Weekly Bulletin 2 October 2024

2nd October 2024

Dear Parents and Carers

I am very pleased to say that when I walked around the Centre this morning there were many really happy and settled children playing. I hope the tips I sent out last week were helpful for you during this settling period.  We often find that children, who may have been unsettled in this first half of term, return to us after the half term holiday far happier, as by then they know the other children and the staff. Please talk to class staff, or myself, about anything we can do to help and support your children.

If your child is 3-4 years old, and in the Nursery classes of East, South or West room, there is no need for you to send in individual water bottles for children.  Children have access to water throughout the day, both in class and in lunch.  We have a system where children can take a cup, help themselves to water at the class sink, and then place the cup in a washing up bowl. At lunch our staff also serve children with water and encourage all the children to have a drink regularly.

Please can we remind you to bring in fruit, vegetables, rice cakes, oatcakes, or breadsticks for snack. We avoid snacks with nuts, due to allergies, as well as anything with high sugar or salt content. Snack is shared in class during the morning, or afternoon, and is a lovely sociable time.

Pick up for children in the Nursery from the park gate entrance has gone very well this week – thank you for helping make this such a smooth end to the day. The Nest drop off, and pick up, also seems to be working very well. We do appreciate it can be hard with cargo bikes using our narrow passageway, so thank you for being patient waiting for others to come through this passageway. As a staff, we feel far happier, not to have children go through the carpark either on foot or on bikes.

Drop off for Nursery children is 8.45am-9.15am at the pond gate.  For Nest children it is 9.00am-9.30am through the Office Reception.

Please let us know by 10am if your child is not going to be in for their session for any reason.

A message from our Parent Governors

Parent Governors are creating a Whats app group for each class so that parents are easily able to keep in contact and share information with each other.  Please do scan the QR codes on the board outside the main entrance to join these groups if you would like to…they should be ready in the next few days.

At Homerton we follow The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, and Homerton’s 10 Curriculum Goals. Through these we offer a variety of learning experiences during your child’s time with us. These goals have been carefully thought through, by us as a staff team, and reflect the skills, knowledge and experiences, that we feel will be most helpful for the your children to learn.

Children learn both through free play and more targeted planned activities, always supported by the adults in the rooms. Do have a look at our website to find out a bit more about the way we learn and play at Homerton.  Below are some photographic examples of activities you will see at times in your child’s class. I have added a short caption with each photo to explain what area of learning is being targeted.

Threading with cotton reels is a good way of promoting fine motor skills as well as exploring pattern making with different coloured reels.

We always provide lots of opportunities for mark making, both in class and the garden, and these dabber pens are easy for children to hold and control.

Home roleplay is always popular with children and they often enjoy making tea for their friends and adults in the room

This shape set gives children a chance to design and build, making different patterns with the shapes. Adults often talk to the children about the names of the shapes and their particular properties ie the number of sides they have.

We find baskets of natural objects such as these stones, shells and cones are always popular, they are used by children in all sorts of different ways including for making pictures, counting, pattern making or as props in imaginative play.

Next week I will send out more details about our Curriculum Goals.

Half Term holiday – Monday 28^th October-Friday 1^st November.

Holiday club will be running during half term week and we will be emailing you to let you know when you can book this.

Please note the Centre is also closed on Monday 4^th November for a Staff Training day on Performance Management.

The first day back for children after half term will be Tuesday 5^th November.

Thursday 14th November 7.45-8.45pm Nursery Parent information evening on playing and learning at Homerton. This evening is just for Nursery parents. The Nest parents will be having a 1:1 meeting with their class staff later in the year.

Parking

Please do not park on the yellow lines outside school as these are there to keep all children and families safe.

If you need to drive then can I suggest you park in Glebe Road, near house number 48, and walk through the passageway next to the allotments to reach the Centre. This is a lovely walk and an opportunity to enjoy some peace in nature, as well as getting some exercise.

Family photo boards

Please can you send in a photo of your family to go on our class family photo board as a celebration of our Homerton community this year. If you would like to send these to office@homerton.cambs.sch.uk then we can print them out for you.