Weekly Bulletin 29 April 2026

29^thApril 2026

Dear Parents

I hope you all really enjoyed the weekend with some warmer weather.  The children have certainly been choosing to spend more time in the garden and really challenging themselves on our equipment, whether it be bikes or trikes or our monkey bars.

I mentioned last week that our school photographer, Helen Alderton, will also be visiting this term on the 12^th, 13^th and 14^th May. She will be taking individual and class group photos and will be in both South and East Rooms and The Nest on Tuesday 12^th May, West Room on Wednesday 13^th May, and the Nest again on Thursday 14^th May. If you particularly want a sibling photo at the start of the day then please let class staff know and they will alert Helen. We are unable to do sibling photos at the end of the day as Helen leaves before pick up time.

Helen is also hoping to take some general photos of our Bear Hunt event for the website, which is taking place on Wednesday 13^th May, so if any parents particularly don’t want to feature in these photos to go on the website, then please let class staff know. We already have a list of the children who should not be put on the website photos.

On the 20^th May we are planning our fun wheeled activity for all children around the Nursery garden. I am hoping to have some parent volunteers to help support and cheer the children on during the morning, so if you are able to help please let me or the class staff know. The session usually starts around 9.15am and finishes by 10.30am.

I wanted to share with you some staffing news for next year. Both Suzy Hughes, our Office Manager, and Tracey Wheddon, our Administrative Assistant, will be leaving at the end of this term after an amazing 21 years at Homerton. A huge thank you goes to both of them for all they have done to support families and the staff over the years, always with such a sense of fun and good humour. We wish them a very happy next chapter.

As a result we have been busy interviewing for staff for next year, so I thought I would share with you our new appointments. As you know Mitali is to be the Head of Centre working mainly Monday to Wednesday.  She will be supported by Haidee Clark who will be taking over in a combined role as a Monday – Wednesday class teacher, and Deputy Head on Thursday and Friday. Dong Sun, who is currently our Teaching Assistant in West Room, is going to be our new office manager. Ning Zhang, who works as a lunch supervisor and runs Messy Play with Jen, is taking on a new role as Finance Manager.

Our Nest children had a lot of fun learning how to Irish dance as one of the children had just come back from Ireland and decided to teach their friends the dance steps they had learned.

Following a session on healthy eating last week the children learnt how to make fruit kebabs – they looked delicious!

West Room went on a minibeast hunt in our Old Orchard Garden.

They also helped Dong plant some seed potatoes. I wonder how many will grow by the time they dig them up in July?

East Room builders persevered in when making a doorway structure, seeing how they could get a stick to balance on top of the two sides.

The lovely weather has provided lots of opportunities for children to extend themselves physically and our monkey bars are extremely popular at the moment.

May 12^th 13^th and 14^th our school photographer visits the Centre

May 13^th Bear Hunt Story Trail around the garden for parents and children at 8.45am-9.30am

May 20^th Really Wheelie bike and scooter trail – parent helpers needed

May 22^nd The Centre is closed for a training day focusing on Outdoor Learning and the benefits of being outdoors

If anyone is able to help with the Really wheelie trail or allotment visits this term then please let me, or your class staff, know.

Thank you