Newsletter

Happy Hours Preschool

Autumn Term 2023

​

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Autumn Term, which is a term filled with lots of exciting events and festivities that many of the children are already looking forward to, including Halloween and Christmas. We would like to warmly welcome Leo, Alexander, Eliza, Ellie and Henrik to Preschool, and we look forward to helping them make friends and lots of lovely memories.  We have some exciting activities planned to help support your children’s learning and development and to help each child achieve their full potential whilst they are with us.  We will be learning lots about ourselves and our interests, the autumn season and hibernation, Halloween, and Diwali and of course Christmas. We are also enjoying our science and investigation afternoons. The children have all been very excited and interested to see what happens when we mix different colours, investigated, and hypothesised about the buoyancy of certain objects, during our sink and float experiment, looked at weight and shape during our wind experiment and looked at how sodium and acid interact in our fruit volcano, rainbow cup and balloon inflating experiments.  We will try to put lots of pictures onto our parent Facebook page so that you can see all the wonderful things your children have been learning about.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/674164996344880/

 

Primary School Applications

If your child has a birthday between 01/09/2019 and the 31/08/2020, they are eligible to apply for a primary school place from the 2nd of October 2023. The deadline for applying for a school place is the 15th of January 2024.  It is advisable to put three different schools down in your application, one of which should be the school nearest to where you are living. It is also a good idea to have a look around each of the schools that you are listing, so that you can get an idea of each schools ethos and values and get a feel for whether the school would be a good fit for your child. Here is some information on school tours for local schools:

​

Buckingham Park Primary School: If you have a child who is due to start school September 2024 you are welcome to a tour of the school on the following dates:

• Thursday 2 November @ 9.30 am

• Wednesday 8 November @ 9.30 am 

• Thursday 9 November @ 2pm

​

Glebe Primary School: If you have a child who is due to start school September 2024 you are welcome to tour the school on the following dates:

Thursday 21st September 2023: 9am

       Thursday 5th October 2023: 1pm

       Thursday 12th October 2023: 3.30pm 

Thursday 19th October 2023: 9am

• Please contact the school office to book on T: 01273 592163 or email: office@glebeprimary.co.uk 

​

Swiss Gardens Primary School welcomes parents to book for visits at any time, you will need to contact the school office.

Tel: 01273 453176 

Email:  office@sgprimary.co.uk

https://www.instagram.com/swissgardensprimary/

For any enquiries or queries please contact our friendly office team on 01273 453176 or office@sgprimary.co.uk

​

St Nicolas and St Mary School, contact school office to arrange a tour:

You are warmly welcome to attend one of our open days.  There will be a short presentation, a tour and an opportunity to ask questions about the school.  Please email office@stnm.org.uk, ring 01273 454470 or visit the school office to book onto one of the tours listed below -  

Tuesday 17th October 9.15am

Thursday 19th October 2pm

Monday 30th October 9.15am

Wednesday 1st November 6.30pm

Saturday 4th November 10am -11.30am

Tuesday 7th November 2pm

Monday 13th November 2pm

Friday 17th November 9.15am

Wednesday 22nd November 2pm

Wednesday 3rd January 9.15am

​

Shoreham Beach Primary School

Shoreham Beach Primary School has open mornings for prospective parents on Tuesday, the 7th of November and Wednesday, the 8th of November at 9am. Please contact the school office if you would like to attend. Tel: 01273 462688

Office Staff: Chris Peters and Mike Strugnall   office@sbprimary.co.uk 

 

​

Healthy Lunches

Please can we remind everyone to bring in a piece of fruit for snack time and a well balanced lunch box.  Lunch boxes should ideally contain the following:

• a starchy food, e.g. potatoes, bread, rice, pasta

• plenty of fruit and vegetables, e.g. carrot sticks, an apple, sliced cucumber

• a source of protein, e.g. beans, pulses, egg, fish, meat

• a healthy drink, e.g. water, semi-skimmed milk

This is based on the ‘Eatwell guide’ and will ensure that your child has a healthy lunch and lots of energy to play and learn throughout the afternoon with us.  Further information and ideas for healthy lunch boxes can be found on the following websites and if you need any help at all with this we are all happy to help and explore new options with you.

 https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes

http://www.eynpartnership.org/blog-news/how-make-perfect-pre-school-lunchbox

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/school-packed-lunch-inspiration

​

Reminder of our daily collection times

We have noticed some children are being collected later than pick up times so wanted to clarify that our morning session ends at 12:30 and our afternoon session ends at 15:00.  Fridays we all finish at 12:30. Our insurance provides cover for a certain number of children and times of the day and therefore we are sending a gentle reminder that if you are late to collect your child, we will need to send an invoice for extra staff to stay and for us to cover the costs of additional insurance.

 

Shoes and Coats

We are practicing lots of independence skills at Preschool and it would be really helpful if children can be sent in with shoes that they can practice putting on and taking off themselves.  Velcro straps or plimsolls are excellent so if possible, please avoid laces or difficult zips etc.  In addition, as the weather becomes colder and wetter, please remember to bring wellies, waterproofs, jumpers, warm coats, gloves and hats. The children enjoy being out in all weathers, so we don’t let the rain or colder weather stop us playing and learning.

 

Water Bottles

Please can you make sure that your child arrives at Preschool with a named water bottle.  It is very important your child has their own water bottle, especially when we are going to be out and about in the local community. If anyone would like financial support with this, please email Charlie or speak to your keyperson.

Policies

I have attached a copy of our policies for you to read through.  There are many more so I have just added a few to this newsletter and we welcome any feedback from parents (and children) as to how these can be improved or added to.  If you would like to add anything please email Danni (Danielle.happyhours@yahoo.com) or Charlie (Charlie.happyhours@gmail.com) who can reflect upon our practices with all our lovely practitioners.

​

Autumn Term Trips

We have been planning some trips to the local area, including the beach and green areas near us to search for Autumn treasures. The local shops for autumn vegetables to make a tasty autumn soup, along with the local library for rhyme time and story time. In addition, Swiss Gardens Primary school, have offered us the chance to explore their new library and enjoy some stories and rhymes with them on the 11th of October.

In addition, we are looking to take the children to enjoy some interactive storytelling at The Ropetackle Arts Centre in small groups, where they have the option to join in and become part of the story. We have initially booked for the November shows of Mouse and Sam on Friday, the 10th of November and Thursday the 16th of November. But we are also looking to book for two shows of The Night Before Christmas, in early December. Unfortunately, these shows only run on Thursdays and Fridays.  However, if you would like your child to go and they are not usually in on one of those days, please let Charlie or Danni know and we may be able to look at booking your child an extra morning session on one of those days in December, depending on availability.

Yoga

We are hoping to plan another Yoga session this term to promote mindfulness and encourage the children to regulate their emotions and feelings.  This is something we teach the children every day and we hope that these sessions will help encourage the children to find ways of physically remaining calm throughout their time at Preschool.  

Term Dates for 2023/2024

 

Halloween Dress-up

The week after the half term holiday is the week that Halloween falls in this year. We are inviting the children to dress up during the week to celebrate this festival of Celtic new year and the end of harvest season. Please be mindful of the costumes that the children wear.

 

 

Your Preschool Team:

Owner: Danni Wrightson

Manager: Charlie Phoon

Deputy Manager: Linzi Mann

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator: Debbie Lafferty

Early Years Practitioner: Lucy Paul

Early Years Practitioner: Tara Moores

Alison, Jenny, Emma, Sara, Carol: Bank Staff