Dear Parents and Carers,

Once again we have a busy month ahead of us in our nursery class. This term the context for the children’s learning is “Scotland”, “Winter” and “Easter”. The children will also be using coins in the “shop”. We will encourage them to recognise a 1p, 2p and 50p coin. Also we will be asking then to use only 1p coins and count out the pennies to make, for example, 4p. To help them, you can do this at home with the real money in your purses! The more practise they get the better they become.

Road Safety
We continually emphasise to the children the need to stay close to adults when near the road and in car parks. We are glad that many of you use the car park beside the Nursery Centre to drop off and pick up the children. This is one of our ECO targets for the school and nursery class – to reduce traffic congestion in School Road. Please continue to use the car park and to drive carefully in it as we want all our children to be safe.

Health Promoting Nursery
In nursery we offer a wide variety of healthy snacks each day. We try to encourage the children to taste new foods. We use these tips to help us share new foods with the children.

Tips To Encourage Children To Eat A Range Of Foods:

• Praise children when they try new foods.
• Children will imitate important people in their life – this applies to eating and drinking habits – so be a good role model!.
• Try not to hurry children to eat. They are still learning to master cutlery, chew properly and explore new tastes and textures.
• Present the food in different ways e.g. offer vegetables into different shapes such as carrot sticks or cubes instead of circles.
• Encourage children to try all the food offered to them; they will develop new tastes as they experiment and will get a more balanced diet if they eat a wide range of foods.

Cloakroom Bags.
The drawstring bags, with our nursery logo on them, have arrived in the nursery. Each child will have their name on a bag and we ask that the children keep spare clothes in them eg a change of underwear, T shirt and trousers. The children can also put their gloves and hats in them to try to keep the cloakroom tidy and prevent things getting lost. The bags stay in the nursery and hang on the children’s pegs.

Parental Consultations
We will be holding our meetings with parents on Tuesday 20th March and Thursday 22nd March from 3.30-5.30pm. The children’s key workers will give you more information on this nearer the time.

Passport Applications
At this moment in time I am sorry to inform you that no member of our teaching staff or senior management team are able to countersign passport applications. This is line with advice for data protection procedures.

Generation Science 20th March – “Ella’s Wobble”
We have planned an exciting Science workshop (Make and Keep Sound) for our nursery children. This will take place in the nursery. The children will explore how sound is made and moves from one ear to another!

Eco Roadshow 17th February – “Tricky Business”
The topics of recycling, litter and energy are explored in the show.
Silly Billy talks to the children and gives practical examples of eco behaviour they can apply at nurseryl and in the home.

Race Night 16th March St Brigids Church Hall
The Parents’ Group have been hard at work organizing a Race Night on 16th March at 7.30. The nursery staff will be encouraging you to buy a horse, at the cost of £5. We ask also for donations of prizes for the raffle. We hope you will be able to attend to make this night a great success. All money raised will be put towards the nursery outing in the summer term.

Please remember to contact the school office if you have a new telephone number or have moved house. It is important that we are able to contact you for care and welfare matters. Every child in our nursery matters!

Dates for the Diary
School will be closed on:
Thursday 9th February in-service day
Friday 10th February holiday
Monday 13thth February holiday
Tuesday 14th February in-service.
17th February – “Tricky Business” Eco Friendly Roadshow.
16th March – Race Night St Brigids Church Hall
20th March – “Ella’s Wobble” Generation Science
As always, please keep checking the “Nursery Notice board” for updates to these arrangements.

E Maguire
Principal Teacher