Friday 6th September
Friday 6th September
A warm welcome back to our children and families at the start of the year and a welcome to the Friday Message that I will be updating with key information for parents every Friday.
New staff
We are very pleased to be welcoming new staff to the Moss Hall Nursery team this year. In Blue class we have Jaime who will be an early years educator and key person and also Rabea who is an early years educator and will take on key person responsibilities later on in the year. In Green class we have Laura joining us who will be a Teaching Assistant and an additional staff member in the 2 year olds class to meet the staffing ratios as the provision increase from 20 to 25 children. We also have Nicole joining as a meal-time practitioner.
Financial sustainability of the Nursery School
In the last financial year the Nursery School has moved into a much more financially sustainable position due to an increase in our occupancy levels, expansion of our 2 year olds provision and more sufficient government funding rates; this financial situation has allowed us to employ more staff members this year. We hope this will also ensure if there are staff absences in the future that we will be able to cover absence more within our own staff team rather than rely on agency staff or pulling the leadership team out of their other duties to teach in class and ensure high quality provision.
However the long term viability of Moss Hall Nursery School as well as maintained nursery schools across the country face an uncertain future. Over the last 30 years a third of maintained nursery schools have closed down due to funding challenges despite the vital role they play in providing exemplary expertise in early years education and promoting social mobility for children from the most economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
If you would like to find out more about how you can help save our Maintained Nursery Schools please do have a look at the website below:
https://www.savenurseryschools.org/save-our-nursery-schools/
Developing communications with parents
At the end of last academic year we sent out a parents survey to our families; we thank you for the positive feedback that was given about the practice and provision at the Nursery School. One of the feedback points for further development for the Nursery School was around further developing communication practices with parents. Based on this feedback we will be implementing some changes this year. Please see below the communication practices that the Nursery School will be putting in place this academic year:
- There will be a Friday message sent every Friday from myself which will be posted on the website with key messages for parents/carers. Please do try and take the time to read this at some point over your weekends as there will be important information relayed in the Friday Messages. This should also support parental information being accessible in one area with the aim of reducing the number of e-mails sent to parents during the week.
- The Nursery School will continue to send out a Whats Happening Next document which Max will be posting on the website every 2 week; this details the adult-guided curriculum for the next 2 weeks. The first WHN will be posted next Friday.
- On the last Friday of the month Julia and Jade (the class leads from Blue and Green class) will post a News from Blue/Green class on the website; this will keep parents updated about the child -led play themes , ideas and inquiries that classes have been exploring that month.
- Key people will be uploading weekly updates on Learning Journal about learning and play that has been happening for your child in their key group for that week. If your child’s key person is absent the class leads (Julia/Jade) or a member or the SLT (Subpreet/Max) will endeavour to post a weekly update for children who’s key person is absent. However we will not be able to guarantee this, as during periods of staff absence there will be other priorities such as maintaining a high quality provision that will be prioritised over updating of the Learning Journal app. We appreciate your understanding and support on this.
- By the end of next week your child’s key person will upload the parent meetings dates and times on the Learning Journal app for the rest of the academic year. Please write these dates in your diary as these meetings will be an important opportunity for you to meet with your child’s key person to discuss your child’s progress and Learning Story together. If parents/carers are not able to make the meeting in person your child’s key person will arrange a phone call with you at that date and time instead.
- The Nursery School is also starting a Community Calendar which will keep families up to date about events that are happening at the Nursery. Please see the tab below to access the Community Calendar; there is also a link to merge the calendar to your personal devices.
https://www.mosshallnursery.co.uk/community-calendar/
Meal times at the Nursery School
This week, a new caterer called Olive Dining began providing the food for lunch times at the Nursery School. I have been joining the children at lunch-time this week and have been very pleased with the quality of the meals in terms of taste, nutritional value and sufficient quantity of food. More importantly, the children have been eagerly and happily enjoying the lunch food. I will keep you updated of any Olive Dining taster sessions for parents that I am informed about.
Please find below a link to the lunch and tea-time menus at the Nursery School.
https://www.mosshallnursery.co.uk/meal-time-menus/
Please note for lunch-times if your child is a vegetarian they will have the vegetarian option on the menu and if your child is non-vegetarian they will have the non-veg option on the menu. We do not have the offer of the jacket potato at the Nursery.
The Nursery School is consulting with a nutritional expert about the tea menu; if the nursery makes any amendments based on their advice we will let you know about any updated changes to the menu.
Woodland Wednesdays
Fire Fridays were a roaring success last year in engaging children and families with a wide range of awe inspiring experiences around camp-fires. The Nursery School will continue with Fire Fridays this year which will remain on the last Friday of the month.
Building on the success of Fire Fridays the Nursery School will also be hosting Woodland Wednesdays this year. This will be held on the second Wednesday of every month and will start from October. Woodland Wednesdays will involve some exciting forest school experiences for children and parents/carers in our Wild Woods area of the garden.
We would ask families to sign up for this on the parents board nearer the time so staff are able to plan the amount of resources needed for the sessions. There will be two sessions at 9.15am and 12.50pm with morning and afternoon session children and families signing up for their respective session times and all day session families signing up for whichever slot is most suitable for them. Families from both blue and green class are invited to Woodland Wednesdays.
Children deeply engaging with the natural world is such an important part of their time with us at the Nursery School so we do hope to see our families being able to join at least one Fire Friday or Woodland Wednesday session with their child during the course of the academic year.
Dates for your diary
Please do note down important dates for your diaries for this half term which you can also view on the Community Calendar.
- Fire Friday -Friday 27th September (9.15-10.00am- Green class AM and all day children ; 11.00-11.45am-Blue class AM and all day children ; 12.50-1.30pm- Blue and Green class PM children)
- Welcome picnic- Friday 4rd October- We are looking forward to inviting in our families to share a picnic with the children and staff to celebrate the start of the year together and to welcome in our new children and families. The timings of this will be from 11.00-11.45am for the AM session children and 2.45-3.35pm for the all day and PM session children for both Blue and Green class. Please bring a healthy picnic snack for your child on this day.
- Woodland Wednesday- Wednesday 9th October- 9.15-10.00am and 12.50-1.30pm for Blue and Green class
- London Symphony Orchestra trip for Blue class returners – Thursday 17th October
- Applying to Reception parents workshop – Thursday 24th October – 9.15-10.00am- I will be holding an information session for parents about the process of applying for a Reception place at a Primary School
- Fire Friday -Friday 25th October (9.15-10.00am- Green class AM and all day children; 11.00-11.45am-Blue class AM and all day children; 12.50-1.30pm- Blue and Green class PM children)
We will get in touch in October to inform you of parental engagement dates for Autumn term 2 to further support our parents/carers being able to plan their diaries.
Final note
There was a lot of information to share after the first week back so it was quite a long Friday message this week! I do not anticipate this will be the case every week and would like to thank you for taking the time to read to the end.
I would like to end on the most important topic which is of course the children. They have had a great first week back, settling back into their familiar routines and relationships with familiar and new adults and friends alike after the Summer break. The 2 year olds who have transitioned up to the 3 year olds class have been diving into the new environment happily and confidently.
There were some significant building works to the Sand and Water areas in the playground over the Summer break to support more collaborative play and problem solving opportunities in these play spaces. The children have been very excited to explore these new spaces and we are seeing already some very rich play in these areas; please see photos of the building works and the finished areas below:
Next week we will start to welcome new children and families to the Moss Hall Nursery community; I hope you have a wonderful weekend and see you next week.
Subpreet Deu
