Milngavie Early Years Centre

Just a reminder to take a peek every week.  The lovely wee creatures that like to live on our heads have not taken a holiday.  They are back with us so it’s time to go to war again!  If your child looks scratchy, and even if they don’t, please have a wee look and see if there are any signs of eggs or the lice themselves.  They are easily dealt with and the pharmacist will be able to recommend an appropriate treatment.  We are going to make the children aware of the symptoms and talk about lice and nits in Nursery.  A parent has recommended a video on c beebie c we can watch.

There is absolutely no shame in having head lice – they have been on the earth as long as humans.  They particularly like clean heads and the tender scalps of little people.  Youtube can educate you on how to get rid of them – the main weapon against them is vigilance and dealing with them as quickly as possible before they start to breed.

Good fun with a big box of spectacles!

A big SORRY! to parents and carers who follow us on Facebook.  I didn’t realise the link from the blog had shut down over the summer until last night.  As a result you haven’t had any of the new term’s news.  If you google Milngavie Nursery News Glow blog you can catch up, as all you will have received was the rather nagging post about Door Security.

It has been fixed again and hopefully you will get everything that is put on the blog.

Please could all parents and carers be careful at home time.  If doors are held open there is an increased risk that one of our wee ones might get out before their parent, and our car park is a dangerous place.  We have 2 door locks to ensure that our children are kept safely inside nursery- if doors are held open, our security is compromised!

A new parent asked if there was a signing in system at our Nursery.  We take a register of all children and know exactly who is in the building.  If someone other than yourself is coming to pick your child up from nursery and staff have not yet met them – please tell the person taking the register and we will know that it is alright to hand your child over.  If we are in any doubt we will phone you to check.  We used to have signing in sheets but the Care Inspectorate felt that they caused a log jam of people in the nursery hall at the beginning and end of the day, which was not good for the children.  They recommended an official register be taken by a member of staff on the door.  If you have any concerns at all about anything in nursery, please come and talk to any member of staff.  We will always treat any concern seriously and look at ways to improve the situation.

A new week and it’s a dry Monday!  Yesterday the orchard was cleared ready for action and the Nursery has been given the job of harvesting the first blueberries we have ever grown!  If you would like to see the volunteers in action visit the Milngavie Orchard Project Facebook page.  Because the orchard was our big priority, we only managed to clear the brambles and nettles from the garden so this week, we are all going to be responsible citizens and help clear the garden.  We also have potatoes to harvest so they might be featuring on the snack menu this week.

Tuesday is PHOTOGRAPH DAY in nursery!  Tempest Photographers are visiting to take individual photos of all our wee cherubs!  If your child does not attend on a Tuesday and you would like their photo done, I’ll put the time to come in on the blog later today.

Friday is music day – Susan Tighe is coming to Nursery with her Snappy Sounds music workshop.  She brings Mr Snappy who always has something interesting and musical in his backpack to show us.  The PTA, very kindly, fund Susan to come to our Nursery and do a morning and afternoon session every two weeks.  She brings percussion instruments and lots of wonderful action songs, as well as interesting music for the children to interact with.

At grouptime, our keyworkers are going to share their favourite (children’s) book with their group and talk about what they like about it.  We would love it if your child would like to bring their favourite book in to share with their group. Please can you put their name on it though as we want to make sure you get it back again.  In Nursery we like to choose an author every month and focus on their stories – to start off the term we thought we would see who the children’s favourites are, so we can make some plans.

If you would like to come in to read stories in our reading corner during free play, please just speak to any of the staff – we would be delighted to welcome you and can promise you a lively audience!

Today is the first day of our new school year and a great day to come to nursery.

All the ladies are rested, happy and ready to go!  Some of us are a bit fatter due to the lovely presents received at the end of term!  Many, many thanks!

We are welcoming children and their families this week and we also have a great new head teacher, Mr Gary Graham who is head of the nursery and the school.  We have been on inservice training with him over the last couple of days and are really looking forward to working with him.

Over the holidays our lovely new playhouse was targeted by vandals- they smashed the door and our lovely new furniture.  Mr McTaggart – the school site coordinator -saw them and the police were called- we are quite hopeful that we will find the culprits.  In the meantime Katie Risk, who raised all the money for the playhouse last year, has said that we will repair it and make it as good as new.  It is really disappointing that this has happened – but it is good to show the vandals that in the long run they will not win.

Today we are hoping to play outside and that the rain will stay off for us!  The beginning of the year is always exciting – new wee people to meet and lots of new ideas for learning.  It’s good to be back!

We are nearly on holiday – this term really has charged past and our last day is Wednesday.  Although the school finishes early, Nursery will be open to 6pm on Wednesday.

On Monday afternoon, we are attending a garden party for our lovely Miss Murphy.  Linda is retiring after 15 years of being our headteacher and the staff and children are hosting a Garden Party as a farewell celebration.

Next term our staff remains exactly the same, with one wee exception.  Ms Elisabeth Van Kampen is getting married to her lovely fiancee, Mr Brian Taylor, this Friday and will be returning to Nursery as Mrs Elisabeth Taylor!!!  We wish them a wonderful wedding day and a long lifetime of happiness together.

Our polytunnel is full of lovely lettuce and we are selling it at £1 per bag to fund our planting for next term.  It looks amazing and is completely organic.  If you would like some please just ask Kate or Katie Risk who has been doing a champion job as lettuce saleswoman.  She really is a woman of many talents!  Please come and buy some – it is delicious!

Ailsa and her big brother Rodaigh, entered their pets in the pet show.  Ailsa took her cat Moushka – who is 11 years old and much older than Ailsa, and Rodaigh took Dougal their puppy.  They had a wonderful time and Ailsa came home with a silver cup and medals as Moushka was judged to be Best Senior Cat in the show.  Roddy won too as Dougal won Best Puppy!  The Finlay Family really know how to look after their pets!  Congratulations and a huge, “Well Done!” to both Ailsa and Rodaigh!

Here is Ailsa with the silver cup that she, and her cat Moushka, won at the Pet Show.  She brought it to nursery to show us.