Parent Comment -‘Key person approach is good, organised, good approach to make sure child settles, amazing, always approachable, always updated on day, talks about key person at home and seems very happy, feels comfortable

with key person, very hands on and thorough, open and friendly’, November 2019.

A big welcome to all parents, carers and families to our December newsletter.

We are all looking forward to a very exciting December month with lots of events and activities to take part in. Please remember to make yourself aware of all of our December activities, to enable you to attend if you wish. From all at Choochoos we wish you a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful 2020.

Kind regards, Lauren Mankelow.

What have our children been learning at Choochoos in November?

Ofsted says, ‘Children are confident to talk to adults and ask them for help’.

Newsletter December 2019 Choochoos are celebrating our 14th year in

childcare. A very warm welcome to all of our new families

joining us this month.

Our Babychoos Babychoos have experienced a very wet and cold November, to extend on exploring the change in the weather we included this in our everyday play. We experimented how we could make our own puddles and rain, we introduced the large tuff tray filled

with water, exploring measure and weight. Our children put on their wetsuits and wellies to jump in to see how high we could

splash. We used watering cans to make rain, watching as it splashed onto the ground. We extended this by adding ice to

watch it melt and making our own wind using fans. This developed our use senses, imagination and thinking skills.

Last month we begun interacting with our new family display, by looking at photos of our families and themselves. The display is in our role play area, of which has interested more children to

explore this area. Our children have experienced with their new small table and role play items, developing their role play,

social skills and imagination. This has allowed our children to extend on their sharing and turn taking.

A big thank you to all of our parents/carers who attended our parents meetings and for your wonderful feedback.

Our Caterpillars and Butterflies Our Butterflies and Caterpillars have created their own amazing transient art. They used coloured shapes to make their art then photographed them, this developed their creative skills, fine

motor skills and imagination. To extend this activity our children have used their own ideas on what resources to use and

have proudly taken pictures of them too. This has developed our children's self confidence and decision making.

Last month our children experienced bathing the babies, showing care for others and how to be healthy and hygienic.

Our children have shown a great interest in doing this, even pretending to bath themselves too.

Bonfire Week - Throughout the week our children showed lots of excitement into creating their own firework collages. They explored colour and colour mixing. We introduced music with firework sounds while painting, including splatter painted.

Remembrance Day - To celebrate and pay respects to this special day, our children made their own poppies and poppy pictures. We explored people who help us both present and past. Our children took part in a minute silence.

Anti-Bullying Week - To support Anti-bullying week our children discussed how and why we are kind to each other and our feelings. We explored our feelings and what makes us feel sad, happy and angry, we supported this by wearing odd socks throughout the week.

Thanksgiving - To celebrate Thanksgiving our children had the opportunity to taste traditional Thanksgiving food and learn about the meaning of this day.

Road Safety Week - During this week our children learnt how to cross the road safely through role playing, stories and a variety of activities.

Staff Training Last month all of our staff were provided with Health and Safety training to give them updated information and knowledge to carry out safer practices at work.

This month our staff will be updated on food hygiene training, provided by our cook Laura.

School Admissions September 2020 Hopefully you have all been visiting your local schools to gain knowledge about what they offer and provide for your child starting school 2020.

Please continue to refer to our Starting School display, with information on Starting School in

September 2020. Please note the below important dates for the application process.

These have also been emailed to you.

Here are the guidelines for the process:

- The application process opens on the 5 November 2019 and closes 15 January 2020.

- You will find out the school your child has been accepted into on 16 April 2020.

- To apply online visit www.kent.gov.uk/schooladmissions

If you need advice call 03000 41 21 21 or email primaryadmissions@kent.gov.uk

Promotion for Sept – December 2019 Only

For a limited time only for existing families attending at Choochoos. Add a permanent

extra am or pm session towards your child's attendance from September 2019 and get a free child's Choochoos t-shirt. Complete a change of session form in our lobby area,

when completed please hand into the office.

November Parent Meetings

Thank you very much to all of our parents and families who attended our November parents meetings. These are

important meetings for you to attend to help towards reviewing and creating new next steps for your child.

Please continue have a look at your child’s eyLog and add any information about your child, photographs along with any written information about what your child has been doing within their homelife, their interests and their

development.

Parents Meetings Questionnaire Evaluation November 2019

Thank you for completing our questionnaire during your child’s recent parent meeting with their key

person. It is very important that we gain your feedback to improve and work together. Please see

the attached document to see your feedback and our responses/actions.

December

December Month - Wear Christmas Jumpers -

Children and staff are invited to wear Christmas jumpers throughout the whole

month to celebrate Christmas.

Monday 2 December - Christmas Decoration Day - Choochoos will be decorating our environment with Christmas items, creating a winter wonderland within Choochoos.

Thursday 5 December - Christmas Craft Afternoon - Choochoos invites all parents/carers

and families to join us from 2pm-3.30pm to create Christmas crafts, making Christmas items and gifts. If your child does not attend on this day, you are required to accompany them throughout their visit.

