Dear Parents/Carers,
We hope you had an enjoyable Christmas break and we wish you a Happy & healthy 2022. Apologises in advance, this is a rather long newsletter!
As another term passes, we are still having to live with Covid and the ongoing changes to isolation and testing rules. With this newsletter we have put together some questions and answers which we hope will help with any confusion. As always, our priority is the wellbeing and safety of the children that tend Rainbows and our staff and we would like to thank you all for your continued support during this time. We would also like to remind you that we would appreciate it if face masks are worn when coming into our setting and garden.
We have new children and parents joining us this term, so we would like to welcome them to Rainbows. We hope they enjoy their time with us.
We also have some exciting news, Auntie Laura who used to prepare the snacks for the children is about to start her qualification in Early Years Education and will be working more closely with us and the children. We are so pleased that she wants to take up this new adventure with us, we are very lucky to have her part of our team.
Please can we ask that if you have a new phone number or have changed your address that you let us know.
The labelling of your child’s items i.e. coat, bag, lunch boxes, drinks bottles, wellies etc. has always been a challenge for us, so we would appreciate it if you could just check your child’s belongs, especially as written names do wear away over time. Our fundraising label company we use is www.mynametags.com school ID is 47700. We receive a small percentage on ordered labels.
At Rainbows we encourage healthy living, ranging from our morning runs with the children, opportunities for exercise and fresh air as well as healthy eating with fresh fruit for snack and offering milk to promote healthy teeth. Providing your child with a healthy lunch is great, but we do see some lunchboxes with a variety of sweet treats, some of which surprisingly contain more sugar than is recommended, so please bear this in mind. We are a water and milk only setting, please do not give your child fruit juice or squash in their bottles, this rule also applies when they join school and it will not be allowed there.
We also realise that some children still have dummies which can significantly affect their speech and of course their teeth, if you would like some help in dealing with this please come & speak to us.
Dates for the diary:
Half term break is:
14th – 18th February
Easter break is:
11th – 22nd April
Please remember to write a silver coin for any achievements your child has had at home and put them on our Rainbow board. We discuss them at story time, it is great for children’s self-esteem. We use positive praise throughout. You will find this by the entrance or near the trolleys in the garden. As well as our Rainbow board we also like to share with you what the children have been doing this week, this is on the large white board that, weather permitting will be in our garden for you to see when you drop off your child in the morning.
Please keep an eye on our website. The current newsletter is on there and we will use this as well as Facebook to inform you if we have to close due to bad weather, i.e. snow. We try to do the same as the local schools. We also like to share what fun and exciting experiences the children are enjoying so if you don’t already then please follow us on our Facebook page.
There have been changes the curriculum and now observations on Tapestry are done, this is to ensure that more time is spent with the children and not doing too many observations. Our guidance is to work on ‘WOW’ moments, these are something that the child has been working hard to achieve or something spectacular. Not all children will achieve a ‘WOW’ moment during a term, and if this is the case then your child’s keyperson will upload photos and a small observation to let you know that your children has been working well within the EYFS and to share with you some of the new experiences they have been enjoying, for all children that are progressing through the EYFS there will not be many observations, just 1 or 2 ‘WOW’ moments and an update at the end of the term. For these children that are progressing well, they get lots of adult initiated time as well as child initiated. We feel that children are benefitting lots from the adults who are not carrying around a tablet to capture an achievement. Our staff get to know all the children by playing with them and spending time with them, which we are sure you will agree that this is more important. We pride ourselves on how well each Auntie knows their key children and that they can identify any concerns quite quicky and take the right steps to help support them. Due the restrictions of Covid we haven’t been able to do face to face meetings between parent and keyperson, if you do have any concerns and wish to have a conversation then please let us know so that we can arrange something for you.
Rainbows is committed to providing equal and inclusive opportunities for all our children and to create a safe and nurturing environment. We encourage positive friendships and help them to understand that children do play differently and develop at different rates, while it might be difficult for some children to understand, we feel that it is a value that should be learnt from an early age. We appreciate your support with reiteration regarding this at home. If you would like an explanation on how we deal with this then please do not hesitate to ask.
There are still a few outstanding invoices from last year, if you have any questions or wish to discuss your invoice then please do not hesitate to ask. As of this term there will a £10 late invoice charge if it is not paid by it’s due date. If you have any concerns regarding your invoices and wish to discuss payment options then please do not hesitate to speak to us.
Please can we remind you to ensure that there are plenty of spare clothes (especially socks, leggings/trousers and underwear) in your child’s bag, we only hold a small stock of spare clothes and we are very quickly running out. The spare clothes are not just for any toilet accidents but for those occasions when they get wet or dirty from playing outside. As we need to keep the setting ventilated due to Covid, we would advise putting an extra layer in their bag, especially if they have a tendency to feel the cold.
We are lucky to have three volunteers who regularly come into Rainbows to spend time to play with the children, Fiona, Liam and Vanessa are all DBS checked and are supervised during their time with us.
Last but not least, we are planning on doing our first Summer Fayre later in the year! We have provisional set the date of 7th May so please put that in your diary. We will be looking to run some exciting games for the children, stalls, tombola’s, competitions, refreshments etc. More details will follow soon and we will be asking for volunteer parents to help make sure this fayre can go ahead.
Should you wish to have this newsletter in printed form then please let us know.
Many Thanks
Lynn, Sarah and Sarah