Parents Corner

Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome to Freckles Preschool newsletter.

This is a way of communicating information about Freckles with everyone and for gaining your feedback on how we are doing. But firstly we would like to welcome all the new children and parents/guardians that have joined us recently and are settling in very well. We hope you enjoy your time with us.

Sadly we do have a goodbye to say to Ella and her family who are moving to Portugal at the end of this week. We would like to thank you for your love and support you have shown all of us at Freckles and wish you the best of luck, we will miss you all lots.

Exciting news: we heard yesterday that the parish council have approved and appointed a company to create our outside space. We are just waiting for the company to confirm a date as to when work will start, but it will include a permanent metal fence which is going to give us more space than we have now, 2 gates either side and astro turf in place of the grass so it really is accessible in all weathers. After attending several meetings and pushing for this we are really pleased with the outcome.

Funding/fees: As a reminder those children who are eligible for funding can only use this in term time for a total of 38 weeks per year. Where funding is not applicable fees apply at the new standard rate of £19.50 per 3 hour session, lunch club at £6 per session. A note of the increase in rate was emailed with the September invoices for all current parents/children. Its due to an increase in minimum wage and rent. Thank you.

Learning journeys and key workers: you should all know who your child’s key worker is now. Please do feel free to look at your child’s learning journey at any time, they are in a green box on one of the shelf units in preschool. Please speak to your child’s key worker if you have any questions/concerns regarding your child. However we all know every child very well so you are free to talk to any of us at any time.

Term dates are as follows: we break up for October half term on Friday 25th October 2019 and we return on Monday 4th November 2019. During this week we are closed. We then close for Christmas on Thursday 19th December and open again on Monday 6th January 2020. We will also close during February half term which is from Monday 17th February to Friday 21st February 2020, returning to preschool on Monday 24th February 2020.

Reminder: could we kindly remind all parents/guardians to just drop us a quick message/call if your child is off sick, its really useful to know as it can have a dramatic impact on our ratios and what staff need to be in. Thank you

Toys from home: we understand that children like to bring in toys from home, but could we ask that this is limited and placed in the home box so that we can bring them out at certain times during the day, such as show and tell time. This is to eliminate breakages and toys being lost. Thank you.

Outside space: I’m sure you have all now seen our lovely outside space, we have to take down and put up the fence daily but its enabled us to have our own space which we and the children absolutely love. Could we remind you to ensure your child has named wellies in on the days they attend. If it rains the grass area can get quite muddy. Thank you.

Waterproofs/clothing: with the weather being so changeable at present, we do like to be outside as much as possible, however when it rains the grass gets very muddy and we have a couple of puddles that appear. We do like the children to play and jump in these, but they can get quite wet and muddy therefore we are thinking of sourcing some waterproofs. If you have any for your child then it maybe an idea to send them in with these, and if anyone has any spare or unwanted waterproofs we would very much appreciate the donation. Equally can we also ask parents to send their child with warm clothing/coat and as it starts to get colder maybe a hat and gloves too. Thank you.

Reminder: as you all know we open at 8.30am, can we politely ask that children are not dropped off in preschool until this time, any earlier may mean we are out of ratio as staff are not required to start work until 8.30am. Equally at the end of the day all children must be collected by 3.30pm, our staff have to leave by 3.45pm to collect their own children. Obviously we do realise that there are exceptions sometimes and parents/guardians maybe running late, but if we could just ask you to let us know that would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Illness: As a little reminder if your child has a sickness bug, they are required to stay away from preschool for 48 hours from the last time they were sick, to ensure they are no longer contagious. Thank you.

Facebook/Instagram: we have a Freckles page on both FB and Instagram, we often put updates, posts and photos (not of the children) on these so do please keep an eye out.

Nappies: for those children still in nappies, can we please remind everyone to put nappies, wipes and nappy sacks in their rucksacks. Could we also remind everyone to put in a change of clothes etc just in case your child has an accident or spillage. We do have spare clothes but these do tend to get depleted quite quickly. Thank you.

Mobile phones: if parents/guardians are coming into Freckles for longer than to drop off/pick up, may we ask you to put your mobile phone in the kitchen with staff phones. Personal mobile phones are not allowed to be used whilst in Freckles as there is a safeguarding issue with phones that have cameras. Thanks for your understanding.

