Nursery

Update - 22nd January

Nursery will be open next week should you wish for your child to return to school. Nursery will be open at the usual times in the mornings 8.50am - 11.50am and if your child attends in the afternoon then pick up time currently is 3.15pm. Parents of the afternoon children please provide a packed lunch as normal. Please can a change of clothes be left at nursery and the rule of no toys from home be respected. There is no need for drinks and snacks to be provided either.

We will need you to sign up on the school gateway under the club section so we know who to expect in each day and we can plan staff cover. This gives the option of not attending each day or reducing hours if you choose to. Please note, if your child becomes ill and you have signed up please phone the school to let us know your child won’t be attending and why or we will need to contact you.

You may have heard that the DfE is issuing lateral flow tests to primary schools with the intention of testing every member of staff coming into school twice a week. The rationale is to reduce the possibility of someone who is asymptomatic coming into to school and inadvertently infecting others. We have our tests and we’re all set to begin next week. School comms will contact you if we are unable to open due to a positive COVID result and please assume you will need to isolate until instructed otherwise.

We look forward to welcoming many of you back to nursery and of course will keep up the support and encouragement for our home learners too.

Keep safe and well,

Georgina Wilson 

25th January

Please find attached the fourth grid of activities. Your photos and videos are amazing. It’s wonderful you are sharing what you are doing. I have added an extra photo this week with an additional activity. This is a task that Iyana has shared and you probably all have the resources at home in your cupboards - just spaghetti and a colander. It’s great for pincer grip and finger strength, fabulous for concentration and perseverance, and perfect to develop the language of size when the spaghetti strands break.

Further to Tapestry updates, seeing some happy faces on TEAMS this week was amazing. I’d like to set it up again for those who can join us, keep an eye out for the link via email. We can say hello and play a little silly game and hopefully lift spirits.

Please keep using tapestry to update us on the activities the children are doing throughout the week. Even if it not the suggested ones. If we do not hear from you, over the week, we will be in touch directly to make sure everything is okay and to see if we can support you.

Please remember we are still here for you if you need any help or advice. You can contact us through tapestry or you can email us directly to Nursery@leverstockgreen.herts.sch.uk  We will continue to access Tapestry and the email account daily to be able to respond as soon as possible.

I hope you continue to have lots of fun with your learning.

Miss Wilson and the Nursery team
 

18th January

We have loved all the photos and comments you have been posting. You are doing a great job and it all looks like so much fun, whilst providing fabulous learning opportunities. The third grid of suggested ideas and activities is attached below.

I aim to set up small group “teams” online sessions so the children can see a few friends and we can have a catch up. These short five/ten minute sessions won’t be lessons but we may sing a song, or share a favourite toy, for example. I intend to set these up on Tuesday, ready for Wednesday afternoon.

For those families who are not able to join the “teams” sessions and not in the habit of contacting us, please use tapestry to update us on an activity the children have been doing once a week as a minimum. Even if it is not a suggested activity, it is lovely seeing what you are all getting up to at home: cooking, a drawing, tidying up, building, riding a bike, reading a book, using playdo, dancing, singing, washing up, whatever the task, it is valuable. If we do not hear from you, over the week, we will be in touch directly to make sure everything is okay and to see if we can support you further. 

Please remember we are still here for you if you need any help or advice. You can contact us through tapestry or you can email us directly on Nursery@leverstockgreen.herts.sch.uk and one of the team will get back to you.

We hope you are all having lots of fun with your learning.

Miss Wilson and the Nursery team 

15th January update - Nursery is not opening.....just yet.

Due to continuing staff illness we are unable to open nursery to all children. Please be assured we intend to do so for those that were choosing to return, as soon as it is deemed safe. Key worker families, please continue to book your child’s space through the gateway as usual.

For those families that we don’t see in school, remember to contact us via Tapestry with a photo or an update or email us at least once in the week to help assure us you are doing ok. Equally contact us if you need help or support, one of the team will be able to help. We all hope to see you very soon.

Nursery@leverstockgreen.herts.sch.uk

Keep safe and well,

Georgina Wilson 

11th January

Here is a second grid of suggested ideas and activities. You will see below the bird document if you wanted to print it out. You could always make your own simple grid if you don’t have a printer.

Please use tapestry to update us on the activities the children are doing throughout the week. Even if it is not these ones. It is lovely seeing what you are all getting up to at home. If we do not hear from you, over the week, we will be in touch directly to make sure everything is okay and to see if we can support you further.

