Milngavie Early Years Centre

We are always keen to improve on what we do, and we would be very grateful if you would take part in our on-line survey.  We are hoping it will let us know the areas we could do better in, and also,  how you feel the changes we have made over the last couple of years with the blog and our On-line Learning Journals are going.

The survey takes approximately  5 minutes. There is also an opportunity to leave comments by clicking the speech bubble beside each question.

To access the survey, please click on the link below.  Many thanks for your help!

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/MSKLPYJ

If this link doesn’t work, please copy and paste it into your address bar.

The application forms for Nursery places in East Dunbartonshire are on line this year.  If your child is coming back to nursery, or you have a child who will be three during 2018 and by February 2019 they are eligible for 600 hours of funded Early Learning and Childcare.  The application forms are on the East Dunbartonshire Council Website – www.eastdunbartonshire.gov.uk.  If the link doesn’t work, please just copy and paste it into your address bar.

Some children, aged two, are also eligible depending on your circumstances – our local nurseries with 2 year old provision are Clober and Castlehill.  For further information about what is available, please visit the council’s website.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU RE-APPLY- EVEN IF YOUR WEE ONE HAS JUST STARTED NURSERY AND REMIND ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO HAS CHILDREN WHO MIGHT COME TO MILNGAVIE.  OUR PLACES FILL UP REALLY QUICKLY AND IF YOU APPLY LATE, YOU MAY NOT GET A PLACE.

THE CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS IS 28TH FEBRUARY 2018.

A very happy new year to everyone!  All the staff would like to say a huge thank you for the lovely Christmas gifts we received.  We are all lots happier and heavier after the holidays, and the big diet starts for some of us this week.  If you smell Gin and Tonic from any of the staff- it will just be the lovely lip balm or bath salts we got as lovely presents as sober January is in progress!

This week we are welcoming new children and their families to nursery and on Wednesday our new NC Student, Lisa Richardson is starting her placement.

Apologies for the lack of photos of the party – I forgot to take them home over the holidays so will put some up this week.

Looking forward to a busy month in Nursery with a focus on counting and numbers, and a Scottish week from 22nd to 26th.

On the very last day of term we were all amazed when we came in to nursery, to see the Elf Door had appeared on the hall ceiling.  There was a lot of debate and laughter about how the elves might fall out and land flat on their faces.  Later on this morning a new video appeared on the ipad- Coen, Rosie and Euan rushed to the door to see if they could see anything.  There was a scattering of fairy dust and, there in the middle of it, lay a little paper aeroplane.  Rosie picked it up. “Its a letter,” shouted Coen.  We read it – our elf friends are having a last day too – they are heading back to the North Pole to help Santa load up his magical sleigh.

What a lot of fun we have had with our cheeky wee visitors this year!  We are sad that they are going, but they have an important job to do.  Maybe they’ll be back next Christmas time!

Good morning for the last Monday news of 2017.  We have got a busy wee week planned, with party preparations and lots of xmas fun to be had.

On Monday morning we are visiting Cairns Church to watch the P1 nativity.

On Tuesday we have the last session of Forest Kindergarten for this year, both am and pm

On Thursday we will be getting ready for our party, decorating the Fraser Centre and getting in the mood for the best Nursery Christmas Party ever.

Friday is the last day of term.  Susan is bringing Mr Snappy and we will be listening to some more of the music from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcraker- a really Christmassy ballet, and singing our favourite Christmas songs.  A great end to a happy term at Nursery!!

Sorry for confusing the issue- think my brain is fixated on the last day of term!! The party is definitely on Thursday 21st December!  😳

This afternoon in nursery we had a serious chat about keeping our bodies safe.  This was in response to some children using names for parts of the body inappropriately, and we felt that it was important that our children are aware of parts of the body which are private.   We want children to know the correct terminology for parts of the body, and we also want them to know when it is appropriate to use the words.   The Early Level of the Curriculum for Excellence contains outcomes relating to this as part of  Health and Wellbeing:

“I am learning about respect for my body and what behaviour is right and wrong. I know who I should talk to if I am worried about this.” HWB-049a

We watched a funny wee film on youtube about pants –   https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pantosaurus- worth a watch, even just to see the silly dancing, and to reinforce what we talked about today.

Our Nursery Christmas Party is being held in the Fraser Centre this year, on Thursday 22nd December -6pm – 7.30.  This was the idea of one of our morning boys, Dexter, who is a budding DJ.  The children planned it and decided that they would charge for admission to hire a hall, buy party food, and to give money to charity.  The cost of the party is therefore £2.50.  Having the party in the Fraser Centre allows us to invite all nursery children to come along at once – something we cannot do in Nursery.

You can drop your children off at the Fraser Centre , in the village, at 6pm and if you would like to see them getting their present from the man in red,  come back at 7.10pm!  All nursery children will receive a present, whether they attend the party or not.

If you have not yet got your ticket for your child, please ask any member of staff. It would also be helpful if you would say to staff if your child will not be coming so we can manage the catering.

Many thanks

We are looking for interesting boxes of all sizes and shapes, for our junk modelling area.  Our shelves are bare- so if you get any presents in boxes at Christmas time, please keep the boxes for us so we can build some great models in the new year!

Many thanks!

Many thanks to all our lovely concert audience who made our Christmas concert an extra special one this year.  The children really sang well and enjoyed their performance experience and the excitement of having such a big audience really contributed to this.

Mrs Inglis was her usual brilliant self, playing beautifully even though I muddled up the playlist half way through.  She is a real trooper and we are so grateful to her – we don’t know what we would do without her.

The world does seem a lot more Christmassy, now that we’ve sung our Christmas songs.  We are going to be singing one or two of them again,  in an attempt to lure Santa into the Fraser Centre at the end of our Christmas Disco Party next Thursday night. We are sure he’ll be impressed too!