Saturday 27 th September 2014
Dear Little Oaks Two Parents
As your children settle happily into their nursery routines I thought it would be a good time to remind you of various happenings around Little Oaks. The first is to remind you that you are invited to ‘STAY AND PLAY’ on Tuesday morning, 30 th September, from 9-10am. We invite you early in the term so that you can more easily imagine your child’s day and the sort of things and people he or she is talking about. For those who are not getting child feedback (not unusual!) it will also provide you with prompts to conversation without having to quiz your child on a daily basis! If your child isn’t usually in on a Tuesday morning you are welcome to come together and stay for the first hour; if you’re unable to make it on this occasion, don’t worry - there will be more. But if you are keen to come soon and Tuesday can’t be done, then talk to Denée or me to arrange another date. We look forward to seeing many of you on Tuesday; there is no special agenda as we’re trying to give you a view of a typical session.
PARENT REPRESENTATIVES
For the past few years we’ve been lucky enough to have an active and hard-working group of parents from across LO1/LO2 and more recently LOC who help organise end of term events, charity fundraisers and the like. These lovely parents have also held coffee mornings and pub evenings throughout the year; we have been quite ambitious over the past three years, running a Pamper
Night two years on the run and then a Quiz Night last year. It’s all lots of work but lots of fun too, and with great turnouts each time and funds raised for nursery equipment, for which we are VERY grateful. Towards the end of last year, I was delighted that two parents with children moving to Little
Oaks One (Gabby O’Connor, mummy of Nellie, and Vix Vincent, mummy of Teddy) offered their services for this coming year, and Sarah Hashmi, mummy of Caius at Little Oaks Two, who was on board last year, has offered to continue. So a great start! However, we’d ideally like a larger group, and would very much like to invite new parents to join in. Many of you have said you’d like to get involved so now’s your chance!
PARENTS’ EVENING AND PUB NIGHT
Please don’t forget that our joint Parents’ Evening is at Little Oaks Two on Thursday 23 rd October.
Sign-up sheets will be out soon for you to book an appointment with your key person. Parents have found that this is a great opportunity to connect with their child’s key person quite early in the year and we use the meeting to agree each child’s individual learning plan. You’ll also meet (or be reacquainted with) staff members from both nurseries.
Instead of trying to find another date to arrange a pub night for parents, we thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of an already-booked babysitter and to say, why not meet across the road in the Old Queen’s Head for drinks after the Parents’ Evening? We’ll start you off with refreshments as you wait for your appointment, and you can carry on later as you meet up with old friends and maybe make some new ones on the night.
The following day is the last day of this half term and we’ll be closed for half term from 27/10-31/10.
Lisa Gill Photography
Lisa is a fantastic local photographer whose three children all came to Little Oaks, and over the years
Lisa has visited with her camera to capture many really precious moments at nursery: Christmas,
Graduation, Sports Day and sometimes just the everyday grins and grimaces that bring us as parents so much joy. Lisa has also always offered generous discounts to Little Oaks parents and this hasn’t changed even though her youngest child has just left us to go to school. On SATURDAY 11 th
OCTOBER Lisa is running a family photo shoot day for Little Oaks families – outside, as long as the weather cooperates - and you are encouraged to phone the studio for an appointment and for more

details. Her website is quite inspirational if you’d like to go there first: www.lisagillphotography.com
.
Her number is: 01494 680811. Have fun in the autumn leaves!
Whether or not you take advantage of Lisa’s offer, we will have a photo taken of every child when
Tempest School Photographers come to visit. Our lovely Early Years specialist Viv Sargent will be at
Little Oaks Two on MONDAY 10 th NOVEMBER. If your child isn’t usually with us on a Monday but you’d still like a photograph, let us know and we’ll organise a time for you to come in. There’ll be a sign up sheet in the entrance area nearer the time, for anyone who would like to have a younger sibling photographed alongside their Little Oaks child. Photo orders will be back in good time to give as Christmas presents.
For those who are interested (no obligation), please come for coffee on Thursday, October 2 nd at
9:30 a.m. We’ll meet at my house: Great Oaks, 34a St Johns Road – three driveways past The Pines.
It would be great to know who is willing to help before we set up the events for the year ahead. On the calendar already is Children in Need (Friday14th November), our local women’s refuge Shoebox
Appeal (starts Monday 24 th November) and our Christmas party refreshment on the last day of term
(Thursday 11 th December). Hope to see you on Thursday!
Playball – we’ve been lucky enough to run several taster sessions of Playball at Little Oaks and I’m happy to flag it up as a great local class for your little ones. Many Little Oaks children have attended in the past so maybe it’s something you’d like to try? Crucially, there are classes on a Wednesday morning when we are not open! This is the latest from Joanne Forrest-Smith:
“Playball is an amazing multi-sports and movement programme for children aged 2-9 years. My two children both did Playball in London so as a mum I have seen the remarkable benefits the programme offers to sporty and non-sporty children alike. You will quickly see improvements in their eye-ball coordination, spatial awareness, balance, concentration, listening, confidence as well as their sport skills.
We teach all the main ball sports (tennis, football, rugby, cricket, hockey, netball, basketball, baseball, volleyball) concentrating on the base ball skills of throwing, catching, kicking, hitting, dribbling & bouncing.
Our classes are age-specific and very small. We have no more than eight children in the 3-4 year old classes which last 45 minutes.
If you would like to book a free trial, then please email me: jforrestsmith@mac.com
”
ACTIVE KIDS
To those of you who were with us last year, we want to thank you for all the SAINSBURY’s ACTIVE
KIDS vouchers you collected. For Little Oaks Two we are looking forward to receiving a team scooter, some Monster Trax and a smaller parachute for use indoors. Little Oaks One chose cooking utensils
(bowls, spoons, sieves, biscuit cutters, a set of pans for the role play kitchen and games of food lotto), most of which have already arrived and are in use.
Do call or email with any questions ….
Best Wishes
Ruthie