Newsletters

Little Stars Christian Preschool

Newsletter September 2023

Dear Parents and carers

Hello and welcome back to Little Stars and to those families who are new to us – welcome 😊

It was so good to see the children again and to chat with them and you about their adventures over the summer – it’s lovely to see how much they have progressed and grown. The children have settled in so well, and we certainly made the most of the late summer sun this week 😊 We have attached a “what we did in the summer sheet” – so you can share with us about your adventures.

We send our congratulations to Charlie and Tommy who have twin baby sisters, and to Joseph who has a new baby brother – how lovely for both families.

Signing in and out

Please sign your child in when you arrive (the books will usually be outside (weather dependent), make sure we know who is collecting and when – if it is someone we do not know – talk to us about this and we can make arrangements – such as a password.

We encourage the children to hang up their own coat and bring in their water bottle to support their independence.

If you are in a rush to go to work, tell us and we will take your child quickly and support you.

New families are of course welcome to come in and settle their child for a short while.

When you collect your child, come into the foyer and we will see you from the classroom, usually the drinks bottles and going home things will be outside (weather dependent). This gives you chance to peek through the windows and chat to staff about the child’s day.

Please can you also sign out in the signing books when you collect your child, this is a requirement for Ofsted and the EYFS, and we are trying to make sure that we all do this. Thank you.

Staff are always available to talk to you, please just let us know and they will come out to chat. There will be opportunities regularly to come into the room and see the children’s work and join in with us.

Please label your children’s water bottles, lunchboxes, hats and coats etc – we sometimes get into a muddle sorting out whose items belong to whom.

Clothing & shoes

We have been embracing the weather and enjoying water play, if you have some spare shoes that you don’t mind getting wet, please could you pop them in the children’s bag for a few weeks as we are running out of spare shoes.  Similarly, please check the clothes in your child’s bag – is there a full set? and do they still fit.  We do have a lot of spares – but some children really prefer to wear their own.

Plans for the next week or so: –

The Sunshine room (our 2 – 3 year old’s) has been lovely, the new children have settled well and have been really enjoying all the resources – we have been thinking about transport, singing songs, painting and doing some joint crafts. Outside play has been popular too.

The Rainbow room (preschool room 3 – 4 year olds) has been an oasis of calm…. for now 😊, the children have loved returning and seeing their friends and making new ones too. They will be looking in mirrors and drawing themselves, looking at their hair colour and eyes and thinking about “All about me”.  They have been making collages of their homes – thinking about houses, flats, gardens, bedrooms etc.

We have been enjoying transport, reading a book about different vehicles and making roads.

Places available at Stars and publicising Little Stars

We have 2 Rainbow (age 3 – 4 years) spaces available at Little Stars and a few more Sunshine places (age 2 – 3 years) – so please do spread the word. We have a Facebook page, please find us and then share any posts we put on – we currently have a post about a staff vacancy and appreciate any help with sharing this to other groups that you are part of.

Healthy eating at Little Stars.

At snack time children are offered snacks such as a cracker, breadstick, wrap, brioche and fresh fruit, alongside milk and water. We are encouraging families to register with a dentist, as locally there is an increase in children’s tooth decay – please try and get your child on a waiting list and get your child used to these check-ups.

Peanuts

It is essential that we are peanut free at Little Stars – no peanut butter, or Nutella or actual peanuts. We have a child at preschool who is allergic, so we must keep him safe.

Our shopping basket

We will occasionally ask for your support with some purchases of snack and cleaning products. Please see email with ideas of the sorts of products that we need. Please do help us to keep costs down by adding some of these products to your shop.

How Little Stars is run

Little Stars is a not for profit organisation, we are a registered charity and are run by a board of trustees on a voluntary basis. Our current trustees are;

Ian Doncaster – Chairman

Blessing Simango – Treasurer

Sara Rouse, Amanda Kilgour, Karen Barge – Trustees

We pay the church rent, and on a Friday pack away everything that is in the Rainbow room into the little Sunshine room – so that the church can use the hall for church weekend activities – then we get it all out on a Monday morning ready for the children.

We have recently improved our outside learning with our new learning shed – as again the outdoor area must be cleared every evening for church to use, then staff set up outdoor learning and resources each morning.

Fundraising

We organise a few fundraising events throughout the year – to help us to buy lovely resources for the children – we currently want to buy a folding table for outside £80.00, and some water channel play for outside too £100. We are very keen to start organising fund raising events – and would love some families to join our fundraising team to help organise simple events – such as quiz nights, second hand sales etc… please chat to staff if you want to support us.

 An easy way to fundraise for Little Stars is by using Easy fundraising, a simple tool which donates to Little Stars when you do online shopping at no extra cost to you. https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/littlestarscp/

Bags 2 school Our next collection is Wednesday 8^th November  Please collect any unwanted clothes, shoes, bags, belts, soft toys etc and bring them in by Tuesday 7^th – we get paid per kilo and often manage to raise nearly £100.00.

Wreath Evening – we will be holding this event again – which is our main fundraising event. This is for adults to come and make a lovely festive door wreath out of natural materials – save the date … Tuesday 28 th November 2023 evening.

Safeguarding corner (each of our newsletters has a safeguarding tip)

Please hold your children’s hands at pick up and drop off – the road outside Little Stars is very busy and in the excitement of collection – it is easy to let go, and we don’t want any accidents or near misses.

If your child is reluctant to hold your hand or runs off – borrow one of our backpack reins – they are good for town walking.

Staffing and Keyperson

All children will be allocated a key person over the next week, this person will work closely with you and your child to support their development and targets. However, all staff know all the children well.

Sunshine staff are

Mrs Sarah Ware – room Leader

Miss Nicole Wilson

Admin team

Emma Archer (admin),

Andrew Hartlebury (finance)

Rainbow Staff are

Mrs Kat Watson – Deputy Manager

Mrs Louise Harding

Mrs Toni Darby

Mrs Anna LaBarbera

Support staff

Claire Hartlebury

Karen Barge

Wow moments

We love sharing – if you have something exciting to tell us e.g. – potty training, trying new food, drawing a picture, a trip on a train please tell us and we will put it up on our wall. We have attached a sheet of wow moments for you to fill in or you can just email us 😊

Nursery Education Funding Form Signing

For all 3 year olds, children on the 2 help scheme or those eligible for the 30 hour entitlement. You will need to sign your forms week commencing 25^th September.

For those of you who pay fees, the invoices are sent half termly and the first one will be sent week commencing 18^th September, the next will be after half term- on 10^th November – these should be paid within 2 weeks please.

Term dates and October half term.

Our term dates are attached. Please remember that our October half term is longer than the school ones as we do not receive funding from the Local Authority for this week. We will close Friday 20th October and open again on Monday 6^th November.  

Theatre Trip for Rainbows

We have managed to book tickets to take the Rainbow Children to the Warwick Arts Centre to see The Gruffalo – more information later – but save the date Thursday 30^th November morning.

Contacting each other

Please make sure that we have your correct address, email and mobile numbers – if there have been any changes let us know.

We want this term to be a positive experience for you and you Little Star. Please do chat to me, or any of the staff if you have any queries or worries. We are always keen to hear your views and ideas too.

Love from Sara Rouse and all of the Little Stars Team 

01926 477597

 Dates for your diary: