Hello everyone and welcome to the first of our monthly newsletters.
From September to December it is the autumn term. This term is 16 weeks long and starts from the Monday the 2nd September and finishes on Friday the 20th December.
End of Academic term reports.
You will be receiving your child’s developmental report which will indicate how he or she is progressing within the Early Years Foundation stage. If you want to discuss anything at all about your child’s report please let us know and we can arrange a convenient time for you to pop in. We will be having a parents evening during the school half term (October) as evening groups are not in during this week and it will be easier for us to facilitate the evening. More about this will follow in the October newsletter.
I was recently contacted by Alex Masters who is on the production team of ‘Save Money Lose Weight’ an ITV 1 programme that is a twenty eight day diet. The crew and support team provide advice, diet plans and menus and film your journey and each week this is transmitted. Filming starts again for the fourth series in mid-October and if you are interested in taking part email:
firstname.lastname@example.org or phone 01752727533 and ask to speak to Alex Masters
This term we will be focusing on the mathematical area of the EYFS. When assessing your child’s development within any area of the EYFS we use trackers. These trackers consist of developmental phases and steps which culminate at the early learning goal that your child should achieve by the end of their reception year. An excellent resource to for parents as a guide to your child’s learning and development in the EYFS called what to expect when? Foundation years can be found at https://www.foundationyears.org.uk
Mathematics is split up into two specific aspects; these are numbers and shape, space and measure. The early learning goals for these areas are:
Numbers; Children count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is more or less that a given number. Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two-single digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer. They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.
To support the children’s progress towards this goal we will be encouraging the younger children to count numbers in sequence firstly 1-5 then 1-10
Use the language of quantity such as ‘more’ or ‘less’ and understand why
Select a small number of objects from a group when asked, for example ‘please give me one’, ’please give me two’
We will be encouraging the older children to:
Separate groups of three and four objects in different ways whilst recognising that the total is still the same
Begin to recognise numerals firstly 1-5 then 1-10
Know that numbers identify how many objects are in a set
The second area is
Shape, Space and Measure and the early learning goal for this aspect of mathematics: ‘children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems. They recognise, create and describe patterns. They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.’
To support the children’s progress towards this goal we will be encouraging the younger children to:
Begin to categorise objects according to their shape or size
Use the language of size big, little etc.
Anticipate specific time-based events i.e. lunch, tidy up time, circle time etc.
We will be encouraging the older children to:
Show an awareness of similarities of shapes in their environment
Use positional language
Describe their relative position such as in the middle
To incorporate number we will be doing number rhymes with the children. As well as supporting number it will also begin to promote the children’s awareness of rhyme and alliteration and also support speech and language
Week beginning the 16th September:
Five Buzzy Bees and 10 fat sausages
Week beginning the 23rd September
Five little men in a flying saucer and one, two, three, four, five
Week beginning the 30th September
Ten in the bed and days of the week song
I have included a link to two excellent sites that have all the rhymes we are singing
We have all recently completed a CACHE level two course on Understanding Autism through a company called learning curve. All of their courses are totally free of charge and they are completed on-line or completing work booklets. They have advised me that should any of my parents wish to complete a course to develop their CV then an evening can be arranged for everyone (including nursery staff) to complete the paperwork and gain a qualification certificate. They have several courses available I have listed just a few below if you are interested let me know.
Level 2 certificate in understanding common childhood illnesses
Level 2 certificate in behaviour that challenges
Level 2 certificate in understanding
Level 2 certificate in understanding specific learning difficulties
Level 2 certificate in improving personal exercise, health and nutrition
Update on Jill
Jill is beginning to feel a little more comfortable and her pain is not as intense. However she is still not well enough to return to work yet as childcare and especially a pack away setting like ours involves a lot of physical lifting and following her operation Jill needs to be very careful not to put too much of a strain on her abdominal muscles. She has asked me to thank you all for your kind wishes for good health and hopes to see you all very soon
We would advise all parents to check their child’s head for our friends the ‘walking visitors’ (head lice) as we have been told that a parent has found them on their child’s head. Please remember that if you do find any on your child’s head then the whole family need to be treated otherwise they will just keep coming back
Useful Website links for good parenting resources
Hope you all enjoy our first newsletter and if you would like us to include anything please let us know.
01772 462420 Nursery
01772 494174 Out of Hours
07533 920719 Mobile
Please also use our contact form.
Happy House Preschool Clayton-le-Woods
Spring Meadow Community Centre
191 Spring Meadow