Dear Parents/Carers

 

Welcome to the Summer Term at Rascals.
This is the third and final newsletter issued during this academic year. The previous newsletters and a copy of this one

can be found on our website www.rascalsplaygroup.co.uk. We also post regular reminders and useful information on our facebook page www.facebook.com/RascalsPreSchoolPlaygroup so please feel free to LIKE us for regular updates and information in your newsfeed. This should enable you to have access to all the information you need when you

need it.

 

VE Day 

To celebrate VE Day on this coming Thursday 8th May we are inviting the children to come dressed in red, white and blue to help us mark the occasion. We will have some decorations in the hall and we look forward to sharing the day with the children.

 

Stay and play

We will be holding our last stay and play of this academic year on Friday 9th May. You are very welcome to come in with your child and stay until 10.15am but we politely ask that you ensure a member of staff lets you out of the setting to secure the doors. Thank you for your support with this.

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Forest School

We are extremely excited to have booked a visit for our oldest children to the forest school at Summerlea school on Wednesday 18th June. Unfortunately, we cannot extend this visit to our younger children but we hope to repeat it next year and they will then have their chance to attend once they reach school leaver age. A letter to confirm attendance and further information will be going out to those families that this relates to.

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Parent Consultations

Parent consultation evening has been booked for Wednesday 11th June. This provides us with an opportunity to discuss our plans for the following term for those who are staying with us and the children who are leaving to talk about any concerns you may have regarding your child starting school in September. We will be in the coffee lounge from 5.15pm and your key person will be in touch before half term to confirm appointment times.
We realise you may not be able to make the appointment time given to you and if this is the case, please do get in touch with us via email so that we can try to change it to a more suitable time for you. If you are away or know that you won't be able to make it that evening, please also let us know so that we can arrange to see you at another time and day that would be suitable.

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Last day Friday 18th July
Invitation to church at 12.00pm
As we draw closer to the end of term and some of our children are getting ready to leave us for school, we would like to invite you all into the church for one last time to say goodbye. All children are invited in for the morning, even if your child doesn’t usually attend on a Friday but we would ask that you please confirm by text or email that your child will be coming in that day so that we are able to ensure we have the correct number of staff to safely accommodate this.
We will be providing the children with a party snack and we will have some music and dancing during the morning. You are then welcome to join us in the church with your child if you would like to.

 

If you have a child who is staying with us in September (our younger children), we ask that you collect them at

11.40am please. You are then welcome to join us in the church with your child if you would like to.

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The older children (those who will be leaving us for school) will go through to the church with us at 12.00pm and will be performing a few songs for you all.
Once the service is finished, we will take the older children back through to playgroup to gather their things and will then invite families through to give out the children's learning journals as the children leave.

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Arrival at Rascals

As our sessions have been filling up with more children over the last few months we have noticed that the cloakroom has become much busier in the mornings. There can be a large number of both adults and children entering the setting at the morning drop off and this can then be quite overwhelming for some of our children. We would appreciate if parents could please encourage their children to enter independently, particularly our school leavers, so that the cloakroom is clearer for them to be able to access their pegs. We will ensure an appropriate number of staff are on hand in the cloakroom to support this.

From next week we will also be trialling putting our water bottle trolley and lunch trolley outside for your child to put their water bottle and lunch on before they come in. We are hoping this will then make it easier for the children to come in independently as they will have less to carry as they enter the cloakroom. Please encourage your child to put their own lunch on the trolley and their water bottle as it is important for them to have some independence in carrying out these tasks. We appreciate your support with this and would love to hear your feedback once this has been started.

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Labelling children’s belongings

We would like to offer a polite reminder to our families to ensure that all of your children’s belongings are clearly labelled. This is particularly important for drinks bottles, lunchboxes (and boxes inside), bags (clothes inside) and coats so that we can be sure we are always sending the children home with their correct items. Many thanks.

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Sun Cream

We are looking forward to spending as much time as possible outside this term and we are hoping the weather will continue to warm up! Even though it is still a little chilly, when the sun does come out it is very strong and we would ask that you send your child to playgroup with a named sun hat. We would also ask that you start applying sun lotion to your children before they come to playgroup in the mornings. As you can imagine we simply don’t have enough hands or time to apply lotion to every child so we would really appreciate your support. It is also a good idea to bring sun cream (clearly named) to playgroup with your child, so that if your child is staying on for an afternoon session or have been playing in the water and we feel we need to re-apply some more lotion we can do.

