Pre-School will be closed on May 7^th as this is a Bank holiday

Welcome to a new year at Ridings Pre-School. This year brings a number of changes to the setting including new wrap around care sessions and the Governments Extended funding that some of you have applied for.

Terms Theme – Over the next few weeks we are ‘Being Creative’. During this time we shall be investigating colour, working with lots of different media and using our senses as we play with resources creatively. If you wish to follow this up at home you can support children as they recognise and name colours in everyday objects, provide opportunities to colour and talk about smell, taste, sounds and how tings feel when we touch them, developing and extending language to describe all these things.

Key Persons – We have, over the summer, managed to match all the children to a key person who will be at most if not all of their sessions. Your child’s key person will introduce themselves to you over the next weeks and share in their settling in and their areas of interest for learning. Key persons manage individual children’s development, form bonds with them and make regular contact with parents. However all the staff work with all the children on a daily basis so if you have a message to pass on please feel free to communicate this to others who will act on this.

Gate Code – If you have forgotten this please ask and we will issue it again.
Invoices – Due to an administrative oversight invoices state that the session rate is £4.00 instead of the increase rate of £4.10. Calculations have been made at the new rate. We will ensure this is correct on next terms invoices. Could I also remind you that we need the return slip to be returned at the time of payment as this is required by our book keepers to match payments.

Mail Chimp – We now use this as a method of communicating newsletters and messages home to ensure all parents receive information efficiently. Please try not to unsubscribe from this as we cannot remedy this from our end. If there is anything in a Chimp Mail that you wish to respond to please note that we don’t use this as a system for answering messages and will respond via personal emails or when we see you.

Outdoor Learning – We have managed to secure an alternative venue for our outdoor learning sessions. This is much closer to pre-school, therefore taking less time to walk there and more time spent doing activities. We have named this new venue ‘The Hideaway’. It sits behind Church Farm House off Church Street. Permission to use this facility has been given by Dr Andrew Durant and time has been spent making site visits and carrying out risk assessments and plans for best use of the site. We are sure that children who go out on these sessions will have a great time and benefit from this alternative learning opportunity.

Facebook – It is the policy of the setting  that staff employed by Ridings Pre-School do not request or accept friends on social media sites including facebook. Could we therefore ask that you don’t make these requests or be offended if you do and staff decline them. It would be unprofessional of them to do this and would create problems for them in their work.

New Staff – Next week sees a new member of staff start work at Ridings. Lynn has experience of working with children and is excited to be joining the team and working with your children. Please say Hello to her as you see her around the setting.

Children’s property and possessions – These need to be clearly labelled with your child’s name- including changing bags, lunch boxes, coats, hats, gloves etc. Please take changing bags down to the changing area in the toilets and leave lunch boxes on the shelf in the kitchen. We would also encourage to deter children from bringing their own toys to pre-school as this causes problems when other children want to play with them and they become lost or damaged.

Some dates for your diary –
Pre-school AGM – October 17^th
Children’s Christmas Party – December 15th
Children’s Christmas Concert – TBC
More details to follow nearer the time on all these events.
Outdoor Learning will start after half term and parents will be notified individually.