Staffing: We are getting ready for the start of a new academic year, and want to confirm the exciting news that Lizzy Kendall will be stepping up to the Manager role, with Zoe Lytham supporting her as Deputy Manager. Holly Baxter, who many of you will know, will join us as our third early years qualified team member and we are super delighted to have her come back as a permanent team member.
Lizzy, Zoe & Holly will form our core team of key persons and they will liaise with all of our parents & carers using our online journal software Tapestry. They will be working together every morning and afternoon so your children will have the best continuity of care during their time at Poppleton Under 5s.
We will be working with 4 staff every morning. So, Lizzy, Zoe & Holly will be joined by Emma each morning. Margaret also stays with us, joining us on Thursday afternoons and continuing to run ‘Popp & Play’ – our stay and play session – on Friday mornings.
Session times: Don’t forget we have new opening hours – we run our pre-school sessions morning and afternoon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during term time. Starting at 9 am and continuing until 3.30 pm, with the morning and afternoon sessions joined by a half hour lunch club between 12-12.30 pm when the children eat a pack up brought from home.
We have 22 children starting back with us next week and our mornings are filling up well, but as is always the way at the start of the year we still have a few sessions available each day if you want to add another session in, or switch things around. Just let us know what works for you!
New in the garden: You will also notice when you come back that we have been developing our outside area, so the children will have a new mud kitchen, a play house and a rock scrambling area to enjoy and use for their physical development, for imaginative play and for whatever else they decide! We will have an outside area for story telling, and different surfaces and textures for them to explore. We are also developing our curriculum and our play and learning opportunities inside in the new hall and we know that our children will be excited to learn and play with us all day.
Other news: 2022 is our 30 year anniversary! Poppleton Under Fives registered with Ofsted as a provider of early years care and education in 1992 (although I dare say it was also running for some time before that). So we want to celebrate with all our current and former parents, carers and children who have benefitted from our many years of service to the community.
Do join us on Saturday 29 October, 2 – 4 pm at the New Hall, Methodist Church, Upper Poppleton for some fun and activities.