At Children's House we work closely with our local community: we want our children and families to feel proud of our community and part of it. Our new neighbours are McAleer Rushe who are developing Stroudley Walk.
Leanne, from McAleer-Rushe, came to spend time with the children this week. 

Children have been interested in construction: they have been supported to build with a purpose, developing a narrative, collaborating with their peers and talking about their creations.
As we can see the site cranes from our garden and classrooms and hear the construction, children have been part of the  journey of the development so we invited lovely Leanne.

To further support children's understanding of the local environment, Leanne brough lots of large photographs of machinery which has been used on site. Children were excited and some knew the names of the vehicles: excavator, dump truck, digger, crane, lorry. Many children were able to identify the machinery and use the vocabulary in their play. 
Children learned about different colour hard hats - did you know yellow is for labourer, black for supervisor, white for site manager, green for health and safety, orange for signaller and blue is for everyone else. 

Children are going for local walks next week to think about our local area, what they like about it and how we can look after it.

You and your family can do your bit:
Please do not drive to school - walk, scoot or cycle.
Help to pick up rubbish if you see it.
Be kind to your neighbours. 

As part of our continued school development at Children's House, we have been looking at children's physical development. 
We know brain development has a fundamental impact on learning and central to brain development, is our whole body.
Over recent years we have introduced and implemented the teaching of cycling using balance bikes and 2 wheeler bikes. 
Over the holidays we had some new climbing equipment delivered and fitted ready for the children's return to nursery.

We wanted to expose children to:

• opportunities to climb, balance and jump
• develop an awareness of risk and keeping themselves safe
• increase opportunities of problem solving
• move their bodies in a variety of ways
• collaborate with others, taking turns and sharing space
• increase wellbeing by being outside in the garden for sustained periods
• be exposed to positional language - under, over, through, across, up, down
• engage in imaginative play (this could be a castle, a ship, outer space!) 

We did not impose rules on the use of the area, but wanted to observe how the children used it.
Children were excited and explored together in small groups. Two year olds came over from their garden and enjoyed exploring the tunnel, hill and climbing logs (we will get some landscaping for the Two Year Olds as well once the building site work has finished.)

We are looking forward to seeing physical outcomes for children improving and the impact this will have on learning longer term. 

Remember to take your child out regularly, walking, cycling or scooting. Visit our wonderful local parks and encourage them to play on climbing equipment. Physical development is linked to cognitive development and this affects your child's future.

Our school community came together yesterday to celebrate Eid.
All week children have been sharing talk about their Eid celebrations with their families: recalling "waking up early and having a bath", "I wore special new clothes", "Spiderman", families shared food and some children went to the mosque.
For our school celebration, children made decorations for their classrooms.
Children wore their special party clothes (with school shoes so they could still climb in the garden!)
They created their own Eid cards with drawings and some children wrote words to share with loved ones.
Children danced and sang, they laughed and hugged.
We enjoyed party food together.

Here are a few photographs and there may be more in your child's Special Book.
Thank you to our school community for coming together and spreading love, peace and joy. We wish this for the whole world.