January 2011

January 2011

Firstly a Happy New Year to you all and a very warm welcome to all new children starting at Head Start this term, and of course, the parents. We all hope that you enjoyed the festive season and that Santa brought the children lots of lovely presents. You will be pleased to know that there are only 49 weeks to go until we do it all again.

Can I firstly take the opportunity to thank you all for the wonderful presents and cards that we all
appreciated and still do. Also can I thank you for providing food for the Christmas Party and bringing your child to the Forty Foot Hall. I think that we all had a very good time, the entertainer was brilliant and kept us all amused for a long time.

Mrs. Cracknell (Jane) has asked me to pass on her thanks to all of you who sent best wishes and gifts on her departure from Head Start. Unfortunately she was ill during her last week with us and so was unable to speak personally to all of you. We will be keeping in touch and hopefully Jane will be able to come along to an event in the future.

Mrs. Queripel (Becky) starts this week as the Head Nursery Nurse at Head Start and will stand in for me during any absences such as holidays, training or illness. Becky will be working four days a week with Wednesday as a day off. Mrs. Hales (Amy) is going to work 2.5 days a week as our numbers have vastly improved and we need the right staff cover.

Grant Term
The grant term commences on Monday 10th January and ends of Friday 8th April with no grant being payable during half term, week commencing 21st February. As Easter is so late this year we will still be open for the week commencing 11th April but then will close for a week leading up to Good Friday. Head Start will open again on Tuesday 26th April when the grant will re-commence to finish on Friday 15th July, again no grant payable during half term, week commencing Monday 30th May. If your child attends five sessions a week during grant periods and you would like them to continue during half terms, you can drop down to two sessions a week. In order to plan staffing levels during the times that no grant is payable, I would really appreciate it if you could fill in the form on the next page and return as soon as possible. If your child has his/her third birthday before the end of March, he/she will be entitled to the grant during the summer term; as we are getting busier, it would be really helpful if you can let us know as soon as possible if you require any extra sessions. Mornings are becoming very busy so that will only leave spaces in the afternoons.

A few pleas

Although we are now heading for an extremely cold spell, whenever possible, we do like to try and get the children outside for some fresh air and therefore they do need appropriate labelled clothing.
There are a lot of illnesses about at the moment, please remember that if your child has an infectious illness, they should be 24 hours clear before they return to Head Start. We are able to administer
prescribed medicines but even if Calpol or equivalent has been subscribed, we will not be able to
administer this. We have had a report of visitors in children’s hair of late, so I would ask you to keep being vigilant, check your child’s hair at least once a week, in particular if they are scratching their heads.

contd - January 2011 continued