BOSLEY BOBKINS PRE-SCHOOL

                           Bosley Bobkins Newsletter April 2019

Welcome back to our final term this year, we hope you had a lovely Easter break.

This half term we welcome new friends Casey, Belle, Felicity and Layton, we hope they will enjoy their time with us. 

This half term’s theme is Nursery rhymes, which continues our phase one phonic work with rhyming sounds. We will be looking at a traditional rhyme each week and it will be based around our five senses for these weeks before half term. We hope to learn new things in multi-sensory ways!

Thank you to everyone; new families and past families who came to our Mother’s day afternoon tea . It was so nice to see so many friendly faces and our little Bobkins loved being waiters. We made a fantastic £65 which as usual goes in to buy new resources. 

Our hard working Committee are working with school’s PTA to produce the fashion show on Thursday 9th May please come along and join us. Tickets available, just ask!

We also have another coffee morning coming up at Congleton library on Saturday 8th June , all volunteers greatly appreciated along with raffle prizes, cakes and bric-a brac items. Every little helps.

Don’t forget our Bobkins class photo on Friday 3rd May at about 9 am , it will only take a few minutes so please bring your child in even if they are not attending that day.

As our weather blossoms (hopefully) please remember sun hats and cream daily, putting on a first or only coat (if the 12 hr stuff) before you arrive at Bobkins .  Make sure your child’s cream is named and put in their pocket so we can re administer if necessary as we will go outside as much as possible. Named water bottles are also essential at this time of year. Thank you.

As usual if you or your child has any worries or concerns PLEASE come and see us straight away. We really want Bobkins to be a happy place for all.

Thank you once again for your continued support

             Karen , Gill, Pauline, Pascale, Alison , Amie , Becky and Shirley

 Bosley Bobkins Newsletter February 2019

Welcome back to the second half term of our popular traditional tales theme. Each week we explore a different story each offering us moral and emotional ideas to talk about and elements we can use across the curriculum range. We start back the Billy goats gruff so I’m sure it will be a fun week.

Thanks to all your contributions and attendance at our recent fundraisers we have almost raised the funds to pay for Gill’s Forest school training and she starts in March. It will be hard work for her but it will enable us to spend more time outside and widen our experiences learning in and from the environment… prepare to get muddy, very muddy!

Fundraisers so far this half term include –

a Mother’s day afternoon tea party in the school hall on Friday 29th March from 2- 3.30 pm ,where for a small cost you can come meet with friends, bring your mums, aunties, grandmas , enjoy tea and cakes and contribute to your child’s education. 

We will also have our Easter egg hunt on Wednesday 3rd April… last year was so much fun so please come along. 

On Thursday 21st March we will also be supporting World Downs Syndrome day where your child can wear odd socks for a small donation- more information from Sammi  (Harry’s Mum)

It is also world book day on Thursday 7th March , your child can dress up as their favourite character and bring in a story to share.

Finally our whatsapp group is up and running thank you for all your permissions- it will make short communication between us quicker and easier.

Thank you for your continued support.

Karen , Gill, Pauline , Pascale, Ali, Amie , Becky and Shirley

  Bosley Bobkins Newsletter January 2019

Happy New Year!

This term we welcome Ellie who joins our little family, we hope you enjoy your time with us Ellie.

Thank you to all who came or contributed to our recent fundraisers (the Nativity and Christmas fayre) we raised £69 on the raffle and £110 at the fayre. A huge thank you to the Committee who ran an additional stall this year. We are hoping to raise enough money to train Gill as a Forest school Teacher so we can run sessions in Bobkins time, we have a tree display on the wall in Bobkins to show our progress.

Our next fundraisers are-

Sat 2nd Feb Congleton library coffee morning

Thurs 7th Feb 7pm our bingo night at the Knot Rushton- details to follow shortly but please ask your friends to save the date.

We would greatly appreciate help on stalls, bric-a brac, tombola and raffle items as every little helps. Thank you.

Our topic this term will be traditional tales; we start with the three little pigs and end the half term with Cinderella in time for Valentine’s day. We will be covering all areas of the curriculum from Phase 1 phonics and literacy to science and technology, all stories have hidden morals or pastoral content to support our social emotional work. What fun we will have!

Finally thank you for all our lovely Christmas gifts- it makes us feel very special. This term don’t forget your child’s NAMED wellies, hats gloves and warm coats ... it will be cold out there!

