KG Express 24.11.08

News from the nursery

Dear parents and carers,

Recently the children have been very interested in transport and vehicles. When using the large blocks in the garden the children have been building buses, trains, aeroplanes and superhero cars.

To develop and support this interest we have planned to take the children on short trips out on the bus and to Kings Cross train station to look more closely at the trains. Real life, first hand experiences are very important to a child’s learning and development. By developing children’s interest in buses and trains we are enabling them to become more deeply involved in construction and block play as well as introducing print and numbers in real situations.

If you would like to accompany us on any of these short outings please let your key person know.

Michele

News from the Community Services

Cost price art materials!

Young children learn a huge amount by playing with messy and sensory materials like paint and clay but we know that sometimes it can be difficult to offer these activities at home.

To help out, we run a dedicated Art and Messy Play Group at Vittoria Primary School every Tuesday afternoon in term-time (2-3pm). All children under five and their parents and carers are very welcome. From January the group will be running at Kate Greenaway.

For more information please ask Jan or any member of the Community team. We will also offer cost price art materials from our Art Shop at the entrance to Kate Greenaway every Thursday morning, 9 o’clock to midday. The materials we sell are most half the price of what you’d pay at the shops.

Jan

KG Express 17.11.2008

Visit from Sir Jim Rose

Thanks to the parents who talked to Sir Jim Rose who came to visit on Wednesday last week. He has been asked by the government to review the Primary School curriculum and he came to Kate Greenaway to find out more about early years. The curriculum your child receives at Primary School will be shaped by the Rose Review, and he was especially interested in our garden and how children learn outside, in play, and in Developmental Movement Play. After leaving he commented: “We came away greatly impressed by the quality of what we saw, especially the responses of the children and their parents to the dedicated staff and highly professional calibre of leadership that were all too evident. Please thank everyone on my behalf.”

News from the Community Services

Have you heard about our new service 'Parents as First Teachers' (PAFT)? If you are pregnant or have a baby or child under three and live locally to Kate Greenaway you can take part in PAFT. A project worker will visit monthly (or more often if you like) and bring a fun activity for you to do with your child/children which is closely matched to their developmental and learning needs. We will also bring along information about local services for families and about common childhood issues such as tantrums or toilet training.

Please ask Jan or Liz to find out more - jan.stillaway@islington.gov.uk or liz.dolan@islington.gov.uk

Kate Greenaway Express 10.11.2008

Monday 10th November, 2008
Dear parents and carers,

This is the first issue of KG express, which you can pick up every week from the nursery, or read online at www.kategreenaway.blogspot.com.

Review Day
We are returning to holding a Review Day every term, so you can be sure you get a chance to discuss your child's progress and wellbeing every term. This term's Review Day will be on the 2nd of December. Children with termtime places will have a crèche place that day i.e. your child will come into nursery during the meeting, and will not have their usual place.

What do you think of Kate Greenaway?

We hope that we are always open to feedback - where we do things well, it's good to hear. If we don't do well, we would like to improve. Over the next two weeks we will be distributing our Parent Survey. It’s anonymous, and is analysed by independent staff working for Islington's Children's Services. It really is a chance for you to get your views across. Also, by completing the survey, you will be automatically entered into a raffle with a top prize of £25.
Julian

News from the Community Services

We are offering the following NEW services:

Money Matters: starts Tuesday 11th, 1pm-3pm, for 4 weeks with free crèche.

Saturday Dads’ Club: first Saturday morning of the month, 10am-12pm, with brunch and lots of fun things for children to do

and don’t forget that our current programme has something on every day – pick a flyer up from the office

Jan

News from the nursery
The children are enjoying using recycled materials to create complex and exciting models, so much so that we have run out of things to use.
Could you please bring us your empty cereal boxes, kitchen roll tubes, yoghurt pots etc so we can continue to be creative.

Michele

End of term letter (July 2008) and dates for the year ahead

Dear parents and carers

Staffing update

Hayley Just to remind you that Wednesday 23rd July is not only the last day of school term, but also Hayley’s last day with us. Hayley came as a temporary teacher when Sanchia left at the end of December. She has done a fantastic job here at Kate Greenaway, and we would like to wish her well in her new post as a Reception Teacher. Our new assistant head, Michele, starts in September.

Erin, our temporary nursery education worker with the Community Service Team, is also finishing at the end of this term.

Liz I am pleased to tell you that Liz has been appointed as our additional Family Support and Outreach Worker. She will start this in September, and will continue to work full time at Kate Greenaway in her new role. I will let you know who is replacing Liz in the nursery team as soon as possible.

Jan I’m sure you’ll join me in congratulating Jan on achieving the new National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership.

