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 Estyn Inspection Report now online! Autumn Term
2009 DearParents and Carers, Well
we are now well into the Autumn term after a rather wet summer! First of all we would like to welcome all
our new children and their families. We
are delighted at how well they have settled and we already feel like a big
family once again. You will all know by now that our
recent Estyn Inspection was a huge success, with the playgroup gaining a '1'
(outstanding) in each and every area. As
you can imagine we are all highly delighted and are looking to the future where
we hope that with your help we will be able to continue to offer the high level
of education and childcare that has been recognised and highlighted in the
Report. At this point we would like to take
the opportunity of thanking all of you – the small committee, current and
former parents and carers for the support you give to the playgroup, without
which we would not be able to function.
We would also like to extend our thanks to our volunteer helpers who
freely give their time to us and for which we are extremely grateful. The new small committee was formed at our
AGM in the Summer and have already put together a superb list of fundraising
events for the next year. Please try
and support these events whenever you can as we cannot continue without
fundraising and it is also an ideal opportunity for parents and staff to get to
know each other better in a relaxing environment. We would remind you that all young
children are now part of Wales' “Learning in the Foundation Phase”. The Foundation Phase has seven areas of
learning where stimulating structured play activities are woven into the children's learning
experiences. The curriculum is built
around these seven areas to support and encourage each child's personal,
social, emotional, physical and intellectual well-being and development. This is nothing new to us at our playgroup as
we have always believed that young children learn through stimulating hand-on
play experiences. An informative booklet
can be found in the porch – Learning in the Foundation Phase, a guide to
parents and carers. For your
information the seven areas of learning are:
Personal and Social development, well being and cultural diversity,
Language, literacy and communication skills, Mathematical development, Welsh
Language Development, Knowledge and Understanding of the World, Physical
Development and Creative Development. We would also like to inform you
that we have been approached by the Welsh Assembly via the Vale of Glam. Early Years advisor, requesting us to help them produce the new 'All Wales Child Profile'
which will be used in schools and nurseries across the whole of Wales. It is, or course a big honour to be
asked and recognition for the work we
do, but it does, of course mean more work for us. However we are looking at the positive side
of it as it as we will be in an ideal position to hopefully influence the
powers that be by being involved in this way. Our main theme for the term will be
“ Nursery Rhymes” and “ It's Autumn
Again.” Don't forget to look at the
'Look What We've Been Doing” file which
can be found as usual in the porch for anyone to look at. This not only includes each week's planning
but also a selection of photographs showing the children engaged in the
activities. These are regularly updated so don't forget to keep checking to find our
what the children have been doing. Our long term plans based on the Foundation
Phase and the seven areas of learning are also included at the back of this
file as well as general information about the Foundation Phase curriculum. The children have been telling us
about the things they do outside playgroup to keep fit such as swimming, soft
play, football etc. If you have any
photographs of these type of activities we would like to add them to our
physical play display. Talking about
photographs could you all provide a small photograph for the children's
individual file of work. Staff monitor the children's
progress on a regular basis and examples of their work is kept in their own
individual file of work - 'My I Can Do' Book, which they take with them when
they leave us. If you would like to view
any of these records or discuss your child's progress in more detail please
speak to either Chrys or Anne to arrange a suitable date and to ensure that
there will be adequate staff cover. If
you would like to telephone Chrys at home you are very welcome to do so. Parents are also reminded that
general feedback as to how your child is progressing is usually informal ie
verbally at the end of the playgroup session.
A written report is given to parents at the end of each school year
detailing your child's progress to date.
Thank you for taking the
time to read through all of this.
Children are our business and we as staff believe that early childhood
is a period of time that is important in its own right as well as being vital
for a child's development. Remember, if
you have any queries regarding anything please speak with either Chrys , Anne
or a member of the committee. If you
have any concerns please let us know and we will try and resolve them together. We look
forward to working with you all over the next few months. Regards,
Playgroup Staff. NEWSLETTER TO PARENTS AND CARERS Spring Term 2009 Dear Parents and Carers, Welcome
back to everyone after the Christmas holidays and a special welcome to Clara
and her family who have recently joined us. Staff
would like to take the opportunity of thanking all of you, our small committee , current and former
parents and carers for the support you continue to give the playgroup. We would also like to extend our thanks to
our volunteer helpers who freely give their time to us and for which we are
extremely grateful. It is true to say
that without all of your help we would not be able to function at the level we
do. We
would like to remind you that from last
September there is a new approach to the education and care of our children - “
Learning in the Foundation Phase”. The
Foundation Phase has seven areas of learning where stimulating structured play
activities can be woven into the learning experiences. The curriculum is built around these seven
areas to support and encourage each child's personal, social, emotional,
physical and intellectual well-being and development. This is nothing new to us at playgroup as we
have always believed that young children learn through stimulating, hands on
play experiences. If you have not yet
received a book – Learning in the Foundation Phase – a guide for parents and
carers please ask either Anne or
Chrys and they will give you a copy. For
your information the seven areas of learning are: Personal and social
development, well-being and cultural diversity, Language, literacy and
communication skills, Mathematical development, Welsh Language Development,
Knowledge and understanding of the world, Physical development and Creative
development. Our
theme for this term will be “Caring for Ourselves, Caring for our World”. Our “Look What We've Been Doing” file will,
as usual be in the porch for anyone to look at.
This not only includes each week's planning but also a selection of
photographs showing the children engaged in the activities. These are updated at least fortnightly, so
don't forget to keep checking to find out what they have been doing. Our Long term Plans based on the Foundation
Phase and the 7 areas of Learning are also included at the back of this file as
well as general information about the Foundation Phase curriculum. In
addition to our chosen themes we will, as usual be covering special days
including, Saint David's Day, Chinese New Year, World Book Day and Fair trade
Fortnight. The
children have already been telling us about the things that they do outside
playgroup to keep fit such as swimming, soft play, football etc. If you have any photographs of these type of
activities that you could bring in for our physical play display, we would be
very grateful. Thanks
to everyone who has taken some photos for our children's eco books. There is still plenty of time to do this and
we should be able to produce some excellent results thanks to our new colour
printer, comb binder and colour printer.
A big thank you to Ceri, our grants coordinator, for her hard work in
securing a grant for this equipment, plus a storage trolley and new recycling
bins. You
will see from the plans that we will soon be needing boxes and cartons for
junk-modelling. Please save us some if
you can. We are still also collecting
recycled plastic containers for our storage reorganization (take away plastic
containers, square, plastic ice cream or
margerine containers are useful, also old Tupperware containers and square biscuit
tins. A
visit to the RSPCA centre near Swansea is being organised, hopefully in early
March and will fit in nicely with our current term's plans. Further details closer to the date will
follow. Staff
monitor the children's progress on a regular basis, and examples of their work
is kept in their own individual file of work – 'My I Can Do' Book, which they
take with them when they leave us. If
you would like to view any of these records or discuss your child's progress in
more detail, please speak to either Chrys or Anne to arrange a suitable date
and to ensure there will be adequate staff cover. If you would like to telephone Chrys at home
you are very welcome to do so. Parents
are also reminded that general feedback as to how your child is progressing is
usually informal ie verbally at the end of the playgroup session. A written report is given to parents at the
end of each school year detailing your child's progress to date.
If you have any concerns please let us know and we
will try and resolve them together. Wishing
you all a happy and healthy new year,. Did you know there is a Baby and Toddler Group in Wick?
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