Dear Parents,
I hope that this Newsletter finds you and your families well. As you may be aware, School has just had a two week half-term break and, after this final (we hope) week of online learning, we look forward to welcoming all children back to their classrooms on Monday 8th March.
We increased the length of our half-term break (by ‘borrowing’ a week from our Easter holidays) in order to maximise the time that the children can be with their friends and teachers in school. Fortuitously, following our Prime Minister’s recent address, this has resulted in children having four weeks of learning in their classrooms. I am sure that they are all looking forward to returning as much as we are looking forward to welcoming them back!
Therefore, please may I draw your attention to penultimate paragraph of this Newsletter, confirming that the car park will revert to being a playground from Monday and that no cars or vehicles will be allowed on site during the day.
Foals 1
We have been busy welcoming lots of new babies this past month. They have all started to settle in amazingly well and have adapted with ease to life at Fairstead. They have enjoyed exploring all areas of the room and have participated in a variety of sensory activities.
Foals 2
Foals 2 have had a crafty, busy month! We made heart shaped biscuits for our mummies and daddies and made fans for Chinese New Year. We also got the chance to play in the snow! We’ve had lots of fun.
Yearlings
Our topic in Yearlings has been animals; the children have enjoyed exploring all resources and activities with this topic.
We had an ‘animal rescue’ whereby the children had to rescue the animals ‘stuck’ to the window. Some children only chose to rescue their favourite animals, whilst others only rescued the animals on the lower part of the window!
We had an animal sensory activity at ‘welcome time’, exploring animal feed for horses, dogs, cats, fish and chickens. We then made predictions of which animal ate which food; the children all made some very good predictions.
We also made a chicken coop with some ‘mathematical eggs’, where the children had to find the hidden half egg in the coop to match up with the other half egg in the egg box. Another farm animal activity was ‘feeding cows’; we had some very realistic printouts of cows and the children used their fine motor skills to feed the cows some blades of delicious grass carefully.
We have enjoyed watching how engaged the children have been in this topic and looking forward to even more fun activities.
Ponies 1
Ponies 1 have been busy exploring our topic, ‘All About Me’. This topic has been instrumental in helping the children learn about themselves and their friends, learning the similarities and differences we share. We have created lots of lovely artwork, displayed on our topics board; including decorating the letter of our first name, self portraits using pasta shapes and making our very own colour monsters. We have also been exploring different ways to say hello in different languages, practising these during circle time. We have explored size through building and measuring using the unifix cubes. The children have particularly enjoyed spending time in the garden, learning how exercise affects our bodies, playing with the different resources available including bats and balls.
Ponies 2
The children have been enjoying building giant machines using the large blocks outside in the garden. Their favourite thing to build at the moment is a ‘sorbet machine’, to squash fruit and turn it into a pudding! To explore mark making and as part of our celebration of Chinese New Year, the children have been practising their Mandarin number writing. Using fine brushes and water on calligraphy paper, the children created their own Mandarin characters. As of late, the children have been taking more of an interest in junk modelling; gluing, sellotaping, stacking, colouring, cutting and painting boxes, bottles, string and craft materials together to make robots and towers. Finally, the children have been overjoyed with the beautiful Valentine’s Day hearts that the parents decorated for them. The children have adored being able to look at their hearts and share them with everyone else and look at them daily. Well done to you all for taking the time to create them, and we hope you treasure them for years to come.
Uniform for Ponies 1 and Ponies 2
Please may I politely remind you to ensure that your children have Nursery hats (both sun hats and winter hats) and coats in Nursery at all times and that these are clearly named. All Nursery uniform is available from ‘Mr Cricket’ at www.fairsteadhouseuniformshop.co.uk Thank you.
The Car Park
As mentioned above, we are delighted that we will be welcoming our school children back to school on Monday 8th March. When the children have returned, the car park in front of the school will be once again used as a playground throughout the day and cars will not be permitted to enter during the day (from 9.00am to 3.30pm).
Please be particularly aware that Gate 2 (the middle gate) is once again for pedestrian or bicycle access only at all times during the day.
If you collect or drop off your Nursery child during the day (i.e., between 9.00am and 3.30pm), please park off-site and enter on foot through Gate 2. There will, understandably, be no cars allowed on site during the school day.
Finally, please I may take this opportunity to remind you not to have your engine running whilst you await collection of your child. As you can imagine, we take our responsibility for the safety of all children very seriously and, therefore, we are obliged to ensure that car emissions are kept to a minimum whilst on site. Thank you in advance for your co-operation and understanding.
Virtual Tour of the Nursery
We are delighted that our virtual tour of the Nursery is now available to parents; in particular, to those parents who are not able to visit the Nursery at the moment due to Covid-19 prevention measures. We hope that this video will give future parents a brief insight into life in our Nursery!
With my best wishes and looking forward to a glorious month ahead, heralding the onset of Spring!
Lynda Brereton