Welcome back to Blackberry House Day Nursery Newsletter! In our monthly issues we will be letting you know of the achievements and beautiful learning opportunities that children engaged in that month from across our four settings. We will also be providing you with two articles that will keep you informed within the sector and might even provide some helpful information! In this month’s issue we have covered the importance of Working Together – Parents and Partners.
Thank you for your continued support and enjoy reading!
Summary
This month we have learnt all Summer and Things That Move. We continued to observe and learn about the changing weather as we welcomed some warmer and colder days. We looked at the differences in our clothing and the changing environment outside.
The children explored various sensory trays giving them a good understanding of the textures found around the themes. We looked and explored the farm animals and played pretend in chocolaty mud. The children also explored our outdoor activities as learnt all about taking care of plants and nature. Children were able to explore lots of water play and exploring the science behind what sinks and what floats, as well as engaging in activities that taught us how things work and why. We also said goodbye to some of our friends as they begin their new journey in ‘big school’ 
With the weather warming up, please remember to always send your child to nursery with a water bottle, sunhat and appropriate clothing! Please also ensure that we already have your child’s suncream which we use on a daily basis.
Under 3's
Our youngest children continued to explore the world around us. We were able to provide a variety of sensory activities including the exploration of mud, sand and foam. We learnt about how these textures feel and what they look like. Our babies and toddlers spent a lot of time in our outdoor spaces learning all about the nature and how it changes. We absolutely loved watching grown-ups add to our beautiful gardens and pretend that we are also helping to mow the lawn or trimming the bushes. We learnt about the importance of caring for our environment as we watered our beautiful new plants and bushes. We also went on multiple nature walks to explore the new objects found. We then used these to explore some of our senses and made magic sticks. We engaged in lovely group time and quiet time outside as well as some fun and energy burning activities! Our youngest children also engaged in activities that involved a bit of art and engineering during which we learnt all about how things work and why.
The children also learnt about the importance of looking after our toys as we pretended to wash our cars in a car wash. Our older children supported them in their amazing creations and exploration and all children were super proud of themselves and each other. Overall, our under 3’s had a very busy and beautiful month during which they worked amazingly together as a team.
Over 3's
Our older children turned into super explorers as they went on multiple outdoor and indoor adventures with our practitioners. We enjoyed getting messy by making muddy pictures and talking about our own art interpretation. We explored the texture of the real mud then had a go at thinking about creating a pretend one out of flour and cocoa powder. The children used their thinking and problem solving to then clean everything up and understand the importance of looking after the environment we are in. We also practiced our cooking skills as we participated in cake making and decorating. We even made a Gruffalo Crumble which followed one of our favourite books in Preschool.
Last month, we supported our friends in their preparation to go to big school, and this moth we enjoyed our last few moments with everybody before seeing them graduate.
We have been focusing on learning all about how things work as we explored our On The Move theme. Older children created their own garages and car washes in our gardens and learnt to use our imagination and skills to play pretend mechanics! Children had so much fun looking exploring various parts of our bikes, cars and other vehicles. To extend our learning, our practitioners also provided some obstacle courses for children to explore their own ways of moving which is by foot. All children loved participating in motor activities that taught them to practice their balance, turn taking, patience and teamwork.
Our Preschool children across the group also continued to learn about numbers and counting as they explored various cognitive activities presented by staff. We continued working on number recognition and learning the concept of counting as we hopped from one tyre to another and transferred cups of sand to our pots. We also spent some time with our younger friends and supported their learning as we learnt about caring for others and teamwork.
What a great month we had!
EFYS
Working Together – Parents as Partners
As your child begins to settle into nursery, the bonds and relationships develop. These relationships are vital for your little one to feel safe and secure in our setting for their learning to be enabled. As practitioners, we do our best to provide an individual and personalised approach to allow all children to settle in at their own pace. It’s very important for practitioners to develop a relationship with the parents as well to ensure we are all fully able to support your child on their educational journey.
Parents and carers are always the first educators each child will have. It is from parents that children learn the first sense of care, love and nurture, as well as first levels of early education, without the parents always realising it! Research suggests that the biggest and most important predictor of a child’s future outcomes is the learning environment at home. As a nursery, we ensure that we scaffold the foundations set and further any learning that has already taken place on top of our educational programmes and curriculums. Working together as a team allows us all to have a better understanding of the needs of the children allowing for the appropriate level of support both at nursery and home.
How does Blackberries’ Group work with parents?
At the start of every journey, we gather as much information as possible to allow our staff to have the best foundation to build a relationship and the educational foundation for your child. We start the journey by having our ‘All About Me’ document that talks about anything and everything your child prefers and dislikes, as well as their interests and skills. Parents are kept up to date with the signing up process before scheduling a settle in session that we offer. During our settle in session, your little one will come to meet the team and the children, as well as familiarise themselves with the environment before fully starting with us. All children under 3 have their own diary that is being filled in on a daily basis by both parents and the practitioners. The diary allows for constant and fluent way of communication on top of our daily handovers during drop offs and collections. The diary also allows us to stay in touch with those parents that aren’t always able to see us due to number of circumstances.
We are very proud to also be using a platform that allows us to share your child’s learning journey online. iConnect allows practitioners to submit learning observations and entries on a regular basis which are sent directly to parents. These entries are normally a summary of your child’s learning and their progress, and you should be receiving at least one observation per week. We use these entries to have a better understanding of your child’s learning progress and their development, which is also shared with the parents. This way, all parents and carers, as well as practitioners are kept up to date with the child’s learning and their needs.
Blackberries also offer a variety of community projects and activities outside of our curriculum to ensure we are involved in the important things that are around us.
As part of our relationship building, we also check in with the parents on a regular basis. Having longer handovers, finding out about the new puppy, home phone calls and looking at family pictures only supports the bond building that is vital for us to provide the best foundation for your child’s learning.
To allow parents and carers to stay up to date with Blackberries Group and their children’s nursery, we also offer family events that you can come along to and celebrate with us.
Keep an eye out for our next event
Role of the Key Person
At the start of your child’s journey they will also be allocated a key person that will work to establish a relationship with the family. It’s a great privilege for our staff to have key children and all practitioners take pride in having amazing bonds with both children and parents. As every child is different, it’s important to recognise that families are different too. Your child’s Key Person will be able to learn all about your family customs and traditions and use the information to celebrate your child’s background.
As practitioners, we always love hearing about the family trips, celebrations, holidays and events happening in our children’s lives and homes, as this helps us secure that bond and relationship with them and allow us to gain new insights and information that is used to support the child’s progress and development.
Please ensure you keep us up to date with any new information that is relevant and important to your child
Lastly, please follow us on Facebook to see everything we are up to in our lovely nurseries
Thank you for reading and your continued support!