          Karen , Gill, Pauline , Pascale , Ali, Amie , Becky and Shirley

Bosley Bobkins Newsletter November 2018

Welcome back. This half term our theme is the Stickman story incorporating outside activities , Autumn and Winter work, celebrations of bonfire night, Diwali and Christmas and even a bit of science and technology linking to the three little pigs story and building materials.

Our fundraiser at the Copper rooms in Macclesfield is on Saturday 24th November 12-3 pm all offers of help to promote or sell tickets would be greatly appreciated.

Bosley Christmas Fayre is on Saturday 1st December and we would appreciate any items we could use for our bag game and raffle prizes. Perhaps bottles, smellies, sweets or good quality children’s toys. There will be a box near the sign in book for your donations. Every little item helps us raise money to buy equipment and resources for your children.

Our Nativity and Christmas meal is on Tuesday 11th December starting at 11.45 am. Tickets for adults cost  £3.30 each which includes a two course meal. Children’s tickets are £2.30 each. Please let us know how many tickets you would like as soon as possible. (list by the sign in book) Family and friends are welcome.

 As our weather turns wintery please remember to send in warm clothes and coats with wellies, hats and gloves because we will go out whatever the weather.

Finally our Committee has remained largely the same with Vicky resigning as Chair but staying on the committee to support us, Ali Newsome steps into the role .Amie as treasurer and Becky as secretary and Shirley remains our safeguarding lead. Thank you to all who came to the meeting or who offered support. We really couldn’t continue without you.

Karen , Gill, Pauline , Pascale, Ali, Amie, Becky, Shirley & Vicky

              Bosley Bobkins’ Newsletter September 2018

Welcome back to a whole new year! Our first topic will be dinosaurs and we will be looking at sizes, food they ate, when they lived and what sounds they made. Dinosaurs begin with ‘d’ too! We are sure there will be lots of exploring adventures going on this half term.

We have reintroduced the link book instead of our daily feedback sheet, we hope more parents will contribute and it gives us a little more space for some practise work for you to do at home. Please place the book back in your pocket each morning and a staff member will add to it.

Thank you to those of you who completed our questionnaire, we had a 64% return. Karen of course did not contribute despite having two pupils resident with her. Results were very pleasing – 100% thought their child enjoyed Bobkins, felt welcome and felt that their child was safe with us. One person did not know how to make a complaint and only felt slightly involved with their child’s preschool education. To make a complaint you can see Karen, any committee or staff member or go directly to Ofsted. Full procedures and forms are on the noticeboard under the complaints heading.

Suggestions about how we could improve included opportunities for parents to get to know each other, more activities to do at home, more parental involvement and more opportunities to see their child’s progress. As a charity preschool we have to hold committee meetings and fundraisers; most meetings are open, held in a local pub and advertised by the sign out book as all welcome, so please come along. We hold stay & play sessions, Christmas meals, Easter egg hunts and leavers  get togethers, all parents  and grandparents are welcome just to come and chat. Our next fundraisers are a car boot sale, a Christmas shopping experience and a coffee morning at Congleton library. Please start collecting toys for our car boot and raffle prizes for our coffee morning. All offers of help gratefully received and any questions please ask any Committee member or Karen. If you would like to help in a session please see Karen and we always need help to promote ourselves- visiting other venues, distributing leaflets etc. Please let us know if you have any ideas. Our AGM is in Oct/ Nov  and we are always looking for new Committee members – forms will be out again shortly.

If you would like to know about your child’s progress , do not wait for our parent’s evening ask your key worker ANY TIME. We will also be having more regular meetings with you to discuss next steps for your child that we will work on together.

Finally please remember to NAME everything , bring in clean water bottles daily, a change of clothes and warm / waterproof coats , hats and boots each day as our weather becomes  the more ‘English’ wet and windy. Unfortunately all wet and dirty clothes have to be returned home as we have no washing facilities at Bobkins.

Thank you for your continued support and please don’t hesitate to speak to us if you have any worries or concerns.

Karen , Gill, Pauline , Tasha, Vicky, Amie, Becky & Shirley.

 Bosley Bobkins Newsletter June 2018

Welcome back to our last half term this year. It will be a sad goodbye to our big Bobkins who go to big school in September. Hope, Daniel, Eloise, Priya and Isaac go to Bosley, Poppy to Whirley and Mia to Gawsworth. We will miss you all so much.

