WOW its nearly the end of the year already!!

Kia Ora Leigh Pre-school community and whanau.
The Christmas tree is up the decorations are on.  We are preparing some songs to perform at "Christmas on the Pa" at Te Omaha Marae on Saturday 8th December at 1pm. On Thurday 20th December at Mathesons bay we are having our end of year family christmas get together with a very special suprise guest for the children starting at 4:30pm. Our next committee meeting is 17th December at 6:30.

Open Day

On Saturday 22nd of September we are holding an open day at Leigh Preschool for any new families to come and have a look around.
Also check out our editorial in Mahurangi Matters. http://www.localmatters.co.nz/Mahurangi+Matters/News+-+September+2012/Preschool+gala+boosts+Leigh+improvements.html

Powhiri for ERO

What beautiful tamariki and whanau we have at Leigh Community Preschool. The children, teachers, and whanau gave the ERO representatives an amazing welcome I'm sure they will remember. This experience made us all very proud to be apart of such a supportive and enthusiastic community of learners.

Leigh PreSchool Working Bee

Planting out our new corner garden.

Getting all our new plants watered!

Loving the whanau support!

Daddy Time!

Swinging, surrounded by our new garden x x x

September 5th 2012

Kai Ora Whanau, its been a while since our blog has been updated as we have been a very busy preschool.

A huge thank you to Tumbleweed for supporting us and supplying the plants from our Rodney District Council grant of $1000 for our outdoor environment! And another huge thank you to our amazing community for coming along to our working bee and getting the plants in. Our outdoor environment has taken on a new life and we are all enjoying the benefits of being surrounded by a more natural environment.

We were recently visited by the Education Review Office (ERO) and performed a powhiri to welcome them which was well supported by our community and whanau. We look forward to the final draft of our ERO report which should be published by next term. 

We are now busy planning for our annual gala to be held on the 21st of October, this is our main fundraiser which is well supported by the wider community and we look forward to seeing you all there!!

Look out for photo's coming soon of our working bee, outdoor environment and powhiri performed for ERO.

May Newsletter

Welcome back to term 2 everyone it is great to see all the children back again.  Lisa Corteen is with us for the next 3 weeks as a Student Teacher she is working in the Under 2 area with Elysia and Vicki.  We have already had our first Committee Meeting with our new committee, formed after the AGM in March. Thank you to those parents who have donated their time and skills to help us run the centre – we know that it is always a juggle to balance work, family and other commitments, but we appreciate your efforts.

Mothers Day Celebration

On Friday 11^th of May we are holding a Mums’/Nanas pamper night, come along for some nibbles, a glass of wine and an hour or two without children,

Time @ 5-00pm until 7-00pm.

On Friday 11^th of May all of our families have been invited to attend the book parade at Leigh School @ 9am. We thought that our children could dress up as their favourite book/film/tv character or whatever they like really. We are staying for morning tea, and some buddy reading with the older children.  All children are welcome to join us and we will need parent helpers.

Leigh Fishing Contest, we have been donated $1500 along with a letter to thank us for all of our efforts on the sausage stall, there is a letter on the notice board. Thanks again to everyone who helped us on the day.

The Leigh Branch of the RSA has also notified us to advise us that they have chosen us as one of their community groups to donate to this year. I will advise the amount in due course.

Teaching focus for this term leading on from ‘Summer in Aotearoa’ is the ‘Natural World’, so we are looking at Autumn leaves at the moment.  The children have also shown an interest in fire this term so we thought we could go to the fire station for a visit, we haven’t been there for a couple of years, we will organise this for the end of the month when it suits the fire personnel.

One Casual session per week is available for each child this term, depending on numbers already enrolled and staff, just talk to Carmel

Working bee:

 We are hoping to plant out our garden, we will be holding this on a Sunday morning in May, as soon as we can finalise the plants from Tumbleweed.

We are all looking forward to a great term with your children!

Please remember to tell us the things you love about Preschool and also to discuss any queries you might have as well. Check out your children’s portfolio anytime, you are welcome to take them home if you have special visitors just let a teacher know and return it promptly so we can continue to add to it.   Carmel, Jenny, Vicki, Elysia, Kym and Selena

 

February Newsletter #2

Hi everyone, we just have some updates from our previous newsletter already lots of events have been planned some of which we really need your support with! 

