Welcome to our new starters, and welcome back everyone else! We hope you all enjoyed the first half term of the school year; we did lots of exciting things and had lots of fun, thank you for being part of it!
We have a few things to tell you about in this newsletter, but most importantly, if you ever have any questions, queries, issues or just need a chat please contact any member of staff you feel comfortable talking to.
Christmas fair
Raising funds for Allendale Pre-school to buy a new wooden dolls house, castle and small world resources and Clic Sergeant for children battling cancer
Saturday 22nd November 10am-2pm Allendale Village Hall
Photographer Diane Makepeace – To book a photo slot – family or individual please ring Pre-school on 683 042
Refreshments available all day!
Other stalls to include – Christmas gifts and decorations,
Aloe Products, Phoenix cards, Shabby Chic, Little North Star, Your Place, Margaret Young, Jodie Nichol Paper Cuts, Christmas crafts and more!
Raffle with great prizes! We will be issuing books of tickets to each family so they can be sold before the day; these will need returning by Friday 21st November. A bottle of champagne will be given to the family that sells the most tickets! Each families name will be added to the help rota at Pre-school so please check the time you’ve been allotted and if you have any problems please speak to a member of the committee or staff.
Pre-school relies on the fundraising from events to enable us to keep our fees low so please help out however you can! Donating raffle prizes, selling tickets, helping and visiting on the day are all fabulous ways to support us. Thank you
Christingle – Sunday 29th November
Every year the children from Pre-school are invited to take part in the Christingle Service at St Cuthbert’s Church. We sing twinkle twinkle to everyone, so will be practicing soon! If you would like your child/ren to take part please let a member of staff know you will be attending and bring your child/ren to the front of the church for 2.45pm. Sadly we are only allocated seats for the children and staff so make sure you get there early if you want a seat. Then at the end of the service please collect your child/ren from the front.
Clothing
Please can we request that all children have wellies, coat, mittens, hat etc with them at their sessions? We have a very limited number of spare wellies and always like to be out and about and don’t want to ruin any shoes! Please ensure your child’s name or initials are put in everything. Thank you
Sickness
If your child is unwell please ring Pre-school to check if our policies include any exclusion times for the illness, for example: sickness or diarrhea – children must not return until 48hrs has passed from the last incident. We can administer prescription medicines such as antibiotics once a form has been completed by the parent or carer, however we cannot administer calpol or nurofen, if your child requires such medicines they may be happier at home although we realise this is not always possible. We hope you understand the need for such policies and procedures – if you have any questions please speak to a member of staff or read our policies that are available on our website or in the foyer at Pre-school. Please remember to let us know if your child is absent, thank you.
Sessions
Our flexibility of sessions appears to be working well and we hope it has been beneficial to your family. If you ever need extra sessions or to swap please ring, email or pop in and we will try to help – most of our morning sessions are getting busy so we always need to check our ratios before we can give you an answer.
Sessions for after Christmas – we review everyone’s sessions termly as that is when the funding is allocated, nothing is set in stone so if you need to change sessions please get in touch and we will do all we can to accommodate your needs. The deadline for letting us know what sessions you would like from January to Easter is Monday 7th December to allow time for staffing to be organised.
If your child is 3 years old before 1st January 2016 they are eligible for 15 hours per week of funded childcare and education. If your child is under 3 please checkout Northumberland County Council’s website and search for two year old funding, it is always worth checking your eligibility. Any hours that are not funded (either because you’ve used more than 15hrs or your child is not eligible for funding) will be charged at our normal rate of £3.50 per hour for three and four year olds and £4.50 per hour for 2 year olds.
As each family has different requirements please speak to a member of staff if you would like any pricing worked out for you before you decide.
Tapestry
We would encourage all families to make use of Tapestry; it is our secure online learning journal that your keyworker updates regularly with pictures and information about what your child has been achieving and exploring at Pre-school. You nominate people you would like to have access to this service and we provide them with a link and password for your child’s journal. You can also add entries from home to share information so staff see the whole child’s development and experiences and support the assessments they make.
Many thanks Dani, Jodie, Helena, Hayley, Diane and Jane
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