Hope you all have a lovely 6 weeks holiday. We hope that you have lots of fun but also managed to get some rest, enjoy nice weather, go on holiday or have lovely days out.

First of all, I would like to welcome the new children who have started with us since the summer holidays. We have lots of things planned to help them settle in and enjoy their learning journey with us.

We would also like to acknowledge the children who have moved on to school. We have heard that they are enjoying themselves and are very proud that we were able to get them school ready to enable a smooth transition. We are confident that they will all enjoy school and progress brilliantly in the next chapter of their education.

Unfortunately, as many of you know Alex has gone to pastures new and we wish her all of the best. The rest of the team, Kim, Steph, Wendy and Germaine are continuing to find ways to engage your children in fun/educational activities which will help them with their development, whilst also making improvements to the setting and constantly seeking best practice.

Please remember to send you child to preschool with a packed lunch, drink, spare clothes (lots if potty training) and nappies/wipes (if needed). Your child will also need a coat every day so that we can continue to play outside.

TODDLERS

Toddlers, hosted by Kim, continues to be popular, offering children a variety of resources and activities in our Parent and Toddler, Stay and Play sessions. This caters for children aged 0-4 and is open on Mondays from 9:15 to 11:15. First session is free but please email to book your place. The cost is £2.50 and additional siblings are 50p (paid half-termly). Drop in sessions are £3. Email Toddlers@highamptonpreschool.co.uk for more information and to book your place.

HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II

As a setting we would like to convey our deepest sympathies on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She has served us well over the last 70 years and our thoughts are with her family and all who loved her. The children are painting pictures of the Queen for British Values Display Board.

WHAT’S NEW?

Over the summer holidays, we have had our outside space painted so we now look very shiny and new. We would like to thank Lesley Kitchinson, Marc and Mia Andrew for volunteering their time.
We have just opened our doors again to parents which will hopefully improve our preschool community and increase communication with parents about the progression and achievements of their children.
We also sent out a questionnaire at the beginning of term via email. Thank you if you have already completed this. If you haven’t yet done this, it’s not too late. If you need the email resent, please let us know.
We will be collating the results and feeding back soon.

CaD BOOKS

The Communication and Development books continue to be updated with your child’s work and are available for you to take home and review with your children whenever you would like them. These books are updated by your Keyworker – the name of your Keyworker is on the front of these books. If you are not sure who your Keyworker is, please ask. Please feel free to comment in the CaD books on the photos and observations that you read and add your own if your child is doing fabulous things at home. Please also comment at the bottom of the end of term summary. If you have any queries about your child’s development, please do not hesitate to speak to a member of staff or your child’s key worker.

COMMUNICATION

As always, your Key Worker is available should you need to discuss any particular aspects of your child’s learning and next steps. You can speak to a member of staff at drop off and pick up, call on 07837 357815 or 07801 581054 out of hours or email info@highamptonpreschool.co.uk. Please check our closed Facebook page for Parents/Carers for weekly updates, events and news or refer to the Website for setting information and general queries.

REVIEW OF SUMMER TERM

It seems such a long time ago now but this is what we were doing last term:

We began last term focussing on Space including astronauts, rockets and planets. The children loved role play in our space tent and dressing up as trainee astronauts. We walked as though we were walking on the moon and made NASA name badges for our outfits. We played with moon sand, counted moon rocks, sang space songs, learnt about different planets, made playdough aliens, made rockets and learnt space vocabulary. We also created a lovely space display board showing some of the fabulous work we had done.

Despite needing to close for another week due to Covid/Staff shortages, we came back raring to go and moved straight into Jubilee Celebrations, where we dressed up as knights, princesses and princes. We made fabulous crowns, counting the jewels that we decorated them with. We made a wonderful collage union jack for our British Values Board, held royal tea parties, made a marching band, listened to lots of traditional British music (The National Anthem;

Rule Britannia; Land of Hope and Glory, etc), learned how to do a royal wave, bow and courtesy.
We talked about and read lots of books about starting school in time for the start of our older children beginning their school transitions which we were pleased to hear, all went well.

After the spring bank holidays we returned with a new theme all about the Sea and Oceans. First we started with Pirates, focussing on the book Pirates Love Underpants and made pirate hats, played with the pirate ship, looked for treasure, made treasure maps, walked the plank and played Pop Up Pirate. We then moved on to the sea, focussing on The Snail and the Whale when we practiced our cutting skills with a whale picture, practiced our fine motor skills by tracing a snail and colouring it in. It was Father’s Day this time so we also made a card and present for all of the Dads with a handprint card and a decorated box with counted mints inside. The children really loved our Splashy Whale game which was a firm favourite. In our final weeks of this term, we focussed on Beeches, Holidays and the story – Sharing a Shell. We painted ice creams, did lots of digging in the sand perfecting our sandcastles, we made the play houses outside into Ice Cream Shops, had lots of water play and practiced lots for Sports Day.

Sports Day was a great success, we hope you all enjoyed watching your children race. Holding this in the morning was perfect before it got too hot and the school were perfect hosts, with special thanks to Mr Pugh who started all of our races.

Our Leavers Assembly was time to say goodbye to the children who will be leaving and starting school in September. We have felt privileged to have been part of their learning journey so far and were pleased and confident that they were all ready for school and the new challenges that this will bring. As always, leavers assembly was a little emotional saying goodbye and the children who have left will be missed.

Pennywell Farm was a great day out. The children (and parents) had a lovely day. The weather was kind to us and we all had a fabulous time seeing and learning about the animals.

FUNDRAISING

Your School Lottery is an exciting weekly lottery that helps raise money for Highampton Area Pre-School. Tickets for the lottery cost just £1 per week, with a top prize of £25,000! Each ticket will consist of 6 numbers and each number will be between 0 and 9. There will be a draw every Saturday night when a 6 digit winning combination will be picked. Match all 6 and you win the JACKPOT of £25,000! There is also a guaranteed winner for Highampton Area Pre-School very Saturday which is drawn on a raffle basis, so there are two chances to win a prize. More tickets sold the more the prize money will be each week.

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support us. Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price of your Amazon shops to your nominated charity at no extra cost to you. Simply log-in to your Amazon account at smile.amazon.co.uk and nominate “Highampton Area Pre-School Group” as your chosen charity, then every time you shop at Amazon a percentage of the purchase price of your orders will be donated to Highampton Area Pre-School. AmazonSmile is available at smile.amazon.co.uk on your web browser and can be activated in the Amazon Shopping App for iOS and Android phones.

Please go to our fundraising page out more about these fundraising opportunities and to buy tickets.

ABSENCES

Please ensure that you phone or text us each day that your child is absent from Preschool, unless you are able to predict a longer period of absence and we are aware of this. 07837 357815 or 07801 581054 out of hours

CHANGE OF CONTACT DETAILS

Please ensure that the contact details we have on file are correct and any specific requirements for your child are up to date.

PRESCHOOL DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

• Thursday 17 November Children In Need
• Friday 18 November Highampton CP School Open Morning 10am – 12noon
• Thursday 15 December Xmas Party and Bring and Share Xmas Lunch