Fundraising – Leigh Fishing Competition

On Saturday 17^th of March, on the field of Leigh School, we are running a sausage sizzle/drink stall from 1-5pm and need a roster of parents to run this stall, for 1-2 hours. All food will be purchased we just require helpers on the day!   Also if you have 1-2 hours free on Friday evening to help prepare vegetables for the hangi at Leigh Hall.

 This is a great opportunity for fundraising targeting people out of our community,

Please see Carmel if you can help out.

Family BBQ Invitation

You are invited to our Family BBQ Night:- a great opportunity to meet with Elysia and Kym and our new families in the community

Friday 2^nd March, 5-30-7-30pm

Sausages provided just bring along drinks and salads etc.

5+ A Day   as part of our term focus we are discussing this concept with the children. If you  would like to share the healthy meals/recipes that your children particularly enjoy,  bring them in -maybe we could use them at preschool.  Thanks

We are celebrating Purple Day with the children on Thursday March the 1^st to commemorate the Haiti Earthquake. We will do some purple coloured baking and if the children could wear something purple, if they have it that would be great.

 

Raised Garden beds at Preschool;

We have planted out our hanging baskets and some of our flower bed.  If anyone has any flower or vegetable seedlings for the children to plant they would be really appreciated. This ‘hands on’ experience for children is truly valuable, they help us plan out where the plants go, plant them and then enjoy watching the plants grow – so it is an ongoing journey of learning for them.

Our AGM will hold place at the end of March, at Preschool, date to be confirmed.

We have several parents leaving the Committee and need 2 -3 new parents to come on board to attend monthly meetings and to support the teaching team.  If you are interested and would like to know more either discuss with Carmel or a current Committee Member – (Megan, Pam, Jade, Angela, Janine, Nakita, or Shara).

So A Big Thank You to these parents for giving up their time for our preschool !!

Without a dedicated team of parents to donate their time and individual talents we can not run the preschool - Everyone’s contribution is valued.

Library Visit  - Thursday 8^th of March 9.00am: Once a month we plan this visit which is supported by the School – (April’s class and alternatively Rooms 1 and 3) we will need 3-4 parents to support this visit which lasts until 9-30am

 

February Newlsetter

Newsletter February 2012

Welcome back to Preschool to all of our families and children. We all hope you enjoyed your Christmas and holidays.  We have made a few changes to the Preschool including; a new interior softboard covered hesian cladding to cover the painted walls, a Parent Notice board out on the deck so we can share information with you and some changes to the interior layout.  Please encourage your children to sign in when they arrive on session to help support their early literacy and writing skills. 

 At the end of last year we conducted interviews for new teachers and we are very pleased to inform you that we have been able to employ two new teachers on a part time basis.  

Elysia Green will be working in the Under 2 area Tuesday to Friday with our infants and toddlers.  Elysia is a qualified, registered Teacher with previous Under 2 experience and has moved to live in the Pakiri area over the Christmas holidays with her family.

Kym Powell  (Samara’s Mum) was been relieving for us last year and she will be coming in on Wednesday for Non Contact release time for the teachers.  Kym is a qualified registered Primary trained teacher who has many years of experience and offers a valuable perspective to share particularly with our older children.

We welcome Elysia and Kym to our Teaching team and Preschool please introduce yourselves to them if you don’t already know them. We are planning on holding a family BBQ over next few weeks to get to know our new teachers and families.

We also welcome some new children and their families to our Preschool, Apikera and Jimi Baker who started in the last couple of weeks of last term, OShana Lima who is nearly 5, Luke Dzedins who is three. We hope you all enjoy your time here at Leigh Community Preschool and make lots of new friends.

Reminders:

Please ensure your children have water bottles, hats and two sets of spare clothes for water/sand and messy play.

Our overall focus for this term is Summer in Aotearoa which includes all the great aspect of living in NZ: water safety, slip slop slap, 5+ A Day,

and we hope to go over for a swim in the school pool once we get more settled in.

Hearing and Vision for all 4 year old children not already tested on Wednesday 14^th of March 2012 at 9.45am

 

Welcome back from all the team and we wish you all a great year ahead.

Carmel, Vicki, Jenny, Elysia, Kym, Selena and the Management Committee