Pickles Pre-School. The Community Room, Cherry Tree Primary School,

Berry Avenue, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD24 6ST September 2019.

We hope you all had a fabulous Summer. We welcome back all the children and their Parent/Carers who were with us last academic year. We extend our welcome to all the new families who are now a part of our Pickles Pre-School. We have a newsletter every half term which we email/give out, display in our cloakroom and upload onto our website – www.picklespreschool.co.uk

For this half term we have chosen the following themes for our learning – “Our Pre-School Home and Families” – “All about me” – “Harvest”. Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4 (5th Sept – 27th Sept). - “Our Pre-School, Home and Families” Getting to know each other – Talk about our unique families - Placing photos of our family on our Family Photo Board – Being aware of our Pre-School Golden Rules - Our Books of the Week will be “Owl Babies (Martin Waddell) and “The Family Book” (Todd Parr). Weeks 5, 6 & 7 (30th Sept – 18th Oct) – “All about me” Create our Baby Photo Board – Using our Emotion Stones and Emotion Puppets we will talk about our feelings – The books of the week will be “The Colour Monster” (Anna Llenas), ‘The Huge Bag of Worries” (Virginia Ironside) and the “Monkey Puzzle” (Julia Donaldson) will be enjoyed as a story and as a song. Weeks 8 (21st – 25th October) – “Harvest” Harvest Festival food donations will be collected and given to the Watford Food Bank– bake bread – “The Little Red Hen” will be our book of the week. Carpet Time Talking week by week.

Week Commencing

Letter Number Shape Colour Makaton Sign

Language of the Week

5th Sept a 0 Square Blue Hello Albanian - “Ckemi” 9th Sept b 1 Rectangle Red Mummy English - “Hello” 16th Sept c 2 Circle Orange Daddy Portuguese - “Olá” 23rd Sept d 3 Triangle Black Home Makaton Signing

30th Sept e 4 Square Brown Name Urdu - “Assalam-o-Alekum” 7th Oct f 5 Rectangle Green Happy Maltese – “Bongu”

(pronounced Bonjoo) 14th Oct g 6 Oval Black Sad Tamil – “Vaṇakkam” 21st October h 7 Star Yellow Eat Bulgarian - pronounced

“zdrah-VEY”

Dates for your diary Friday 20th September – Jeans for Genes Day. 1 in 25 children has a genetic disorder that makes their life very difficult. Children, parents and staff are invited to wear their jeans and donate in our collection bucket to this worthwhile charity. Notices / Reminders New Staff Team Member - We are delighted to inform that with a DBS check complete and wonderful references received Rachel Plummer will be joining the Pickles Pre-School staff team at the start of the Autumn term. Both of Rachel’s children attended Pickles Pre-School and she is involved with the Cherry Tree PTA. Rachel is an experienced swimming instructor and has taught children to swim for many years. We know she'll be an asset to the staff team and the children's learning.

