Autumn 2022

Wow! The start of a new school year again. They come round so quickly don’t they? We have more or less been back to our “new normal” working around the pandemic, getting back to school properly and being able to visit toddler groups, the library, music groups, soft play and meet up with other lovely childcare professionals.

We’ve had a very full and busy summer holiday this year visiting places like Bockets Farm, the pirate park, Wisley, The Lookout Discovery Centre, doing tennis workshops, going strawberry picking and we also did some exciting things from home like tie dye, soap making, crystal making, creating our own chocolate bar, assault courses in the garden, paddling pool, bouncy castle, games day and much more.

We were finally able to have our annual FUN DAY on Sunday 7 August after missing it for 2 years. There was a bouncy castle and bbq with lots of families visiting and getting to know each other. Some of the older children, who have moved on, popped back in to say hello which was so lovely. It was great to catch up and have a fun afternoon together.

Schools go back on Monday 5 September 2022 and I can’t believe some of my little ones are starting in reception whilst others are moving up to years 1 and 2 and even into New Haw Juniors. We also have some new children joining us which is going to be a lot of fun. We have some children starting nursery for the first time and we have been practicing getting dressed, carrying our book bags, going to the toilet on our own, making friends and listening to our safe adults.

From September we will visit toddler groups, the library, soft play, gym, small world play, parks and other interesting places in our community to help the children get a wide range of experiences to aid their general development

Our topic for the Autumn term is All About Me where we will find out lots of interesting things about ourselves, our families, friends and the people in our communities. If you would like to send anything in about your family such a photographs or special mementoes; we will include them into our learning plan. We will also be learning about different celebrations that happen around the world such as Harvest, Remembrance Day, Christmas, Diwali, Day of the Dead, Bonfire Night, Halloween, Thanksgiving etc. I’d love to hear about some of the celebrations that you celebrate in your family so that we can incorporate them into our curriculum.

For children under 5 years old I will still be working with the Early Years Foundation Stage which was reviewed and updated in September 2021. If you would like to see this in more detail follow this link https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-handbook.

The children and I have been discussing which charities we would like to support this year and we have decided to continue to support our two lovely dogs through The Dogs Trust (Boris on the left and Cheeky on the right). We get pictures and letters from them each term so if any family member would like to have a look please just ask.

We will also continue to support Surrey Wildlife Aid (www.wildlifeaid.org.uk), a Leatherhead based charity that helps to rehabilitate wildlife such as foxes, swans, squirrels etc when they get injured. We get a quarterly magazine from them which is available for anyone to take home or read through at my setting.

We have also decided to continue to support children who can’t hear very well through a charity called The National Deaf Children Society. They give support on childhood deafness, raise awareness and campaign for deaf children’s rights. We decided to support this charity because one of our mums (and subsequently her son) has some loss of hearing. They also send a quarterly magazine which is available for anyone to read.

This year we have made improvements to our setting by buying some lovely resources for our quiet room such as maths and IT equipment. We have also regenerated some of our outside equipment by buying a new sandpit (which one of our lovely new families helped us to build), a new quiet seating area, a revamp of the mud kitchen and reading corner. If there are any specific resources or toys that you think would benefit my setting please let me know.

My daughter Zoë has been home from university for a year now and is working full time in Cobham. She decided not to pursue a career working from our spare room doing beauty treatments so we don’t have customers in our home any more.

Here’s to another happy and fulfilling year of childminding x