Dear Parents
Today we welcomed back all our School children and term-time Nursery children and we also welcomed many new families to Fairstead House. I found it very special seeing so many children use the Nursery over the summer months; the wonderful building and grounds should be alive and full of fun all year round. It certainly was this summer!
Foals 1
This month, the little ones have had lots of fun getting messy whilst exploring bubble wrap and paint! The babies enjoyed using their fingers to touch the textured bubble wrap and to create their own marks in the paint.
Foals 2
Foals 2 have been making the most of the lovely weather, both at Nursery and “Out and About”. Here they are exploring their pouring and scooping skills with the new water wall in the garden.
Yearlings
In Yearlings, we have acquired a new sensory fish lamp for our learning about ‘Under the Sea’. The children were fascinated by it and love watching the fish swim up and down, they even have named the fish! We have also been making gloop with water, cornflour and paint and mixing it all together with spoons. As a way of developing our fine motor skills, we have been practising “funky fingers”; the children particularly enjoyed an activity where they had to put marbles and small coloured shapes into a tennis ball with a split in it. They were all very focused and did really well!
Ponies 1
Ponies 1 have been very busy over the summer. They have been exploring numbers, shapes and continuing our role play topic of ‘Hospitals’. They have practised turn taking, counting and matching numbers with our car park number activity. They have also been learning about shapes and exploring these in various activities including cutting. They have thoroughly enjoyed looking after each other and their toys, wrapping them in bandages and checking their heartbeats using the stethoscopes.
Ponies 2
Ponies 2 have been having lots of fun through the summer exploring their new topic of ‘Places Around The World’. There have been many different activities, such as cutting out items to stick onto their suitcases. The children have started to scratch off the places in the world they have been to and they’ve enjoyed talking about the memories they have about their visit to these countries.
The role play area has been changed to a Travel Agency, where the children have been booking their holidays after looking through the holiday brochures. We have even made our own holiday book to learn more about some of the destinations on offer!
Nursery Staff
In August, we said farewell to Mrs Florence Rolfe, as she left for her maternity leave and we look forward to sharing happy news with you in due course. Replacing Mrs Rolfe, we welcome Mrs Tracey Young. Mrs Young is extremely experienced both in Nurseries and as a nanny and with a wealth of other talents.
Miss Emily Wilding, from Foals 2, is leaving us to start her exciting journey towards becoming a teacher and we wish her every success in her new career. Replacing Miss Wilding will be Mrs Jo Gleed, who joins us with a wealth of experience in schools and nurseries and with two teenage girls of her own. She has already spent a few days with us over the summer and we are all looking forwards to her joining us permanently.
I am delighted to let you know that Miss Shannon Day, who has helped in our Holiday Club, will be joining us in the Nursery, working alongside her University studies in Cambridge to become a teacher.
School Day Time Change for Fairstead House School
Just a reminder that the school day times for children currently attending Fairstead House School have changed. All school children now finish at 4.00pm in the afternoon. Please note that this does not affect the Nursery school day, which will continue to finish at 3.30pm. However, if you have a child in school at Fairstead House, you are, naturally, able to collect your Nursery child just before 4.00pm at no extra cost.
Term-time Nursery Children
If your child attends the Nursery on a term-time only basis, please note that our half-term break this term is for two weeks, from Monday 21st October to Friday 2nd November. If you would like to book extra sessions for your child during this time, please contact Mrs Melen or Mrs Franklin. Thank you.
With my best wishes,
Lynda Brereton