CANNON LANE PRE-‐SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Summer 2015 www.cannonlanepreschool.co.uk Our 40th Anniversary year was truly special We had a fabulous Open Morning in glorious sunshine, full of fun and colour. A time to show appreciation Two of our team will be moving on to new horizons at the end of this term, Milly Crowle and Kate Valentine. . We were delighted to welcome back Honorary Alderman Keith Toms. You’ll recall Keith also joined us for our Carol Concert last December. Keith was full of praise for our Pre-‐school. Other guests included Eleanor Rea, Assistant Headteacher at Cannon Lane Primary School and Chris Livesey, Head Teacher from Nower Hill High School. The Open Morning was a great chance to show off our wonderful new garden, Landscape for Learning We are so grateful to them; they have served our Pre-‐school with such distinction, and have given many years of dedicated & enthusiastic service. I feel sure you will all want to join me in thanking Milly and Kate, and wishing them every success in the future. And finally What a memorable 40th year and I am just so proud of the achievements of the staff, committee and helpers, who have made this anniversary year so special. It leaves me with the pleasant task of wishing you all a very relaxing summer break and a chance to take some quality time with your families and friends. Charlie Churchill, Chairman CANNON LANE PRE-‐SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Summer 2015 www.cannonlanepreschool.co.uk Playleader’s Report I always seem to start these reports with a weather update so it’s quite interesting looking back at past years to reflect on our so called summers! This term hasn’t been too bad so far but let’s hope we get to enjoy some real summer weather until the end of term AND through the holidays! We welcomed Nirvan Sharma to pre-‐school this term and so now the group is running at full capacity. The lowering of our admissions to 2 years and 6 months has had a very positive effect on our numbers and we fill up spaces for our younger group much earlier in the academic year now – something you may wish to pass onto any friends who have children within the right age range. As Charlie has already mentioned, the biggest news item for this report is the very sad news (for the group!) that we will be saying goodbye to Milly and Kate at the end of term. Milly has been with us for 14 years and Kate for 8 years and no words can adequately express the depth of gratitude we owe them for all their hard work, their commitment and their love and care they have given to us all over those years. We shall miss them both terribly but can only wish them much luck and good fortune for their future plans and I know they will both stay in touch so sure we will see them around at future pre-‐school events. As always many thanks to the rest of the staff as well who continue all their hard work devising, preparing and carrying out a huge amount of differing activities with the children. We are still enjoying the benefit of extra help from several students who have been on placements for work experience. This helps to give us an excellent ratio of adults to children so we can give that extra attention to all the children. This term we have had our outing and open morning. Thank you to Zoe for all her hard work in her organisation of the outing which was a first to visit Butterfly World. The weather was very kind and the day was very much enjoyed by all who went and I’m sure this will be a venue we will want to revisit. The open morning was also a great success with a steady stream of visitors and children, including visits from the assistant head at Cannon Lane, Eleanor Rea and the head teacher of Nower Hill, Chris Livesey who were very keen to see what we are doing and very complimentary – particularly about the new garden area. Our guest of honour was Honorary Alderman Keith Toms representing the Mayor who regretfully was unable to accept our invitation – he too was very taken with all that the pre-‐school had to offer. Many thank you to everyone who helped out on the day with the refreshments and manning stalls and to Neha for organising the toy stall and to Marcia for her wonderful talent in face painting. This term, we have once again held our ‘body parade’ with the older group and this has now become a firm part of the pre-‐school calendar. We invite the parents in to see what is the culmination of practically a half-‐term’s work of many, many hours of effort from the children to replicate a full size model of themselves. As always this was a hugely successful event with much praise from all the parents and is something the younger group can look forward too! CANNON LANE PRE-‐SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Summer 2015 www.cannonlanepreschool.co.uk Also, in what is fast becoming another traditional activity, the older group also had an outing to an allotment owned by a former parent of the pre-‐school. She was delighted to offer her services and the children, along with those parents who could attend, thoroughly enjoyed investigating and actually tasting some of the produce grown. Another keen source of interest for all the children has been the arrival of the caterpillars at pre-‐school and the fascination of watching them develop their cocoons and hopefully we will be able to watch them grow into butterflies which we will then release in the garden. The summer newsletter is also the time when we sadly say goodbye to those who are off to ‘big school’. So we wish all