Parent Newsletter, October 2023

PARENTA

We are now up and running with Parenta. We are looking forward to sharing this with you. You should have all received an email for your parent portals. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any queries and please do bear with us while we navigate our way around the new system.

You can still discuss any invoicing queries using the email wasps.invoicing@gmail.com.

PRIMARY SCHOOL PLACES FOR SEPTEMBER 2024

School admissions can be submitted from 1st November for school places in September 2024 using the government website.

AGM MEETING

This year’s AGM is planned for Monday 13th November at 7.00pm at the preschool. The AGM is an important milestone for the setting each year and is a great opportunity for parents to hear from the committee and staff on the past year’s activities, as well as finding out more on how you can get involved and help support the preschool in the coming year. We aim for it to be an open forum for anyone to bring topics or queries for discussion with the preschool committee members and manager.

MONTHLY MINGLE

We want to continue our Monthly Mingles. This is an opportunity for you to discuss any concerns with your child’s keyworker and allows you to get to know other parents. We provide drinks and nibbles along with passing on any new information we may have received regarding early years. During this term’s mingle we would really like to do a Christmas quiz. It will be held on Wednesday 6th December from 7.00pm to 8.00pm. It would be lovely to have as many of you here as possible.

CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR

Please be mindful that the weather is getting bleaker. We still want to provide free flow no matter what the weather. While we do have some all-in-one suits, we do not have enough for every child. We also have some spare wellies, but it would be helpful if you could provide some for your child to wear here.

Please ensure that your child’s belongings are named including clothes, bags, coats, shoes, drink bottles, snacks and lunch boxes. We have noticed that some items of clothing have come in unnamed and have not been taken home. If you would like us to write your child’s name in an item of clothing, we can do so with a sharpie pen. Please let us know during drop-off.

CLOSE THE GATES

It is essential that all the gates are closed when entering and leaving preschool, including the gate leading into the school playground, so that the safety of those children still on-site can be upheld.

DRINKING WATER AND SNACK

We just wanted to say thank you to parents for your co-operation with our drinking water policy. We have noticed huge efforts being made to ensure children only have water in their drinking bottles. We will continue to encourage and support the children with our drinking stations too.

We are a NUT FREE setting, so please read the food packaging before putting it into your child’s lunchbox. Thank you all for helping us to promote healthy eating at snack time. Could we just remind parents to cut their child’s grapes in half lengthways to prevent choking hazards.

STORYTIME

We have Storytime at 11.00/11.15 every morning. We use this opportunity for the children’s voices to be heard and for us to recap on what we have learnt that morning. We then read a story relating to what we have learnt. In the past we have had children’s parents come in and read a story to the children. Some parents have read books in French and Spanish, where the children have learnt some new words and were thoroughly engaged in the experience. If any parent would like to come in and read a story or sing some songs, we would love to have you visit and the children will be very grateful to have somebody new reading them a story.

THINGS FOR PRESCHOOL

There are some things we are still on the lookout for (please see list below). If you are disposing/rehoming anything, we will happily take it from you.

-        Wicker baskets

-        Slippers

-        Cushions

-        Fabrics

-        Netting

-        Large stones

-        Lamps

-        Wooden spoons

-        Shells

-        Metal trinkets

-        Fairy lights

-        Wedding hats and hair decorations

-        Seeds for planting

IMPORTANT DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR

Term 2                 Monday 30th October to Wednesday 20th December 2023

Term 3                 Monday 8th January to Thursday 8th February 2024

Term 4                 Monday 19th February to Thursday 28th March 2024

We thank you all for your continued support.

From all the staff at WASPS