Morning Routines

I would like to ask all family members/carers who are dropping off in the morning to support children to put their own coats and bags on their pegs. It can be very helpful to talk about the picture on your child’s peg, or the first letter of their name to begin to help children identify where their belongings should go – this is particularly helpful when the children come to find their coats for going outside to play. When the children have put away their belongings and contributed to the snack basket, please assist your child to look for their name on the self-registration board (located to the right of the toilets) before leaving them. These small activities really help us to develop our children’s independence and settle them into the day. Could we also ask that all parents/ carers clearly say goodbye to their children before leaving, this is a vital part of the trust-building process between the Roundabout team and the children.

We have all noticed that the volume of noise in the room is fairly high when our children arrive at 8:45am (as you would expect with lots of new children who are just finding their feet). If you have a child who is sensitive to the noise then please feel free to leave it a little later to come in. I (Adele) will remain on the door until at least 9.15am – therefore giving families the opportunity to filter in between 9am and 9.15am.

Lunchboxes

Just a polite reminder – please ensure that all lunchboxes are clearly marked with your child’s name. This is a vital safeguarding measure, which ensures that we are protecting our children who have special dietary requirements at Roundabout – thank you. In addition, could I also remind you that we like to follow a healthy eating policy at Roundabout so please ensure you are limiting sweet treat items to 1 per lunchbox.

Starting Points baseline

The staff team are currently extremely busy compiling ‘starting points’ for all of our children who began their journey with us this September. The starting points is a basic assessment that we, as a team, make for all of our children. The main aim of this assessment is to ensure that we, at Roundabout, are developing our children appropriately throughout their time with us. We focus on the Prime Areas of Learning (Personal, Social and Emotional development, Communication and Language and Physical Development) initially. We will then make further assessments on the Specific Areas of Learning (Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Art and Design) as the term progresses and we get to know and understand our children more. If you would like to discuss your child’s starting points then do not hesitate to contact me.  

Please remember to send your child in with wellies / boots and waterproof coat – we love to play out whatever the weather!!!! 

Fundraising

We would like to create a writing shed in our outdoor learning area to provide an outside classroom for our children to read, practise phonics, write etc. The committee would like to raise money for the writing shed over the next few weeks with these activities:

Sponsor a plank

We would like to invite parents, carers, grandparents, uncles & aunts, godparents, etc. to sponsor a slat/ plank of the writing shed. We would like to put the child’s first name on the plank and would look for £5 per slat/ plank; you can purchase more planks or donate more than £5 per plank. We will ask you to fill in a gift aid form with your donation as we are a charity and will be able to claim gift aid from HMRC.

Bun & cake sale & raffle

We will also be holding a bun and cake sale on Friday, 19^th October from 10.00am - 12.00 combined with a raffle to win one of the best tasting chocolate cakes in Horsforth, which is baked to perfection by our lovely Debbie. The proceeds will contribute towards our outdoor writing shed. Please see a member of staff to purchase raffle tickets. This will be a good opportunity for parents to meet each other, the staff and our Committee and get more involved in your child’s life at Roundabout, if you wish to.

Thank you for your continued support,

Adele and the Roundabout Team

Dates for the Academic Year 2018/19