staff

January 2024 at Riverview!

by

All About Me

At the start of each term we spend two weeks learning ‘All About Me’; the children are given opportunities to explore their life story and how it may be similar or different to that of others. Pre-School have been learning all about each other’s families, and some of the children have shared photos of their trips over the last few months. We spent time talking about who lived in our houses, what our bedrooms look like, and we even talked about different foods we like to eat with our families. The children then took time to draw pictures of their families.

Rhythm Time

‘Rhythm Time’ is a great opportunity for the children to join in with songs and rhymes. During our session this month, the children in Toddler Room explored animal noises, and how they could move like animals. The children also enjoyed making music with a range of instruments. They explored the different sounds they could make, and explored different ways to use them. They really enjoyed using the scarves when dancing, and popping the bubbles. Their favourite part of the session was the stretchy Lycra. The children all held a part of the parachute and saw how high they could make the items bounce.

Babies and Maths

Babies have chosen to focus on improving the children’s mathematical development this half term. In the Baby Room we focus on numbers 1, 2 and 3, this is to create a foundation for future learning.  The Baby Room have really enjoyed making playdough, exploring quantities and using words like, ‘less’, ‘more’ and ‘lots’. The activities that have been set out to enhance the children’s learning, have promoted filling and emptying containers; this has encouraged the children to using their fine motor skills, and will aid in the development of their hand-eye co-ordination.

Nursery Council

The nursery council gathered towards the end of the month to discuss upcoming events, and how they might be able to celebrate. They decided that they would like to celebrate Shrove Tuesday (pancake day), Valentine’s Day and Kindness Day. Some suggested that they can make cards for their friends and families for Valentine’s, and taste pancakes with a variety of topping (such a strawberries, bananas and, maybe, a small helping of chocolate!) for pancake day. For Kindness Day, we talked about the Pre-School rules, and what more we can do to be kind to others.

The children are also aware that Ramadan and Mother’s Day are to follow in March.

Employee of the Month

Impressively, January was Georgia’s first month at Riverview, and the staff have been really impressed with her enthusiasm and ability to use her initiative; enough to vote her as Employee of the Month! Georgia has made an excellent first impression; we are very excited to see what more she has to offer. Keep up the hard work Georgia, and well done!

National Storytelling Week

The Baby Room have been all about storytelling in the last week of January to celebrate National Storytelling Week! There have been an array of different exciting activities, set up to ignite children imagination and curiosity. The Babies have enjoyed getting messy in the tuff trays, and building in the construction corner. The grown-ups have been telling stories, and narrating their play. They have used books that follow the children’s interests to spark the children love of books. They have chosen to read books containing repetition to encourage the children to join in the familiar phrases.

 

February at LSH

by

Valentine’s Day

This month at The Little School House we have had lots of fun creating our own Valentine’s Day crafts to send to the special people in our lives. The children had different ideas about the cards they would like to create in each of our rooms, in Pre-School we loved trying to write our own names. On the different hearts of our cards, we wrote different reasons why we love our special people.

Mark Making in Sensory

The Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers have loved making different marks in the shaving foam this month, we used paint brushes, glue spreaders and our fingers to make the different marks. We also used different cards to try and copy the patterns we could see.

National Apprenticeship Week

In February we celebrated National Apprenticeship Week – an opportunity to raise awareness of such a great scheme & also, more importantly we think, to celebrate the hard work & achievements of all the wonderful staff we have training towards their Early Years qualifications. We hope you agree with our view that they all deserve a treat which we’ve been happy to provide! 👏👏👏

Rhythm Time for Babies & Toddlers

We loved our sessions with Rhythm Time this month, we enjoyed banging the drums that are shaped like lollipops, shaking the ribbon, and feeling the different textures. We met a rabbit this time! He was white and he sang with us.

Pre-School School Readiness

In Pre-School we have done lots of different activities, getting us ready for going to big school in September. We practiced putting on our own coats and zipping them up, washing and drying our own hands – making sure that we used soap to clean off all the germs and continuing to blow our own noses, putting the tissues into the bin and then re-washing our hands.

Babies Winter Walk

Our Babies loved the Winter season so much that they went on one last walk to look at the conkers, crunchy leaves and acorns that were left over before the seasons changed and Spring began.  We also kept our eyes peeled for some squirrels but unfortunately we didn’t see any.

Oak Valley Win Well-Deserved Accolade!!

by

We couldn’t have been happier to hear that Oak Valley (https://www.eyced.co.uk/nurseries/oak-valley-day-nursery/) have been awarded a place on the list of the Top 20 Nurseries in Yorkshire & the Humber 2021.

The setting’s Manager, Emma Wheelhouse, says she’s “surprised but thrilled to receive the accolade of being included on this list”. Director, Carlette Sarayreh, & Area Manager, Lisa Mapley, whole-heartedly agree that the fantastic reviews volunteered by the families who access Oak Valley are testament to all the efforts made by Emma & the team. “They all work so hard to implement our Company vision – keeping the unique child at the heart of all we do; providing positive relationships & enabling environments to support their learning & development. It really shows in the relationships the staff have with both the children & their families.”

Read on for the report:

Parents have revealed the best nurseries in the country, with the top nurseries judged from thousands of reviews compiled by the UK’s leading nursery reviews site, daynurseries.co.uk.

The winning nurseries have been judged on over 57,000 reviews between 29 May 2019 and 28 May 2021 from parents, relatives and guardians of children who attend the nurseries.

daynurseries.co.uk launched the Top 20 awards back in 2014, in a drive to make people’s search for a nursery easier and to give them a valuable insight into the quality and type of childcare offered.

Amanda Hopkins, reviews manager of daynurseries.co.uk, said: “The vision and ethos of a nursery can have a huge impact on children, instilling in them a desire and enthusiasm for learning and discovery that will sustain them throughout their lives.

“Nurseries have a big effect on children’s wellbeing and development. We feel it is a real achievement to be recognised for being a Top 20 nursery by children’s families and carers.

“Nurseries have been through such challenging times during the pandemic, many of whom were offering childcare to vulnerable and keyworker children during the various lockdowns and giving children a piece of all important ‘normality’.”

The award is based on the nursery’s reviews from the children’s families and carers. Parents give it a rating on overall standard, facilities and outside space, learning, resources and equipment and ICT, care, activities, staff, food and nutrition, management, cleanliness, safeguarding as well as value for money.

Mrs Hopkins added: “We hope these awards will boost the spirits of nursery staff which have had to help children adjust to the ‘new normal’, as well as help parents choose a top performing nursery for their child.”

For a full list of all regional and national winners click here