Kea Preschool & Forest School 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.
