Nutrition
At Fareacres a good balanced diet of freshly prepared food is provided for the children through the day. Breakfast consists of a variety of cereals, a two-course hot lunch followed by afternoon tea of sandwiches, and fresh fruit. Parents are requested to highlight any special dietary needs and any allergies your child may have. We do not serve any food with traces of nuts or beef.
Fareacres provides opportunities to encourage young children to eat well and learn about food. This not only helps protect their health whilst young but also sets the foundations for their future health and wellbeing. Ofsted’s new Common Inspection Framework (September 2016) includes a judgment on personal development, behaviour and welfare. As part of reaching this judgment, Ofsted inspectors will look at the extent to which early years settings successfully support and encourage children and their parents/carers to gain “knowledge of how to keep themselves healthy,” and “evidence of a whole setting approach to exercise and healthy eating”.
The weekly menu is on display on the parent’s notice board in every room and in the nursery main entrance. As part of good practice, we encourage children to eat all their meal; we will not force children to eat. Our ethos is that given the right encouragement all children will begin to eat as they see their peers, we need to foster positive attitude towards food. Fareacres treats mealtimes as a social occasion, as well as a learning opportunity. Staff join the children and are seated at the tables, prompting discussions and guiding children to eat sufficient amounts. This also serves to enable staff to provide an accurate handover to parents, which in turn helps parents to manage their children’s daily diet.
This positive attitude is vital as current statistics for childhood obesity display it is ever on the increase, which will impact children now and also for the future.
For further information on portion sizes please click the following link:
https://www.nutrition.org.uk/attachments/article/734/BNF%20Toddler%20Eatwell%20Leaflet_OL.pdf
Please remember if you would like any recipe that we use at Fareacres, speak to a member of staff and they will be happy to help. Equally if you have any recipes you would like us to try please share them with us. We would like to thank James’s mum from Sharks room for recently sharing her ‘Banana Courgette Loaf’
Recipe
Grating the Courgette
Enjoying the cake
Putting the ingredients in the bowl
Parents in Partnership
Over this week Fareacres have been hosting their termly Parent Consultations. These evenings are your chance to meet your child's Key Person at a time when your child is not present to discuss anything about your child’s development. This is a dedicated time when parents can speak to their children’s key people and receive feedback on how they are achieving under the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. At Fareacres, we understand the pressures of life and the demands on our parent’s time, therefore these consultations are kept to a 10 minute time scale.
To support and promote positive parent partnerships the nurseries have held open mornings and evenings for parents to come and look through their child’s record book to see what they have been doing at the nursery. These record books are continuously completed by key people and are evidence of how children are achieving and progressing. When children leave Fareacres, parents can take home the record book and have it as a keepsake to remember their time at Fareacres, and also to show their new setting to aid transition.
Parents are required to fill out an evaluation, which helps inform us of any ways we can improve this aspect of our service.
Comments parents have made include:
- ‘Overall it was very useful’ – Rahib’s mum
- “You know everything about Henry” – Henry’s mum
- “Sam is really settled well in Stingrays room and has bonded really well with you Priya”- Sam’s Mum
- “The transition between Rainbow fish and Stingrays happened at the right time for him” – Theo’s mum
Weekly Experiences
Hilary Hazel runs weekly sessions for music and movement in each room in the nursery. Hilary focuses on different festivals and uses a wide range of multi-cultural instruments and music with the children. This week Hilary Hazel celebrated Chanukah with all staff and children. Chanukah is the Jewish eight-day, wintertime “festival of lights,” celebrated with a nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and fried foods.
Chanukah
SW Chanukah
Lighting the Candles
SW Chanukah
If you are interested in your child taking part in the sessions please speak to a member of staff.
Starfish embarked on a bear hunt in the forest. They recreated the familiar children’s story ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ by Michael Rosen. The children were exposed to the forest environment and the story was brought to life. The book was taken along for guidance and the children were using all of the movements that the story requires. This experience will help the children to have a deeper understanding of the story, and have a greater love of literature. The children thoroughly enjoyed their bear hunt, and commented:
“I saw a little and big Bear I wasn’t’ scared” – Kassie
“I saw a big bear and I ran away “”ROAR”” – Laith
“I saw a big bear and I was pointing at it and laughing – Eitan
“I saw a big bear and I ran away STOMP STOMP” - Angelica
“When I went on a Bear Hunt I saw a river and lots and lots of trees and leaves – I enjoyed it” – Libby
Bear Hunt
Bear Hunt
At Gants Hill, we had a visit from the local Minister Kido, he performed Christmas themed songs in both English and Korean. The children joined in with some of the songs and really enjoyed the visit. We always encourage these visits as they help our children to understand the people in our communities and what they do, which is incorporated in the understanding the world area of learning within the EYFS.
Minister Visit
Minister Visit
Gants Hill has also been creating snowmen to celebrate our recent downfalls of snow over the weekend. They were using their creativity to decorate snowmen. They were able to explore a range of media and materials and be independent in how their own snowman appeared. The children enjoyed this activity and were all keen to have their turn. This will help aid their development within the expressive arts and design area of learning within the EYFS.
Snowman
Making Snowmen
Starfish and Sharks also celebrated the snowy weather by bringing in some snow to their rooms and exploring the texture and feel of it. This helps children to develop their ability to describe textures. This was a sensory experience and they witnessed how the snow and ice then went on to melt and become water. This encourages learning in the expressive arts and design area of learning in the EYFS.
Playing with the snow
Top 5 Children’s Quotes of the week
- “I made a snowman with a carrot nose” – Reva
- “Z has dropped the water” - Luke
- “I made a choo-choo train” – Daniel
- “Look at my boots, my mummy got these for me” - Maliha
- “ooh ahh like monkey” – Frederika
Activity of the week:
The winner this week is Meera Rami (SW). The children will create paper chains to display for Christmas, but the process of creating the chains is where the learning takes place. The children will be guided to place colours in a pattern (red, blue, red, blue etc). The process of physically creating the chains will give the children real examples of patterns and enable their understanding of them to develop.
Quote of the Week:
“Building a solid foundation in the early years of a child's life will not only help him or her reach their full potential but will also result in better societies as a whole.”
- Novak Djokovic (Professional Tennis Player)
Thank you for taking a glimpse into our Fareacres Learning Community
Until next time...
