Our boiler is mended!

So happy! :D

Menus

We have noticed that as children get older, they become more 'selective' with what they will eat for their lunch. 

Therefore, we are going to tailor the meals depending on which children are attending on a particular day.  We are in the process of determining which meals each child will eat and we would appreciate us if you would let us know at least three meals which your child does eat at home. 

Once we have a list, we will let you know the variety of meals we are going to offer.  They will be written as a list rather than a prescriptive three-week menu.

Thanks.

At the vets

What to bring each day:

This is one of our pages on our blog, but we know some of you don't get chance to look at the blog (just receive the emails) so we thought it would be a good idea to email you with it.

What to bring each day

Just a reminder of what to send with your child each day:

• nappies (at least 5) 
• If no longer in nappies, please always send a nappy for nap time (to protect our furniture/cots etc)  
• wipes (at least enough for a day)
• nappy sacks or carrier bags
• coat (suitable for the weather, ie a thick, warm coat in winter)
• hat (either warm hat or sun hat)
• gloves/mittens
• a complete spare outfit, including socks (more if recently toilet trained)
• dummy/comforter if needed
• baby milk if needed
• food if needed (babies) 
• shoes once walking (suitable for playing on outdoor equipment, so ideally no crocs, strappy sandals etc)
• your child's book bag
• your child's diary (if applicable)

We do play outside even when it is cold, so please make sure that your child comes with outdoor clothes which will keep them warm.  We know it is easy to forget this when you're just walking from your car to our house, but it is very important.

I think I've covered everything but if you think of anything else let me know and I will add it to the list. 

We are on week 1 of our menus this week.

Our frosty day.

New notice board

We have put a notice board in our porch, on the left as you stand at the front door. 

The permanent poster includes Ofsted's phone number.  Please check it daily, as we may put up notes and reminders on there.

Our registration certificate and insurance certificate are on the side of our fridge in the kitchen should you wish to see them.  We don't really want to put these outside.

It is week 3 of our menus this week

Orbit

Just to let you know that the Orbit system app for iPhone, iPad etc unfortunately only works for practitioners and not parents. To register and access your child's details you will have to use a laptop/desktop or use the Internet on your phone. 

Hopefully Orbit will develop the app in the future to enable parents to use it. 

Cooked and dry pasta

Water beads

Letter in bag

There will be a letter in your child's bag/book bag this week if you haven't already got it. It is about a new system we have started to use to help with observation and assessment. 

Better Evidence for A Better Start

 

Doorstep Survey to Help Blackpool’s Families

A survey now under way could bring Blackpool a huge cash windfall to help boost the health and wellbeing of children and families.

This survey is legitimate - it is not a scam - and if you have children under nine years old you are encouraged to take part.

What is Better Evidence for A Better Start’?

The borough has been shortlisted to bid for a significant slice of a £165 million from the Big Lottery Fund for services to benefit children in the earliest years of life. To clinch this funding, Blackpool must make a detailed case supported by the latest information about the needs of its residents. This is why a doorstep survey - endorsed by the Council - is now taking place in the area.

Who is being asked to complete the survey?

Parents of children under 9 years are being asked to complete the doorstep survey. It includes questions about your child’s health, learning, behaviour and your role as parent or guardian and what services you have accessed. It’ll take around 30-45 minutes to complete. Interviewers are visiting households between 9am-8pm, Monday-Sunday.

About the survey

The interviewers are from BMG Research. They wear ID badges and present a letter about the research at the doorstep. The survey is entirely voluntary. Even if you decide to take part, you can skip any of the questions and stop taking the survey at any time. The survey will be completed using a computer tablet. Some questions will be asked by the interviewer, while other more sensitive questions can be completed directly by you onto the computer tablet. No matter how you answer any questions in this survey, we will keep all of your responses completely confidential.

Who is carrying out the interviews?

BMG Research: If you have any further questions or complaints about the how the survey was conducted please contact Ceri Matthias on 0800 358 0337. 

It is week 2 this week :)

Bonfire night crafts.

Chocolate sparklers.

Autumn biscuits

Buttons

Buttons for sorting, counting, colours, counting, stacking, creating pictures (well done Chris for your picture of a giraffe!). 

The activity also encouraged lots of conversation, such as "I've found a sparkly one," and, "I've found a teddy bear one, "it's on my finger."  

