Welcome to Term 3!
Welcome and back and Happy New Year! It’s great to have you all back ready for Term 3. It’s also fabulous to be welcoming new children and families to our Ilminster community this term. I try to send out a newsletter near to the beginning of each term so that you have any up-and-coming dates, you know all about what the children will be learning this term and to let you know about anything else that will be happening during the term.
We also have a fabulous website and face book page! There is lots of useful information on here, including INSET dates for the whole year and access to our whole curriculum and important policies. There are also class pages which we add photos to as much as we can. These photos are also featured on Face Book page (so long as we have permission for you). Search up Ilminster Avenue Nursery School and have a look.
Hope you all have a great term, Mandy Collier-King, Acting Head.
New Classroom
The new classroom is up and running and looking amazing. The children that have moved to this room are looking settled and happy already. We are still planning on developing the outside space here. We have purchased a large gazebo to provide a sheltered space but will need help with building it. We are planning to find a weekend soon to do this, if you know of anyone who might be able to lend a hand, please let us know!
Welcome to New Staff
We are welcoming Caroline Kelly this term! Caroline is taking on the role of Assistant Head across the school and will also be taking on the role of SENCO now that the wonderful Carolyn has retired.
Caroline is already working hard to get to know you all but please come and introduce yourselves anytime. She will be in the back carpark/ outside
Raindrops room most days at start and end of day.
She is really excited to be joining our team!
Health and Nutrition
This term the curricular goal is “make a healthy snack”. Keep reading this newsletter to find out more about the learning the children will be experiencing.
This goal fits really nicely with our new “Health and Nutrition Policy”. So far, we have encouraged more children to reduce their sugar intake by drinking water and having one sweet treat a day in their lunch box. The children in Sun and Star are also doing a great job with cleaning their teeth every day at nursery! We will be sending out some ideas for healthy lunch boxes this term, so look out for that.
In the meantime, all the learning in the classrooms will support children to make healthy choices.
SelfHelp Skills
This is a great time of year to encourage independence with socks and shoes and even coat zips! At nursery the children will put on welly boots to go outside in the rain. We encourage them to put their own shoes back on again at home. Practise makes perfect so please give them time to do the same at home! Find a time when you are not in a rush to be somewhere else!
Also, show them how to fasten their zips. It’s amazing how quickly they learn once they know!
A Huge Thank You!
A huge thank you to everyone who entered our Christmas Raffle. As a result, we raised over £200…an amazing amount! We have been able to purchase new resources for our garden.
Dates for Your Diary
Wednesday 14th January: INSET day
Wednesday 28th January: SEN parents coffee morning
Monday 9th February: Make a healthy snack week
Friday 13th February: End of term 3
Monday 23rd February: Start of Term 4
Wednesday 1st April: INSET day
Term 3 Curriculum
This term our Curriculum focus is “Make a healthy Snack”. The children will be learning all the skills needed to make themselves a healthy snack, including developing their knowledge of what ”healthy” means. The children will be exploring all areas of the curriculum through this focus:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Talking about what keeps us healthy. They will also be developing their resilience to keep trying even if a job is tricky.
Language Development: Learning new vocabulary linked to being healthy, with a focus on verbs e.g. cutting, rolling, spreading etc.
Physical Development: Using one handed tools such as child safe knives to chop and spread, as well as developing scissor skills to snip paper.
Literacy: Talking about the marks they make with pens and pencils and retelling familiar stories.
Towards the end of this term, children will be making a healthy wrap independently! We hope that the children will be able to bring it home to show you….if they haven’t eaten it first! They will also bring home some instructions so that they can make them with you at home too, showing you all their amazing new skills! This is a great way to add a healthy snack to their packed lunches too.
The Importance of Play
Play literally builds brains! Play makes connections in the brain which literally builds our brains. When we are born, we have loads of neurons, but they tend to be independent of each other. The experiences children have through play helps these to make connections. These connections ensure learning grows and children’s skills and knowledge get better and better!
Basically, the more often children are play, the more new brain circuits form and build their skills. However, we are talking about real, physical play…not the type of play found on screens. We mean actual physical play. This builds skills to solve problems, grow confidence, emotionally regulate, be creative and resilient (the not giving up when things get tough bit!)
The good news is that the best thing you can do to support your child’s learning is to play and have fun!
Introducing our New Nurture Room
The room we used to call the “Community Room” is having a makeover! It has been painted during the Christmas hols and will next have a new flooring laid. This room has become Lucy’s new “home” and will become our new Nurture Room. We will soon be running groups such as “Stories at home”, “The Nurture Programme” as well as individual work with families. Lucy is also planning some key work with children using the “Sand Box” approach. This is an approach which will allow Lucy to support the child as they play. We are excited to develop this space!