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Childcare for 2 year olds
St Mary's are very pleased to be taking part in Northumberland County Council’s pilot scheme to provide up to 10 hours per week of childcare for 2 year olds who have been referred by other professionals or ourselves depending upon circumstances and need. Referrals must come via the CAF (Common Assessment Framework) and meet their criteria.
 
In addition to the above pilot we are also piloting the 3 year old increase in hours from the current 12.5 hours per week to the 15 hours per week which will be rolled out nationally in September 2010 for details on any of the above please contact the nursery. 

 

Old News...

In January due to high demand, we will be offering pre-school sessions for children aged 2 ½ these sessions will be run by Miss Mattison and the pre-school team in the afternoons from 12.45pm - 2.45pm at a cost of £6.00 per session. These sessions will be based around play within the Early Years Foundation Stage and will give children the opportunity to experience new activities in a safe, fun filled and welcoming environment supported by Miss Mattison and her team.
 
For enquires or to reserve a place please contact the nursery.

We are currently waiting for planning permission to be granted to allow us to continue with the erecting of a canopy and lay safety surface in our lower day-care play area. We had to stop work as we hadn’t realised that our building is Grade 2 listed! Due to it not coming up on any searches. However the architect has been out and plans are now with the planning department will update you as soon as we hear anything.

Mrs Gartland has decided to move on from our setting and therefore will not be returning in September for the new term we all wish her every success for the future and thank her very much for everything she has done during her time spent at St Mary’s Nursery Hexham. Miss Dunn and Miss Park will run pre-school sessions in September until a new appointment has been made which hopefully will be before October half term.

We have made the decision to recruit a qualified Early Years Professional who will over see the whole of the Early Years Foundation Stage ensuring we are delivering the very best high quality outcomes for children aged 0-5 yrs. Announcement will be made on the web once we have appointed.

Mrs Gartland has delivered her presentation of the Outdoor Area for pre-school which was a big success we now have a fabulous large photograph poster on display showing how much the children enjoyed a “play and Stay” session with their parents and other family members.

More photos to look at now the area is in use, we are still looking at ways to extend and further develop this area so keep looking.

The area also inspired the directors to look at the lower play area and we are now developing this area at present a safety surface will be laid to ensure the youngest children can play safely, a canopy will erected to provide shelter from the sun and elements and will allow full and maximum use of the area there will be a wooden play house structure built to fit one of the corners again to maximise full use of space and some painting of fences and a sitting and walking area prepared. Work is starting now to clear the areas and erect the canopy before the safety surface is laid during the summer holidays keep posted for updates.

Finally it is that time of year again when we wave off goodbye to our pre-schoolers who will start reception class in school in September it never ceases to amaze myself and the staff teams just how these often shy and small children turn into confident and very able little people ready to take on the world!! We all wish everyone all our very best wishes for the future ahead.

For all those of you with school age children we are running theme weeks in our holiday club over the summer holidays starting week beginning: Monday 27th July a full programme will be added to the web shortly. One sample is our resident dance teacher will teach Hip Hop sessions and Cheer leading there will be Giant model making competitions using recyclable materials such as milk and bread crates and Mosaic and Tile designing to name a few.

We are also running some special offers such as book 5 days and only pay for 4 pay for first child and get siblings half price plus other offers throughout the summer.

More news at the end of term

 

As part of the Graduate Support (GLF) Mrs Gartland our pre-school teacher is currently part of, we were invited to submit a bid for funding to develop an area of learning for children.

As we were in the process of developing the outside pre-school area and the criteria on the bid was “develop the outside learning space” we decided to carry on and achieve our dream - “To provide a Rich , Creative, Stimulating Learning Environment outdoors in which our children can plan their own learning and incorporate each others ideas”

We were successful in securing some £7000 funding from the GLF Fund which is allowing us to achieve our dream.

Watch out for new photos next month

 

Recent Photos

 

Happy New Year!

January welcomes some 8 new starts to our afternoon pre-school class. Our pre-school teacher Mrs Rita Gartland is in her second year with Northumberland County Council’s Sure Start Graduate Support Programme and as part of being involved with this has allowed us to apply for funding to improve our provision for users.

As part of our long term developments we wanted to improve our pre-school outdoor area to be more user friendly and multi functional. We have been successful in securing £7000 which will enable us to have a pergola type structure erected which will be used as an extension of the indoor classroom whilst also being adaptable in it’s use. We have plans to incorporate a water feature, multi sensory and natural resources set about the outside perimeter to maximise the use of our available space of which one part will be a cobble stoned area set into concrete and have pipe work feeding into them where the children will be able to walk on the different surface and use the water feature and pipes for pouring activities.

We have enlisted the help of local tradesmen to help us create this “outdoor wonderland” Henderson Fencing will supply and erect the pergola whilst local handyman Jed Irving will carryout the other works with the help of staff and children.

Watch out for regular picture updates.

 

Christmas is coming

The children are in full swing Christmas mode. We all enjoyed our Christmas lunch on Wednesday 10th December, Angela our cook made a delicious feast of free range turkey from Tom at WMH Farm Fresh Meats Haydon Bridge with roast and boiled potatoes, carrots, peas, Brussel sprouts, sage and onion stuffing and lovely yummy sausages and bacon followed by mini chocolate puddings and iced mince pies!!!! No one could move very much that afternoon!

Pre-school are doing there Christmas Nativity Tuesday 16th December look out for photos in January’s news. Pre-school Christmas Party Thursday 18th December a visit from the man in the red suit is hoping to pop in! Pre-school closes for the Christmas holidays at 11.30 am after the Christmas party and re-opens as normal on Monday 5th January 2009.

Day-care and Out of School Club Christmas Party week starts from Monday 15th and finishes when we close for the holidays on Tuesday 23rd December at 5pm reopening as normal on Monday 5th January 2009.

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

from the directors, staff and children of St Mary’s Nursery Hexham.

 

Summer 2008

Summer Holidays at St Mary’s is a busy time for everyone involved as the coming and goings of staff, children and their families go off on their annual holidays to recharge their batteries ready for the Autumn term.

The day-care children have not had the best start to the summer programme of activities we usually have on offer due to the unrelenting wet weather, however like true troopers we have all made the best of it and brought the summer indoors! The children have been camping and having barbeques, they have enjoyed theme days such as Under the Sea where everyone helped to make an under water haven full of different sea creatures.

One popular day was when the Crocodile came to play... see the photo of some children being very brave and sitting on the croc!!!

The third week of the holidays we have been very busy starting to find out about other cultures and traditions, we have started with France, today the children have had French bread and cheese for snacks, they have explored the texture and smell of garlic and French onions. Both the day-care and holiday club children have looked at and recreated the French Flag and have learnt some French words and their meanings.

Next week we will go off to Italy and a whole host of new adventures and activities to do and explore. Hopefully the real sunshine will come out in England for our finale of a Seaside picnic day.

September term for our pre-school class returns for the new term on Tuesday 9th September.

Enjoy the rest of your Summer