Keep reading each day, singing nursery rhymes and songs. This will extend their skills and confidence in speaking and listening and in the future becoming independent readers.

Please remember we are still here for you if you need any help or advice. You can contact us through tapestry or you can email us directly on Nursery@leverstockgreen.herts.sch.uk and one of the team will get back to you.

We hope you are all having lots of fun with your learning.

Miss Wilson and the Nursery team 

5th January

Please find attached below a challenge grid. All the suggested activities are optional; there are so many opportunities for children to learn through everyday life and experiences eg helping around the house, cooking and exploring nature. However, engaging with some phonic games, some number activities, some language activities and active learning will help prepare them for a full school curriculum and develop their confidence to be ‘school ready’. Each week a new grid will be formed with support across the areas of development.
 

We would love to have regular updates on activities that have worked for you with photos and possible short videos of your child being uploaded to tapestry. This safe platform enables your updates to just be seen by our Early Years team.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you need help, want a question answered or need support with behaviour, toileting.... This can be done on Tapestry or on our nursery email account which will be checked daily. Our email address is -

nursery@leverstockgreen.herts.sch.uk

Children generate a game using the CBeebies animated video of “Poppies” as a backdrop. After whole class discussion of the theme and the emotions they clearly understand some of the events and interpret the feelings pictured - happiness, fear, sadness and happiness again. They set up stepping stones to jump on being bouncy bunnies, then when the colour goes grey and the music changes “this is the scary bit, we got to hide from the explosions”, “we feel scared and sad”. Children hide and cower while a child re-enacts the battle and “saving the day” for all of us. Then when it’s safe, the children come out from hiding and bounce again and then link arms “it’s safe again now, we can be happy”. “The grey bit is really sad, we need to remember the soldiers”.

We also made and have displayed poppies.

Children have been in now for a few days and they have been coming in so well and managing confident a goodbye to their grown up. This is fantastic and parents must have been so positive about their child’s new start at school and prepared them so very well, thank you. Let’s cross our fingers it continues, although, it is quite normal to have a few hiccups; we will be ready to support your child when necessary.

One of our activities has been making faces using the loose parts. One child here has had fun making a face “he thinks nursery is so much fun, he loves it.....he really likes it outside on the new climbing....he really likes it inside too, it’s all his ‘fravourite’”!

We very much look forward to welcoming the new families for the Autumn term ahead. We have tried to meet all the children remotely and begin to get to know them and now we are raring to go! We will have a busy term ahead, please see the topic plan below of possible avenues of learning but we always follow the children’s interests and ideas. We go outside everyday so suitable clothing is essential with raincoat, wellies in the rain, and gloves and thicker coat when the weather gets colder.  Spare clothes are really helpful for if your child gets wet or has an accident.  Clothes can be kept in a drawstring bag on their named peg. There is no need to pack snacks or drinks, we will provide these for your child. Of course if you are with us all day bring a nut free packed lunch. Nursery times are 8.50am-11.50am or 8.50am- 2.50pm with an optional top up til 3.20pm. If you think you maybe late picking up your child please phone the office so they can get a message to us.

If you have any questions please speak to any member of the Nursery team. 

In the meantime share the photos below with your child to help them see what the nursery environment is like and hopefully they will spot something they like doing and working with. See you very soon.

Georgina Wilson, Amy Larkin

New Nursery Parents

Thank you for joining us for our remote nursery intake meeting. Here is the PowerPoint below covering the details talked about at the meeting. We will contact you very soon with a start date for your child and a small group online meeting to say hello to a few friends before starting in September. In the meantime if you have any questions or have any concerns please email the admin team and I will get back to you. We look forward to getting to know you all very soon.

Georgina Wilson

A message for any nursery families that are coming to us or staying with us in September.

I have attached a pdf story of a child starting school for you to share with your child. This will enable you to introduce the idea of going to nursery or school and possibly staying all day. This will help all children especially those that will be full time in September. Read the story and talk about it with your child. Doing this several times every now and again will help your child understand some of the experiences that will be ahead for them and help them cope emotionally for what could possibly be a challenge. It will be ‘welcome back’ to those families we know and for those that are new, we are looking forward to meeting you and beginning the process of getting to know you.
 

Georgina Wilson, Early Years Lead