Christmas Fair Success

Well we had a fantastic day yesterday as we had our annual Christmas Fair at pre-school.

Santa was in his grotto and we had lots of helpers that made the day a great success. A big thank you to one and all who supported this event whether it was helping to organise it, manning a stall, clearing away or most importantly spending your pennies!!

We raised an astounding £1169!!! WOW!!! Our best ever fair! We will now be able to give our home corner the make-over it so very much needs.

Thank you so much, we really do appreciate your generosity and support.

Primary School Applications for September 2016

If your child was born between 1st September 2011 and 31st August 2012 it is now time to start applying for their infant or primary school place as they will be starting their Reception Year in September next year!!

Both Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire County Councils operate an online application process and applications can be made from 2nd November for Nottinghamshire and the 16th November for Derbyshire up until midnight of 15th January 2016 for both counties. You will need to apply to the county council relevant to where you live.

Hopefully these links will help!

If you live in Derbyshire - http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/…/s…/school_places/default.asp…

If you live in Nottinghamshire –http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/educati…/school-admissions

So far so good...

Crikey this school year seems to be flying by so thought it was time for an update here on our website.

Well the first half term was very busy with lots of new starters who have settled in brilliantly. We are now very busy with all sessions bar a couple now full. We had a number of fundraisers which all helped raise just over £200; a big thank you to everyone who supported our cake sale, fashion show evening and the Christmas card project. This money has helped us to buy a new television, DVD, books and pens. We are now looking to raise money to improve our 'home corner' resources which are in desperate need of a 're-vamp'!

We also had our annual school photo morning run by the fantastic Tempest Photography who took some amazing photos; these should be with us shortly and hopefully all your orders will also generate some commission for pre-school too!

We are now into week two of our second half term and boy is this going to be a busy one! We have parent evenings next week (week commencing 16th November), then it'll be our Christmas Fair on Saturday 5th December, we have our Christmas concerts on Monday 14th & Tuesday 15th December as well as having a Christmas Party Week for the last week of term - Phew!

New School Year

Just a reminder that we re-open for the new school year on Monday 7th September 2015. If anyone has any queries about their child's sessions or would like to enquire about places please contact Jayne either via email; springfieldpreschool@hotmail.co.uk or on 07960 983423.

We would like to wish all those children who left us in July all the very best of luck as they start their new schools over the next couple of weeks, we hope you have a great time and know you will all do amazingly!

Summer Fair Success

We had an absolutely beautiful day on Saturday for our Summer Fair (despite the rain the night before!!). The sun came out and so did lots of people to help make it a really fun afternoon.

We would just like to thank everyone involved in making this fair our best ever; those who helped set-up, those that manned stalls, those that helped clear way, those that made donations and most of all those who spent their hard earned pennies.

We raised an amazing £1065!!!!! WOW! What can we say but a BIG, BIG thank you! We really do appreciate everyone's generosity. This money will help pay for all the recent improvements to our outside area, including our amazing pirate ship.

Thank You!

Latest News - 22nd June 2015

Here is a copy of our latest newsetter;

There is lots happening in the last few weeks of this term so thought it may be worthy of a newsletter!

Inset Days – we are closed on Monday 29^th & Tuesday 30^th June

Reports Issued – end of year reports will come home the week beginning 6^th July. Those children leaving us will also bring home their ‘development file’

Sports Day – this is scheduled for Thursday 9^th July at 2pm, if the weather is against us we will try again on the 16^th July and failing that we will try one last time on the 23^rd July.

Leavers Concert – this concert only involves those children who will be moving onto big school and takes place at 4pm on Monday 13^th July

Last Day – we will close for the Summer holidays at 2.45pm on Friday 24^th July

September Return Date – we re-open at 9.15am on Monday 7^th September

Summer Fair – Saturday 4^th July – 1.00pm – 4-00pm

v  Competition time - We are sending home a small stick that your child can transform into a magic wand, all entries received by Friday 3^rd July will be displayed at the Summer Fair ready for a winner to be chosen.

v  We will also be having a pirate fancy dress competition on the day – judging will take place at 3.30pm

v  Wednesday 1^st, Thursday 2^nd & Friday 3^rd July will be non-uniform days and all we ask in return is the donation of a bottle for our bottle tombola.

v  We are still in need of raffle prizes and items for our surprise gift tombola, so please bring in any donations as soon as possible.

v  Lots of cakes will be needed for our cake stall – please bring to pre-school on Friday 3^rd July or from 11.00am on Saturday 4^th July.

Better Weather…we hope…

As the weather begins to warm up and get sunnier (we hope) can we please remind parents to send their children to pre-school with sun-cream already applied and with a sun-hat. Children who are with us for a full day will have cream re-applied at lunch time if needed, we have our own supply of factor 50 sun-cream that we will use unless advised otherwise.  If the weather gets really hot we may have some impromptu ‘water fun days’ when children will need to bring swimwear, towel and change of clothes; we will advise parents by text if this is likely to happen!

