Newsletter - 23rd April '19
Dear parents, children and carers 23rd April 2019
This newsletter is kindly sponsored by KEITH REYNOLDS BRICKWORK
The newsletter is also on our website, on our Facebook page or by email on request
Welcome back. We hope you all had a lovely Easter break.
This half term we will continue planting our vegetables. We’ll read variations of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and will talk about growing and explore ways of measuring. We’ll also be looking at the mini-beasts that we find outside and finding out about them. The story of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ will get us in the mood for the float and we can find out about the life cycle of the butterfly. We still have our tadpoles and can see how they have changed in the past 2 weeks and continue to grow and change.
New this term, TENNIS COACHING – great fun and aimed specifically at nursery children starts Monday 29th March at 9.30am. As with Diddy Dribblers, we will have 2 separate groups – our pre-schoolers and our younger children. Cost is £2 per week per child. See your bill for details and please add to your fees.
Spanish will continue but will now be Wednesdays at 11.30am instead.
Bills will be given out this week, please ask if you do not see yours. It is a little complicated for those of you who are both funded and pay for extra hours, as the week before Easter, which you paid for, is counted in the summer term hours. You will be billed for 5 weeks but funded hours are 6 weeks.
HOLIDAY dates for 2019 - 2020 are available on our website and copies will be left by the register.
DUCKLING news!
The ducklings are nearly seven weeks old and are huge! We aren’t yet quite sure how many males and females there are. Apparently, only the females only quack and the males will have a curly tail feather. Depending how many of each there are, the ducks may have to be separated as more than one male in a small group is not good.
Our Easter Fun Day was a great success. We were blessed with a lovely sunny afternoon and so far, have raised about £203.00. Many thanks to parents and the staff who worked hard on preparations and on the day. We will definitely continue this revived tradition. We hope also to have a summer fair in July to celebrate the end of the year and wish our leavers well.
JUST A REMINDER that Hummingbirds is a not for profit, voluntary setting - we could not get by purely on funding and fees. Many such nurseries close because they cannot manage financially. We have always had great support from the parents and parish with fundraising. It is vital to us and we thank you all for your continued support. We offer a variety of ways to enable you to support us easily. If you have any new ideas or can support us in any way at all, we are truly grateful. THANKS
Help us get to £1000! Using easyfundraising.co.uk £851 raised over the last 3 years. Can we get to £1,000 by the end of July? Please join now and help us reach this milestone. We can raise funds easily if all the people who shop online, register on easyfundraising.co.uk and select ‘Hummingbirds – Garstang’ as their chosen cause. Every time you shop with participating retailers, we receive a percentage. If you are booking a holiday on-line, even buying a phone via a registered company big donations can be earned.
100 club membership BE IN IT TO WIN IT! It’s easy to join. Most of our members have been supporters for many years, it would be lovely to see some new names on the list. Our prize fund is currently £67 per month but will go up every time a new member joins us. Donate from £2 a month per number to go in the monthly draw and get the chance to win half our monthly takings every month! The other half helps towards our rent of £300 each half term to the parish. Forms on easel or ask Deborah Edwards or Janet for help.
30 HOURS FUNDING for the summer term you should have applied for your eligibility code by March 31s. If your child is 3 between 1st April and 31st August and you think you want to use up to 30 hours from 1st September you MUST apply for your code by 31st August. You do not need to use all 30 hours. We apply for funding for the hours you use. Parents who already have a 30 hour’ eligibility code and/or are already accessing 30 hour funding REMEMBER to check if are you in the ’grace period’. You can lose funding if you do not respond to the HMRC reminders to update your funding.
Children’s Festival Whit Monday Bank holiday 27th May: ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ is the chosen theme. Meetings are underway. You must be able to help if your child is to be on the float. There are only 5 weeks after Easter break to prepare our float.
WEATHER – as the weather hopefully improves, please apply sunscreen before nursery starts and if necessary, we can top it up after lunch. If you want us to reapply it, you need to send sun-cream in for your child, labelled clearly. Your permission for us to apply cream is given on your registration forms. We will leave a basket out for it as we have not time to search bags to see if sun-cream has been sent. It is better to send hats and to wear loose clothing which covers well. Spare clothes are also needed as water play is always very popular on sunny days and we often get a bit too wet! Also. as this is Britain – do always send a light coat in case of wind and rain as the children love to go out in all weathers.
Best wishes, Janet, Shirley, Carole, Bridget, Gemma and Rebecca
Don’t forget we will be closed Monday 6th May Bank Holiday!
