from Nursery to Sixth Form
Every week the Bulletin newsletter is sent home from the School Office highlighting important forthcoming dates and events, along with a round-up by Mrs Wilding of the week gone by. Read below recent messages from the Head's desk.
We have had some lovely conversations about who we love and I hope that you adore the Valentine's banners and cards the children have made for you. The children have been talking about their families and objects/toys they love, and have been printing hearts and painting clay hearts. The Transition children have also discussed winter clothing and why winter here feels so cold even when we have blue skies and sunshine.
This week the children celebrated Chinese New Year, sampling food and attempting to use chopsticks, practising their cutting skills whilst making lanterns, making fans using a variety of materials and creating some lovely paintings by using chopsticks as the mark making tools. The Honeycomb children made a wonderful dragon using a large box for the head and a white sheet for the body which they painted with red and gold paint. They invited the Beehive and Busy Bees children to join them in the hall and they all took turns playing instruments and dancing under the dragon, having enormous fun and really looking part of the celebrations happening all over the world. They enjoyed some YouTube footage of the New Year celebrations and talked about the New Year story of the animals.
Happy Snow Day!
The nursery rooms have been learning about winter from winter related stories. They've been mixing red and green paint to create trees and animals and have used printing techniques to make animal footprints for display. I am sure that you will enjoy the lovely display boards which are created with your children’s work. They have been on treasure hunts around the school, finding twigs to make trees, have explored the frozen pond area and generally had a lovely experience with the topic.
Transition children have been having an amazing time in their winter wonderland which Miss Green had set up for them and have been exploring fake snow in the classroom as well as the frosts outside. They have been learning about how snow is created and the weather required for it and have enjoyed a range of snow related messy play activities such as using soap flakes to make their own snow. Using PVA glue and shaving foam, they made puffy paint which they then used to make snowmen.
Nursery children have been busy learning about weather this week. Nature has given us sun, clouds, snow and a big drop in temperature this week thereby helping the children to understand the topic at first hand. They have talked about appropriate winter clothing and dressed people cut outs. The children put out containers of water to see what happens overnight and been exploring the ice created. They have observed large blocks of ice melt over time and have used hammers and tools to change the shapes of the blocks. A variety of materials were used to create textured clouds, igloos, arctic animals and inuits for classroom displays.
For some children this has been their first week attending a nursery but you would not know it as they have settled so incredibly well. We have been looking at the colour black and number one generally and have made and used the colour in a variety of ways. Group activities such as creating painted display board backgrounds using a variety of tools have been done and the children showed great team spirit. We have had a fire drill, which they took in their stride. It also provided a great example of seeing how well the children accept changes in routine and follow instructions.
Transition children have been discovering winter and have been busy making wintry pictures using “cold” colours and creating snowflakes for a display. They went on a walk around the school grounds looking at the signs of winter and the short snow flurries yesterday got everyone excited.
It was time to renew the 12 hour paediatric first aid training, which is valid for 3 years, for Miss Green, Mrs Freeman and Mrs Irvine and this was completed this week so well done ladies.
We wish everybody a very happy and healthy 2019 from all of us in the Nursery Department.
It has been a lovely start to the year with children coming in with smiling faces and full of chatter about their holidays and new toys. We have welcomed lots of new children into the nursery rooms and they are settling well, getting to know the staff, their new friends and the environment. The children who have moved up into Transition are having a wonderful time too and are now settling into the different routines after transferring from their nursery classes.
Our topic this term is based on “Seasons – Winter and Spring”. It would be lovely if you could support the children’s learning by talking about this at home.
What a pleasure it was for us to see so many parents, grandparents and friends attending our Christmas production “Seasons’ Greetings” on Tuesday morning – evidence of a truly supportive parent body. Your children transported us to a very magical place and we are enormously proud of every single one. I can honestly say that we were not expecting the children to sing so clearly and loudly as they did and the confidence that they exhibited was astounding! To have 57 mainly three year olds performing in front of almost 200 people in the way they did is a credit to each and every one of them. The costumes you provided looked wonderful, so thank you and well done to the children for making the extra bits to go on their heads and bodies. I am looking forward to seeing it again soon when the DVD copy I have ordered arrives.
