Day Nursery's first newsletter of 2023!

Harvard Park Day Nursery LTD.

Notes from the management team: our Managing Director’s Nicki and Tracey and our manager Carol: Firstly, happy new year! We hope you had a lovely Christmas break and are looking forward to 2023 - whatever it may bring us. We would like to say thank to everyone who gave us and our team gifts for Christmas.

Our team work extremely hard all year through and we can tell they really appreciated the thought. Moving into 2023, we can feel the excitement in the air for lots of new learning, activities and more Parent in Partnership sessions - if you have any suggestions of activities or something you may like to come in and do with the children, let us know and we can see if we can make it happen.

During the week of 13th February- This is a chance for us to catch up on any outstanding observations and work, sorting or cleaning we may need to catch up on so during these weeks there will be no observations for this week.

A few little reminders for January: 

If your child is due to go to reception class this year - You have until the 15th January 2023 to apply for Reception Class 2023: When can my child start school? | Primary School Admissions | London Borough of Hounslow . Any child born between 01/09/2018 - 31/08/2019 - this applies to you!

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If you have changed your home address, email address or primary contact number - please remember to change this with us in the office. It is important to keep you contact details up to date.

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If you are going to be absent from nursery for whatever reason - even if it is one day, please make contact with us via email, phone call or registering it on ParentMail. It helps the rooms to plan their day better as they may put off trips or walks if they are waiting for your child to come in.

Health and Safety Notices and reminders: Label your belongings: We cannot be held responsible if your child’s belongings are misplaced if they do not have a name in. Children will have the same hat, coat, gloves, bags etc. it is bound to happen. If there are no initials in the item, we cannot be blamed if it goes home with someone else. A simple marker pen on the label will help us all out.

Folding Buggies in the lobby: Baby Studio Parents - please fold down all of your buggies, both big and small.

We are limited on space and our baby studio is full. Please note that no bikes are to be left at nursery scooters only.

We are updating our policies and procedures - you will be receiving them once a month still however at some point when they have been finalised you will receive a full copy. They will also be available on our EyLog System and website, but we will inform you of this at the later date.

Wash and sterilise all cups and bottles when they come home with your child. We only rinse them here and the setting and over time residue can build up in straws and spouts. This can then cause mold which isn't very nice. Please make sure you take your bottles a part and clean them thoroughly.

Dates for you diary and reminders: We have no dates or reminders for January - all children from Freedom Zone, please check your section for a Reception Application reminder.

Birthdays for the month of January: Small Steps: Happy 2nd birthday to Veda, Drishan and Kayla!

Freedom Zone: Happy 3rd birthday to Aryan and Diyar!

Happy 4th Birthday to Nella, Leo and Carter!

Staff: Happy birthday to Mary, Amanda and Justyna!

We hope everyone has a lovely day celebrating!

Harvard Park Day Nursery LTD.

Notes from Baby Studio: Ducklings - Amanda, Mary, Afsha, Amy and Gurpreet: Focus: Communication and Language We would like to start by wishing everyone a happy new year and welcome back. We have some new babies starting with us in January so welcome to Maja, Jason, Moksha and Isabella - we know you will have lots of fun learning and developing with us! Many of our babies love being vocal and all communicate in their own ways, from babbling to copying sounds and words. We learn how to communicate in various ways and plan age appropriate activities to support this. Activities such as the knock knock box, song time and story time aid their development from beginning to copy actions to then imitating words. We also support babies through everyday interaction, using simple words and sounds they can imitate such as mama or baba.

Please upload pictures to the EyLog - thank you to Mikolaj, Antonia and Ralph’s parents who do this regularly - We would love to see more parents contributing to their child’s learning journals and will be checking in with you to see if you know how to do this. Your mission: To continue posting on the EyLog with pictures and video’s of your babies babbling or communicating at home with family and friends!

Reminders: 

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Coats, Hats and Gloves: As the weather is changing please start to provide warm coats as well as hat and gloves for winter. We do not have spares on site so please provide them - as we like to wrap the babies up so they are nice and toasty when we are out on a walk.

Trim your child’s nails: Please trim your child’s nails. Best time is bath time when they are soft - if you have trouble, try while they are in their deep sleep state. We are having accidents/incidents involving nails on children themselves such as scratching or itching.

Bringing more than one bottle and more spare clothes: Please make sure you pack around 3 to 4 spare changes of clothes. Children will have accidents and nappies may leak - we need clothes to change them into , please bring back any spares we may have lent you. Please also provide enough bottles to reflect your child’s milk routine. If they have more than 1 bottle, please provide more than 1 bottle.

Notes from Small Steps: Bunnies - Qani, Liliana, Ellie-May, Anna and Vanashree: Focus and Topic: Animals!

