February 2011 Newsletter

As you may know we had our Ofsted Inspection on Monday 31st January. This went very well and we are very happy with the results. There will be a letter from the committee explaining the outcome and it will soon be available to view on line at the Ofsted Website, www.ofsted.gov.uk and the unique reference number is 219192. It will also be available to view in the main foyer.

Suitable Clothing

Whilst we are still doing everything to make sure the hall is as warm as possible there are times when it still feels very cold. Please Please make sure that your children have warm clothes and spare jumpers as we do not hold spare jumpers if they become wet or painty.

Children should also have hats, coats, gloves and scarves as we will still be going outside to play. The hall can get very chilly so please do make sure your child is equipped. We do have a minimum temperature that we need to meet and should the weather continue to be this cold, we may be forced to close. This is something that we are currently trying to overcome and we are working to try to seek a solution that will allow the hall to stay at a more comfortable temperature.

For those children who are still in nappies, we would ask that they do not wear the type of vest which popper up underneath as staff are finding it very hard to do these poppers when they have gloves on. Staff have to wear gloves for hygiene reasons and while it is no problem for us to change nappies for as long as needed it would be much appreciated if this request could be kept. On the same note, if your child is about to make the move from nappies to potty training please let their key person know as we like to support and encourage this at pre school and this is something we can use the reward toy animals as incentive for.

Emergency Closure

If we are going to be closed, you will receive a text message as soon as a decision has been made to let you know in good time. Obviously we hope to be able to keep a normal service and will not shut unless it is completely necessary.

Text Service

The text service is now up and running and we hope that it will help to improve communication at pre school. Please note it is not possible to return texts to this number.

Play dates / Cover

As you know, staff work to a strict ratio of adults / children and this ratio has to be higher at present as we have so many children under 3.
There may be times when a staff member is unable to come in to work due to illness etc. We are asking that we can have a number of parents to be “on call” so that we would not have to shut due to staffing issues.
We will displaying a calendar in the foyer where we would be extremely grateful if you could add your name on to any days that you would be available to be “ on call”.

Buddy Bear

Buddy Bear is enjoying life at Zig Zag and has had great fun out at some of our children’s houses. If he comes to your house please can you ensure that he is returned back on time as he has a very tight social schedule!

If you need somewhere to print off photographs for buddy bears diary, our printer accepts memory cards and we are happy to let you print them at the start of a session.

Thank you to those who have brought in bean cans, we still need a few more please.

Thank you to those who have returned the “at home I can” slips, we still have  a lot that have not come back in yet, so we would like to see them please, to share your child’s achievements.

The children have enjoyed a wide variety of activities and we hope that they have shared them with you. Recently we have looked at fish and explored how they feel and smell, talked about where they live and what they eat. We also shared experiences about Chinese New Year, the children had the opportunity to try spring rolls, egg fried rice and lychees. We made envelopes with chocolate coins for good luck and we had a visit from a live rabbit for the day, as this year is the year of the Rabbit. If you have any particular things, that your children are interested in or things you would like us to celebrate please do let their key person know. We will also be putting emphasis on healthy eating and living a healthy lifestyle and would appreciate it if this could be supported at home. If anyone would like to come in and talk about healthy eating with children please let Tamsin know.


Please make sure your child has a drink with them in their lunch box if they stay for lunch.