Start of the new academic year - September 2020

 Dear Parents/carers,

I can't wait to welcome the new starters and the existing F1 children on Sept 7th. Mrs McCormac , Mrs Murphy and I are so excited to return to school after what seems like an eternity. We will do our absolute best to meet all your needs in a Covid-safe way. Please read the following:

This is how the Early Years (E) department at Newbold School will be managed in light of the latest DfE guidance.                                                                                                                  

BUBBLES (groups): Latest Government guidance does not expect Early Years (EY) children to form bubbles within their class, but they need to try to remain separate from the rest of the school. It is a well-known fact that children of this age cannot social distance. However, as our EY department forms part of a school, we need to also consider the updated School guidance. Therefore, F1 and F2 will form one bubble (currently 20 or so children) but will not mix with any other year groups. We will use the F1 and F2 classroom, our outside garden, the playground and the surrounding Newbold College outside areas. 

The adults, however, plan to social distance from each-other as much as possible. The staff will ensure the children’s emotional needs are met as best they can. 

DROP OFF DETAILS: Only one parent (who is not self-isolating and is symptom-free) can drop off their EY child between 8.55-9am. EY parents are to enter (and leave) the school grounds via the wooden gate on Popeswood road. Both sides of the gate will be open - one for entry and one for exit. There will be lane markers on the ground which must be followed. A member of EY staff (most likely Mrs Jennings) will be waiting by the EY garden gate - please keep your distance. Please ensure you and your child are consistently 2m apart from the people in front of you. Your child’s name will be called and your child will enter the EY garden with the staff member.

• F1 - Your child will enter into the F1 classroom, supervised by a member of staff. There will be another staff member there to welcome them inside and to direct them to place their prepared snack in a plastic bag into their tray and to find their name card. They will then walk towards the sink - place their lunchbox and/or water bottle on the trolley and then a member of staff will supervise the washing of their hands before your child chooses what table-top activity to do. If they have separation anxieties, you may  enter the EY garden to help them settle and a member of staff will assist you when they can. 

• F2 - The member of staff (most likely, Mrs Jennings) will walk your child into F2 and they will be greeted by an F2 staff member who will direct them on where to place their lunch box, water bottle and prepared snack, before being supervised whilst washing their hands. 

In the meantime - You will exit via the same large wooden onto Popeswood Road (following the markers). The big wooden gate will be locked at 9.05am. 

WHAT TO BRING IN/WEAR: We are following the DfE guidelines and want to reduce as much cross-contamination as possible. With that in mind, there are some changes from the last information feed:

• No toys, no books or any object from home (including pictures) are allowed. 

• No small tupperware pots, containers with lids or canvas lunch bags are allowed.

• School uniform will now be worn

• Your child DOES NEED a water bottle, as we will not be using our cups or provide milk/crackers at this time.

• Please bring in a fruit snack - (in a plastic bag for loose fruit, such as berries)

• Please bring in a wipeable lunchbox (contents to be in packaging that the children can open themselves). We will wipe the lunchbox with antibacterial spray on arrival and before departure. Canvas lunch-boxes are not permitted as they cannot be properly wiped.

• Your child needs a clean set of clothes in a named bag, wellie boots, a sunhat and a WATERPROOF jacket suitable for the weather, as we plan to do a lot of outside learning, whatever the weather. 

 

CLASSROOM LAYOUT AND ROUTINES: The classroom will look a bit different to how it usually does, but I’ve tried to make it as inviting as I can. Public health advice is to remove all soft toys, and any toys that are hard to clean, such as those with intricate parts. Where practicable, we have removed soft furnishings, for example pillows, bean bags, the bed and most rugs. We have also removed access to all soft toys, dressing-up clothes, sand and other sensory resources from our learning environment. There will be accessible books available each day, which will be changed daily. The accessible resources will be different each day and will be disinfected and thoroughly cleaned at the end of each session. Daily resources bags will contain some scissors, glue sticks, pens and playdough tools. These will not be used again until 7 days later. Frequently touched surfaces, toilets, handles etc will be cleaned and disinfected throughout the day. Children will wash their hands throughout the day and will be supervised each time. They will be required to wash their hands on arrival, before snack-time, after using the toilet, after personal hygiene, when coming in from the playground and before they go home. Staff will be following the same guidance. Children will go to the toilet one/two at a time whenever possible (but this may not be possible on some occasions). The children’s temperature will be taken (non contact) at registration times and if your child looks unwell, tells us they feel unwell or they feel hot.

