Author Archives: woodentopspotton

This week- 14th March 2016

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This week we did lots of building using the dark den frame, material and pegs. The children worked out how to make it bigger by using the chairs to peg the material to.
The children ‘made’ a hospital area, and one child had a sick bowl as she was ‘soooo’ ill. Pegs were used to make sure the bandages stayed on her arms as she needed so much treatment.
Woody bear had a great visit to one of the children home and is off away again this weekend. We really enjoy reading what fantastic time he has with the children in their homes.
We got out heuristic toys and chains which the children used as money. some children did threading through the lines.
On Tuesday Jodie came in and did her dance session. The children practiced at being butterflies, soldiers and horses. They also enjoyed throwing their rainbow scarves around and catching them.
Simon came from Triumph Wellbeing for our sporty session on Thursday. The children had a blast, rolling tyres across the grass, being rabbits being chased by Simon, throwing bean bags in the tyres and jumping over the tyre.
All in All another fantastic week at Woodentops with lovely children.

Chinese New Year

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This week we celebrated Chinese New Year, Valentines Day and Pancake Day.

The children spent lots of time playing with the rice and pasta, picking it up with spoons, filling bowls, using chopsticks or trying to and moving the pasta with the child tweezers.

The children each made a valentines card and we talked about who their special people were. We looked at the different sizes of hearts and buttons that we stuck to our creations and then added some ribbons to finish the card off.

We had pancakes for snack and added strawberries, banana’s, cucumber and breadsticks which tasted ‘very nice’ I am told.

Our visit from Ofsted

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We were notified on Friday 8/1/16 that we would have our first inspection from Ofsted, since I had taken over in 2014, on Monday 11th January.

Some time over the weekend was spent just checking where everything was and making a list so the Ofsted inspector could find it all. We had a written Self Evaluation Form (SEF) as we had been going through the updated Audits from Central Beds and were compiling our SEF but it hadn’t managed to make to the Ofsted Online SEF.

On the Monday morning, all staff due to work that day met at 7.30 and helped set up as we had packed away due to numerous parties at the Football club over the weekend. I set out all the files that I thought we needed to show to the Ofsted inspector in the ‘Committee room’. Around 8am the Ofsted inspector arrived, I checked her details, she signed in and then put her mobile phone in the mobile phone box with her car keys. I showed her where the files were and the toilets- important point, introduced her to the staff and then left her to peruse the files whilst we continued to set up.

As parents arrived at 9am, the inspector chatted to them about the care and education we provide for their children. Parents were very complimentary and I think she enjoyed the chats.

The inspector was also being assessed as well as us so when her ‘boss’ arrived I showed her where her colleague was. The inspector having looked through the files, then came into the main room to ‘observe’ us with the children. She tracked a child, looked at her files and then asked her key-person lots of questions about how she observed and how she was intending to take the child further. At drop off the inspector managed to speak to the parent about her child so she got a good rounded view of her and how she was developing with us. Later on she asked to see a file of a child who had started in Sept to compare them.

She observed the children doing their dancing with Jodie and then went outside to a very wet boggy garden to watch the children explore the outside. Once she’d got all her evidence she then had a chat with me about what I had seen the staff do in the morning with the interaction with the children.

After this the inspector went through her findings and then asked me to discuss them, this is when she told me that we had achieved a GOOD grade.

 

Ark Farm Visit

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Today Crystal and Shannon brought lots of animals to visit Woodentops Preschool, they came from Ark Farm.  We invited all our children and parents in, childminders, nannies and any ‘Stay and Play’ parents.

The children were really eager to touch the animals and listened really well to the adults about touching them gently plus using the ‘magic’ soap after touching the animals.

Crystal and Shannon set up a table with a mat on it, spread out lots of seed and then let the animals out. First of all came the Bantam hens and cockerel-

Then the 4 guinea pigs joined them.

And finally on the table a very cute little Pygmy Hedgehog and a Tortoise came on. To begin with the hedgehog was very still and then he became very fast.

We had Gopher the Labrador in too who really liked being stroked plus trying to eat the Duplo bricks! He tried his hardest to sample some playdoh as well but was really good at giving it back!

We had 2 ducks who had a really good wash in the paddling pool- they splashed the children lots and made them giggle.

Then we had an owl out to join in. The children stroked him very gently and he sat on Shannon’s gloved hand.

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Half way through the session we all sat down to have a snack and some milk after using the gel to wash our hands.

At the end of the session we had a story with puppets which the children really enjoyed.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Ark Farm, the children’s faces were a picture, they really enjoyed the hands on experience you provided.

Making Houses.

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Today the children made houses.

Under the snack preparation table the children built their house. They collected boxes, big ones that they could fit in, added a big ribbon flower and made the box their door. The found some flowers, asked for blue tack and stuck the flowers to the their garden wall.

They took out the playdoh added them to ‘plant pots’ and put them along the ‘wall’ so their ‘plants can grow’.

The grass
A picnic
plants growing by the wall
Flowers in the garden

 

Then they found the fat and thin lolly sticks and used them to make grass in their garden. Then they used the spools, stones and ribbons to make their picnic with lots of different sized pots.

