Weekly roundup - 20 October 2023

It's been an enjoyable week leading up to the start of the half term. Our topic of healthy eating has led to more interest and activities about how we keep ourselves active, fit and well through exercise and foods we eat. We'd like to thank everyone who made an effort to provide balanced, healthy lunchbox options over the past couple of weeks. It has been very difficult to choose just two winners for our competition so staff have a selected a runner up from each room too. They based their decisions on the variety of healthy foods and balanced options that children ate during lunchtime. For the Bumbles room, Ivy was the overall winner and Pippa came in as the runner up. For Honey's, Milo was the winner and Reggie the runner up. Congratulations and well done to these children (and their parents!) for their efforts!!! Prizes will be given out after the half term break.

The encouragement of healthy lifestyles will continue after half term with Moo Music and Superstar Sports offering targeted sessions to improve children's physical activity levels. This is part of our Busy Bodies project which is aimed at supporting children and families to be regularly active through fun, safe and positive experiences of sport and physical activity. The Pre-School applied for a grant through Active Essex and were awarded £2,500.00 to contribute towards the delivery of the planned Busy Bodies project. Active Essex are the Physical Activity and Sport Partnership for Essex and are one of 43 Active Partnerships in England who work collaboratively with local partners to ensure the power of physical activity and sport can transform lives. They have an excellent website full of ideas and information about how to stay active which can be accessed by clicking the following link www.activeessex.org. 

After half term we will move on to our new topic of 'Magic, Wizards and Witches'. This will tie in with Halloween and Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), a Mexican festival that celebrates life and the loved ones who have passed on. 

The week after that, we will be celebrating Bonfire Night and Diwali and also learning about Remembrance Day. We currently have some poppies available in the reception area should you wish to make a donation to the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal which supports members or former members of the Armed Forces Community.

We are currently expanding our use of Tapestry to incorporate the invoicing system so you should by now have received information about this through your Tapestry account and from Rachel via email. As you are aware, fees are payable termly in advance and we ask that you check that you have received the necessary information regarding your invoice and if not, to get in touch with the office at Pre-School. Many thanks in advance for your cooperation regarding this.

We've had a few parents enquire about the 'Golden Rules' we use at Pre-School so just to reiterate, we promote these actively and regularly to encourage and reinforce positive behaviour.

They are:

• I listen
• I tidy up
• I use kind hands and feet
• I share
• I walk inside

The children often remind each other of the Golden Rules and gives them a sense of pride within their environment. 

We'd like to thank Jenny for all of her hard work and efforts over the past five years as she leaves Pre-School to spend more time with her young family. We'll all miss her and hope she will return to the setting in the future.

I'll end this week's Round Up on a positive note about Sophie, who has again been shortlisted for an award after she was nominated for her excellent practice!! This time for the Early years and Childcare Practitioner of the year in the Essex Teaching Awards 2023!!!! Sophie will be attending the awards ceremony next month at Hylands House to see if she is crowned the winner - she'll be running out of dresses at this rate! 

Enjoy the break and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday 30th October.