The Early Years Education Newsletter
This third edition of Building Blocks has news about the Woodland School, an introduction to Rachel Cross in ‘Meet our staff’ plus news of Christmas activities at HOPE Early Years Education.
Woodland School
We’ve now had a full term in the woods with our Woodland School, with two different groups attending. The children have had many experiences. They’ve looked at habitats and hibernating, finding safe places for their clay hedgehogs. They’ve climbed trees and moved logs, working cooperatively and as individuals. We have found that water mixed with soil makes… MUD! and have all enjoyed sliding down the mud slide. We have played hide and seek and “Going on a bear hunt”!
The children have led the play, learned new skills and are beginning to take ownership of the space, recognising that some people don’t take care of the woods and leave litter here.
It’s been wonderful to see the quiet, shy children, taking charge and leading their friends on an adventure, and for those confident children willing to let this happen. We were lucky to have Tammy come and visit the woods with us and made a fire and cooked marshmallow smores… yummy!
Meet our staff – Rachel Cross
I’ve been working with children and their families for over 25 years now – the majority of that time has been spent here at HOPE. I have various roles at the moment: managing Oscar’s Café, and cooking the children’s lunches; but my favourite day of the week is Wednesday, where my role as Communications Consultant for Early Years Education comes into practice.
I spend the morning working with the staff and children, monitoring the children’s Communication Development, working alongside Early Years Education Manager, Michelle Brown, supporting the staff with activities for the children, working with the Speech and Language Therapists.
While working at HOPE, I’ve been able to get lots of training in Communication and Language: Early Language lead Practitioner (Every Child a Talker), Elklan levels 1–5, Signalong levels 1 & 2, Upward Spirals, Communication Matters – Grade A, POPAT – (Programme of Phoneme Awareness Training) and this is an area where I feel most passionate.
Christmas at the Nursery
Christmas here at HOPE is a very special time. The children are excited as they look forward to some time at home and of course the big day itself and all those presents. We make sure that all the children learn new skills and techniques as they engage in Christmas crafts, they learn new songs and come to a simple understanding of the Christmas story.
We have had all our Christmas parties this past week and many of our parents and carers joined in.
The children were very excited to have a visit from Father Christmas, especially when he brought pressies!
Next edition
The next edition of Building Blocks will come out in the spring of 2016, with more information on the activities at HOPE Early Years Education, plus another ‘Meet our staff’.
Have a lovely holiday!