Across the room under the registration table, the boys having noticed what the other children were doing, found lots of boxes and made a thick wall. Inside their house they stuck flowers, chunky ribbon bows and bows to their roof for ‘lights’. They added flowers to the chairs and the walls.

 

Winter’s coming

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On Friday morning we decided to explore the out side area. One little boy found ‘some winter, Jackie’ when he found a little bit of frost that had manged to stay in the shade from the sun. We talked about how hard and cold the leaf felt that he had picked up and we shared it with his friend. We went round the garden looking for other areas of ‘winter’ and found a huge area hidden behind the playhouse. We touched the grass and wondered how it had not melted, we talked about how warm the sun was. He asked me to take photos and then we looked at what we had taken. We told the other children what we had found and brought them over to look at ‘winter’. I hope we have snow on Monday to discover as there will be lots of learning opportunities to share.

Early Years Briefing and Early Years Pupil Premium

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Last night I attended St Andrews Lower school with many other Early Years Practitioners to have a briefing session led by Heather Knox from the Central Beds Early Years Development team.

The evening started off with a session from the local NHS team led by Raheel Anwar about their project entitled keeping children out of A and E.

The aim of this project is to reduce the unnecessary attendance of children in Accident and Emergency, a lot of children are automatically taken to A and E for Lower Respiratory tract infections when they could be realistically treated at home by parents/GP’s.

To deliver the project GP’s and local practices will be offered an intensive refresher course in Paediatric care covering the areas that seem to be referred. They will be looking at the data to see what practices refer more and offering more training and support. The Health visitors will be offering parental support and training using Advice sheets to support the parents which have red, amber, green sections. These sheets are now in the child’s red book.

All this will increase an awareness of local options ie where to go for help prior to getting to A and E, reduce demand on services so that those that need to be seen are seen quicker than at present, and empower parents and carers with better knowledge.

Joanna, a health Visitor from Biggleswade then spoke about the three day course she attended prior to being able to take part in the project. She talked about the information contained on the Advice sheets such as what constitutes a Red area which would indicate that a hospital visit is necessary, whereas an amber would indicate a visit to the GP/health visitor.

We were all able to take copies of the sheets home so we could see what the advice was.

Next came the talk about the EARLY YEARS PUPIL PREMIUM (EYPP) by Heather Knox

What is the EYPP?

It was announced in March 2014 by Government that this premium already in schools would be introduced into the Early Years from April 1015. It will provide Preschools, Nurseries, Reception classes and childminders with additional support for disadvantaged 3 and 4 year olds. There is specific criteria that needs to be filled by the families circumstances in order to obtain the additional funding..

Why is it being introduced?

There is a discrepancy between children who receive Free school meals and those that don’t with regard to their level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Also noted is that in the Affluent areas 82% of Early Settings are good/outstanding as opposed to the 68% in less well off areas.

It is felt by providing good quality Early Years Education that it will make a huge difference to these children and their families and will have a long lasting effect for those children throughout their schooling life and their future.

As with the NEF the children are eligible from 3 years old, the EYPP will follow the children and can be used in 2 settings. The parents do not have to use all of their 15 hours. Not all 2 year olds who receive funding will be eligible for this EYPP, although most will be. It all depends on the criteria set out by Government. Providers must have god/outstanding grading from Ofsted in order to receive the EYPP similar to the NEF.

The EYPP must be used to improve the quality of Early Years Education and the outcomes for the eligible children. So it could be used to add additional resources-this could be toys, equipment, books for staff etc, attend training/meetings, consultancies such as speech language therapists and much more.

Ofsted

The settings in receipt of the EYPP need to be able to demonstrate to Ofsted how they have improved outcomes for the children in receipt of the EYPP. This could be showing how they are looking for patterns and outcomes in children’s development and and targeting the support they need; being able to articulate to Ofsted the overall progress of the children and how the setting is narrowing the gap and raising aspirations for the child and their family; show how they use the quality tools and self evaluation to reflect on their practices and and ensure consistent and ongoing improvement.

What we need from parents

In order for us to access this extra funding we need their date of births and National Insurance numbers. This is so that when the forms go to Central Beds they can be checked to ensure those that are entitled to the EYPP will get it.

This system is very new and those on the pilot studies only started them in Jan 2015 so results from their management of it hasn’t come out as yet. This is going to be a trial and error throughout this initial period, having said that the opportunities that it gives to settings will be great as there will be more financial support which will enhance the already super provisions we are providing in Central Beds.

Box Trolls

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This week saw the Box Trolls interests developing. One child brought in his Box Troll and shared it with the others, this led them to asking if they could make one. So on Wednesday and Thursday we found the boxes and lots of junk for modelling, lots of talking happened about the troll and how many different types of trolls there were. The children discussed amongst themselves about what kind of eyes and arms/legs trolls have. 

A Fond Farewell

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We said a fond farewell to Carol Leggatt on Wednesday at a special party that celebrated the retirement of a very special woman. Carol has been the owner Woodentops Preschool in Potton for the past 25 years, looking after generations of children. She has now decided to pass on the reigns to Jackie Noakes and retire.

this one
Woodentops opens for the new school year on September 3rd and places are still available.