Hope you had a lovely Easter Break. Hope the Easter Bunny came to your house.

OFSTED

We are delighted to let you know the outcome of our Ofsted Inspection which took place on 1 March 2023.

Overall Effectiveness – Good
The quality of education – Good
Behaviour and attitudes – Good
Personal development – Good
Leadership and management – Good

We would, again, stress how humbled and appreciative we are for the feedback you provided prior to the inspection, and to thank you enormously for your ongoing support.

If you would like to read the full report, please follow this link: https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50213780

PRESCHOOL CLOSURE

Thursday 4 May – Local elections will be taking place at the Village Hall on this day. As we cannot secure the building during elections, we are forced to close on this day. This is completely unavoidable. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

WHAT TO BRING TO PRESCHOOL

Healthy Drink – Always send your child to Preschool with water or a sugar-free drink in a labelled drinks bottle. Sugary drinks are not good for their teeth our policies actively discourage them. Juice may be offered as part of their lunch but if you chose to do this, please also provide water or a sugar free drink for them to have access to throughout the day.

Healthy Lunch – If your child stays for lunch, please provide a healthy lunch box for them to enjoy in a labelled bag or box. Please ensure that it is food that they like to eat – pasta is always a good alternative if your child doesn’t like sandwiches (but please note that we are unable to warm this up). We will encourage them to eat whatever you send so please ensure that it is a reasonable amount.

Sun Cream – The weather is changing and we will hopefully be spending more time outside. If you know it is going to be a sunny day, please apply suncream before your child arrives at Preschool. We do have suncream to reapply throughout the day but if you prefer to use your own, please ensure that it is in your bag and your child knows it is there.

Sun Hats – Please also remember sun hats, although we do have Preschool sun hats if needed.

Spare Clothes – Always send a spare set of clothes – accidents can still happen as they are still very young and we love messy and water play!! Send lots of extras if your child is potty training.

Nappies – If your child is still in nappies, please remember to pack enough for the day, with wipes.

Coat – Please also remember to send a coat in every day, even if it is a little cold, we still like to get outside and the weather is very changeable so please do not assume that it won’t be needed.

DO NOT BRING IN:

No prescribed, or non-prescribed medication is to be left in your child’s bag. If you child needs medication to be given, this must be prescribed by a doctor and you must give this to a member of staff to store it safely and fill in the appropriate forms so that this can be given to your child in accordance with doctors orders.

Please do not bring in toys from home – we have plenty of toys and cannot guarantee that their toy will come home again, and will not get broken. Obviously, if a child needs a particular snuggle toy, we will accommodate this but will encourage them to put this in their bag when they don’t need it.

TODDLERS

Kim continues to run our toddler sessions on Mondays from 9:15 to 11:15 for 0-4 year olds. Please email to book your place. First session is free, thereafter £3 per session which should be paid on the day, additional siblings are 50p. Fees include a healthy snack and tea/coffee and biscuits are available for parents/carers. Email toddlers@highamptonpreschool.co.uk for more information and to book your place. Please note that even if your child/children attend our regular sessions, you are also welcome to come to Toddlers. We offer a variety of resources and a craft or creative activity for you to do with your child during these stay and play sessions.

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. We tend to update these ready to be sent home each term with an End of Term summary. However, if you feel that you would like to see these books more frequently, please speak with the Keyworker of your child – if you are unsure who your child’s 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 general information and queries. We are trying to send important updates via email as well as Facebook but we would recommend that you access Facebook if possible as we also include other interesting updates and general awareness issues that may be pertinent to your child.

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. Please go to our Website to find out more.

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

Preschool Closure due to Elections – Thursday 4 May
Sports Day – date tbc
School Starters Assembly – date tbc
End of Term Trip – date and venue tbc

SUMMARY OF SPRING TERM ACTIVITIES

Please remember that our detailed planning is available for you to look at on the notice board in the foyer.

THE SMARTEST GIANT IN TOWN

The children enjoyed reading the story and creating craft and painting window ties and socks for our display. We also drew around Wendy and made her outline into the Giant from the story. We enjoyed singing along to the song in the story. We sorted socks and hung them on washing lines, matched laminated socks and played in our sock shop.

SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE

Activities included story sequencing, animal sorting and we all squashed under the climbing frame to see how many children would fit. We also celebrated Chinese New Year, tasting Chinese food as part of our snack and colouring pictures celebrating the year of the Rabbit. Also, we celebrated the Big Schools Birdwatch RSPB by making and send home some fabulous bird feeders.

THE GRUFFALO

The children enjoyed rhyming activities, fine brush painting of the Gruffalo characters, playing with the Gruffalo story sack and dressing up as the Gruffalo. We watched the Gruffalo story and stage performance. We also enjoyed making family pictures for our All About Me display board and making Valentine’s cards.

MINIBEASTS

Inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, we have learnt a new song about caterpillars turning into butterflies, have painted symmetrical butterflies and traced butterflies. As part of Science Week, we got some caterpillars of our own to observe and eventually release in the garden, we also have frogspawn in the setting to observe. We did ladybird crafts and counted ladybirds on rocks. We ate pancakes as part of our snack for Shrove Tuesday and dressed up in our favourite book characters for World Book Day.