Autumn 2014 Newsletter
The new session is now well under way and as usual lots of exciting experiences and activities
have been taking place throughout the nursery. The first term seemed to fly past! Our new
Ladybirds have settled well and our new Squirrels made a very smooth transition from the
Ladybird room. We also welcomed several new children to the Squirrel room for this session.
All of the children have enjoyed finding their way around their new rooms, getting to know
the staff and making new friends.
Staff
We are delighted that Mrs Livingston has remained with us at Strathallan for this session.
She will be working in the Squirrel room on Wednesday afternoons and all day on Thursdays
and Fridays while Mrs Jenks will be working the first half of the week. Mrs Dinning and Mrs
Gorman complete the Squirrel room team for this session. Miss Reekie has joined Mrs Finlay
in the Ladybird room in the mornings for this session. We are happy to welcome Miss Lisa
Thompson as a PSA in the Squirrel room each afternoon and also Miss Elizabeth Soutar, a
student from Fife College. Miss Soutar will be in nursery from Monday to Wednesday each
week, working with the Ladybirds in the mornings and the Squirrels in the afternoons this
term.
Dance
The children are currently enjoying fortnightly dance sessions with Zoe Lynch, a local dance
teacher who is also a parent at Strathallan Primary. We are grateful to Zoe for sharing her
enthusiasm and expertise with us and enhancing our nursery health and wellbeing curriculum.
Zoo Lab
We enjoyed a visit from Zoo Lab in September. The children were fascinated by the
creatures they met and many took the opportunity to touch and handle some of them,
learning how to be gentle and care for living things.
Nursery Garden
The Squirrel children were excited to be able to harvest some of the produce that they
planted in the garden last session. The runner beans were a great success! They were
ordered by size and estimates of the number of beans in each pod were made, before being
opened, cooked and eaten for snack! Yum! The good weather has meant that there have been
many opportunities for outdoor play and the children have loved being energetic outside.
Parent Chats
We are offering parent chats between Wednesday 12th November and Friday 21st November.
The timetable for each room can be found on the noticeboard outside your child’s room. You
are invited to select a suitable appointment to meet with your child’s key worker to discuss
his/her progress. Please speak to your child’s key worker if work commitments prevent you
from attending the offered appointments. We will always do our best to arrange a suitable
alternative.
Soft Start
Our Soft Start sessions last term were on 22nd September and 9th October and as usual
were well attended. Our new nursery times posed a slight challenge, as the morning children
now arrive in nursery in a steady flow between 8.30am and 9am. We decided to offer Soft
Start from 9.00am on the first session so that we could register all of the children before
inviting family members to join us. Some parents felt this was a long time to wait if their
child arrived in nursery at 8.30am so we have decided to offer a morning Soft Start time
from 8.45am until 9.15am this term. Please let us know if this works better and if you have
any suggestions which may help further, please let us know. We always value your ideas and
feedback.
If you are a parent who is not yet familiar with Soft Start, it is an opportunity for you to
come into nursery to spend some time with your child, perhaps sharing a game or activity or
allowing your child to show you display areas and their favourite activities. You are welcome
to stay for the full session or just for a few minutes if that suits you better. Please
remember to sign in/out on the fire registers provided. We also appreciate your comments.
The children love hearing what you think of their rooms. Please note that we are unable to
accommodate school age brothers and sisters at Soft Start sessions in nursery.
Dates planned for term 2 are –
11th November and
25th November.
We look forward to welcoming you between 8.45am and 9.15am or 12.40pm and 1.10pm.
The Seashore
The Squirrel children have been very busy learning about the Seashore. They have all now
had the opportunity to visit Pettycur Bay, Kinghorn. Each group thoroughly enjoyed their
outing and each had a slightly different experience depending on the tide and other visitors
to the beach. I’m sure they have shared some of their experiences with you! Many thanks to
all the adult helpers who came along and helped with supervision and transport.
We were delighted to welcome Danny’s dad, Alex Hernandez, who brought in the mobile
“rock pool” from Deep Sea World and some of his diving equipment to share with us in
nursery. The children were very knowledgeable about what belongs and doesn’t belong in a
rock pool and recognised the dangers of litter to the creatures that live in one.
All About Me
Our Ladybirds have been learning “All About Me” as they settled in to nursery. They have
been learning how to look after themselves and recognising that they are all unique
individuals.
Maths Week
The Ladybirds spent the week taking part in a variety of maths activities related to the
story of the Three Little Pigs. One of the highlights was working together to make houses
from different materials. Straw may not have been the strongest material, but it was
certainly the messiest!
The Squirrels maths week experiences were based around the seashore. They looked at
patterns found at the sea shore, examined the types of shells they found and did lots of
counting and sorting activities.
Child-Smile
Jill Cook is our new Child-Smile dental health support worker. Jill visited in September and
spoke to the children about cleaning their teeth. She will be visiting regularly to observe the
children cleaning their teeth and to monitor our Child-Smile programme.
Music
We look forward to music lessons with Mrs Carolyn Pollard, our specialist music teacher, this
term. Mrs Pollard will be supporting us with the music and songs for our nursery nativity
play. We look forward to sharing our nativity play with you in December.
Clothes and shoes
Please remember to name all shoes, gym shoes, coats and any clothes that are likely to be
removed if it gets too warm in nursery. This makes it much easier to reunite children with
mislaid belongings! We encourage the children to be as independent as possible when
changing shoes, coats etc in nursery, so we would ask that they wear items with fastenings
that they can manage independently or with just a little support from an adult.
Car Parking
In the interests of the health and safety of all Strathallan children, please park
considerately around the school. Unless you are a blue badge holder, parents are not allowed
to park within the school grounds. The only exception to this is if the school contacts you to
come and collect a sick child.
Further Dates for your diary
Nursery In Service Day – Friday 14th November 2014
Scottish Day – Friday 28th November
Christmas Fayre – Monday 1st December, 3.30pm to 6pm
Nursery Nativity – Thursday 11th December - am and pm (times to follow)
Nursery Christmas Parties – Friday 12th December – am and pm
End of session – Friday 19th December (school closes at lunchtime)
Thank you for your continued support,
Sandra Gibson
Teacher