Weekly Bulletin 3 November 2022

2^nd November 2022

Dear Parents and Carers

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

We had a very good training day on Monday and spent some time sorting out the garden areas and restocking these for the children.  We have a new musical instrument box which the children are really enjoying.

We are looking to restock a couple of other garden boxes, so if anyone has spare dolls clothes, pairs of children socks, plastic picnic plates, or pretend walkie talkies, that they could donate that would be very welcome.

Music

I am delighted to let you know that from next Tuesday we have a new music teacher, Davina Shore, starting to deliver music to the Nursery children.  She spent many years working at Kings School, here in Cambridge. For those Nursery children who attend at the end of the week she is happy to have her sessions recorded, so class staff can revisit her sessions at other times.

On 3rd December Davina is also running a family music workshop, here at Homerton, please see the attached flier for more information on how to book this directly with her.

Messy Play

If you are looking for a drop in parent and child group for a Friday morning then our Messy Play sessions are starting again from Friday 4th November here at Homerton – do come along, the cost is £3.00 per family and there will be lots of messy and craft activities for your children to enjoy. Thank you to our parent Governors Isa and Stefania for running this session.  If there are any other parents who would like to help run it then please let me, or Isa and Stefania, know. Please see the attached poster for more information.

Cauliflower cards

If you are planning to have beautiful personalised Christmas cards, or mugs, done by your child via our Cauliflower cards fundraiser then the artwork deadline to return the paperwork has been extended to Monday 7^th November.

Parents Evening and Play talk on Wednesday 9th November 7.30-8.30pm – 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, later in the year.

Please do come along to hear about how we play and learn at Homerton followed by an informal chat with your class staff, and the 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 later in the year.

Recipe share

As we are such an international community we thought it might be nice to share recipes across the Centre. If you have a favourite recipe you would like to share then please email it to the Office, or myself, and I shall put it in the bulletin so everyone can enjoy making it.  Thank you to Liz from South Room for starting us off with her Banana Bread recipe.

Banana Bread

Liz says ‘One of my favourite recipes that I first found in a Nigella Lawson cookbook is banana bread’…. Why not try making it with your children over the weekend?

METHOD

1.      Preheat the oven to 170ºC/150°C Fan/gas mark 3/325ºF and get started on the rest. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and combine well.

2.      In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the peeled and mashed bananas. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in sultanas and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. Scrape into a loaf tin (23 x 13 x 7cm / 9 x 5 x 3 inches) and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1¼ hours. When it’s ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.

As we move into darker evenings and with Fireworks night coming up we had a little fireworks display for the children today. We talked to them about keeping themselves and their pets safe around fireworks …please see the photos below of their beautiful firework pictures and the display.

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 and has lots of opportunities for us to learn about the themes of space travel, and light and dark. I shall be sending out a picture based story telling sheet for you to share with your children next week.

The photo below is of the interactive display in South Room that children have been enjoying.

Parents evening  – this is just for parents of children in our Nursery classes which are South, East and West Room and is 7.30-8.45pm on 9^th November.

Wednesday 7^th December – Christmas Story trail for 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 who is based here in Cambridge 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 weather appropriate clothing, including 1-2 spare sets of clothes in their bags as we go out in all weathers.

Please also remember to sign up for your class ‘Whats app’ group if you would like to.