We have welcomed lots of new children this week who will be joining the Nursery in January and they are delightful. I feel certain that your children will very quickly be talking about their new friends.
A huge thank you goes to our catering staff who produced an amazing Christmas lunch today and all the crackers and hats to make our meal all the more festive and enjoyable.
Thank you to those who contributed to our Christmas Jumper Day on Thursday for “Save the Children”. Our Department raised £30.50 for this worthy charity.
This Week
Christmas has arrived in the classrooms with the children decorating trees, playing with magic snow, creating calendars, making reindeer food, Santa napkins, clay decorations and cards, to name but a few of the wonderful things they have done which you are sure to enjoy when they bring them home at the end of term.
We had a very busy Open Morning on Tuesday so many thanks for your kind recommendations. Your children were a brilliant advertisement and the Junior Girls and Boys did a tremendous job bringing the visitors to the Nursery Department.
Zog arrived on Wednesday morning and gave the children a fun packed session all about books and the joys of reading. The children listened really well to the Zog story and had cuddles with the dragon afterwards. A big thank you goes to the RBWM Libraries Outreach and Events team.
We had a lovely time yesterday when the Lower Junior Girls entertained us to their production “Born in a Barn”. The children were spellbound and sat mesmerised throughout, with many of them recounting the story of the nativity on our return to the classrooms.
Your Christmas card orders have arrived and sent home with your children so please check their bags.
This Week
The nursery classes have been learning about warm clothing and practising putting on scarves, hats, mittens and gloves this week and on the subject of cold weather please send your children in wearing warm coats, hats, scarves and mittens which all need to be named. As always, they continue to practise their number skills, and the photo above shows the Honeycomb children counting out 10 animals from the larger group and taking turns in doing so.
With December arriving this weekend Christmas will soon be with us. There is already a buzz of excitement about everything the children are doing and I am sure trees will be arriving in the rooms very soon.
Next Week
We will all be getting into the swing of things for Christmas, doing lots of related crafts, and are looking forward to going over to the main hall with the children to watch the Junior Girls Nativity on Thursday morning.
Reminders
Please send in your child’s costume for our Christmas Production as soon as you have it organised.
Charity
As in previous years we will be helping those less fortunate in our local community by providing the Maidenhead branch of the Salvation Army with Christmas hampers which the Year 10 girls will make up. The Nursery Department have been asked to provide biscuits which can be left in boxes in the Nursery Hall from now until Wednesday 12 December. Many thanks in advance for your support. A very big thank you goes to those of you who have already given.
Christmas Jumper Day is on Friday 14 December and we would appreciate a minimum £1.00 donation for “Save the Children”. Please do not feel you have to go out and buy a special jumper for this. Some of the best have been tinsel and baubles etc. attached to a regular top which the children have been involved in creating!
Christmas lunch is on the 14 December so if your child is booked in for lunch on Fridays please can you let their teacher know and fill in this form asap if they will be having a hot lunch rather than a packed one that day as the kitchen need to order the food.
This week and next
The Nursery have been having fun learning about migration and particularly birds, and have created some very colourful and feathery specimens.
The week commencing 19 November the three Nursery classes will discuss and listen to stories and information about “seasonal changes” and do a range of related crafts. Their number is 9, the colour is white and the letter is a.
Family Observations Module
Parents sometimes ask me how they can add their own observations of their child having one of those “wow” moments to the observations file I send you each half term so I have taken some words from the "2build a profile" website which might help you. The NEW Family Observations module lets learners’ parents and family members take an active role in contributing to the “2build a profile” observation portfolio!
Key Features:
How are Family Observations submitted?
The observations are emailed to 2BAP by the family member. This can be done by:
What happens after submitting a family observation?
It has been a busy week with the Nursery classes making poppies for this weekend, learning about festivals of light including Diwali and Bonfire Night, making fireworks pictures and 3D rockets by practising their cutting skills and using lots of textures. On Wednesday the children went over to the main school hall to discover the stage and begin practising their Christmas production songs. Although lots of louder singing needs to be developed the confidence displayed by your children in this change to their routine was wonderful to see.
The week commencing 12 November the three nursery classes will discuss and learn about “migration”, the number 8, the colour purple and the letters x,y,z.
Nursery children celebrated Chinese New Year this week and i...
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1 College Avenue, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 6AW
