Kindy Latest News
Welcome to our Kindy latest news page, which is updated each term. Find out what we have been up to this term and also see previous term news. If you have any specific queries concerning this class or your child please email Clair in Kindergarten: nfss_kindy@icloud.com.
Spring 2020
Best wishes for a great New Year to you all!
We hope that you were able to enjoy a fantastic and relaxing Christmas break.
It was lovely to see all the children back this week – well rested and all a little bit taller too!
It seems like a long time ago now – almost a month in fact – since Kindy's fantastic performance at the Christmas celebration. The children did so well and we were all very proud of them.
A big thank you from the whole Kindergarten team for your generous gifts and lovely cards.
Looking ahead we have some exciting plans for this term!
Firstly, we would like to welcome Ripley to our kindergarten family. Ripley has already been making friends in her first week with us and we are sure that she will settle into our routines really quickly.
Through our seasonal activities and nature studies will be looking at the slow change of winter to spring through baking, crafting and planting of seeds. We will be looking out for the signs of spring, learning about life cycles, nesting birds and the changeable weather we have at this time of the year.
In nutrition we are going to be looking at 'what to eat to stay healthy this winter'. We will be looking at finding sweetness without sugar, focusing on the vitamin C in our fruits and vegetables and at the ways foods benefit our immune system.
Kindy were so brave trying new tastes and textures last term and we are very much looking forward to our winter offerings!
In PSED/Philosophy for young children we will be guided by the 'The bird and the elephant' book.
We will be discussing topics such as –
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Who are we?
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Friendships
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Happiness
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What am I good at?
In yoga we will learn a simple spring flow that can be practised at home too. We will be practicing the lion breathing technique and introduce some partner poses such a lizard on the rock. We will practice a simplified version of body scan for our closing relaxation – this is normally the best bit of the class – or so I am told!
In Cooperative games we will focus on improving our ball skills, hand/eye coordination and quick responses.
In Design and Technology we will be starting a 'big build project' in the garden. Needless to say, the children are super excited to get started!
Art lesson will also reflect the slow change of season with lots of winter/spring art and craft projects.
You will be pleased to hear that the glitter season is over and we are moving on!
Numeracy and Literacy will be our focus across all of our lessons, play and with links to our letter of the week activities.
Thank you for all the delicious lunches you supply your child with each day, do remember that we are happy to help with flasks and bowls/cutlery should you wish to make soups or stews over the colder months.
Lastly, a gentle reminder that all children should have appropriate clothes for outside, wellingtons and slippers for the classroom as well as at least one set of spare clothes on their pegs.
With all good wishes for a bright, happy and healthy 2020!
Karolina, Liz, Jan, Julie and Candice
Autumn 2019
What a lovely autumn term we have had so far! The weather has been kind to us and each sunny day we have now counts as a bonus.
Once again welcome to our new children and their families! As we all slowly settle into our new term routines, we feel we have been blessed with our 19 happy, attentive and healthy children!
There is an abundance of natural materials around us at this time of year to enhance our learning and we have been making full use of them! You should be able to see and hear about little art projects, some child led and some led by our artist in residence - Jan!
Maggie’s DT(design and technology) lessons have been a huge success. Drills, glue guns, big hammers - you name it and Maggie has got it and is very happy to share!
The children have been enjoying singing with Sarah, our music teacher, as well as singing little autumn songs and rhymes throughout our week.
Julie has been keeping us healthy with her amazing nutrition lessons and the children are always so keen to participate in her fun and informative lessons.
Thursday’s yoga lessons are helping us stretch and also to calm our minds, a great skill to have under your belt throughout the childhood and beyond. We have also been enjoying lovely Wednesday afternoon’s gardening sessions with Liz. She is busy planning a ‘Kindy garden’ just outside our window so watch this space! And what how wonderful to finish the week with Liz’s forest walk and nature studies on Friday!
