Newsletter
Walmgate Day Nursery is now under new ownership and management – Vicki and Alan Scurr would like to thank all current, new and past parents/children, staff and member of the York Council for their support over the past month. It has been a difficult month settling in, but we now feel we are beginning to understand the complexities of running the nursery.
We hope you have all started to see little changes to the nursery over the past month and thank those of you who have commented upon these it makes it all feel worthwhile.
Over the next few months you will see more changes these will be as follows:
Toddler Room
New cupboards, sink and bench to store the messy play items – Alan fitted these this weekend
New tables and chairs – due to arrive early July
New resources for learning and play – due to arrive early July
New staff members (Lauren) to join the existing team (Tina and Emma) – already in place
All staff have been on training for the new EYFS and will be implementing these stages into the childrens learning and play; team will be supported on this by Vicki and Amy through regular supervision meetings
Blinds have been placed at all windows to help with sleep time for the children and also use for any sensory activities planned
Interactive white board is to be installed to help children interact during their learning, such as tumble tots, dance, maths and literacy etc
Pre-school room
This room is about to get a huge overall Donna and Emma have been working with two council staff to help them come up with a more open plan room, this room should be completed by end of July
New teaching and learning resources will be purchased and used
New tables and chairs are due to arrive during July
Interactive white board and computers to enable children to learn through ICT
Emma has joined Donna in this room this month and both have been on the new EYFS training and will be having regular supervision meetings with Vicki and Amy to help them implement the new requirements into their room.
Baby Room
This room has had new play resources
Ruth joined the team in June and all have been on the new EYFS training and will be having regular supervision meetings with Vicki and Amy to help them implement the new requirements into their room.
Outside Play Area
We have placed a new sail/shade over part of this area to help children when it is too hot – not that we have had much sun up to now this summer
We have painted the chalk boards outside and these are now being used regularly
New struts for the sand pit this can now be used.
Kitchen
We are planning to create a kitchen area downstairs to enable us to provide lunches, once completed their will be no need for parents to provide packed lunch for their children.
A lunch menu will be provided once the kitchen has been installed and a cook in place.
A snack menu has been placed onto the notice board in reception area.
The New Early Years Foundation Stage
From Sept 2012 we have a new Early Years Foundation Stage to adhere to so I have placed a copy of this onto the parents notice board for you to read at your leisure. In brief the EYFS Framework explains how and what your child will be learning to support their healthy development. Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.
We will be carrying out assessments of each child over the next few weeks and your child’s key worker will be discussing these with you and asking for your comments and suggestions for progression. As parents all the fun activities that you do at home are important in supporting their learning and development, and have really long lasting effects on your child’s learning as they progress through the years.
A progress check at age 2 - At some point after your child turns 2, we will be working with you and providing you with a written summary of how your child is progressing against the 3 prime areas of learning – communication and language, physical development and personal, social and emotional development.
It is important for us to work together with all parents and you need to feel comfortable about exchanging information and discussing things that will benefit your child. These conversations will need to be with your child’s key worker who helps your child settle into the nursery, helps your child become settled, happy and safe, and is responsible for your child’s care, development and learning.
Parents will notice that there is now a planning board in each room where you can see areas of planned activities for your child. We would like parents input with activity ideas specifically in the baby room as the child can not always speak for themselves, as an example: we have a family who have recently had a addition to their family and we have been helping the child prepare for the new arrival. Please speak to a team member if you have any specific ideas.
I know it’s a lot of information to take in so I have made short notes on the subject displayed on the parent’s board for you to read, but if you have any concerns please speak to your child’s key worker who will explain the new foundation stages to you.
Ofsted and Strategic Area Review
As you may or may not be aware as a nursery we are advised to analyse our provision and provide Ofsted with this before each inspection. To help us with this we would like views and comments from a parent’s perspective and was wondering if three parents would like to volunteer to provide some input to the report. We have one volunteer from the pre-school room but would like one from babies and one from toddler room.
If you think you could help please come and talk to us!
Open day
We have an open day planned for the 18th August between 10 and 2; we would like to see you here if you can make it, also tell your friends. We have extra 3 year old funding this year so if you know of anyone who would like to have some time alone (without looking after their child) then send them our way!
Fees
Child care fees - we have been looking long and hard at these and this is what we have decided – for the next academic year Sept 2012 to August 2013 we will be keeping the prices as they are.
We have thought long and hard about this and had several discussions with other providers some of these provide a discount others don’t, we have decided that if our aim is to be the most reasonable priced but stay an excellent provider status then we should adopt the most advantageous regime for our parents to reward their support in these most difficult times.
Therefore the decision is to provide parents with a 25% reduction in your normal monthly fee for four weeks annual family holiday. However, this will only apply to those attending 4 sessions a week (a minimum of either 2 full days or 4 half days).
Other family members
A 10% discount is given for your second child in our care.
Sickness
We will also offer a 25% reduction of fee after receiving notification, for any sessions missed due to sickness, after the first week of absence, i.e. your child must be absent for over a week and the discount is on the second and any subsequent weeks.
Changes within the nursery
We have received feedback from some parents regarding the changes made within the nursery, and it is hoped that all parents are as pleased with these changes, these have been made to enable us to prepare for the delivery of the new EYFS and bring us up to the 21st century in providing quality childcare.
The children all enjoyed the Dora the Explorer day and after reviewing the day we have decided to organise an outside of the nursery activity each month, your key workers will let you know about these as they come up.
Did you know - if your child is between the ages of 3-5 you are entitled to 15 hours a week free nursery care?
We currently have spaces for this age group, so if you would like some 'me time' then take up your free nursery place now!
