Looking forward to next week..

What a wonderful week we’ve had celebrating some of the children’s favourite things, pancake day, world book day and having a tea party to thank Becky for all her help volunteering! World book day part two has seen the children making bread like the little red hen, the bread the children made is for the tea party at snack time. Audio books have been incredibly popular over the past couple of days too, the children have been very keen to share their favourite stories from home, telling us all about them before we can read them!

The children had great fun making Becky’s leaving cake! They have really enjoyed her being here as a volunteer and we truly wish her all the best for her new Nannying job that she is starting on Monday. Becky has been a great help on a Friday morning, joining in with the fun and playing games etc with the children!

Next week we are going to continue with the children’s favourite things as we haven’t been able to spend much time exploring this area this week, so we will continue with discussions and building the display.

Letter sound next week will be z, a long stretch zzzzzzzzzzzz. Maybe’s we should keep the pyjamas on! Any thing starting with z sound or making the z sound can be fed to the letter monster.

Next week is also the week I will be trying to catch you all to discuss sessions for after Easter, if I can’t catch you at a session I will be ringing you so please don’t panic of you see Pre-schools number pop up on your phone! If you want to ring us about it that’s fine too, and don’t worry if you haven’t made your final decision, it merely to get a good idea so I can start looking at staffing options and viability of sessions.

Do you know what sessions you would like after Easter? If not don’t worry we are here to help and advise you to make the best choices for your child and family. To help with the decisions about sessions I will provide you with some information now, then I will be following it by having a chat either in person or via phone with every family between 10th and 14th March. We now need to hold a copy of your child’s birth certificate on file for the funding, if we are asked to produce a copy of the birth certificate by Northumberland County Council and are unable to funding will be withdrawn, so please bring it in so we can copy it and return straight away. Thank youIf your child meets the criteria for two year old funding they will receive 15 hours of funded care per week, so all that is left to pay is consumables and lunches! It is always worth checking this link to see if you are eligible, if you have any questions about this please come and see me or ring me. That’s the equivalent of two full days and an afternoon session for free with just consumables and lunches to pay for, or five mornings and lunch sessions for less than £16 per week. For those two year olds not in receipt of funding there is no upper limit to the hours you can access per week, our hourly rate is £3.25 plus 50p per session for consumables, that’s a total of just £21.31 for a full day including consumables or three mornings a week would cost £28.32 per week including consumables. Our costs are kept low as we are a charity and pass any savings onto our customers!For three and four year olds (must be three before 31st March) we guarantee you will be able to access your child’s funded 15 hours per week at Pre-school. This equates to two full days and an afternoon session or for less than £16 per week your child could attend three full days a week as you would only pay for the extra morning and lunch session and consumables. Like the two year old, there is no upper limit for three and four year olds, we also aim to support working families through flexible hours to adapt to shift patterns and extra hours wherever possible.If you or your partner are employed check out this link for advice about Childcare Vouchers from your employer, they save money as they are deducted from your wages before tax so you effectively get more for your money. We will work with whichever scheme your employer uses please get in touch for more details. If the half termly bills are difficult to manage please speak to me to discuss monthly or weekly payments and we will aim to help ease the situation.For children who may be attending school half days after Easter (must be four before 1st April 2014) we offer collection of your child from Allendale Primary School for the afternoon session at Pre-school, the session will be charged at our normal rate £8.13 plus consumables. Children attending other schools are welcome to attend for afternoon sessions or days depending on the offer from the school of your choice, however schools will be awarded the funding, if they attend school for less than 15 hours we may be able to claim the remainder, we sadly cannot offer the collection service from other school locations.If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch, if you want to discuss your session requirements with me before I contact you (10th-14th March) then I am available at the beginning and end of every session, Monday morning 9-1.30am and all day Friday. Many thanks Dani

Monday

Vegetable soup

Salmon fillet or veggie bake with pasta and peas

Tuesday

Lasagne or macaroni cheese with carrot

Orange cake with custard or yoghurt or fresh fruit

Wednesday

Chicken korma or chicken casserole or vegetable korma with rice

Strawberry whip or yoghurt or fresh fruit

Thursday

Mince or vegetarian mince with Yorkshire pudding and turnip 

Cheesecake or yoghurt or fresh fruit

Friday

Sausage or vegetarian sausage with chips and beans

Drink and biscuit or yoghurt or fresh fruit

SureStart Saturdads are calling for all male carers of children (dads, uncles, granddad, male carers) with children aged between 0-5 years to join them at Allendale Firestation on Saturday 22nd March between 10am and 12pm for Easer themed games, crafts, activities and a bacon sandwich! to book simply call 01434 321761

Can I just remind all adults that are dropping off or picking up children from Pre-school that there are a few rules we feel are vitally important to a safe environment. Please can we remind you that the entire grounds is a smoke free environment at all times, also could adults please refrain from using mobiles/cameras in and around Pre-school, there are very strict rules about mobile phone usage for staff and the same applies to all adults in the setting. We also ask that parents and carers do not bring hot drinks into Pre-schools grounds, we are keen to reduce the risk of scolds or burns and have observed parents arriving with hot drinks to drop their children off or collect them. We appreciate your cooperation on these points that will help to make Pre-school a safe environment, if you have any questions please speak to Dani.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone! Any questions or comments please get in touch!

Many thanks Dani, Helena, Hayley, Diane and Jane