This half term our topic of growth changes to our growth and changes in our lives.  Going to big school is a huge change. We will look at the things we are able to do now compared with what we did as babies. How much bigger we are, and how much more we still have to grow.

We have decided to introduce a Parent/carer worry box by the sign out book. It will be anonymous and you can add any concerns you have about parenting or behaviour, sleeping etc. however petty you may think they are. We will answer them with out identifying details on the Facebook page .Between the Bobkins team we have a wealth of knowledge in theory, 40 years of child based work experience and 77 years combined parenting skills. However we do not have all the answers, once our reply is on the page please feel free to contribute ideas. We all need help sometimes.

Our Bobkins photo will be taken on Monday 11th June at 9.30 am could all children please attend for just a few minutes.

Bobkin’s leavers celebration will be a coffee morning on Wednesday 18th July at 10.30 until 11.45am to enable leaver’s parents to get home in time for home visits in the afternoon.

As we hopefully get more sunshine can we ask you to bring in a pair of pumps with their sunhat, cream and water bottle (named please). We do play out what ever the weather, do not want to damage lovely new shoes and wellies are just not appropriate to wear when it’s very warm. Water bottles will be placed in your pockets to be taken home daily, cleaned and filled as we had problems last half term when we had no water. Thanks to Becky for bringing in supplies.

Thank you for all your support this year.

Karen, Gill, Pauline, Tasha, Vicky, Amie, Becky and Shirley

Bosley Bobkins Newsletter April 2018

Welcome back to our last term of the year, we hope you had a lovely Easter break. Did you do your Easter homework?

We welcome Florence who has already done a few days with us. She is our Stanley’s little sister and we have been waiting for her to be two to join us. She has already settled beautifully and we love having her as part of our family.

A huge thank you to our fantastic Committee for organising our very successful Easter egg hunt and sponsored walk we raised over £220 and it was so much fun, even in damp weather. We will hopefully buy new outdoor equipment with the proceeds.

We also had a special visitor in the last week of term from Ofsted, thank you to all parents who took the time to talk to our inspector. The report will be available shortly and we will make a copy available by the noticeboard.

This half term we will be continuing our phonics work in preparation for school and to enable us to work on sounds with those children who are finding some speech sounds challenging. We will also be looking at growth, our own and things around us in the environment. We hope this will lead to self-care and independence skills especially for those children leaving us in the summer.

We have heard that some people have not been receiving our newsletters or critical incident calls and texts, If this is the case please let us know immediately and we will check all your contact details. It is extremely important that we have your correct contact information.

Don’t forget parents evening on Wed 25th April and your parental comment on your report. We look forward to having the opportunity to chat about your child and any worries or concerns you may have.

Finally a belated happy birthday to Pauline , we hope it was a great one!

Karen, Gill, Pauline, Tasha, Vicky, Amie, Becky& Shirley

  Bosley Bobkins Newsletter March 2018

Welcome back to a very short half term … just five weeks to fit everything in!

Priya and Jensen, brother and sister have joined our little group and are happy to be making new friends. Every one has made them feel very welcome and they’ve even been invited to a birthday party. Thank you.

This half term we will be talking about healthy eating and looking after ourselves. It’s good to try new things to eat and exercise our bodies to stay well. We are very proud of some of our Bobkins who have made huge progress in their self care and toileting. Well done (to Mums and Dads too!)

We are continuing our sounds work … It would really help if you could play I spy type games at home looking at the first sound of objects and especially your child’s name , you could practise writing it too. Another way is treasure hunts in supermarkets – can you see something that begins with ‘t’ tomatoes, tea, t shirts , tuna etc. The letters we start with are S, A, T and P.

On Tuesday 27th March we are holding a sponsored walk in Easter bonnets to raise funds for new equipment. The whole event has been kindly organized by our new committee and details and forms will be given out shortly. Thank you Amie, Becky and Vicky.

After Easter we will be issuing our reports and having our Parent’s evening. The date will be Wednesday 25th April and appointments will be available between 3.30pm and 5.45 pm. Please look by the sign in book nearer the time to book your slot.

Finally the weather can still be chilly so please remember, warm coats , hats, gloves and wellies. We do try to go outside what ever the weather.

Please don’t hesitate to come in and speak to us if you have any questions.

Karen, Gill, Pauline , Tasha and Becky .

