Autumn 08 Newsletter

A Year in the Life of

Lilliput Lodge Day Nursery

December 2008

Where we were

In December 2007 we had our routine OFSTED inspection which unfortunately was not a very good one. Unfortunately for all our staff this was a very upsetting and trying time and due to Lilliput Lodge Management not agreeing with the way in which the OFSTED was conducted the inspection report was overturned on appeal and a further inspection was carried out in March 2008, whereupon a satisfactory report was the outcome, but unfortunately we needed to improve in the way which we delivered the Foundation Stage to the children within our pre-school room.

Unfortunately for the staff and team within Lilliput Lodge there was an article in the local press, over the Christmas period, which was very upsetting for all concerned and some children left our setting due to this.

I would like to say a “Big Thank you" to all present staff and parents for their continued support and efforts and it has been a long and tiring journey for all staff with constant training and development meetings with the changes that needed to be made. Unfortunately for myself, Ray and Ann, some very difficult decisions have had to be made, but we are all as a team looking forward to our move in to 2009 and welcome all our new children who have started since September and staff that have joined our journey of continuous improvement.

Since this report Early Years from both Hull City Council and East Riding Council have been very supportive with Lilliput Lodge and we would now be very grateful if you would take the time to read all about “where we are now and our intentions of where we are going".

Where we are now

Since December 2007 we have recognised that as we are a city centre setting we have children attending from different ethnic groups, whereupon children are using English as an additional language. To support all children and families we have recruited members of staff who can support and encourage development of all children.

Helena Frost, who is working across the setting but mainly with our Squirrels children, who speaks fluent English and Czech Republic and Viktoria Devine who speaks fluent Russian, Ukrainian and English. We also have Christina Okumgbaiye who has been with us since March 2005 who speaks fluent English and Yoruba (South African).

Viktoria Devine is joining Lilliput Lodge to carry out workshops on a Monday to Thursday in Reading and Needlework for all children that are interested in taking part.

I would like to enquire as to whether we have any parents or grandparents that are qualified joiners (certificates will be required and a clear CRB Report) to volunteer to attend our nurseries for a couple of hours per week as we have lots of children in our pre-school who are very interested in woodwork. This would allow us to take our woodwork sessions to the next level. Many thanks…

Updates from our Nursery Rooms

Hello from all of the Ducklings... the Ducklings would like to say bye bye to Owen, Ryley, Rebecca who have all moved up in to our new Kittens room with Ellen and Alison. We would also like to say a big Hello to Hayla and Anna who have recently joined us as Ducklings. We have been celebrating Halloween by making ghostly footprint pictures, which was really fun and messy! We are also looking forward to practising our Christmas song show. Hope all your mums and dads can come along! We would like to welcome Zoe Horton who is coming from Hessle to spend time with our Ducklings Children. Love Chloe and Kim x x

Hello from all the Kittens! We are the new room between Ducklings and Squirrels because we are too big to play with the baby ducklings but still a little too small to play with the squirrels!

Ellen and Alison would like to welcome Owen, Ryley and Rebecca from ducklings and also Oscar, Aiden, Jason Lee, McKenzie and Jake who are all new this term. We would also like to say bye bye to Nikki and Alishia who have recently moved up to be squirrels.

In Kittens we have been settling in to our new room making lots of pictures for displays. We have also enjoyed making lots of mess with silly foam, gloop and paint! (come and see our photos).

We are soon going to be practising our songs for the Christmas concerts and are looking forward to showing our Mummies and Daddies! Also now we are getting bigger a lot of us are starting to sit at the table and feed ourselves. Last but not least we would like to wish Rebecca and Aiden a Happy Birthday as they have both just turned 1. Love Ellen and Alison x x

Hello from the Squirrels.
We have recently said goodbye to Kirsty, Lisa and Rebecca, we would like to wish them lots of luck for the future. Also we would like to welcome Leanne from Hessle and Julia from Ducklings to the Squirrels room. Also there are 2 new members of staff who work in the Squirrels room: Kirsty Nicholls who is our new room leader/supervisor with Laura Barton, and Helena Frost who is a lovely lady and has come to join us from the Czech republic, we welcome you too!!

We have been very busy in the Squirrels this term. We have been outside in the garden learning about animals and insects. We then made some lovely pictures of spiders, ladybirds & wiggly worms. The Squirrels have had a fantastic week doing lots of Halloween Activities and we also had a party. The Squirrels helped to decorate the room for Halloween by painting ghosts and pumpkins to hang in the room. All the Squirrels enjoyed this and they got very messy. We love to play in the Water Tray and we even have visitors from the Kittens Room who try and get in, because they think it’s a bath. We all love to play with messy activities.

We would like to say Congratulations to 3 members of our staff who are all expecting little bundles of joy. We have Leanne Catchpole from the 2-5 yrs room. Ellen Harrison who is in our Kittens Room, and Nikki Carmichael who is our Cook. What will we do for our lovely lunches Nikki? Wishing you, all the best!!!!!

Hello from everyone in 2-5’s room Hull. We would like to welcome new children in to our room Ellie J, Isaac, Amelia, Karolina, Vanessa and Jack. We have really enjoyed digging in the garden for worms and making a wormery. We have also been collecting leaves and logs and made a natural habitat for us to look at bugs and slugs and how they live. We have also been talking about and making pictures of Hull Fair and we have all been getting dressed up for Halloween when Diane turned into a witch. We even got to decorate spooky ginger people to take home with a yummy chocolate Halloween coin.

Leanne has introduced us to Ben the Bear this term who has encouraged us to make new friends and we all enjoy playing with our new water tray and art easel. We will soon be practising for our Christmas Song Show in the garden and are all really looking forward to Christmas and singing for our parents and carers. We would also like to welcome Chloe who is moving from our Ducklings Room to come and spend some time with us in our 2-5 years room.

May we take this opportunity of thanking all our children for all their hard work and efforts of making us lovely pictures and lots of models for us to show in our Reception Areas, and have really made our Nursery look lovely and welcoming to new children.