Pre-School / Isleworth's newsletter for February 2021

Harvard Park Pre- School LTD.

Notes from the management team: Although this may not have been the start that we were all hoping for, we are here for the time being and we are open for your children. During this time, it may be hard for you to keep a routine at home, come up with continuous amounts of things to keep your children engaged whilst trying to deal with a range of emotions yourself but it is important to remember that you are doing an amazing job and other people’s opinions do not matter - whatever your choices maybe, it is what is right for you and your family and that is what is important. We are keeping up with the updates and will inform you accordingly - we ask that you do the same and if you are away from the pre-school, please inform us as to why.

To our morning parents, our numbers are beginning to increase and therefore staff cannot go back and forth to the gate. Please arrive before 8:45 am - as after this time you will be marked down as late on our register and you will have to wait until someone is available to let you in.

If you are off sick from pre-school, isolating at home or simply choosing to stay at home, it is important that you keep your children engaged throughout the day. Pinterest, YouTube and the internet are full of ideas with simple activities which you can replicate at home. We will continue to provide ideas for you via the EyLog and Facebook but if there is anything specific you would like us to help with, email us and we will see what we can do. For our older children in Freedom Zone and Pre-School, if there are areas of learning that you would like help or support with email us and your keyworker will be able to respond. Thank you to all of those parents who are updating up through the EyLog and completing the homework tasks set by your keyworkers, you are doing a brilliant job - keep it up! If you haven't, please look out for these notes or observations coming through on your profiles and get cracking with that homework!

Term dates and closures: We are closed from Monday 15th February to Friday 19th February.

We are back to preschool on Monday 22nd February 2021.

Make sure you are posting pictures on the EyLog during the half term. We are keeping a track of who posts and who doesn’t and will be tackling this after half term!

Please beware of bring food from home for packed lunches: We have VERY severe allergies which require life saving medication -

Clothing and the weather: This is a serious issues and needs to be addressed Please bring hats and gloves! We don’t have spares on site so please make sure you write your child’s name inside the hat and each glove to prevent them from being misplaced! This is a must as children go outside to play in ALL weathers.

Children MUST be dressed in trousers and jumpers with t-shirts/vests underneath. We are keeping the doors open to keep a constant flow of clean air through the room to reduce the level of germs within the building.

This means no summer dresses or skirts with tights!

DO NOT bring in any nut products (including Nutella) into the setting.

Nutella contains nuts and therefor should not be packed into lunch boxes.

Similarly Pesto also contains nuts, please check ingredients before sending in.

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Follow the flow and wear your face mask: this is very important for you to be doing especially with the spread of Infection! Follow the school flow which is painted on the ground - the school are monitoring this and feeding back to us.

Birthdays for the month of February :

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Please write children’s names in their clothes to stop them going missing. We are fully aware that children will at some point have the same bag, coat or even gloves as their friend. Writing your child’s name inside, on a label will stop things going missing or going home with the wrong person.

Please help us and write their names in the label!

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Complete the homework or tasks set by your keyworker through the EyLog! If you are not sure what we mean, please ask us at pick up or drop offs or give us a call.

Reminders:

Happy 3rd birthday to Keiden!

Happy 4th birthday to Esme!

We hope you all have a lovely day!

Harvard Park Pre- School LTD.

Notes from your Pre-School Teachers: Jeanna, Eva, Lucy, Sima, Asha, Ayesha and Roshelle Focus: Child’s individual needs Welcome to our new children and families who have joined us or will be joining us! We are excited to have you with us.

As there are 2 weeks of February and then we break up for halt term, we will not have a topic to focus on but will look at the events coming up as well as work on children’s areas of need. This means every child will work on something different with their keyworker and will have activities based around what they like and need. We will also be looking up at the last habitat which is Oceans. We hope that you have been enjoying and using our virtual stories and group times at home and would be grateful for any feedback via comments or email. We have a few events coming up on the 12th, 14th and 16th of this month so during this week we will have an events week and take a break from space. On Friday the 12th we will be celebrating Chinese new Year with a range of food tasting and craft activities.

This year it is the year of the Ox. The 14th is of course Valentines day and the 16th is pancake day. During this time we will have a range of things coming home with your child as they will be very busy making little gifts and artwork!

Targets to work on @ home Encourage your child to drink water at home - we encourage it here but a lot of children will take the other option on offer. Water is important for brain function so please encourage this as we do here.

Labeling language - To encourage language development, please make sure you are labelling items. By this we mean not just handing children a t-shirt, for example “now we put on your red t-shirt” or “can you pass me the blue plate?”.

This is something we focus on at nursery and would be very helpful for you to do at home too.

Although the weather is cold and a bit dull, make sure you as a family are keeping active. Home yoga, meditation and bend and stretch are all great ways of keeping active. There are a few YouTube channels that can help with this CosmicKids is one of them!

To our morning parents, our numbers are beginning to increase and therefore staff cannot go back and forth to the gate. Please arrive before 8:45 am - as after this time you will be marked down as late on our register and you will have to wait until someone is available to let you in.

Reminders: 

Clothing and the weather: Please remember the weather is only going to get colder so please ensure you are providing layers that are appropriate as well as hat, gloves and scarves for when going into the garden.

Also with the weather changes please be vigilant when sending your children to nursery. Ensure you are checking their temperature as well as ensuring the children have a full bill of health before attending the setting. Not only do we need to safe guard ourselves but we need to ensure we are caring and look after the staff and other children who attend.

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No food or toys in backpacks or pre-school bags: Please make sure that you are not bringing food in your child’s school bags without informing a practitioner. We have some severe allergies at the setting and if we find children snacking from their bags, it can cause allergic reactions in other children. Please be mindful about what you have packed or check before you leave the house to make sure there is nothing harmful in their bags (including medication). Please do not also bring toys from home - we are not responsible for these and if they go missing it is not our responsibility.

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Term dates and closures: We are closed from Monday 15th February to Friday 19th February. We are back to preschool on Monday 22nd February 2021. Make sure you are posting pictures on the EyLog during the half term. We are keeping a track of who posts and who doesn’t and will be tackling this after half term!

Dates for you diary and reminders: If your child was born between 01/09/17 and 31/08/18 - you can apply for school nursery if you would like to. Applications are now open and must be filled in online - the closing date is 7th May 2021. You are more than welcome to stay with us for another year if school nursery is not right for you. Please follow this link to fill in the application form for school nursery: https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20028/ primary_admissions/74/nursery_admissions Please make sure you are informing us if you will be away from the nursery for any reason! If you receive government funding - it is a requirement that you remain in contact with us as you may lose your funding as a result of this. We will try (where we can) to contact parents on a regular basis, however you need to work in parentship with us and inform us of you decisions.