We would like to welcome Kyrie and Ikenna to our room as well as our new early years educator, Vanashree. We know you will have lots of fun in learning and developing with us! For the first 2 weeks of January, we will be looking at the Farm. We will be exploring the different textures such as hay and mud as well as introducing new language such as wet and dry. We will be exploring the different animals we might encounter on a farm and finding out what noises they make. For the last 2 weeks, we will be focusing on Pets. If you have any pet’s at home - share some pictures with us on the EyLog so we can use them as learning points in the session. Also Happy new year, we hope you had a lovely Christmas break and are looking froward to 2023!

Please upload pictures to the EyLog - thank you to Flynn, Poppy and Rajishanti’s parents who do this regularly - We would love to see more parents contributing to their child’s learning journals and will be checking in with you to see if you know how to do this.

Reminders: 

Spare clothes and bags: Please make sure you pack around 3 to 4 spare changes of clothes. Children will have accidents and get very messy throughout their nursery session. Please bring back any of our spares your child may have come home in.

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At home: We will be singing baa baa black sheep as a focus song at nursery. Sing this song with your family at home! Also to support our learning, if you can take a trip to our local farm where you can interact and learn about animals together!

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Our routine: Please be aware that breakfast finishes at 9:00am - any later than this and it has a knock on affect to the rest of the day. If you wanted detailed feedback please make sure you are picking up at 5:50pm - we still have to clean the room and put everything away before we finish our shifts.

NO juice in bottles: Do not bring any form of juice in bottles. It has an effect of a child’s teeth as they are developing. We will not be giving children juice in the nursery- it will be replaced with water.

Harvard Park Day Nursery LTD.

Notes from Freedom Zone: Cool Cats - Viviana, Charlotte, Sam, Sherry, Ellie, Elvia, Hannah, Harriet and Danielle: Happy new year, we hope you had a lovely Christmas break and are looking froward to 2023!

Our next 6 week learning plan is looking like this: Week 1 (3rd to 6th Jan): Winter - We will be looking at the change of weather and temperature as well as what we should wear and what activities we can do in the winter time. We will also be setting new targets for your child this week - so make sure you have a look for them on the EyLog Week 2 (9th to 15th Jan): Hibernation with our focus story being Owl Babies by Martin Waddell We will be looking at nocturnal animals as well as what hibernation means for our older children. We will be using the story above to help support this learning and encourage you to read or look at the book outside of nursery.

Week 3 (16th to 20th Jan): Day and Night and Chinese New Year - Year of the Rabbit This week we will be looking at routines and the differences we have when we are at nursery and at home, for example the difference in activities or bed times. We will also look at the sun and the moon (which will follow nicely into next week). We will also be celebrating Chinese new Year with activities and food tasting!

Week 4 (23rd to 27th Jan) and Week 5 (30th to 3rd Feb): Space - We will be exploring everything to do with space! It is a topic the children gain so much from so we are spreading it across the next 2 weeks. We will have role play by creating our own space station, looking at the planets and learning their names, introducing new vocabulary and of course looking at the possibility of aliens and maybe even creating our own!

We will also be running a space project during these 2 weeks and would like to encourage you to create something space related such as a rocket or your own planet. It can be as simple as a drawing with paper and crayons or paper mâché, you decide! We will send you a reminder and closure date closer to the time.

Week 6 (6th to 10th Feb): Valentines day and Emotions - This week we will be creating our 6 weeks summaries and checking in with your child’s development. We will also be exploring the celebration of Valentines day with a range of creative activities and exploring emotions such as happiness, love and sadness to help children learn how to deal with these as well as identify them.

Please upload pictures to the EyLog - thank you to Jack and Sebastian’s parents who do this regularly - We would love to see more parents contributing to their child’s learning journals and will be checking in with you to see if you know how to do this.

Reminders: 

Coats, Hats and Gloves: As the weather is changing please start to provide warm coats as well as hat and gloves for the coming winter. We do not have spares on site so please provide them and write your child’s name in the label. If they are not provided, your child will not be able to access walks around the local area.

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Birthdays and celebrations: Can we please remind you that fresh cream cakes are a no no. Simple character cakes, cupcakes or tray bakes from a supermarket are sufficient. There is less waste and children prefer them. Party bags - we would like to discourage you from providing party bags and suggest that fruit snacks or small books as gifts are a much better and healthier choice. There are more benefits in a book or a piece of fruit.

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Forest School: Forest school will be rolling out again this year as the green space is open again. All children will have the opportunity to attend so look out for your email!

Dates for you diary and reminders: If your child is due to go to reception class this year - You must start applying now and have until the 15th January 2023 to apply for Reception Class 2023: When can my child start school? | Primary School Admissions | London Borough of Hounslow - follow the link to find out how and more information. Any child born between 01/09/2018 - 31/08/2019 - this applies to you!