Interim Newsletter – February 2024

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Dear parents/carers,

We would like to draw your attention to a few updates and dates for your diaries:

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Parent Consultations

Parent consultation evening has been booked for Wednesday 28th February from 5.15 onwards in the coffee lounge. This provides us with an opportunity to have a quick chat about your child's progress and to discuss what we have planned for the following term to support your child's development.

In order to avoid having too many people in the lounge at one time we would respectfully ask that you make childcare arrangements if at all possible please. We do realise that this may not be possible for everybody and if this is the case then please feel free to bring your child/ren with you but we would ask that you encourage them to sit with you during your appointment please to avoid having children running around. We will provide a few books for them to look at whilst you are talking to your key person.

We would also ask that you only arrive a maximum of five minutes before your allotted time please to avoid too many people being in the building at one time. Appointment slots will be 15 mins per child max. Therefore if you have anything that you would like to discuss further and/or in more detail you would be very welcome to book a separate appointment at another date and time.

After your meeting you will be given the opportunity to take your child's learning journal home so you can share it with them and other members of the family in your own time. We would ask that you encourage your child to be very careful with their journal please as we do not have copies and would ask that you return it to us within a few days so that your key person can continue adding to it.

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Questionnaires

Thank you to those of you who have completed our preschool questionnaire, we very much appreciate the feedback we have received from you all and if you haven’t yet had a chance to complete it there is still the opportunity up until Friday the 1st March, please just follow this link https://s.surveyplanet.com/tolck8ah.

One area that has been highlighted so far has been our opening hours and how busy it can be in the morning when everyone arrives. Our hours constantly remain under review but as our hall is used by other groups and all of our equipment has to be stored away at the beginning and end of each session it currently makes it difficult for us to change these. However, we will be trialling opening the doors slightly earlier, around 9.25am, in order to help ease the flow of families into the building in the morning and we would ask that any children who are happy to come in independently are encouraged to do so. We will ensure a member of staff is available to help them with their belongings as they arrive.

Further information and a summary of our questionnaire results will be emailed out later in the term to address any other questions that arise. We really appreciate your support with this and would like to thank you for all of the wonderful feedback and comments that we have received, we are so grateful!

    

Stay and Play

We will be holding our next ‘Stay and Play’ session on Thursday 7th March 9.30am – 10.15am and the final stay and play session of the academic year will be on Friday 3rd May 9.30 - 10.15. We politely ask that you ensure a member of staff lets you out of the setting at the end of these sessions so that we are able to ensure the safety of all the children in our care and keep record of who is entering and leaving the building. Thank you for your support with this.

World book day

World book day is also on Thursday 7th March (alongside our ‘stay and play’ session). All children are invited to come in dressed as their favourite book character and bring along a chosen book to share with everyone at Rascals- we would ask that these are clearly labelled with your child’s name so that we can ensure they come home with the right child. Staff will also be dressing up so look out for any familiar characters!

We will be giving out book vouchers throughout that week. If your child won’t be in on Thursday they are very welcome to dress up on a different day that week. Please bear in mind that accessories are difficult to keep track of so we would suggest that anything special is named please.

Red Nose Day

We will be supporting Red Nose Day on Friday 15th March. We would like to invite the children to come dressed either in something red or blue as it is BLUEY themed this year and we will provide the children with the opportunity to have a little dance along to some party music towards the end of the morning. There will be a donation pot out near the front entrance of Rascals on the day, all donations towards this great cause will be passed on and greatly appreciated.

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Easter PreSchool Praise

We are excited to announce that our Easter Celebration Preschool Praise service will be on Thursday 28th March (last day of term) at 12pm. The service lasts for approximately 15 minutes and will include action songs that the children have been learning during the half term leading up to the service. If your child does not normally attend on a Friday you are very welcome to meet us in the church at 12pm so your child can join us on stage.

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Water Bottles and lunches
Please ensure that your child’s water bottle and lunch are NAMED CLEARLY at all times. This is particularly important when you buy them a new bottle or lunch box/bag, that we won’t recognise as belonging to your child.

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Dates for your diary:

Parent’s Evening- Wednesday 28th February World Book Day – Thursday 7th March
Red Nose Day – Friday 15th March

Easter Pre-School Praise and last day of Spring Term – Thursday 28th March 

First Day of Summer Term – Monday 15th April
Last Day of Summer Term – Friday 12th July
Bank Holiday – Monday 6th May

Half term – Monday 27th May – Friday 31st May

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All this information and lots more can be found on our website – www.rascalsplaygroup.co.uk For regular updates please LIKE us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/RascalsPreSchoolPlaygroup

 

Thank you for your continued support.

THE RASCALS TEAM

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[PLEASE NOTE: The Rascals mobile phone and email address is constantly monitored by Tracey. During out of hours and particularly over weekends and holidays you may not receive an immediate response. However, if you are contacting us with a matter of urgency an email is always the best course of action.]

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Just some usual reminders......

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Personal Details:

Please ensure you inform us immediately of any change of details such as mobile phone numbers or other contact details for parents and your emergency contacts. It is essential that our records are kept up to date in case of emergencies.

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Medicines in Playgroup:

Please be advised that any medical products needed at playgroup MUST be given to a member of staff for us to store in our medical box in the Main Hall and paperwork will need to be completed.

Please could all parents check NO medical products are left in their child’s rucksack on their peg during the course of the morning, as all the children do have free access to their pegs.

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Illness:
Please DO NOT send your child to playgroup if they are unwell at all, particularly if they have needed medicine in the morning. We find that the medication will wear off after a couple of hours and then children begin to feel unwell again and we need to send them home.
If your child does have any medication before they come, such as antihistamine for hay fever, you are asked to let a member of staff know please, so that we can make a note of it in our records. This is for emergency purposes in case we are required to call an ambulance, we can clearly tell the paramedics what medication they have already received that day.
If they have suffered from diarrhoea or sickness please keep them at home for at least 48 hours after the last episode of sickness or diarrhoea. This also applies to those children who have started a course of antibiotics.

Please always phone or text Rascals mobile number to let us know your child is going to be absent. If we haven’t heard from you by 10am, it is our policy to get in touch with you to check that everything is ok, in line with our safeguarding policy.

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PLEASE REMEMBER TO TELL A MEMBER OF STAFF IF SOMEONE DIFFERENT IS COLLECTING YOUR CHILD FROM PLAYGROUP. WE WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR CHILD TO GO WITH ANYONE UNLESS WE HAVE YOUR PRIOR PERMISSION AND DETAILS ABOUT THAT PERSON. THIS APPLIES IN ALL CASES. WE WILL ALSO NOW BE OPERATING A PASSWORD SYSTEM FOR ANYONE WHO HAS NOT COLLECTED PREVIOUSLY SO PLEASE BE PREPARED TO THINK OF A SPECIAL WORD THAT YOU CAN SHARE WITH US AND YOUR ELECTED PERSON.