Proud of our children: we have our lovely proud cloud on our door in Freckles, parents/guardians are free to contribute to this if your child has done something super special at home. Either write it on a coloured star (beside the cloud) or tell a member of staff. This is then linked to marbles that can be placed in a jar by that child and then all the children will receive a group reward when we fill the jar.

Working together: we would also like to encourage parents/guardians to write on our spider diagram for planning on the wall. This is where children maybe interested in something at home that you can add, we can then incorporate this into our planning for the following week, in line with the EYFS (early years foundation stage).

Children’s trays: please don’t forget to check your child’s tray for their beautiful creations, we always display the work that children create at Freckles as this has been proven to be very valuable to a child, making them feel proud of what they have achieved and boosting their confidence and self-esteem. Once they have been up on the wall for a few days and we start to run out of space we will then pop them into their trays.

Food allergies: We now have a child who has allergies to eggs, milk, nuts, cats and dogs so we are asking all parents/guardians to please not include anything containing nuts and eggs in their child’s lunch boxes when this child attends on Tuesdays and Thursdays please. So things like seeded/nut bread, Nutella, peanut better, egg sandwiches etc. Thank you.

Lunch boxes: if you are sending your child in with grapes/cherry tomatoes or similar, please can we ask that they are cut in half/quarters to prevent them from being a choking hazard. Can we also ask that you only put 1 treat in their lunch boxes, such as a cake/biscuit etc. Could we also ask children to bring in a water bottle daily so that they have access to this at any time of the day on our shelf unit. Thank you.

Activities: we have adult lead activities available to the children weekly, which are determined from the children’s interests. This term so far we have been concentrating on superheroes, with our hand superhero characters which are now hanging from the ceiling. We also purchased a wonderfully funny range of books about ‘Supertato’, which if you are looking for something new to read, we would highly recommend as a very funny read. We were also the first to play on the new castle in the park, which was very exciting for children and staff alike!! Our other main focus has been ‘Pascal’ our frog who has now been released into a pond. The children have learnt about frog lifecycles, listened to our tadpole story book and created their own frog pictures and lily pads which are now on our display board. This has lead to an interest in animals/pets/vets, and this week we have a vets role play area in the home corner and we have offered children the chance to draw pictures of an animal or their pet, or colour in an animal.  We are also planning a couple of visits from our super friendly dog ‘Dudley’ and possibly a tortoise and a hamster too. Other focus activities will be Diwali, Remembrance Day, Guy Fawkes, Halloween and of course Christmas, and any other areas of interest the children display. We will email details of our Christmas play/party, which you will all be invited to, but we are planning on having this in the morning of the last day of term Thursday 19th December.

Poppies: we have poppies available in preschool for a donation into the collection tin.

New building: we have been told by the parish council that work on the extension to the pavilion will now not happen until next year. Sadly the planning permission expired before work was able to start. The plan is to extend and improve the existing pavilion we use and build us our own outside space.

Dates to remember: Children in Need is on Friday 15th November and we will be having a cake sale on this day aswell as inviting everyone to wear pyjamas into preschool. We would welcome any cake donations and we will sell these to parents/carers for a small donation to Children in Need.

Save The Children Christmas Jumper Day, is on Friday 13th December and we welcome all children to wear their Christmas jumpers to preschool on this date, for a donation of £1 to Save The Children.

Please, please do come to us with any comments or suggestions on how we can do things better, and if we are doing things well too is always nice to hear!! If you would like to leave a review please do add this to our FB page.

Thank you for all your amazing support and for continuing to make our little dream, a wonderful freckly reality, we are loving every minute.

Lynne, James and all at Freckles Preschool.

Plato

“The direction in which education starts a person will determine their future in life.”

'Absolutely lovely place! Amazing friendly staff and my daughter loves it! So glad I chose Freckles x'

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'What can I say! Lynne is just wonderful and my son is so happy there. And as a mum that is all I can ask for. I love the fact I have met Lynne's husband James and her two sons and you can really feel the passion they all have about supporting our children and wanting to do their best. The atmosphere is so relaxed and warm and I am relaxed at work knowing my child is so happy.'

'My daughter loves it, the staff are great, gentle and understanding, she 'creates' when it's time to go home !!'

'My son has come on so much since attending 'Freckles,' Lynne and James both live and breath it and it's plain to see their passion. We particularly love the country views and new safe fenced off outside area'   

'Our son thoroughly enjoys coming to Freckles and looks forward everytime I tell him James is coming to collect him.'

Visit us at Arborfield Pavilion