2015-16 – Page 19 – Hecklegirth Nursery

Story, Rhyme and Number Sacks

Please remember that Eileen will be in the Family Learning room (opposite the school hall) tomorrow (Tuesday) to give out story, rhyme and number bags for your child to take home. Each story/rhyme bag has a book and a game or puppets connected to the story/rhyme. The number bags contain a game and all can be borrowed for one week.

If your child attends Nursery in the mornings, you can collect a bag at the end of the morning session and afternoon children can collect their bag at the start of the session at 12.15. We hope that lots of families will take the opportunity again this term to have fun with learning at home by borrowing these bags and we thank Eileen for organising it for us.

Every Day’s a Learning Day

‘Every Day’s a Learning Day’ consists of two books produced by Education Scotland for parents and carers of children aged between birth and 3 years, and 3 to 6 years. The aim is to help parents support their child’s development in the crucial areas of health and wellbeing, literacy and numeracy.

This resource highlights the many excellent learning opportunities that exist within daily experiences such as washing the dishes, preparing a meal or doing the shopping.

I have added links to these documents on the right under “Useful Reading”. Just click to have a look for helpful tips and advice.

Settling In

Eight new children have joined us this week and they are beginning to settle well into Nursery life. They are becoming familiar with the routines and are growing in confidence to try out a range of activities. We hope that our new families enjoy using our blog to get a feel for life in Hecklegirth Nursery and thought we would share these photos of some of the children enjoying their first few days. Thank you to those who have returned their permission slips so far. We would ask that those who have not yet done this, to return their slips next week. Once you given us permission, your child can appear here on the blog and you can see them at play.

Posting Comments

Our blog has been running now for more than five years and, as it has grown, it has been great to see an increasing number of comments from our families about life in our Nursery. All comments on our blog are monitored by the administrator before they are shared with everyone so will not appear immediately. We are delighted to say that they are always positive and appreciative comments. We hope that everyone is equally sensitive when posting comments about our school and Nursery on social media. Please remember that we are happy to discuss any concerns you may have.

Primary 1 Enrolment

As you may be aware, P1 enrolment will take place on Tuesday, 12th January and Wednesday, 13th January 2016 between 9.00 am and 3.30 pm for children who will be five on or before 28th February 2017. You should enrol at your catchment primary school. If you are unsure of your catchment school, please use the “find my nearest” tool on the www.dumgal.gov.uk website.

When visiting your catchment school you should take your child’s birth certificate together with proof that you live permanently at your address, for example Council tax bill, recent utility bill or bank statement.

There have been some changes to the enrolment process, the main one being there are now two forms; one for those wishing to attend in their catchment school and one for those wishing to make a Placing Request to attend a different primary school to their catchment school. Please attend your catchment school and they will give you the correct form to complete.

Happy New Term

Tomorrow, Wednesday 6th January, will be the start of term and we are looking forward to seeing everyone again, along with the eight new children who will also be getting ready for their first day. We hope that they are excited to be starting Nursery and are looking forward to making new friends. No doubt everyone will make them feel welcome and we hope that this is the beginning of a happy experience for the children and their families.
Our morning session will have a soft start, as usual, between 8.45 and 9.10. The afternoon session will begin at 12.15. We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

SHANARRI – Staying Safe

As part of the Nursery Improvement Plan we will be working with Eileen, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, later this term to share the SHANARRI ethos with parents and carers. There is a link on the right under “Useful Reading” called “Girfec leaflet” which explains this. Last term we also began talking to the children about these wellbeing indicators to gauge their understanding initially of what being safe means for them.

We thought we would share some of the ideas that the children came up with.

Wareeshah: we don’t run away.
Mollie: don’t go on the road.
Ben F.: holding a grown-up’s hand.
Finn: don’t bang heads.
Henley: don’t run.
Jayden: stay away from water.
Grant: I don’t go too fast when I’m on my bike.
Euan: stay away from fire.
Ellie: stay away from under the sink. There’s stuff there that hurts you.
Jenson: sit on your seat properly.
Ewan: don’t jump off the edge of a cliff.
Aoife: Mummy and Daddy keep you safe.
Erica: don’t touch knives or you’ll get cut.
Kenzie: walking is safe. Follow the Nursery rules.
Hannah: stay away from the edge of the harbour. If you fell off you couldn’t get out.
Rory: stay with your Mummy near the river.
Finbarr: don’t run and don’t jump down mountains.
Orla: stay on the paths.
Sian: don’t go next to fireworks.
Luca: you need to safe in a house – safe from black ice.
Chloe: it means you don’t get runned over.
Joshua: you stay safe in the line ’cause people hold hands.
Dylan: stay inside so cars can’t get you.
Ben W.: stay in the house ’cause you might get hurt if you’re not with your Mum and Dad.

We were very impressed with all the different ideas that the children produced about staying safe. We will be looking at more indicators with them next term and look forward to hearing their thoughts.

Flying With The Snowman

At the end of term we read the story of “The Snowman” and listened to the music from the film. We talked about where we would like to fly if we were James in the story. Here are some of the ideas from the Rainbow Room children.

Finlay: I would go to Australia to see a duck.
Cara: go to see Santa.
Leah: go to the park to go on the slide.
Max A.: I would go to the North Pole to see Santa.
Jacob: go to Africa.
Luca: go to America and go to the toy shop.
Sian: go to Spain.
Owen: I’d fly to the cafe to get chips and sausage and tattie scone.
Ben W.: I would go to Dundee.
Dylan: I would go to Dumfries to get a new computer.
Summer: to America.
Caidy: fly to the shops for sweets.
Thom: I would go to London to see some pictures.
Kacey: I would get an ice-cream with the snowman.

Great ideas boys and girls! All those journeys sound super.

Biscuit Decorating

On the last day of term Kacey’s Mum kindly brought in Christmas biscuits she had made, along with lots of exciting tubes and little tubs to provide decorations for the biscuits. It was such a lovely activity for the children to join in with on the last day of term and we would like to thank Kacey’s Mum very much for finding the time to make the biscuits and for spending the morning with the children when she no doubt had lots of other jobs to do. Those biscuits looked delicious.

Christmas Jumpers

Towards the end of term we had a “Non-uniform/ Christmas Jumper Day” and lots of you joined in with the festive fun to help raise money for the Carlisle flood victims. Those fantastic jumpers seemed to put a smile on everyone’s face and helped us add a good donation to the school’s total of £237 for a very good cause.