The Newsletter of Curzon Crescent, Challenge House and Fawood Children’s Centres PartnershipFadlan lasoo xariir Children Centre hadii aad u baahan tahay turjubaannsi lagaaga caawiyo waxaad u baahantahay mahad sanid / Se precisar de traduzir ou interpretar informação, por favor contacte o centro infantile.

Delivering a SmoothTransition

Working together to develop our children and our community

Welcome back and aHappy New Year to allour families and friends.

Hi, many of you mayalready know me asJackie, Deputy Head ofCurzon CrescentNursery School.

It is a real pleasure tobegin this new term asthe Acting ExecutiveHead teacher. I am

proud to be able to lead the work of the Partnershipfor the next two terms while we actively seek torecruit a dynamic and inspiring new Executive Headfor September 2016. It is a great pleasure to workwith so many highly committed and talented peoplewho make Curzon, Fawood and Challenge Housesuch great places for children and families, andsuch great places to work. I will ensure that asmooth transition takes place while continuing toprovide high quality services and education for youand your children.

I aim to divide my time between Curzon andFawood and be at the main door at the beginningand end of the day, in one or other of the settings.

I am sure that your children will have a fabuloustime continuing their learning journey with us.

We are planning our wonderful annual spring andsummer events.

Which include…

Issue Twelve Spring 2016

Page 6 Curzon Crescent and Fawood Children’s CentresPage 5 Curzon Crescent and Fawood Children’s Centres

incorporating Challenge House, 1-2 Bank Buildings,High Street, Harlesden NW10 4LX

Family Aspirations

Dates forDiary

Inset DaysDates of closures forNursery Schools andChildren’s Centres activities:

Friday 26th February 2016

Wednesday 29th June 2016

If you would like to broadenyour knowledge and gainskills to support you inmaking positive choices, foryour families’ well-being,then these courses willhelp…

Please sign up at receptionif you are interested.

Child Development

Page 4 Curzon Crescent and Fawood Children’s CentresPage 2 Curzon Crescent and Fawood Children’s Centres

Challenge HouseChallenge House Children’s Centre opened in 2013 and isalready at the heart of the immediate community, andwhilst the overall building is run by Brent Council andhouses social care teams, it is part of our Partnership.

The Children’s Centre is open part time, however theextremely busy Stay, Play and Learn sessions runregularly every Tuesday and Friday morning.

Please see our termly timetable for opening times, coursesand activities which are delivered from Challenge House.

Family Involvement andEngagementA safe place where you and your child

can come to learn and play together

A home away from home!

Offering outdoor opportunities

We welcome all families into ourrelaxing and stimulating environmentwhere your child can enjoy and develop

Hello from Fawood Nursery SchoolWe have had such a fantastic first term with our children andfamilies!

A special thank you to all our parents and carers for theircontributions over the last term, as well as their attendanceon trips and workshops. We were delighted to haveeveryone back after the holidays and we warmly welcomedsome new children and Tracey, a new member of staff, whois working in Monica’s class.

We started off the spring term with two very interesting tripsto the Science Museum.

We have planned out a few other exciting trips, such as avisit to Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year and lots oflocal outings which will include visits to Curzon CrescentNursery to explore the outdoor garden and the pond, visitsto the local shops and the library. Before our Easter Holiday,we will bereceiving our‘Living Eggs’,which will be agreatopportunity forour children tofind out aboutlife cycles,growth,changes andhow to care and look after little chicks! Soon after the Easterbreak, on the 13th of April, a farm will arrive at CurzonCrescent and we will have the opportunity to see, touch andlearn about a wide variety of farm animals.

What an exciting term ahead of us! We are looking forwardto teaching your children and working closely with you sothat we can support them in their learning.

Fawood Practitioners

News from Curzon CrescentNursery SchoolNew iPads for Children

We have some new high tech resources across thepartnership for our mainstream children – iPads. Mostof the children have had a chance to try them out andwe can see that many are highly proficient andalready have the skills needed to make the most ofthem. We find the touchscreen is ideal for youngchildren's hands and theyare perfect for thechildren to share with afriend or work on alone.Who knows – soon thechildren could be usingvideo chats tocommunicate with eachother between Curzonand Fawood.

We have carefullyselected a variety of appsto encourage the children to practise a range of skillsincluding navigating between apps, listening tostories, drawing, playing number games and evendesigning their own settings and characters forstories.