    Bosley Bobkin’s  Newsletter January 2018

Happy New Year, we hope you had a fantastic Christmas and a restful break. A huge thank you to all of you (including our lovely new committee, Vicky, Amie and Becky) who supported, sold tickets and provided for our Christmas activities including the Christmas fayre and our Nativity and Christmas lunch. I know we all enjoyed them and we really couldn’t do them without you.

This half term we welcome Harry to our little family, the brother of one of our big Bobkins Alanna. We can’t wait for him to join in our playtime. Nolan has also had a little sister recently, she is called Ivy, we are so excited for him and are looking forward to meeting her. Congrats to the whole family.

This half term we will be thinking about working together and sharing, the world around us and the people in it who help us and care for us. We will continue to work on our self-care skills and if anyone wants support in toileting please speak to any staff member. We are also reintroducing our child lead challenge work particularly for our older children to help develop their abilities in the characteristics of effective learning. Please see our board in the classroom to see how you can help at home. Don’t forget to add any achievements at home to our WOW board in the entrance hall… we need to know all about them so we can celebrate too!

We will also be celebrating Chinese New year , continuing to visit Church for our monthly praise and play session and joining Reception each Friday for a EYFS story / drama session incorporating our speech , language and imagination skills. What a busy few weeks ahead.

Please don’t hesitate to come and see us if you have any worries, concerns or suggestions. Finally just a reminder that our session fees have increased by £1 (morning and afternoon sessions are now £13 each.)

                      Karen, Gill, Pauline, Tasha and Shirley

Bosley Bobkins Newsletter November 2017

Welcome back to the second half of our busy Autumn term. We welcome Henry and his family and hope they enjoy their time at Bobkins.

This half term our theme is celebrations , colour and sound. We start , of course with Bonfire night incorporating all elements of our topic with firework’s colourful, noisy explosions and how to stay safe. This leads us on to talk again about Diwali, the festival of light and Christmas. We will also be looking at sounds and how they link to letters , starting with our colours and our own names.

Our Christmas celebrations start early this year on Thursday 30th November ( when we can use the hall) with our little Nativity and family Christmas lunch. Please join us in the hall at 11.30am to start the festivities in style .A letter and booking form will follow shortly.

The Christmas Fair is Saturday 2nd December and Bobkins would appreciate any donations of bottles or raffle type gifts for our pick a bag game and Christmas raffle. Please ask any staff member if you are unsure on what to bring in.

As the weather gets colder please remember we try to go out whatever the weather so please bring in NAMED wellies, warm coats, hats, gloves and scarves.

Thank you for your continued support.

Karen , Gill, Pauline, Tasha and Shirley

 Bosley  Bobkins  Newletter  September  2017

Welcome back. We hope you had a fantastic summer.

This half  term we welcome  Catherine,  Jake,  Isaac and Nolan to our little family and hope they enjoy their  time with us.

As our staffing has changed, so has some keyworker groups so please look at the list above the coats as you enter Bobkins . All staff get to know all our children well and we swap days occasionally to accommodate this; if you have any concerns  about your child please talk to any staff member.

We hope to extend our home school links this year so we have introduced a home WOW notice board. It is positioned by the coats and has sheets for you to complete at home or coloured post it notes by the sign in book for you to use quickly. We hope you will write any exciting things that happen at home, from a whole nights sleep to using the potty for the first time. We really want to celebrate these achievements in Bobkins too.

This half term our topic area is My World. Starting with your child – this is me , my home , my family etc. if you have any photos please bring them in so we can share them with the group. We will also be looking at things we can do…. I can climb up a climbing frame , I can jump with two feet, I can find something yellow etc. If your child has a I can  moment please add it to our wow wall and it will be added to their workbooks each week. Working together enables your child to achieve more.

Praise and play continues on the first Wednesday of each month with Reception in Church and we hope to extend these links with School with a weekly song and rhyme time on a Friday morning. This is invaluable for transitions and the children love meeting up with old friends. 

Stay and play remains on a Thursday afternoon from 1-3pm all welcome for a donation of £1 a family towards refreshments.

As we start a new year please , please remember to name all your child’s clothing , perhaps even with a permanent marker , including a water bottle , which should be taken home each week for a proper clean as Bobkins do not have the facilities. Thank you.

We are looking forward to a busy half  term full of new friends , fun and learning. Thank you for your continued support.

                                 Karen , Gill, Pauline, Tasha and Shirley