Hopefully, you are all enjoying Tapestry? We certainly are! Please feel free to add a comment on any of our observations and of course to upload any pictures from home. It is a great tool to link us all.
As a small group we are a close-knit team we do however operate a Key person system. A key person is a named member of staff with whom your has more contact then other adults. The have a special responsibility to give reassurance and make sure the needs of the child are being met as well as keeping the child’s Tapestry account up to date. They are the lynchpin between home and Kindergarten. There is a list on the noticeboard in the corridor just outside the Kindergarten where you can find out who the Key Person for your child is. Should you, at any point, want to discuss your child with their Key person then please talk to us and we can arrange a meeting.
Finally, a gentle reminder that your child should always have waterproof jacket and trousers, wellies type boots and at least one spare change of clothes at school. We intend to spend a lot of time outside whatever the weather and we want the children to be comfortable and dry!
Karolina, Liz, Julie, Jan and Candice
Summer 2019
What a gorgeous start to the term, not only the beautiful weather we have been thoroughly enjoying in the forest, but also the start of our journey with our new friend Ella, welcome Ella, Freddie and family!
With thanks to an ex-pupil of the school, Kindy have been gifted some new literacy and numeracy toys which are settling nicely into their new life in the home corner. So wonderful to see how a simple addition/prop can attract children into role play and exploration where they may previously not have ventured...
As we get ready to say a fond farewell to our older children leaving for Lower Primary, we of course look forward to spending time getting to know our new September families. Watch out for new faces visiting from May half term onward.
As an end of year 'Grand Finale', we would like to have a Kindy Far Out Day, this date has been billed as a Kindy walk on the parent planner for a while now, Thursday 13th June, but we would like to all be together for the whole day up at Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary, where there are plenty of play opportunities, deer and bird spotting and more importantly shade and toilets! I will send an email to all parents with finer details.
Also, don't forget that as a school we are 25 this year! And as such there is a celebration day on Thursday 4th July.. more details to follow.. however, a quick music message... those children who attend on a Wednesday morning each week are involved in a big concert during the 25th Celebration, our music sessions this term are being devoted to our repertoire of three songs which are: Mama Mia, I Can See Clearly Now and a jazzy eco number called 'Cool'... please help us by popping recordings of those tracks onto your play list for the car or similar! The more familiar with the tunes the children are, the better!
With sunny wishes from all of the Kindy Team, Clair, Karolina, Jan and Julie
Spring 2019 News and Developments
A very Happy 2019 to all of you!
After yet another stunning performance at the Christmas Celebration, lots of wonderful food, and gifts we retired for rest over the Christmas period! And on Christmas Day it was truly so heartwarming to open the very generous gifts we received. Thank you all. And so now after some serious down time, fireside warming and eating well, we return fired up and ready for more Kindergarten action!
Some of you may be aware that Georgie left us unexpectedly at the very end of term - due to personal circumstances. We therefore have the opportunity to meet a new Kindergarten Assistant and member of our little team.... we are very happy to announce that this will be our very own Julie Sloane! Some of you will know her as Isobel and Amelie's Mum :) Julie has been volunteering in the background at the school for a while now and we really are thankful to have her join us more officially, two days a week. Welcome Julie!
This term we plan to focus on Literacy and Numeracy across all our activities and if you have spotted a home learning file at home, please return it for some home challenges this spring.
Thank you for the amazing lunches you supply your child with each day, do remember that we are happy to help with flasks and bowls/cutlery should you wish to make soups or stews over the colder months. Which leads nicely into the gentle reminder for warm outside gear, wellingtons and slippers for the classroom... :)
We are very excited about the start of our Parent and Child Group over in the studio each Thursday morning term time, as of September 2019. Anneke has worked really hard getting some fabulous equipment, toys and ideas together, for which we are incredibly grateful. Further details can be found within the flyer (on the Kindergarten notice board in the hallway). Essentially we'd love you to come along with your little one, whether you have a sibling starting Kindergarten in the future, a home day with your child, or if you fancy a chat and a cuppa with other like minded parents... do come along and get involved, a warm welcome awaits you.
