Cockenzie Nursery News October 2017

Twitter : @CockenziePS Email : admin@cockenzie.elcschool.org.uk

Weblog : http://www.edubuzz.org/cockenzie/ To report a pupils absence – call 01875 811327 and press ‘1’ to leave message

Dear Parents and Carers, Autumn is most definitely upon us as the nights draw in, the leaves fall from the trees and we experience four seasons in one day!

Our Learning You may have noticed the “LOOK at Our Learning Wall” in the nursery foyer? If not, please have a closer look. This wall has the intended years learning on display as well as our fortnightly calendar, our responsive planning and the focus for each curricular area. Working parents and carers please don’t despair! After the October break the information will be published onto the school blog and our plans and calendar updated fortnightly.

Congratulations I’m sure most of you already know or have noticed but we are delighted to inform you that Sami Neill, blue group, is expecting a baby! Sami hopes to continue working until the February break, if her baby allows it, and will then go off on maternity leave. The post will be advertised soon to ensure a smooth transition with her cover.

Tea and Toast Parents and Carers are invited to Tea and Toast on Friday 10th November at 0900hrs. Tea and toast will give us an opportunity to chat about nursery with input from you about how we could improve things for you, ideas for activities in nursery, subjects or issues in and around the community that effect school that can be taken to parent council or just to get to know the school and other families a wee bit better. Children are welcome, hope to see you there even if it's just for 5 minutes.

It has been a long term goal of Mrs McNeill to develop the nursery garden into areas which support learning, provide good experiences for play and allow for investigation and exploration. We are very lucky that the staff in nursery also share this goal so together they united their knowledge and experience, read and researched literature and, of course, used the magic of Pinterest to make a plan. Their stumbling block became money until Jennifer Moodie’s family became part of the nursery. One morning at our ‘Tea and Toast’ event Jennifer asked Mrs McNeill one thing we would change in nursery and Mrs McNeill shared her goal. Jennifer and her family went on to raise over £1200 and we are delighted to say that our garden development is now well underway. It started on Friday 22nd September when we took down the old greenhouse and filled a skip with garden rubbish. On Friday 29th September, the work really began. The nursery staff, Jennifer, her dad Rab, her brother Robert and Gillian Halcrow all pitched in to make a sensory path and start the big jobs. Jennifer, her family, and Gillian came out on Saturday morning to help again. A big thanks for all your hard work, and of course, for the cake Gillian!

Garden Development

Saturday and Sunday saw the construction of a new sand pit, raised beds, tyre climb, extended mud kitchen, slabbed area for parking bikes, the excavation of the old garden to provide a grassed area for loose parts and den building.

Mrs McNeill, on behalf of the Nursery, would like to thank Kenny Haig at Premier Hire in Tranent for the free use of a mini-digger and whacker plate for the weekend, Thistle Building Supplies for giving us a discount on our materials, Brian A. McNeill Building and Landscaping for his time and hard graft over the weekend and Paul and Iwona Greig for sourcing us the tyres. We still need to cut back our willow structures as they have gotten a bit out of control so if you’d like to offer your services then please speak to or email Mrs McNeill and we can sort out dates and times. fmcneill@cockenzie.elcschool.org.uk

Gym Shoes Morning children participate in gym with June Jeffrey on a Monday morning and we ask that you provide a pair of gym shoes in your child’s change bag. Using gym shoes allows your child the flexibility in their foot to participate in the lesson with ease; they also keep our gym floor in tip top condition. Thank you to those who have already provided them.

Change of Clothes Please check that your child does have a change of clothes and that the clothes you have put in their bag is clearly named so that we can allocate clothes that get muddled to the correct child. There are sometimes mix ups as we encourage and promote independence in these tasks.

Door Times Just to confirm nursery times… • Morning opening 0830 – 0845 or 0900 to 0915 • Morning collection 1210 – 1225 • Afternoon opening 1315 – 1330 • Afternoon collection 1500 – 1515 or 1600 – 1615 We ask that you stick to these opening times as much as possible as we staff the nursery accordingly at these times and are often settling in children and cannot always come to the door. If you are going to be late for drop off or early pick up please let us know in advance. Thank you.

Library Visits We will be visiting the local library in November and will need helpers to assist us. • Yellow and Orange Groups – Tuesday 7th November 1015-1130 • Blue and Green Groups – Tuesday 14th November 1015 – 1130 • Purple and Red Groups – Tuesday 21st November 1015 – 1130 If you are available to help then please let Mrs McNeill or your child’s keyworker know, thanks in advance.

Pop to the Shops Our fortnightly visits to the shop have been a great success. The children decide on the snack, make a shopping list, do the shop, prepare the snack and eat it with their friends. So far they have shopped and prepared pizza and bread, the recipes are available from the display in the foyer.

Just for You - Numeracy There are numeracy packs available in the nursery foyer with resources and ideas for games and activities that will compliment and reinforce the learning work we have been focussing on in nursery. You do not have to take or use them it is completely your choice, however anything you do try should be done for short periods and must be fun. I will continue to change and update the packs termly to reflect our focus.

If it’s not fun don’t do it!

Communication Pockets The pockets are deep and it may look like there is nothing inside but please check as there are often invites to parties left in the bottom and we wouldn’t want you to miss them as they are fantastic social opportunities for the children.

Parent Consultation Evening appointments will now take place at the same time as the rest of the school, Tuesday 14th and Thursday 16th November. Apologies to anyone who has made an appointment using the sheet in nursery asthey are now cancelled and will need to be rescheduled. Daytime appointments remain the same. Apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Halloween

We will be participating in Halloween fun and activities which will end with a party on Tuesday 31st October.

Your child can dress up for the party and we will have the usual Halloween party games and maybe some spooky dancing!

If your child has any fears that we should be aware of please let a member of staff know so we can avoid causing them any distress.

Community Links We have made contact with the John Bellany Day Centre and we will be going along in our groups to visit the elders of the community. Many of you may have watched the Channel 4 documentary that researched and highlighted the benefits of the two age groups spending time together and we hope to replicate this on a smaller scale.

Our intention is to visit weekly on a Tuesday with each group going for a 3 week block leaving nursery around 1045hrs and returning to nursery for 1220hrs, so we will need parent/carer helpers to allow this to happen. The children will participate in activities such as snack, planting, singing while they are there. Visits will start on Tuesday 7th November with the purple group.

October Holiday Please remember the school breaks up on Friday 13th October for the October break.

The children will return on Tuesday 24th October at normal time.

Fundraising Fashion Show

Yvette Cowan, Poppy's mum, is organising a fundraising fashion show in conjunction with her employer Mackays. The fashion show will take place in Mackays in Haddington on Sunday 19th November at 4.30pm. Tickets cost £5 per adult and £3 per child available in advance from nursery. Included in the ticket price are snacks and nibbles and 10% discount on full price purchases made on the day. You could also be part of the fashion show as Yvette needs 10 children to model clothes and would also like adult volunteers too, so if you want to take part please speak to Mrs McNeill in nursery. Mackays will also make donations towards a raffle, 20p a ticket or £1 a strip, but we will also accept prize donations in nursery. Cockenzie Nursery will receive all profit made from ticket and raffle sales. Hope to see you all there.

The local GP surgery, the Harbours Medical Practice, has asked us to highlight to parents/carers the following Nasal Flu clinics available to pre-school children

(aged 2 – 5 years):

The Harbours Medical Practice