For now, we will not be doing PE in the carpeted hall nor have Toast Tuesday. We will be doing as many activities as we can outside, including singing and movement in music outside. Playdough will be changed daily. The library books will be accessed by staff only. If your child requests one, they will go home on a Tuesday and must be returned before or on Friday. These will be stored for 72 hours before being released to any other child.

PICK UP ARRANGEMENTS - 3.20pm for EY or 12.05pm: These are the same as with drop-off routines. Only one parent who is symptom-free/not isolating can pick up children. Social distance and stand-on markers will be used. Please enter through the big wooden gate on Popeswood Road (both for lunchtime and end of the day pick-ups). Please stand on the markers and wait until a member of staff opens the garden gate. Once at the front of the line, a member of staff will collect your child and bring them out to you. Once reunited, please exit promptly through the big wooden gate - following the one-way markers, so the next parent can collect their child. All correspondence and handover information will need to be done via email rather than face-to-face. Any minor accident/first-aid correspondence will be emailed to you for you to acknowledge and return. Please do not use your mobile phones whilst waiting as we cannot discharge your child to you if you are on them, and this will cause a hold up. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and support.

We will continue to support children’s early language and communication skills and use the outdoor space as much as possible. We will plan how children can learn in age-appropriate ways about how they can keep themselves safe, including regular hand-washing and using tissues. For children in F1, practitioners will mainly focus at this time on the prime areas of learning, including: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development (PSED) and physical development. For children in F2, we will also assess and address gaps in language, early reading and mathematics, particularly ensuring children’s acquisition of phonic knowledge and extending their vocabulary.

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS TO READ: There are conditions, specific to our school situation, that parents must understand and adhere to. Our up-dated school risk assessment and EY risk assessment contains details of the risks and what we have put in place to mitigate these, as well as changes to specific policies. All of these will be sent to you before school re-starts. Please ensure you read them thoroughly. 

If someone in school displays symptoms, and/or tests positive, this will impact your child’s attendance and could also impact the opening of our EY department at short notice. Full guidance will then be followed and communicated to you. As part of the national test and trace programme, if other cases are detected within the setting, Public Health England’s local health protection teams will conduct a rapid investigation and will advise settings on the most appropriate action to take (please find details in our risk assessment). Everyone, including under 5s, can be tested. You will be expected to sign a parent agreement giving your consent to follow all policies, procedures and risk assessments. Thank you for your continued support in helping to keep everyone safe. 

Mrs Jennings

Early Years Manager

Mrs Jennings returns!

On 4th June, I will return to F1 after my foot operation. It's been six weeks of foot elevation and no weight-bearing. I am now in phase 2 of the recovery and physio is helping me walk on it again properly. I've been instructed to ease into work gradually so have to be mostly desk-based for the first 3 weeks back. However, I am very much looking forward to seeing you all again and excited for the fun activities we have planned during our final, busiest and hopefully sunniest term together.

I will be bringing in my adjustable crutches for the children to explore. We will have a special delivery this week (look out for the Tapestry observations for more info). It's also the term for Fathers Day, sports day (Mon 8th July or rain-date: Wed 10th July), school trip (Tues 11th June), International day (Wed 17th July), Tempest photos (Thur 13th June), transition arrangements and school reports..... oh, and a drama workshop (Friday 7th June).

We will have an EY 'stay and play' for the Dad's, Grand-Dad's and any family member - male or female - for children who attend on the morning of Friday14th in F1 and F2. It will be from 9-10.15am.

We welcome Matej to our class on the 4th, and prepare to say good-bye to a few of our children who are moving to other schools for next academic year.

Enjoy the rest of half term and see you on Tuesday. YEY!

Science week

Science week was awesome!!!!! 

We had so much fun doing scientific experiments - inside and outside. The children really enjoyed exploring, experimenting, observing changes, investigating and predicting. So much learning took place whilst developing their scientific minds. 