Cocktails & Fizz Success

A big thank you to everyone who supported this event as we managed to raise an amazing £560!! Fantastic!

Car Boot!   

Evalyn Fairfull-Smith’s mum, Louise, has very kindly offered to attend a local car boot over the Summer holidays in aid of pre-school. If you have any items suitable for a car boot please bring them into pre-school before the end of term. All money raised will go straight to pre-school, thank you!

Cocktails & Fizz

It's not long now till our Cocktails & Fizz evening and we hope lots of you can make it.

It all happens on Saturday 13th June at Risley Village Hall from 7.30pm - 11.30pm. Cocktails will be provided by the fabulous Mambo Mobile Bars, there will also be a bar and disco. Tickets are only £5 and are available direct from pre-school.

This is set to be a fun night out and will hopefully raise a ton of cash for pre-school at the same time!

Please get in touch if you'd like tickets - springfieldpreschool@hotmail.co.uk or 07960 983
423 or visit our Facebook page.

Fundraisers!!

A big thank you to everyone involved with and who supported our Family BBQ & Disco last Sunday, it was a big success and rasied £270 for pre-school - fantastic!!

Our next fundraiser will soon be upon us; it's our Cocktails & Fizz evening on Saturday 13th June from 7.30pm to 11.30pm at Risley Village Hall.  This will be an over 18's only event and will have a disco, licensed bar and cocktails provided by Mambo Mobile Bar.

Tickets are only £5 each and available NOW! Please contact pre-school on 07960 983423 or email springfieldpreschool@hotmail.co.uk or visit our Facebook page for tickets and more information.

Fashion Show Success

Our charity fashion show last Friday night was a huge success; we managed to raise £560 for pre-school which is amazing!

A big thank you to Risley Fashion House for putting on such a fabulous event, please check out their Facebook page (search for Risley Fashion House) to keep up to date with their latest stock.

Another big thank you has to go to our brave models for strutting their stuff on the catwalk!!

And finally a big thank you to everyone who supported the event, it was a great night, a lot of fun and we raised a ton of cash for pre-school at the same time :)

Staff Vacancy

We are currently advertising the following position;

Early Years Practitioner – Supply Cover

Springfield Pre-School are looking to recruit new members of staff to join its lively and successful team of practitioners.  In the first instance the positions will be ‘Supply Cover’ with the option to increase hours should the need occur.

The role will provide cover for instances of illness, holidays, training or when extra staff is required to ensure the needs of the children and pre-school are met at all times.  Successful applicants will be required to be available at extremely short notice.

Applicants should have a passion for childcare, have relevant experience and preferably hold an appropriate Level 3 qualification.  You should be able to work on your own as well as in a team and use your initiative.

Salary will be commensurate with experience and level of qualification.

Springfield Pre-School is well established and provides high quality childcare and education for children aged between 2 and 5 years, we are currently judged to be ‘Good’ by Ofsted and are striving towards being an ‘Outstanding’ setting.  We are a member of the Pre-School Learning Alliance and are a registered charity.

Applicants should contact Jayne Phipps on 07960 983423 or email at springfieldpreschool@hotmail.co.uk for an application form.  All applications should be accompanied by an up-to-date CV.

All appointments will be subject to a full Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service check.

Closing Date: Friday 20^th March

Pirate Ship - Update

A big thank you to Rob Attwood of Attwood Landscape & Gardening (07842 436673) as our pirate ship is almost complete.  Rob has completed all the construction work and all that is left to do is to complete the necessary risk assessment and to install some safety matting.  So although it would be very tempting to use the ship straight away we need to ensure that it is safe for all to use.  Once we are able to get safety matting installed (we need some dry weather for this please!!) we will be well on our way to a proper 'launch'!!

Here's some photos...

February Half Term

Please remember that Friday 6th February is our last day of this half term and we re-open on Monday 16th February.

Please note that we follow Derbyshire County Council term dates and these are not always the same as Nottinghamshire County Council dates, so if you have older children at Nottinghamshire schools please check your dates!!

Thanks!

Pirate Ship

Our pirate ship is now under construction and we are all very excited!!

A big thank you to Rob from Attwood Landscape & Gardening (07842 436673) for working so hard despite the freezing cold and the snow!!

Scarlet Fever

We would just like to advise our parents that we have today been informed of a case of scarlet fever in a child who attends pre-school.

Whilst this is usually a mild illness it is not very common nowadays so we thought parents ought to be aware.  Please visit NHS website for more information - www.nhs.uk

Cake Sale Week

This coming week, starting Monday 19th January, we will be having a cake sale week.

