Welcome to Robin class

We would like to wish you a warm welcome to the two-year-old provision at Mission Grove. We realise that for many of you this will be the first time your child has left your care. We realise what a big step this is for both you and your child. At Mission Grove we want both parent and child to feel happy and secure with us.

The government pays for eligible families to have up to 15 hours of free education and childcare every week in school term time. We provide these as either:

• 5 x 3-hour morning sessions, 9am to 12 noon, or
• 5 x 3-hour afternoon sessions, 1pm to 4pm

Please make sure that you drop your child off at the start of the session and pick them up promptly at the end. Children that arrive late can often have trouble settling in and being picked up late is likely to make children anxious. Doors for our morning sessions will be closed at 9:15am and for our afternoon sessions doors will be closed at 1:15pm. If you arrive after this time our session will be closed.

To find out if you are eligible please follow this link and open an account.

https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/content/free-early-learning-and-childcare-2-year-olds

Finance-based place : To apply for a place based on your earnings you will need:

• your date of birth
• your child’s date of birth and either
• your National Insurance (NI) number or
• your National Asylum Support Service (NASS) number.

If you are eligible the Waltham Forest website will email you your eligibility confirmation and voucher code. Once you have received this code you can then complete our application form. You will find this form under our 'Parents & Carers' tab.

1. select '2 Year Old Nursery Provision'
2. fill in the form and submit it. You must answer questions with a '*'.

Once completed this adds your child to our waiting list. If a place is available we will contact you immediately; if not, we contact you when a place is available.

Working Families

Starting from April 2024, existing childcare support will be expanded in phases. By September 2025, most working families with children under the age of 5 will be entitled to 30 hours of childcare support.

From April 2024, eligible working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours childcare support from the term after their child turns 2.

The expanded entitlement is available to families where:

• both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family)
• each parent earns on average a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at the National Minimum wage or 16 hours at National Living Wage.
• neither parent has an income of more than £100,000 per year
• both parents are employed but one or both parents is temporarily away from the workplace on parental, maternity or paternity leave, adoption leave or get statutory sick pay
• one parent is employed, and one parent has substantial caring roles based on specific benefits received for caring, or is disabled/ incapacitated based on receipt of specific benefits

For more information and eligibility assessments, go to Childcare Choices.

Key Person: When your child starts they will be appointed a ‘Key Person’. The Key Person will take on specific responsibilities for your child, from settling them in and then continuing to support and promote their learning.

All the adults work as a team and will support the development of your child, but your child’s Key Person will be your first point of contact if you wish to discuss anything about your child.

The Early Years Foundation Stage : The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) refers to the education and care provision for children from birth to five. At Mission Grove this is from the 2-year-olds to Reception.

Our Topics : We have created many exciting learning experiences covering our topics which will be:

All about me - Autumn 1

Nursery rhymes - Autumn 2

Colours - Spring 1

Magical Numbers - Spring 2

Shapes - Summer 1

Bears - Summer 2

Playing Inside and Out : The setting is an open plan classroom. We have various equipment such as construction for your child to build and play with. We also have sand and water trays, as well as a home corner for role-playing. Our tables contain activities that encourage children to draw, write, paint, model, have a conversation and count. We like to encourage all children to spend some time outside as research has shown that children benefit greatly from the openness of outdoor play and the freedom that it offers them.

Here are a few activities you could do with your child at home to help their fine motor skills:

*Create a game for your child, you can use a small pair of kitchen tongs or tweezers to pick up some small objects like sultanas, grapes, pasta, and buttons, coins into a bowl.

*Using scissors is a great way to strengthen fine motor skills as well as improve hand eye coordination and concentration. You can draw shapes for your child to cut around. Make some paper snowflakes. Even cut play-dough. Make sure you use age appropriate scissors.

*Use cups to fill and pour out, sponges or squeaky rubber toys to squeeze. Try not to stress about water going on the floor, you can always wipe it up afterwards.

*Stack, connect and build things together with blocks and Lego. These activities encourage fine pushing and pulling movements. Lego is also great for fostering creativity. Building with LEGO is an effective way to work and develop your child's fine motor skills. As children build and even pick up LEGO pieces they will, build stronger muscles in their hands and improve co-ordination, this will help them to improve with other skills, such as learning to hold a pencil and learning to write.

Key Half Termly Events:

Stay & Play - Every Wednesday 9am - 9:45am & 1pm - 1:45pm

Speech & Language - Invitation only - Please contact Shazia if you would like to attend a session.

Visiting the local library once every half-term. Please make sure that you are available to accompany your child. Dates are posted on our website and the entrance.

Healthy teeth Workshops - Please contact Shazia if you would like to attend a session.

Help with Potty Training - Please contact Shazia if you would like to attend a session.

This half-term our topic is All About Me

The children will all be encouraged to start to say how they are feeling, using words as well as actions and by using feeling cards. They will role-play in the home corner, playing mummies and daddies and talk about family and home experiences. We will be learning the names of our body parts and learning a variety of new songs and rhymes.