(For previous newsletters, see foot of page.)

Confirmation of your child's sessions for next term January 2011/Spring Term

You will shortly be receiving notice of the above and we ask that you promptly return these to the pre-school. Amendments or additions to what has been forecast can usually be made so do indicate when you return your form if these are needed. It is important that we finalise next terms placements. You will appreciate the logisitics involved in ensuring that families do have their chosen days and times copled with staff ratios.

Toilet Training

If your child is learning this area of self-care or ahowing an interest in toilet training please do let us know so that we can best support this process. Gaining mastery of one's bodily functions is a massive step towards independence! We do have a supply of nappies/wipes/nappy sacks but we do ask that you too provide these to help with our costs. It is a good idea to provide a change of (named) clothing but we do house a lot of spares. Also, for those children who are in pull-ups, we would appreciate it if you could provide the type that have tabs on the sides that can be removed without having to fully remove their lower half of the child's clothing. When we change children, we encourage them to stand rather than lie down, the reason being that it assists in their emotional development of 'moving on' from a changing mat and being dealt with like a helpless baby.

Your child's clothing

It's getting chillier and hats, scarves, wellingtons and gloves are creeping their way into our cloakroom. With 80+ children attending here it is imperative that all clothing is named to avoid things getting lost. If your child needs a change of clothing for whatever reason and you would prefer them to change into their own clothes as opposed to our resources, please do proide a spare change of named clothing, in a named bag that we can keep here on their peg. We also have a shortage of pants, knickers and socks and would appreciate any donations of these.

Costumes and dressing up

As delightful as it is seeing your child arrive as pre-school dressed up as a Power Ranger or a fairy this rather goes against what we consider to be 'appropriate role-play'. We observe dramatic play every time an older child decides to be "Teacher" and gives a lesson to a younger child, when two boys, looking at a book about Space, imagine what it will be like when they are astronauts. I see it every time a child hands me a carefully cut strip of paper and tells me it is my ticket.  I see it every time a child carefully cuts the zigzag line (from the cutting tray) and turns it into a crown. i also see it every time a child conducts the music coming from the CD player. Our classroom is full of pretending and mimicking. So, is there dramatic play in the Montessori classroom? Absolutely, however we don't have fantasy costumes for the children and there are some very 'Montessori' reasons for that. It is too adult-directed and not real. We have cultural costumes and 'real life' occupation outfits - fireman/lady and postman/lady dressing up clothes. Having real props, like a real stethoscope available to the children opens up all sorts of opportunities for dramatic play. Because the stethoscope is real, they are also learning several science and sensorial lessons. Therefore, we ask respectfully, that children are encouraged to refrain from wearing these 'fantasy' outfits to pre-school. Dramatic play is very present in Montessori classrooms but, because it does not look like the dramatic play on other pre-schools, it takes careful observation to identify it.

Arrivals and departures and Viz jackets

It is really good to see so many of our children arriving at pre-school and confidently saying goodbye to their parents/carers and striding into pre-school. This confidence and self-esteem in their formative years will serve them well in their future years. With the days drawing in for winter and visibility poor near such a busy road, we ask you please to encourage your child to wear their viz jacket to keep them safe and seen. All our children are issued with a viz jacket upon registration. For a small donation, please do ask your Classroom Manager if you need a replacement.

Fundraising News

Hopefully, you would have received the latest newsletter (printed on a blue sheet) from our Fundraising Team Notifying you of our Christmas Fayre/AGM. Just in case you didn't recieve it or have lost it, please allow me to quote from it:

Our next fundraising event is a raffle that is held on the evening of our Annual General Meeting, provisionally, *Thursday 2nd December *(to be confirmed). While we always have an excellent response from local businesses and companies to our please for raffle prizes these are normally in voucher form and it is always nice to have some more 'visible' prizes. Therefore if you are able to, please would you kindly donate unwanted gifts/and/or your services. For example, last year, one very generous mum donated her services as an osteopath and another baked some rather splendid cakes. Please speak to Claire if you have something you would like to donate to this.

Please find an attached form relating to this. All donations and participation will be gratefully received and will ensure that we have a good night and a fantastic raffle.

We are currently trying to register with a shopping directory for over 2000 online stores (Argos, Amazon, Next, John Lewis) called EasyFundraising. Every time you shop using the links provided on the easyfundraising website our pre-school will generate a free donation of up to 15% of the purchase price. It is free to register and every purchase will raise fundsat no extra cost to the shopper. Do please look to our outside Notice Board for further information when we are set up with them.

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Previous newsletters

February 2010 (112Kb PDF)
January 2010 (103Kb PDF)
December 2009 (158Kb PDF)
November 2009 (83Kb PDF)
October 2009 (74Kb PDF)
September 2009 (80Kb PDF)
July 2009 (113Kb PDF)
May 2009 (81Kb PDF)
March 2009 (91Kb PDF)