We focused on colour change and added water to a plate of skittles - admiring how the dye from the skittles changed the water into a rainbow. Then we examined the underneath of the skittles and they had turned white. After an hour or so, we went back to the plate and found the skittles had disappeared - they had dissolved. 

We made a volcano out of playdough (wrapped around a bottle). We explored the white powder (bicarbonate of soda) and the clear liquid (white vinegar which smelt disgusting!). When the two ingredients mixed, we observed the lava (orange foam) pouring out of the top of our volcano. We predicted and explored what happened when we added more.

We all discovered how stamping hard on the foot pump of a foam rocket launcher made the rocket zoom high in the sky, and why/how that happened. The windy day made the rocket fly on all directions. We made our own rockets and used them in the playground to fly to different laminated planets.

Outside, we planted, observed different vegetables and made perfume using herbs, coloured water, petals and old flower heads. We were exploring using pipettes and test-tubes. 

A fun week of learning.

Half Term

Dear Parents / carers,

Happy sunny Friday. We wish you all a lovely half term.

On our return, we will be changing some topics in worship, movement in music and PE. This to ensure we cover a wide range of curriculum activities and expose our children to lots of different skills in an age-appropriate and interactive way.

WORSHIP: We finished our 'helpfulness' topic this week and will start a new topic - "Easter". The unit overview is the Truth: Salvation, through Jesus' death and resurrection, is God's Best Gift. 

MOVEMENT IN MUSIC: We finished our "Instruments - sounds, beat and rhythm" topic and will start a new topic - "Different scales, pitch awareness and voice sounds". However, the first week is a settling back week and the second week will not happen due to Tempest Photography being set up in the hall and taking individual photos of your children. Movement in music will therefore start on 12.3.19.

PE : We will be extending our 'moving in different ways topic. F1 and F2 will be splitting up for PE due to the increased number of children. We will be using the wooden wall climbing equipment to extend the children's climbing skills and following our safety rules. We will move around obstacle courses and also do some Spring and growth dances. 

I have sent home a sheet entitled 'Half Term Snaps'. Please could you attach some printed photos to this sheet with an explanation on what your child did. We look forward to sharing these sheets and hearing more about what your children have been up to. 

We will be planting seeds on our return - learning more about growth and change. We will continue to take many walks around the beautiful Newbold college grounds too. 

We welcome Rosie to our class too. 

Enjoy the sunshine and the break

Kind regards,

Mrs Jennings

BA (Hons) 1st

Early Years Manager

January 2019

WELCOME TO THE FIRST MONTH OF 2019.

We welcome a new starter: Josie, and will welcome another new starter after half term: Rosie.

This half term starts with a new worship topic: 'Helpfulness'. We are learning that helpful hands are kind hands. We ask ourselves: How can we be a gift? We can use our kind hands to help.

We also start a new focus in 'movement in music' : Instruments - sounds, beat and rhythms.

In PE, we will be developing our ball skills (rolling, throwing, passing, catching, bouncing and kicking), as well as performing ring games and circle dances - following instructions. Each PE lesson will start with a coordinated aerobic warm-up.

Other adult-led activities include the 3 ability-based phonic groups each day, which are short, interactive and fun. I have just introduced a daily small group activity for the children who have attended F1 since before the start of this academic year. This sessions focus on extending literacy (reading and writing) skills and maths (numbers and shape, space, measure) skills. These children are all enjoying these activities and progressing very well.

The children are enjoying learning through play and this is child-led and quite often leads to in-the-moment learning. A classic example of this was last week, when a number hunt in the woods turned into the realisation that number 11 was missing. The children had convinced themselves that a cheeky fox had taken it, and maybe ate it. At lunchtime, a letter was left for us from the fox, saying he had thought that the number 11 was for him as it was his birthday and he was 11 today. We voted on what to do (let him keep it or ask for it back) and it was agreed that the fox shouldn't have taken it as it wasn't his to take. The children had a great idea: make him a birthday card - lots of imaginative drawing and writing came next, and another trip to the woods was in hand. We left our card, an orange and a sock (as the video footage we watched as part of our research into what foxes like, included fruit and socks).
The next day, we went back to the woods and to our surprise, the number 11 had been returned as well as a thank you note. The birthday card had gone, and so had the sock. During our walk to the woods, we saw orange peel on the ground.  This in-the-moment activity lasted 2 days, ignited such interest, developed skills in the 7 areas of learning and developed a positive mindset.