We'd like all donations, whether homemade or shop bought, brought into pre-school from Monday onwards.  Cakes will then be on sale at the end of each session all week until we run out!!

All monies raised will go to support our outdoor improvement project with the ultimate aim of getting a pirate ship!!

Many thanks for your continued support, we really do appreciate it.

HENRY - Health, Exercise, Nutrition for the Really Young

Derbyshire County Council have provided us with the following information for our parents;

'We know that being overweight is a major health problem and that the number of overweight adults and children continue to rise.  Younger and younger children are affected and as many as 1 in 4 children now start school overweight.

Would you be interested in finding out more about our HENRY 8 week courses? They run once a week for 3 hours and aim to include information on how weight affects health and why a healthy weight is important. In addition to weight the course also covers the importance of being active and offers hints and tips of what families can do to become more active together as well as receiving charts, place settings showing portion sizes, steps in growing and balancing the plate and other resources.

on completion, parents/carers will have an increased understanding of the knowledge and skills required to equip their children with the ability to resist the pressures of modern life that encourage inactivity and weight gain.

If you are interested please contact;

Robyn Hughes 01629 532079 or robyn.hughes@derbyshire.gov.uk or

Jo Glassbrook 01629 532057 or jo.glassbrook@derbyshire.gov.uk

We look to have around 10 people at each session, the course is free to parents and carers.'

Special Newletter - Outdoor Improvements

OUTDOOR IMPROVEMENTS

At pre-school we are always looking at ways in which we can improve the service we offer all of our parents and most importantly the children.

Research has proved the importance of good outdoor play in children’s development and we have over recent years made great strides in improving out outdoor area.  We have installed alphabet and number boards along with blackboards and weaving frames, we have transformed the original raised beds into a sensory garden and an amazing sandpit and now we want to go even further.

We want to be able to provide a canopy so that children have somewhere they can sit and play in the shade.  We also want a permanent climbing and imaginative play area and this will be in the form of a pirate ship!

These improvements are going to cost around £3500!!! So we need to get fundraising NOW!

Our aim is to install the pirate ship sometime during mid-February so that we can make full use of it as the weather gets warmer (hopefully!).  This means having to pay upfront and trust that we can raise the necessary money before the end of our financial year in July.  We have already made £1000 profit from our Christmas Fair plus small amounts from the photo morning, cake sale and Christmas card project so we are about a third of the way there.

Please see over for an idea of what the pirate ship will look like – we are all very excited!!!

So what can YOU do to help?  Do you have any ideas for fundraising activities? Are you prepared to organise an event/activity? Do you know anyone or any businesses that may be willing to donate or have grants that we can apply for?

Please speak to Jayne if you have any ideas or can help in any way.

Thank You!

Latest Newsletter - 5th January 2015

Hello

Welcome back after the Christmas break we hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Important Dates for your Diary

w/c 12^th January                  -           Dress Up Week

w/c 19^th January                  -           Cake Sale Week

Friday 6^th February             -          End of Term

Monday 16^th February         -           Start of Term

Wednesday 11^th March        -           Inset Day – pre-school will be closed

17^th, 18^th & 19th March       -           Parents Evening

Friday 27^th March                -           End of Term

Monday 13^th April                 -           Start of Term

Session Fees

Invoices for session fees, lunch club and snack have been issued; all invoices are issued for the term up to the 6^th February and should be paid by Wednesday 21^st January 2015.  Late payment of fees will automatically incur a £6.75 penalty fee and continuous failure to pay fees could result in the removal of your child’s place from pre-school.  Please speak to Jayne regarding any payment issues so that this can be avoided – many thanks.

Primary School Applications

If your child was born between 1^st September 2010 and 31^st August 2011 they will be due to start Primary School in the academic year September 2015 – August 2016.  Applications for your child's place at Primary School need to be made through Derbyshire County Council (for those living in Derbyshire) and Nottinghamshire County Council (for those living in Nottinghamshire) by midnight on 15th January 2015.  If anyone has any questions please speak to Jayne.

Term Dates

Please be aware that we follow Derbyshire County Council term dates and as such the dates for our February half term and Easter breaks are different to those for Nottinghamshire County Council.

Upcoming Events

Dress Up Week (w/c 12^th January) – to tie in with our topic of ‘favourite books’ we would like the children to come to pre-school dressed as their favourite character from a book!

Cake Sale Week (w/c 19^th January) – we will be having a cake sale all week (or until we run out of cakes!) so please bring in your donations from Monday 19^th January.  Cakes will be on sale at the end of each session – thank you.

Parents Evenings – these will be held in March and more details will be available after half term.

How to Contact Pre-School

Our phone number is 07960 983423 or email us at; springfieldpreschool@hotmail.co.uk and check our website www.springfieldpreschool.co.uk and Facebook page for up-to-date information.