Exciting new beginnings for all of us, alongside all the usual AMAZING growth that happens term after term.....
With all good wishes for a bright, happy and healthy new year!
Clair, Karolina and Jan
Autumn 2018 News
And so we arrive back! How wonderful to see how we've all grown over the summer holidays. We are thoroughly enjoying the new dynamics, with our new "older children" helping and assisting our younger friends, such a joy to see.
You may have noticed that I was onsite on Thursday, but not teaching in Kindergarten... this is because I am also job sharing the position of School Manager (with the mega-efficient Marianne Wilberforce!) and have an office based day each Thursday. Kindergarten is more than beautifully led by Karolina and Georgie on these days.
This week, I have also had the opportunity to assist with the weekly football trip to the park, where children from Upper Primary upwards join Alex for a game of cooperative football in the sunshine and bird song at Lyndhurst Park in Wellands Road.
It was so lovely to have two of our 2018 college leavers arrive to help unexpectedly. (Matt Welch and Harry Baines-Stiller) They just can't keep away! They ran the warm up session and encouraged and supported the others during a training session, before joining in with the match.
I have to say, there was more than a few tears in my eyes, as I have known & taught both boys for many years and here they were being so incredibly kind and generous with their praise of the vertically aged pupils. I lost count of the amount of times I heard "Don't worry! Better luck next time" or "Great try" and so on... And, of course, with these two laughter was plentiful! There was a real sense of that nurturing, Kindergarten family feel showing itself as a continuum... all the way through to the end of school, and beyond.
Which leads me seamlessly into the fact that we remain so grateful for the wonderful children that come at the very beginning of their educational journey, through our Kindergarten door; for your support and loving care, and for the whole community of The New Forest Small School.
The bliss of the Indian Summer to one and all.
Summer 2018 News
As we gallop towards the summer holidays we are enjoying the both the weather and the World Cup! Crazy as that may sound (!) it offers such a wealth of learning opportunities that we are utilising to the max… Maths, Mindfulness, Physical Development, Literacy, Knowledge and Understanding of the World, Expressive Art and Design all covered!
We thoroughly enjoyed our protest march to Appletree Court yesterday. We do have serious concerns about the speed of traffic along Southampton Road. We wanted the national speed sign moved further back towards the Ashurst direction and a Zebra Crossing and either speed bumps or official “20 is plenty” signs outside of our school. I am pleased to say the Council have been swift to reply to our calls of “20 is plenty!’ and “We want slow traffic!” we have been offered a digital display unit to put outside of the gate to show oncoming traffic their speed, and either a happy or sad face; and also today they have agreed to move the national speed signs further towards Ashurst! A fantastic result! The children were a colourful, creative and beautiful representation of the school and we felt blessed to have shared their excitement in protesting and now their success! Well done Kindy and Lower Primary!
I wonder if we could ask just one further thing of you this academic year? We are feeling a little sad at the amount of one use plastic and non-recyclable materials at the moment and are keen to make the last two weeks of term as waste free as possible. Would you look at the packaging in your child’s lunchbox, chat with your child about why this is an important issue for us all and how we can do just a little bit, to make a collective difference? We will be highlighting this at school, with our Friday ‘Eco-Cookery’ activities (We only use food that is either about to become waste in a supermarket or that has zero packaging) and of course we will be chatting about it over lunchtimes together.
As always we wave an emotional goodbye to our leavers this year – Daisy, Reuben and Marianne. We will all miss not only their smiles and input to Kindy life but also the care and support they offer the younger children. Come back and visit us whenever you like guys!
We also sadly lose our Greta. Again! We already lost her a few years back when she left for college! It has been an utter pleasure for us to work with such a compassionate, intelligent young woman and we wish her all the very best in Winchester with her Master’s Degree. Thank you Greta, as often called by Ilya ‘The Princess of Kindy’!
