Kea Preschool Newsletter August 2022

NEW TERM, NEW ADVENTURES!

Dear Parents & Carers
I hope you have all had an amazing Summer, and what a lovely summer it has been!
We are all looking forward to a new term and all the adventures that we will have through the year.
We can’t wait to welcome our new friends and welcome back our old friends.

Best wishes

Tracey

Dates for your Diary –

Autumn Term 2022

Monday 5th September –
Preschool CLOSED for staff training Day

Tuesday 6th September –
Term starts for preschool and our wraparound children.

Updates and exciting changes exciting changes at Kea Preschool at Kea Preschool over the Summer. over the Summer.

We have been working hard over the Summer and you will notice some exciting changes to our preschool.

As you arrive, you will notice our posh new gates! We are so pleased with them already and they are not even finished! We are just waiting for a new entry system to be installed and will update you all very shortly.

We have also had the entrance that leads to the school playground fully refurbished with a new door and surround.

The outdoor classroom has been tidied and ready for so many adventures to begin.

The ramp has been freshly painted.

Staffing updates.

Staff updates

Over the Summer the staff have been working hard developing the preschool ready for September.

I am very lucky to have such a fantastic team of practitioners!

Changes for September 2022:

Melissa is going to be starting an apprenticeship with us and training for her Level three qualification in Early Years. Melissa already has a degree in Education but requires a qualification in Early Years. Ofsted have just updated their full and relevant qualifications and unfortunately, Melissa’s was removed from the list.

Shauna will be moving from term time to full time in September.

Nicola will be dropping a few hours and will not be working on a Friday afternoon at after school club.

September 2022

Where adventures will begin!

Our New 2 year old room.

As you know we have the benefit of an extra room at the preschool. We currently use the annex room for settling and for sleeping. Over the past year the staff and I have thought of many ways we can develop the annex and from September we will be introducing a room for our younger children. The new room will be for our 2 year olds and will be ready for September.

We love that children are mixed during free flow and we see the benefits of this. However, we have also seen that the age gap from a 2 year old to a 4 year old is wide and children are at different levels of development. This is most noticeable at group times.

Therefore, from September our youngest children (2 year olds) will enter through the annex door and stay there for their morning group time. At 9.30am, those children will join the older children for ‘free flow’ accessing all our outdoor and indoor environments. At 11.40am, after tidy up time, the younger children will move back into the Annex for their group time before lunch.

Lunch will remain the same at 12.00noon, with all children and staff being together in the main room and kitchen area. After lunch if children require a sleep, they will go into the annex as we do now and children will be able to go into their room for quiet time after lunch.

The afternoon will remain the same during free flow and snack.

At 2.45pm, we will take our younger children back into the annex where they will have their end of day story, play before going home and we will ask parents to collect from the annex.

For those children who are turning 3 years old in that half term and when we feel they are ready, will move up into the main room with the 3 & 4 year olds during group times and staff will inform you when this will happen.

Information for preschool Parents.

What your child will need to bring to preschool:

• Weather appropriate clothing – coat, hat gloves in the winter and sun hat and sun cream in the summer.

• A named water bottle

• A bag with a change of clothes

• Wellies

• Nappies (if applicable)

• Lunch box (if applicable)

Activities at Kea Preschool:

Forest School

Cooking

Bike day

Music

Yoga and much more!

Preschool Uniform:

We have Preschool T shirts and sweatshirts for the children if parents would choose to have one.
T shirts £8.00 – Sweatshirts £10.00

Opening times:
Preschool – Term time only for children aged 2-4 years Wraparound care for children aged 2-11years.
Breakfast club Afterschool club Holiday club.
Open 5 days, 51 weeks 7.45am -6.00pm

Snacks and Lunchtimes at Kea Preschool:

We offer a mid morning snack and an afternoon snack during the preschool day.

You can choose a hot lunch for your child (term time only) or you can bring a packed lunch.

We are a NUT FREE setting and for safety reasons we also ask that small items such as mini sausages, baby tomatoes or grapes are cut into quarters, lengthways to avoid them becoming a choking hazard

We use Tapestry at Kea Preschool to record your child’s learning and development.
Your child will have a personal on-line learning journal which records photos, observations and comments, in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage, to build up a record of your child’s experiences during their time with us.

Key person system:

Each child has a main and secondary key person. We use a key person system to ensure that every child receives an enjoyable and challenging learning and development experience that is tailored to meet their individual needs. The key person helps the child to become familiar with the setting and to feel safe and confident within it, developing a genuine bond with the child and their family, and offering a settled, close relationship.

All about me bag…
As part of our settling in activities we ask that parents create an all about me bag/box. We would love you/your child to create this treasure bag/box within the next couple of weeks and bring it to preschool for your child to talk about.
This will help us get to know your child as well a giving them opportunities to get to know us, the other children to extend their personal, social and emotional and communication and language skills.
Please help your child choose a few items (treasures) to pack in their bag/box that represent their interests/activities/families. These items will be returned after so that you can keep adding to the bag/box at home (children love collecting cinema/train/bus tickets, photos, their artwork, special stones and shells, flight boarding cards and other mementos)!
Here’s some examples of things to start your collecton:
• A photograph of them as a baby
• A photo of the child with their family/pets
• Their favourite book • A holiday photo/postcard/memento/souvenir
• Their favourite toy animal/small toy
• Something about a hobby (swimming certificate/badge, etc)
These are just suggestions, please feel free to be creative!
We can’t wait to see them!