(For previous newsletters, see foot of page.)

End of Spring Term

Remember your clocks spring forward on Sunday 28th March! Unfortunately, it means we lose an hour but we can begin to look forward to further spring awakenings (most probably April showers) and longer, brighter days. Remember too that this term ends on Thursday 1st April with Good Friday being the day after. Thirdly, remember that May brings two Bank Holidays, Monday 3rd and Monday 31st.

During the last week of term the children will be engaging in Easter and spring activities and a pair of rabbits will be joining us for the week. The children too will be enjoying healthy party food during their session and if you would like to make a donation to this it would be very gratefully received.

Summer Term begins

Term commences on Monday 19th April and brings too some fresh faces in the form of our staff. We warmly welcome back Tara Chislett-Fox who has been involved with our pre-school for some 10 years – many of you will be familiar with Tara who perhaps have had older siblings attend here. We also welcome two new staff Emma Rudge, who has had much experience and knowledge in the child care and development sector and Joanne Sodeau who is currently studying for her Montessori Diploma in Child Pedagogy. We are also very pleased to announce that our very lovely and capable Ella Farrow has been promoted to Classroom Manager in the morning Chapel Class – a position that we know she is very capable of and will embrace.

Flick and Jackie’s last day is Wednesday 31st March and they will be fondly missed by their fellow colleagues, parents and of course, the children. We wish them the very best and will ensure that they keep in touch.

South Lodge – Children and Family Centre

We recently had two representatives visit us from South Lodge SureStart to tell us about the service that they offer and will be visiting again our pre-school this time to speak with our parents. They will be in our outside waiting area from 9am on Monday 19th, from 4.15 on Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st, and Thursday 22nd from 9am. The friendly team are offering the opportunity for you to find out about support, services and activities available for the challenges of family life.

Photographs

Steve Ward of Studio 129 has spent a lot of time and effort in trying to capture the perfect shot of each individual child "at work". With children coming in on different days, absenteeism and his own other work commitments it is taking a little longer than we aimed for. Therefore, the latest date now for the arrival of these much awaited prints will now be around the 30th April.

FundRAISIN' news

Big thanks to all of you who have encouraged your child to return the box of raisins, donated from our Fundraising Team, filled with coinage! We are investing in some rather lovely toughened glass plates and cups for our children to enjoy their snack time with. It will also encourage greater care when they then wash up and dry up after themselves!

Some words from the Fees Department

Thank you for your prompt payments this term. As you are aware we are a non-profit organisation and therefore prompt payment of fees are essential to the smooth running of our pre-school. Getting behind in payments by say £20 may seem trivial but multiply that by some 80+ parents/carers and you can understand why we need you to pay on time! Please be aware that although fees are collected and receipted daily, all enquiries relating to fees are dealt with on Wednesdays.

Bookstart Treasure Chests

Bookstart is all about sharing the enjoyment of books and reading, and in doing so, helping children to benefit educationally, socially, culturally and emotionally. Treasure Chests consist of books and pens and are provided by the Library Service within WSCC. We support Bookstart by gifting these chests for all our children who turned three during the last term (i.e. 1st September – 31st December 09). For children whose third birthday is after this date, they too, will later receive a Treasure Chest.

May we wish you and yours a very pleasant Easter break and we look forward to welcoming you back to, what always is, a very productive and busy term Summer Term.

You can download a PDF copy of this newsletter to print if you wish (108Kb). You will need PDF viewing software such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. If you don't already have it, you can download it by clicking the button below.

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)