Weekly Bulletin 2 November 2023

1st November 2023

Dear Parents and Carers

I hope you have all had a good half term break.  Thank you to Mel, Bridget, Maria, and the staff who ran holiday club which, by all accounts, was very successful.

Parents Evening and Play talk on Thursday 9th November 7.45-8.45pm. This is just for Nursery parents in South, East and West Rooms. Nest parents will be having a parent one to one meeting, with the key worker for their child, during the year.

Nursery parents please do come along to hear about how we play and learn at Homerton and have an informal chat with your class staff. This is also an opportunity to meet other parents from your child’s class. (The Nursery classes will also have a more formal, one to one meeting, with all parents during the second half of the Spring Term).

Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator Coffee Morning on Monday 13^th November 9.30am -10.30am.

Bernie, our special educational needs co-ordinator is running an information sharing coffee morning for parents in our Rainbow Room on Monday 13^th

November. If you would like to find out more about Special Educational Needs support at Homerton, or if you have any concerns about your child’s development, then please do come along to this informal information sharing session and meet Bernie, and the team.

Toileting Training

If your child is in nappies/pull ups, and you and the staff feel they are now ready to move on to wearing pants instead, then please chat to staff and work together to toilet train. There is a very useful website https://eric.org.uk with information on toilet training, which you may find helpful.

Careers and Courses in Early Childhood

The Local Authority have sent through information on free accredited courses in Early Years careers which you might be interested in if you are looking to work with children.  Please see attachment at the top.

Fireworks Today   

As we move into darker evenings and with Fireworks night coming up, we had a little fireworks display for the children today, using the quietest selection of fireworks we could find.  We talked to them about keeping themselves and their pets safe around fireworks …please see the photos below of our fireworks display.

Core Book – Whatever Next by Jill Murphy

We are also introducing our new Core story ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy this half term. It is all about a bear going on a visit to the moon. It provides opportunities for children to learn about the themes of space travel, and light and dark. I shall be sending out a picture story telling sheet for you to share with your children next week, once they have been introduced to the story in our class Circle times.

Language of the half term – Spanish

Each half term we focus on a particular language.  As we have quite a number of Spanish speaking children in the Centre this year, we are starting with Spanish. Please see the attached sheet for simple language and recipe ideas that you might like to share with your children at home

9^th November Nursery Parents evening  – this is just for parents of children in our Nursery classes which are South, East and West Room and is 7.45-8.45pm

Wednesday 6^th December – Christmas Story trail for all parents and children around the garden 8.45am-9.30am – East Blue children, and any children from the Nest who attend on a different day/time, please come in to enjoy this event with everyone. 

Please can you ensure that our office and class staff have up to date mobile phone contact details, and that we have a contact person based here in Cambridge, for us to ring, in the event that your child becomes ill, or has an accident, whilst at Homerton.

Please remember to provide your child with warm and waterproof clothing for our Garden times. Please can we also have 1-2 spare sets of clothes in your child’s bad as we go out in all weathers.

Seeking confident DIY parent

If we have any parents who might be able to help us with the odd ‘do it yourself’ job around the Centre – like putting up shelves then please speak to Alex or Bob.