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Spare clothes
Could we please remind all parents/carers to bring spare clothes for your child. We do get very messy and wet at Rascals and will need to change the children at various times. It is also great practise for the children in preparation for school to get their own bag and to change their clothes.

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School Readiness

As we prepare to say a sad farewell to our older children, we thought it would be beneficial to reflect on how at Rascals we help to prepare the children for school and how you too can help them at home.​

At Rascals we promote your child’s independence from the moment they start with us. Within our supportive environment, your child is encouraged to think and act for themselves.​

Toilet independence: Once your child is fully toilet trained they are encouraged to use the toilet and maintain their personal hygiene independently.
Personal Belongings: Your child is encouraged to look after their own belongings. They are encouraged to hang up their own coat and bag and to collect them at the end of the morning.

Getting Dressed: Your child is encouraged to dress themselves. Taking off and putting on their own coat and shoes and will practice this through various dressing up and role play opportunities. (Please try and purchase shoes for your child that they can manage themselves). We also show the children how to recognise if their sleeves are inside out and how to pull them back through so they are the right way before they put their coat/cardigan on.

Free flow: Your child is encouraged to explore their own interests and are given the opportunity to access a variety of resources to support their learning.
1 to 1 Reading sessions: In the academic year before your child starts school, they will have regular 1 to 1 reading sessions with their key person. They will have the opportunity to take the books home for the week to share with

parents / carers.
School Role Play: We have a school role play area at Rascals throughout the year. This is more frequently set up during the summer term so the children become more familiar with the school uniforms that they will be encountering in their new schools.
Lunch Time: Those children who stay for full day sessions (Mondays and Tuesdays) have the opportunity to eat lunch together twice a week and this is an opportunity for the children to practice eating their lunch independently in a social situation.
Liaise with local schools: We maintain close links with local schools and annually review transition arrangements.

Teacher Visits: We usually invite the local schools to visit Rascals to meet their new intake.

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Top Tips for Starting School:

• Involve your child in the process of buying uniform and other necessities for school.
• Encourage your child to dress and put on their shoes and coats independently.
• Encourage your child to manage their own personal hygiene after using the toilet such as teaching your

child to wipe their own bottom and hand washing.
• Talk about starting school together BUT don’t refer to it as starting ‘BIG’ school as this can prove intimidating. Instead use the schools name or refer to it by the colour of its uniform.
• Read books about starting school together

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The following web links provide information and advice on developing the key skills your child needs to be school ready.
Pacey – Steps to Starting School Poster https://www.pacey.org.uk/Pacey/media/Website-files/PACEY%20general/Steps-to-starting-school.pdf

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Rascals occupancy list:

If you have a younger child or you know of someone who would like to put their child on our occupancy list to attend Rascals, please let Tracey know. We have a list for the next few years so it is important to register children as soon as possible.

In addition to this newsletter, you will find attached a Termly Reminders sheet which we hope you will find useful. We realise this is a lot of information to take in all at once but feel it is useful to provide you with as much detail as possible and hopefully this will answer some of the questions you may have. However, if there is anything you are unsure of or if you just need a bit of advice about something, please do speak to a member of staff who will be more than happy to help you.

We look forward to enjoying the Summer Term with you all.

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THANK YOU.
THE RASCALS TEAM

Rascals mobile: 07546584314
Rascals email: rascalsplaygroup@gmail.com

           

[PLEASE NOTE: The Rascals mobile phone and email address are constantly monitored by Tracey. During out of hours and particularly over weekends and holidays you may not receive an immediate response. However, if you are contacting us with a matter of urgency an email is always the best form of communication].

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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:

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VE Day (wear red, white and blue) - Thursday 8th May

Stay and Play - Friday 9th May

Half Term - Monday 26th May – Friday 30th May

Parent Consultations – Wednesday 11th June
Forest School (School Leavers only) – Wednesday 18th June

Leavers Celebration* – Friday 18th July (Last day)
*Younger children to be collected at 11.40am
FIRST DAY AUTUMN TERM – Thursday 4th September