However, we wave a confident hello to newcomers Greyson, Emmeline, Xander and Roma and look forward to our journey together commencing in September. (Keep positive parents, it will all be fine!!) And Greta’s position is filled by Georgie, who you may have already met as she settles in this term. Georgie, comes to us as a highly qualified and experienced teacher and as you will have discovered, is a joyful addition to the team, we look forward to the months and years to come with her. Welcome Georgie.
All that remains is to say thank you to you all for another fun-filled year and for the kindness and support you continue to show.
With Love
Clair and the Kindy Team x
Also See
Spring 2018 News
The sun is presently shining into Kindergarten and sending rainbows all over the room…. as our little buds continue to bloom beautifully!
This term we have welcomed Willow into the family and look forward to both Dillan and Gabriel starting with us after Easter.
The children are enjoying the new responsibility of washing up their own crockery and utensils from snack and lunch time, and this has naturally expanded into a desire for more and more ‘meaning-full’ work… today the children swept, mopped and cleaned the classroom too.
We have also had an influx of new art materials such as the popular chalk pens for bright blackboard creations, air drying clay for form and about 20 different types of paint brush for texture and control work.
The garden continues to grow both naturally and in terms of the projects Maggie and the children build for us, again a huge thanks to Maggie for this, as the term continues we shall all enjoy the fruits of this hard labour!
Our project currently, since Imbolc, has been ‘Light’… man made/natural; different sources of light; how objects change in the light and-prompted by a child-how we can give light to each other with our hearts (so sweet!)
Maths within our every day routine has had a self-inflicted audit! Cooking each week has been a marvelous opportunity for mathematical language, and we plan a lot more scrumptious vegan cookery for the rest of this term as a result. The skills required for the recipes are progressing well, both in terms of the language used (beating, whisking, folding, mixing, mashing, combining etc etc) and also the physical skills involved (one hand engaged and the other supporting). Not to mention the social aspect as we feast and reflect on the week together!
PSED (Personal, Social, Emotional Development) sessions have been a useful tool to draw attention to social learning, for example, “What could you do/say when your friend falls over?” etc… The children are really becoming so thoughtful and attentive to each other, it’s wonderful to watch. Greta and I both enjoy the amateur dramatics involved in role playing situations for the children!
Our specialist teachers for Yoga, Spanish and Music continue their excellent work, and we look forward to sharing some of our endeavors with you in the not too distant future.
All in all, Kindergarten continues to be a a very special place to learn and grow.
Autumn 2017 News
There is an abundance of natural materials around us at this time of year to enhance our learning and we have been making full use of them! The school garden has kept us in plentiful supply for both artwork and snacking! Garlic to crush, herbs to cook with, sunflower seeds to sort, store, count, tweezer, eat and mosaic with! And of course our beautiful New Forest with all it’s sensorial Autumn delights continues to provide a natural haven for us all…nature/nurture!
Following some recent training, toys are changing a little in our quiet room, giving way for more heuristic play to challenge our critical thinking. That is to say play items that are open-ended, where one has to invent, create, adapt, persevere and play… we have already enjoyed some amazingly co-operative and creative moments in the week that items are being gradually introduced!
I am sure all the Kindergarten families have enjoyed our Autumnal songs over the last few weeks and obviously after the October half-term holiday, rehearsals for the Christmas Concert will be in full swing! Our music lessons on a Wednesday are fantastic, we all look forward to Sarah coming in with her instrument and impressive skill. We are gently and consistently exploring rhythms and tunes by learning new songs together.
We also now enjoy Spanish stories and games each week, for which we welcome beautiful parent Sylvia into the Classroom…it is absolutely incredible to hear the sheer amount of new language the children are absorbing…
Such a fascinating book to read – ‘The Absorbent Mind’ – Maria Montessori