the very best to Oliver, Charlie, Devake, Aditi, Maia, Edith, Esther, Rayan, Emily, Krish, Namrata, Nimedha, Alice, Conal, Oscar, Haren, Shivajanan, Manya, Shanze, Zayn, Ayush, Rohini, Amity, Kannan, Leo and Robyn. They are all invited to their ‘Leavers Party’ on FRIDAY, 10th July. There will be entertainment followed by lunch which you need to provide although we will be adding jelly and ice cream-‐ we feel we can dispense with the healthy options for this special occasion! Please see the notice board for more details. Obviously, saying goodbye to the children is not the only wrench as it also means it is time to say goodbye to their parents as well and to thank them all for their help and support during their time at pre-‐school. Phillipa and Amanda have been part of the committee in their roles as social secretary and parent’s rep and so, would like to send them a special huge thank you for all the fantastic work they have done. Most importantly, we need some others to step into their shoes!! This group cannot run without its committee so PLEASE think hard about whether YOU can help. Zoe, our secretary and Neha our fundraiser have children in the younger group so will be continuing with their roles but we would still also like to send them very special thanks. As usual we end the summer term with our Sports Day which is on THURSDAY 9th July. This is for EVERYONE in both groups -‐ please meet at pre-‐school at 11a.m. and weather permitting we will have fun, games and a picnic lunch in Roxbourgh Park – otherwise it’s all squash into the large hall, so keep everything crossed for good weather! All are welcome to join us including any Dads or Grandparents and, also as usual, you will all be required to take part in the mandatory 3-‐
legged race so suggest you bag your partner now! Let’s hope we can all look forward to a hot and good summer break and pre-‐school starts again on TUESDAY, 1st SEPTEMBER . Don’t forget that those children in the younger group now become the OLDER group with the corresponding change in session times which are -‐ Monday, Wednesday and Thursday AFTERNOONS from 12.30 to 2.55 and Tuesday and Friday MORNINGS from 9.30 to 1.15 which includes lunch time. Please provide your children with a named/packed lunch in a cool bag which continues to follow our commitment to healthy eating and so should NOT include crisps, chocolate, biscuits or fizzy drinks and we would also ask you to be aware of the sugar content in some fruit juices. CANNON LANE PRE-‐SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Summer 2015 www.cannonlanepreschool.co.uk We look forward to welcoming back all of you who are staying with us plus all those who will be starting their Cannon Lane Pre-‐school journey; and of course, to giving a very warm CLPS welcome to the new members of staff who will be joining the team. Wishing everyone a glorious summer and an enjoyable and restful holiday. Kind regards, Val, Rekha, Elizabeth, Milly, Mariola, Kate, Sasi and Marcia Admissions The pre-‐school has enjoyed a full capacity older group and younger group this term and most of our younger group will be making the transition to the older group. We have started the process of finalising all places for next year and the open morning was successful in generating further interest from parents who registered with us. There are still places available for 2015/16 in both the younger group and older group so if you know anyone who is interested then please pass on the word! If anyone has any q ueries and/or would like information on enrolling, p lease contact me, Rehana, on 07519 778431 or by email on [email protected]. Fundraising With such a wonderful open morning on 6th June,we were able to raise a good sum of money. The toy stall which was set up on the day raised a total of £15.40 and the refreshments and face paint stalls helped us raise £51.80.The total amount being £67.20. I would like to thank all the parent volunteers both from the younger and the older group. A special thank you as always to Marcia for
taking up the face painting. Thank you Neha Secretary’s report The sun was shining as nearly fifty children and parents from across both the younger and older groups took part in the summer outing to Butterfly World on 18th June. Staff at Butterfly World began the morning with a short talk about the butterfly lifecycle and then we had the opportunity to look at and touch a variety of creepy crawlies. This was followed by a visit to the Ant World display where we saw leaf cutter ants busily building, cleaning and carrying, and of course the butterfly house with its array of beautiful butterflies. After a picnic lunch many of the children enjoyed playing in the children’s play area, especially in the extra large sandpit. There were also lots of gardens and meadows to explore including giant musical instruments made out of natural and recycled materials. The trip was a nice complement to this term’s classroom learning about caterpillars and butterflies and a great opportunity for parents to meet each other. Please do let me know if you have any feedback about the day or indeed if you have any ideas or suggestions for next year. Zoë [email protected] CANNON LANE PRE-‐SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Summer 2015 www.cannonlanepreschool.co.uk Dates for your diary th
Last pre-‐school sessions – Wed 8 July Sports day for all – Thurs 9th July, 11am Roxbourgh Park (or at the Pre-‐school if weather is wet) Leavers’ Party (older group) – Fri 10th July Autumn term starts – Tues 1st September