Kate Greenaway Summer Scheme

This year we are putting on a summer scheme for all children up to five years old living in the neighbourhood. We also have an advance notice flyer for our Community Services next term. You are very welcome to use any of our Community Services.


Yours sincerely




Julian Grenier


Dates for 2008-2009

As we are coming near to the end of term, here are the term and closure dates for the year ahead.


Last day of summer term (for children with termtime places)
Wednesday 23rd July


Last day of the extended nursery provision
Friday August 15th


Closure for staff training and development
Monday and Tuesday 1st and 2nd September


First day of winter term (all children)
Wednesday September 3rd 2008


Half term (for children with termtime places)
Monday-Friday 27th-31st October 2008


Last day of winter term (for children with termtime places)
Friday 19th December 2008


Last day of extended nursery
Tuesday 23rd December 2008


First day of spring term (all children)
Monday 5th January 2009


Closure for training and development
Friday 13th January 2009


Half term (for children with termtime places)
Monday-Friday 16th-20th February 2009


End of spring term (for children with termtime places)
Friday 3rd April 2009


Start of summer term (for children with termtime places)
Monday 20th April 2009


Closure for training and development
Thursday and Friday 21st and 22nd May


Half term (for children with termtime places)
Monday-Friday 25th-29th May 2009


Last day of term (for children with termtime places)
Monday 20th July 2009


Last day of extended nursery
Friday August 14th 2009



This list does not include dates for:

Bank holidays
Development mornings
Review Days

We will distribute those dates at the start of next term

Summer Fun Day

Dear Parents
Our Summer Fun Day – 4 July, 2008, 4-6pm
This is just a quick note to let you know about our Kate Greenaway Annual Summer Fun DAay. This will be in the garden on Friday 4 July from 4-6pm. As well as lovely food there will be face painting and activities for the children, and information stalls. We are having a cake stall (baked by the children) and dairy/gluten free cakes, too. There will also be a massive Jack and the Beanstalk corner and storytelling, and lots more …
We hope you will all come and enjoy yourselves, so if you collect your child early in the afternoon please stay on, and if your child stays on after 3.30 please come early if you can for the barbecue.
We’ve had a couple of offers from parents to run stalls; if you would like to do a stall, or like to help out generally, that would be very welcome. Please speak to Dawn, or to me.
Looking forward to seeing you all on July 4th.
Yours sincerely





Julian Grenier

Letter to parents, 31 January 2008

Dear parents and carers

Ofsted report Our Ofsted report has now been published and you should have a copy. If you have not got it – please ask Marie or Louise. It’s a very positive report that reflects well on the hard work that the staff and the governing body have done to develop high standards of nursery education at Kate Greenaway. As a staff, we continue to feel very fortunate to have such an engaged and committed group of parents. Thank you for all your support.

School travel plan I have tried to speak to as many parents as possible about our School Travel Plan. This piece of work is about finding out how families come to Kate Greenaway, and to look at whether there are any improvements to the local environment that would encourage children and parents to walk, cycle or use public transport to get to the nursery. If you have any ideas about this, I would really like to hear them.

So far 28 parents have answered the survey questions. 19 parents walk all the way from home with their children, 2 children come by bike, 5 by car, and 2 by bus.

Parents have made the following comments about walking/cycling to Kate Greenaway:

· Drivers going along Copenhagen Street need to slow down
· Need and extra Pelican Crossing near the path into York Way Court
· Cyclists go through red lights and cycle too fast near children
· Signs telling drivers to be aware of children on Copenhagen Street and in the estate would help
· There is a lot of dog mess on the pavements which young children can step in
· Walking in would be good for my fitness, but when it’s raining…
· Pavements are uneven and children end up falling over and hurting themselves
· We need more and better bike lanes
· The 274 bus service is not regular enough
· Roadworks mean that pavements are closed off or narrowed down so much you can’t get a buggy through – e.g. on York Way between Kings Cross and Copenhagen Street.

Please let me know your views. When the travel plan is written we will then be asking parents to consider what changes we should ask Transport for London to make. There is funding for this work.

Julian Grenier

Letter, November 27th: dates, building works

Dear parents and carers

Changes to dates and arrangements

I am writing to give you the following updates:

End of the building project We had been hoping to get the front entrance back this week. However it now looks like it will be next week when the internal works are completed. In the meantime, please continue to use the temporary garden entrance.

Cancellation of International Evening We had planned our usual evening celebration for families for next Thursday, 6th December. However because of the problems with the building works, we have no guarantee that we will have the entrance and the spaces we need. With regret, this event has now been cancelled – but we plan to organise a replacement in the new year.

Development Morning We are still going ahead with staff training on Wednesday 5th December but the nursery will remain open for all children as usual. We are trying to minimise the disruption for families.

With apologies for all the changes!




Julian Grenier