Thursday 12 December - Christmas Party and Sing along - Choochoos invites all children in free of charge to our ‘Christmas Party’ day from 11am - 1.30pm. Children are required to be dropped off at nursery for their normal day/time. If your child does not normally attend during this session you are welcome to drop them off to the Phoenix Club (opposite Choochoos) at 11am and stay for our Christmas singalong until 11.30am. Then our children will have a picnic party lunch, followed by a Christmas disco, games and a visit from Santa. If your child does not normally attend during this session, please collect them at 1.30pm from the Phoenix Club.

Last Open Day Friday 20th December 2019 Closed Monday 23 December 2019 Re-open Monday 6 January 2020

What’s on at Dover Children’s Centre?

Did you know at Blossom Children Centre…...

‘Keeping up with The Children’s English’ Every

Tuesday 930-1130am.

Please see in our lobby area leaflets and newsletter for more information

about our local Children Centre.

Staff Roles and Responsibilities

Designated Safeguarding and Child Protection/Prevent/Online Safety Officers Emma Borley & Hayley

Smith.

The Designated Safeguarding and Child Protection Officers

role is to oversee all Safeguarding and Child

Protection items within the setting.

The Designated Safeguarding and Child Protection Officers role includes:

• Working with practitioners, parents, carers, families and outside agencies to ensure our children, families and employees are kept safe.

• Acting if any signs of abuse or concern is identified.

• Seeking advice, sharing practice, guiding, supporting, referring and monitoring, for all children, employees, parents, carers, families and outside agencies.

• Providing employees with Safeguarding and Child Protection training.

• Updating policies and procedures in line with current legislation and guidance.

• Keeping all Safeguarding and Child Protection paperwork updated.

• Teaching our children how to keep safe.

• Keeping our Safeguarding and Children Protection display current for employees.

The Prevent Officer Role includes:

• Overseeing how to prevent radicalization and extremism within Choochoos.

• Acting on any concerns of radicalization or extremism.

• Ensuring all employees complete prevent/channel training as part of their induction.

• Liaising with practitioners, parents, carers, families and outside agencies to keep all children, families and employees safe.

• Keeping up to date with current legislation and guidance.

• Organising and updating our Lockdown policy and procedure.

The Online Safety Officer role includes:

• Overseeing the use of online access at Choochoos by children, employees and parents, carers and families.

• Guiding, supporting and training employees to understand Online Safety, the risks and how to educate our children.

• Provide parents, carers and families with the information they need to keep them and their families safe online.

The three roles interlink, therefore they are combined into one. Contact a Designated Officer if you have any

questions or concerns about any of the above.

SENCO Termly Newsletter

We hope you enjoyed reading our Senco newsletter last month. These will be created each term by our

SENCO for you. (SENCO – Special Educational Needs Coordinator)

Policy and Procedure updates Please refer to our updated Child Protection and our

No Smoking policy in our lobbies.

Employee of the Month

Makaton Signs for the Month

Father Christmas

Congratulations to Laura Our

Cook .

Laura has been awarded this for achieving 5 stars in our Food Hygiene Inspection, always

organised and supportive when needed with our children.

Well Done Laura.

Thank you for taking the time to read this Newsletter. We are available any time for you to come and see us and share your thoughts or email us on dover@choochoos.co.uk

Lauren Mankelow, Area Manager

Books of the month

Our children will be exploring a variety of Christmas stories

throughout this month. If you

have any at home you wish to share

please bring them in.

Songs of the Month

Our children will be exploring a variety of

Christmas songs throughout this month. If you have any at home you wish to share please

share them with us.

Parents Meeting Attendance – November 2019

Thank you to all of our parents/carers and families who attended our parents meetings in

November. 64% of our parents and carers attended their appointment with their child’s

key person. In comparison to November 2018 the

attendance has was 71%, so it has decreased by 7%. In comparison to July 2019 attendance was

71%, so has decreased again by 7%. Please give us your feedback as to why you feel the attendance has decreased and what

we can do to improve attendance? Our Actions are as below:

• Discuss at management meeting and room meetings the importance of encouraging

parents/families to attend to evaluate and develop child’s next steps.

• Manager to share with team leaders/deputies to feedback to their teams within

their room meetings regarding their attendance and as how they feel they can

improve this.

• Ensuring the team are encouraging parents/carers to come along and reminding them of

their appointment time/date.

• Manager/admin to check two weeks before the booking in sheets, then call the ones not

booked in.

• Continue to advertise before via newsletter, email, website, Facebook,

posters in room and lobby area and give parent observations and sheet with their

date and time to remind them.

Our Children's Development Evaluation November 2019

Overall our children were achieving with their age bracket in Personal Social and Emotional Development/

Expressive Art Design.

Our data shows us that the areas where the most children were achieving below their age bracket were

Literacy and Mathematics.

Our actions are below

Literacy – Action - To complete interaction audits with all staff as training. To ensure/remind staff to complete observations on their children, while monitoring tracking

levels. Ensuring each room is using their story/music planning sheet to gain a variety of experiences. Area

manager to write a story telling audit to complete with staff. Implementing letters and sounds daily.

Maths – Action - To ensure staff are writing observations to monitor child's progress and ensure they

are developing. Consider whole nursery training for all staff.

Team leaders will be looking at these areas within their teams and creating ideas together to help develop this

progress.