Holidays 2014

Please check your child's book bag for our holiday list. 

Coats and car seats

Coats and Car Seats: A Lethal Combination?

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• Car Safety

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By Keren Perles

Updated on May 20, 2013

It’s all hype, isn’t it? After all, how can there be anything wrong with strapping your child into a car seat with her coat on? It must just be because some parents don’t get the straps just right—like you do—when they strap their kids in over a bulky coat. Or that it only applies to those big puffer coats. Right?
Wrong. According to Kelly Klasek, lead instructor of community education at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, it is never okay to secure a child wearing a coat into a car seat. In fact, any car seat manufacturer or certified child passenger safety technician would agree on this point. “In a crash, the car seat is meant to, and will, move within the vehicle to absorb the energy of the crash,” Klasek explains. “The primary safety feature of the harness is to keep a child secured in the seat so he rides with the seat but does not move within his harness. The force of a crash will cause the thickness of the coat to flatten, ensuring that the child will move within the harness and increasing the chance for injury. By putting a child in a coat before securing the harness, you compromise the primary safety feature of the harness.”
You can visualize this by strapping your child into her car seat with her coat on and pulling the straps snug, then unbuckling her, taking her coat off, and rebuckling the car seat. See the slack in the straps? When your child’s coat flattens during a crash, that’s how loose the straps will actually become. If you wouldn’t buckle your child in with the straps that loosely, you shouldn’t let your child’s wear her coat in the car seat. Consider this “the coat test,” and use it to figure out whether your child’s outer layers are safe for use in the car seat.
Tips for Parents
Still, when it’s 10 degrees outside, you’re not likely to bring your child outside without any coat at all. What can parents do to stick to this rule without worrying about their kids turning into ice cubes? Here are some tips that might work for you:

• Cover them up. On a cold but not freezing day, you might want to replace your child’s coat with a blanket once you get to the car. Your child can keep the blanket on while the car warms up and kick it off when she’s warm enough.
• Try a poncho. If you sew, you can make your own car seat poncho that goes over the straps in the front and over the car seat in the back. Car seat ponchos are also available online.
• Layer. While even the thinnest winter coats are unsafe to wear under a car seat’s straps, you can dress your child in a fleece jacket or a sweatshirt, covered by a coat. In the car, just take off the coat but keep on the thinner layer underneath to take the chill off until the car warms up.
• Don’t ditch the coat. Instead, after buckling in your child, put your child’s arms through the sleeves and let her wear the coat backwards.
• Use car seat covers for infant seats. Just make sure to choose the kind that only have material over the harness, rather than those that go under the baby. Although both of these are sold in most baby stores, the latter can interfere with the harness, and thereby the safety of the car seat.
• If your child’s thin winter coat fails the coat test, but not by too much, try this technique. Unzip your child’s coat, and secure the straps snugly with the coat pulled away from your child’s body on each side so that the straps are not over the front of the coat at all. (This may not work well with coats that have hoods, since the material will bunch up around your child’s shoulders, so remove the hood if possible.) Then rezip the coat over the harness straps. Use the coat test to see whether this technique leaves the straps tight enough to be safe for your child. If you’re absolutely sure that your child’s coat passes the test with this technique, it’s better than leaving the coat zipped under the harness. (Note that Klasek prefers that parents do not use this option, since it can be difficult to tell whether a coat is too bulky to pass the test.)

At the end of the day, no one will pretend that it’s not easier to just strap your child in with her coat on. But if you believe in the importance of using a car seat in the car, you should make sure that you’re not sabotaging the main safety feature of the car seat. “Over the last several decades, we have learned a great deal about how to protect our children,” says Klasek. “Cabinet locks and outlet plugs and safety gates get in our way, but we all use them, because we know the benefit to our children's safety far outweighs the inconvenience. And it's habit now. Those things are all expected. Safety seats are no different. Yes, it's frustrating and time consuming to juggle kids and diaper bags and keys and coats for a short drive to the store. But the fact is, most crashes happen close to home. Improper use of a car seat harness, including keeping a coat on when securing the harness, offers a false sense of security.”
So next time you go out on a cold winter day, find an alternative to squeezing your child’s winter coat into the harness. Your child’s safety is at stake.