Date for your diary: 14 February 2008 - Coffee Morning. Also watch out for details of our Easter Fayre.

  23 December 2007

Christmas celebrations

The final week of term was very busy. We held the nativity performance in the presence of family members. The play and Christmas songs were performed with great enthusiasm and to the delight of all attending.

The final day of the term saw a special visitor, who attended the Christmas party to the delight of all the children. Thanks to Philip Smith for taking the time to come along and give the presents to the children in the place of the real Father Christmas, who is very busy at this time of year. Toddlertime provided the entertainment and did a great job helping the children to burn off some energy before the party food was served.

Spring term

As a reminder, the dates for spring term are: 7 January–15 February and 25 February–4 April. The pre-school will also be shut on Good Friday and Easter Monday (21 and 24 March).

Friday sessions are running again from this month in the village hall between 12.30 and 3.00. These sessions are for the older children who will be starting school in September. Please let us know if you are interested in your child attending this session.

  24 November 2007

Introducing our new pre-school assistant

Linda Donaldson joined the pre-school team in mid-November as a pre-school assistant. Linda and Kerry will both be working towards their NVQ III qualification in the new year.

We would like to say a big thank you to Sam Ranger, who had been helping out since September and who is leaving to spend more time on her Open University studies.

Pre-school garden already winning awards

We have visited our new garden at Sherington First School several times and have been awarded a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Campaign for School Gardening certificate. We can now work towards other certificates in the scheme. Thanks once again to Colin Storey and the school for their kind donation of the space and for all their help with getting the garden up and running.

Christmas celebrations

We are preparing for the Christmas festivities at pre-school and are rehearsing for our nativity performance. We are also looking forward to a visit by a man wearing red!

Spring term

The dates for spring term are: 7 January–15 February and 25 February–4 April. Please be aware that the pre-school will also be shut on Good Friday and Easter Monday (21 and 24 March).

Friday sessions will run again from January in the village hall between 12.30 and 3.00. These sessions are for the older children who will be starting school in September 2008. Please let us know if you are interested in your child attending this session.

Our themes for the spring term will be dumpers, diggers and tractors; shapes; and cookery. Towards the end of term, we will be putting together a range of pre-school’s favourite recipes and publishing our own recipe book.

We have had a very successful autumn term with many parents volunteering as rota helpers. Thank you to everyone who helped out; we hope that you enjoyed the sessions. We have already had a great response for the spring term rota. Being rota helper is a great opportunity for all parents to see what happens at pre-school and it is fun for the children to have their special person there for the session.

Fundraising

Once again, we are selling MK Community Foundation raffle tickets for £1 each (50p from each sale goes to pre-school). The top prize is a VW Beetle cabriolet. The tickets make great stocking stuffers! Ask at pre-school if you would like to purchase some tickets.

We are also having a silent auction for a local balloon trip for two people, which has been kindly donated by Brian Currie (briancurrie.co.uk). Bids need to exceed £100. Look out for the auction box at the Christmas bazaars and at pre-school. If you would like to bid, let Jo Cowley know. It would make a great Christmas present for a loved one. The closing date for bids is 14 December.

  October

New supervisors

The Pre-School is now officially into its 36th year and is looking forward to many more years of success under the leadership of our new joint supervisors, Kay and Jo, who have a combined 20 years of working at the Pre-school.

The great outdoors

The pre-school has been making the most of the good autumn weather this year to explore the themes of autumn and harvest and light and dark. The visit of some tractors before half-term was much appreciated by all the children in attendance. Thanks to our committee chair Jo Cowley and her partner Adrian Lusted for arranging the visit.

Continuing on our outdoors theme, various pre-school staff and children were in attendance to watch Christine Bearman open our new vegetable plot, which has been kindly donated by Sherington School and which is located in the school grounds. Oliver and Conor's families have donated trees, which were planted at either end of the plot and which should provide eating and cooking apples for many years to come.

Support our fundraising

The committee continues to fundraise to support the Pre-school. Last term's Smartie tube fundraiser raised enough to purchase several new dressing up outfits that the children have been enjoying wearing in recent weeks.

Our fundraising efforts have been greatly enhanced over the years with the support of local businesses and the Pre-School would like to say a big thank you to Andrew Charles Jeweller in Newport Pagnell for the kind donation of a large selection of Beatrix Potter, Caithness Glass and much more for our upcoming Christmas fundraising events. We'll be at the Christmas fairs in both North Crawley and Sherington and look forward to seeing you there.
                                                                                Sherington Pre-school Committee

Rural Toy Library

PRE SCHOOL LEARNING ALLIANCE Comes to Sherington Village Hall every 4th Thursday (15th November, 13th December) 9.30 a.m. They have a good selection of toys/books. Only £2 to join and toys are from as little as £1 to hire for 4 weeks. Open to everyone parents, grandparents and childminders.

  September

  Read Christine Bearman's account of how Sherington Pre-School (then called Playgroup) started in September 1972.

  Pre-School is holding an Open Day on Thursday 1 November 2007 from 9.30 to 11.30 am. For more information contact Kay or Jo (Tel: 07866 409169)

  August News

  What an exciting time for Sherington Pre-School this new term. We have officially entered into our 35th year. We have a new regime. Our enthusiastic team is eager to get started, being ably led by Jo Tough and Kay Turrell supervising our Pre-School, following Sue Herbert's departure at the end of July. Jo and Kay have been dedicated to our success for almost 20 years between them. We wish them well in their new roles. The committee will be looking to recruit a new member of staff in January 2008. We would like to warmly welcome our new children: - Harvey, Zachary and Matthew and hope they will be very happy with us. Over the next few weeks we will be welcoming our children back to pre-school, familiarising them with each other and the surroundings with an 'All about me' topic. We will be doing a project on 'faces' to learn about expressions and feelings. We do hope the weather will be kind to us so that we can enjoy our great outdoor play facilities.

  We ended last term with a special performance by our children based on 'Goldilocks and the three bears'. The children were stars as ever. We then took part in a Barnardos 'Big Toddle' to help raise money for our pre-school and for children less fortunate than ours and were thrilled to be able to send £228.75 to this cause. Thank you so much to everyone who joined in. The sponsored walk, followed by a picnic in the park was a wonderful way to end the term and a great memory for children moving up to their next schools.

  Our AGM will be held on Monday 17th September from 7pm at Sherington C of E School. Mr. Colin Storey of this school has kindly agreed to give us a presentation on the benefits of outdoor play.

  As Chair of Sherington Pre-School this past year, I would like to thank everyone who has supported us in so many different ways. Together we have a Pre­School to be so proud of. I would like to thank the staff, committee members and parents for supporting and guiding me in my role and I would like to wish the next committee a successful and enjoyable time in the coming year.
       Paula Noble