The children love 'Toast Tuesday' - where they develop their skills in using tools, noticing changes, using their senses. The UK wide "big garden birdwatch' of 2019 was fun and educational last week. The bread the children threw resulted in us seeing lots of pigeons, magpies, crows and even a robin. Thank you to those children who carried on this activity with their parents at the weekend.

We look forward to the rest of this half term and want to thank you - the parents - for your continued support.

From The F1 team.

New half term - Nov 18

Dear Parents,

We have had a lovely week this week and the children have settled into the new term really quickly.

There will be a change in the way we distribute 'goodies from home' for children's birthdays. If you would like to send in sweets, this is by no means obligatory, please can you send in individual packets of sweets that can be put in children's book bags. Please send them in the morning and please do not send in individual cupcakes or cake that needs to be sliced. 

We will make sure the children know that the sweets have gone in their bag and the class will say thank you. I'm sure you can understand that the handover period is a busy time and we need to ensure children's safety at this busy time. Thanks for your cooperation. As always, if you have any questions, please ask. 

Our offsite 'Pumpkin Walk' will take place on Monday 12th November to Popeswood Meadow area. This is weather permitting. If it is raining - we will reschedule. I have completed a risk assessment and you have already signed permission for local trips. We have 8 adult helpers so are covered in ratio and we will ensure constant supervision. All children will wear hi-vis vests and two adults will stop the traffic on the road when we cross it. We will be exploring the local meadow, play on the equipment and find a pumpkin (pre-hidden by me) - then we will sing some ring games around it. 

Please see me if you have any concerns or questions.

What have we been doing this week?

The main interest this week, was Mrs McCormac's BIG birthday (and Ocean's too). We had a fabulous day on Thursday - decorating cakes, looking at toys that were popular in 1968, listening to birthday stories and playing musical bumps/statues/chairs. We also did lots of art with leaves, enjoyed number games and moved in/on/under/through equipment in our obstacle course PE lesson.

What will we be learning next week? - This week there's a lot going on........

Next week we will be discussing their experience of firework displays, how to keep safe and making firework art using a variety of resources. We will also be talking about Diwali and have a dance workshop on Thursday. We will be making Diwali candle Divas, doing some art and listening to a Diwali story. We will also be learning some Diwali dance moves and will use scarves to move like fireworks in PE. Later in the week we will be making poppies for Remembrance day and discussing the relevance of this occasion. This is the video that I will be sharing with the children - it's age appropriate and through our discussion helps them to gain an understanding of war. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/poppies

Summer Term 2018

Welcome to the final term of this academic year - the best one due to the weather!

The sun has been shining all week and we've had a great first week back. We have welcomed new children: Ava, Inam, Adam and Zara. All four children has settled really well and seem to already love coming to school.  

We have made the most of the sunshine by playing and learning outside:

PE outside: throwing and aiming fun

  Hockey fun.


Slide and apparatus fun


We sat outside in the shade and enjoyed our healthy snacks this week. We all enjoyed listening to stories outside too.


Then on Thursday a surprise parcel was delivered. We all guessed what could possibly be inside. We had some wonderful ideas but no-one actually guessed correctly. Inside the parcel were 10 tiny caterpillars in 2 feeding pots. WOW - we are so excited to watch them grow and change over the next few weeks before waving them off in the big wide world as butterflies.

Look carefully and you can see them in the pots in our display.

We even found time to make some cracker faces this week. The children looked in a mirror and chose which food represented their facial features the best. Here's an example of one lovely creation.

What a great first week back. We look forward to more exciting adventures this term. We have a school trip to Buckleberry Farm, International Day, another Stay and Play (for Father's Day) and Sport day to look forward to too, 

Thanks for all your continued support. Remember it's the induction meeting for new parents on Monday 23rd April and a Parents Phonic workshop on Monday 30th April - both at 3pm. 

from Mrs Jennings and the EY Team.