Using the iPads encourages children to worktogether, to explore, to try out new things, to keeptrying when they find something challenging andchoose different ways to solve problems. We arepleased to say that the children are very responsiblewith our new technology too: they take great care ofthem, they are considerate of each other’s feelingswhen they take turns and they put them away wherethey belong when they have finished.

Winter WonderlandThe Curzon Crescent and Fawood Children’s CentrePartnership held another wonderful Winter Wonderlandevent on Wednesday 2nd December at Curzon.

It was the biggest and most well attended WinterWonderland that the Partnership have held, with over 300adults and children joining in the celebrations.

The snow machine placed on the roof captivated thechildren who saw snow falling as they arrived and whenthey left!

Parents said…

“First time at Winter Wonderland and we love it…”

“Great time, lovely, fantastic show, staff werebrilliant”

“Great time had by all can’t wait for next year!”

Admin Team UpdateHi, I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Admin Team that work across the Partnership, as we are usually your firstpoint of contact when you come into the Children’s Centres and we are here to help!

In case you don’t know us here we are…

Musarat Din Jackie Ashbourne Maxine Blair Michelle ThompsonBusiness Manager Office Manager Senior Administrator Administrator

Patricia Taylor Natalie Skyers Iftekhar Chowdhury Masooma KhanAdministrator Receptionist Receptionist Receptionist

For the last several months we have had a lot of temporary faces at the reception desk. Hopefully this will change now,as we have appointed two new permanent members of staff to the team. We would like to welcome IftekharChowdhury and Masooma Khan.

Iftekhar signed up to a scheme designed to help council tenants get back to work, where he completed three monthsworking with Brent Housing Partnership resident volunteer scheme. Iftekhar was the first person to sign up to thescheme and has been successful in finding a full time permanent position within the Curzon Crescent and FawoodChildren’s Centre Partnership.

Iftekhar said…

“I love working within the Partnership. There is a great team in place; who are committed to the centresand the diverse people they serve. However, the most important factors for me are the helpful, friendlyand approachable nature of all the staff within the Partnership.”

We hope that both Iftekhar and Masooma will enjoy their new administrative roles.

Time for RhymesHello my name is Anne Broadhurst; I am the Speech & Language Therapist for Children’s Centres in Harlesden.Welcome to Dionne who has just started working with me. She is the Speech and Language Therapy Assistant. Togetherwe run lots of talking activities for parents and children. We have a singing session for everyone to come and sing andtalk called ‘Time for Rhymes’

Time for Rhymes takes place on:

Monday 09:30 to 10:30 At Challenge House Children’s Centre

Tuesday 09:30 to 10:30 At Curzon Crescent Children’s Centre

Did you know Curzon Crescent Children’s Centre operatesa Brent book library every Monday morning in the crèche?

Opening times 09.30 - 10.30

If you are already a member of Brent library then all youneed to do is bring along yourlibrary card and you can select upto ten books for both your child andyou.

If you are not a member then comeand join for free.

The books canbe returned to the Children’s Centre orto one of Brent libraries.

Come and Join Brent Book Library at CurzonCrescent Children’s Centre

Katie is a volunteer library assistant who sets up andmanages the weekly library. She is a parent of a child inCurzon Crescent nursery. So please talk to Katie if youwould like to know more…

“It is never too early to introduce books, even babieslove books.”

“Sharing books with your child is a wonderful wayto build a loving relationship, increase theirlanguage skills and help them understand theworld.”

“You can share your love of books and instilconfidence in a child.”

Page 3 Curzon Crescent and Fawood Children’s Centres

Children are all different, and sometimes a child can find talking a bit more difficult. If your child has just a few words orisn’t talking yet, I can help. You can make an appointment to see me, just call me on 07852 590625, or speak tosomeone at Reception.

You and your child can come to a parent workshop called ‘Small Talk’ at Challenge House 10.30 – 11.30 on Mondays.Here, parents can learn ways to help their child’s talking, and practice them with their child playing in the Crèche Room.You can meet other parents whose children aren’t talking yet.

If you would like book a place on the’ Small Talk’ workshop; you can call me or ask at Reception at Curzon or ChallengeHouse Children’s Centres. I look forward to meeting you. Here are some tips for talking:

Top Tips for Talking

1. Talk to your child about everyday things: tell them ‘I’m putting socks on’

2. Talk in just a few words: when they’re drinking say: ‘mmm drinking milk…yum’

3. Talk about what your child is doing: ‘pushing car….fast’

4. Play and talk with your child for at least 15 minutes every day.