Absent/illness – Please text or call 07870 628045 before 8:30am to let us know if your child is sick or is going to be absent that day. If we do not hear from you then it is our duty to ring Parents to find out why a child is not in attendance. Emergency Contact Numbers - I have created a sheet containing 3 Emergency Contact slips for you to divide and distribute amongst your family and friends. If you need to contact Pre-School in an emergency, during Pre-School hours, please call the Cherry Tree School number (01923 245490) and ask to be put through to “Pre-School” in The Community Room. Please do not call the mobile number in this case as staff mobile phones are boxed away for safeguarding reasons. Informing us if someone, other than you, is picking your Child up – Your child’s record should have names and phone numbers of people parents have consented to picking up their child from Pre-School. Children are only permitted to leave the setting with a person who is named on their record. Parents will be called to seek consent if not received/recorded prior. Parents can call Cherry Tree School (01923 245490) and be put through to The Community Room to inform of their consent for a new pick up person for their child during a session. Family Photo Board – Please can your child bring in a photo (6” x 4”) of themselves with members of their family (Mummy, Daddy, grandparents, siblings – whoever they choose) for our Family Photo Board. The Photo Board will be a talking point for all children and will help new children settle in. All weather clothes– Please dress your child appropriately for Pre-School with a hat and waterproofs when the weather requires. A change of clothes – Please leave spare clothes (underwear/nappies, socks, trousers, a T-shirt along with some wipes) in a named bag on their peg. Named clothing & items – shoes, jumpers, coats, wellies, gloves, cardigans, bags, hats – please ensure they all have your child’s name on them. Name tag stickers or iron-on ones can be purchased from www.mynametags.com (please use our School ID : 100132 when placing an order and we will receive 20% at no extra cost to you). Children can choose a picture so to easily identify their items. Water bottles – We promote and encourage the children to drink water. With this in mind we ask that the children bring in a named water bottle (with fresh water only within it) every day so the children can drink independently whenever they wish. Lunch Boxes – Please ensure your child’s lunch box contains healthy, filling and nutritious food. Lots of fruit, vegetable, wholemeal bread, yoghurt etc are foods that give their bodies what they need, fill their tummies and enable their growing brain to focus and learn. Please ensure small food (such as tomatoes, grapes and olives are cut in half/chopped) so to avoid a choking incident (1 child under 5yrs dies every month in the UK from a choking). We are a NUT FREE Setting – We have a child at our setting that has a severe nut allergy. Children should not bring nuts in for their lunch or food that contains nuts (no peanut butter sandwiches, nor cakes or treats that contain nuts as an ingredient). We also state that children should not have chocolate spread sandwiches as we would not know whether it is Nutella or another spread that contains nuts, or not. A savoury filling for sandwiches is encouraged. The staff team are vigilant and will remind parents via a Lunch Box slip if nuts are within Lunch Boxes. Children are never encouraged to share their lunch. Birthday Treats – No Nuts. No Gelatine. Parent/Carers are often kind enough to bring in cakes or treats for all the children when it's their child's birthday. Please ensure birthday treats do not contain nuts as an ingredient. Moreover many of our children are Halal and are unable to eat gelatine so jelly/marshmallow treats or cake toppings should also be avoided so all children can share in the celebrations. “What to expect, when?” – is a government document that gives parent/carers guidance on child development and how to support learning home. There’s a link to the document on our website and you can refer to it when discussing your child’s development with their Key Person. School Playground Equipment – For insurance reasons children are not allowed to play on the Cherry Tree School playground equipment at the front or back gate before or after Pre-School. You are more than welcome however to enjoy the Council playground on Berry Avenue.

Nursery Rhyme/Song of the Month: Nursery Rhyme/Song of the Month: The Wheels on the Bus. (To enable chat and discussion about members of their family) The Wheels on the Bus go round and round, round and round round and round. The Wheels on the bus go round and round all day long. - The Mummies on the bus go “Natter natter natter” …………. - The Babies on the bus go fast asleep…… - The Daddies on the bus say “don’t do that”………….

Makaton Signs we will learn and use:

Facebook page – “Like” our “Pickles Pre-School” Facebook page so to stay up to date with our news, events and information.

If you have any questions or queries or if we can be of any additional support to you or your child please do not hesitate to ask me or a member of our Pickles Pre-School team. Kind regards, Lynsey Pickles – 01923 223538 – Lynsey.preschool@gmail.com - www.picklespreschool.co.uk Cherry Tree School Office Number – 01923 245490

Staff Team – Sarah, Kaneez, Dawn, Beverley, Dimple, Sam, Jushna, Rachel, Bushra & Louise. Volunteer – Masooma "………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Email News - For ease, efficiency and convenience we like to email our newsletters and news to Parent/Carers and others who play an important role in your child’s life. Please can you ensure we have up to date email addresses. Child’s Name : Relationship to child : Email Address : Relationship to child : Email Address : Relationship to child : Email Address :