbug sessions run on the first Wednesday of every month.
Big Chef / Little Chef – Hadia will be offering the next Big Chef / Little chef session on Friday 30th January at 2pm. Parents are expected to attend these sessions with their child. If your child does not normally attend at this time, you are more than welcome to come along. Remember our Big Chef / Little Chef sessions run on the last Friday of every month.
STAY AND PLAY SESSIONS
Parents are invited to come into nursery for Stay and Play, week beginning 2nd March. The focus of the Stay and Play will be Literacy. Morning sessions are from 10.15-11.15, afternoon sessions are from 14.00-15.00. This is a wonderful opportunity for parents to see firsthand all the learning that children are doing whilst in nursery, so please come along.
PRE-LOVED CLOTHING RAIL / FOOD DONATIONS
In our corridor you will find a pre-loved clothing rail, you will also find a selection of sanitary products, nappies, wipes and other useful items, please feel free to have a look and take anything that you would have use for.
We also have regular donations of food products, these are normally on display in the nursery corridor, please feel free to take any of the food products you would like.
REMINDERS
Clothing - As part of our curriculum we play outside in all weathers so, please make sure your child comes to nursery suitably dressed in a warm coat with appropriate footwear. If possible, could you provide a pair of wellington boots that your child can leave in nursery. It is advisable to bring a change of clothes for your child to leave at nursery. We do not have any spare clothes, so this is essential, as learning can be a messy business. If your child has been sent home with spare nursery clothes, could you please ensure that you return these ASAP.
Children should also have shoes that they can manage to take on and off by themselves, ideally Velcro straps are best.
Children’s Trays – Each child has their own allocated tray, located opposite the Head of Nursery’s office. Please ensure that you check your child’s tray daily, as you will find important information here.
BRINGING TOYS TO NURSERY
We understand that some children may wish to bring their own toys to nursery, however we would appreciate if you encouraged your child not to bring toys to nursery. This can often cause upset for your child when other children want to play with their special toy and toys can often become lost or broken. We are not responsible for any toys that your child brings to nursery. Please speak to a member of staff if you have any concerns regarding this.
Attention all Parents and families 
Please refrain from using mobile phones in the nursery.
It is nursery policy that mobile phones are not used within the nursery. This helps to ensure the privacy and respect of the children and families using the nursery. Your child will also be keen to talk to you about their day and will want to know you are listening to them and able to respond. Please make your calls or texts before you enter the building.
Gentle reminder
Dogs are not permitted on the school grounds. Please DO NOT bring dogs onto the school grounds.