Blog

To provide speedier and easier updates on what's going on at Croft Early Years, we are adding regular posts on our Facebook page to share all our news with you. This Blog page will, therefore not be updated as regularly. Our Facebook Page is set up as Private, so if you are a parent or carer and don't already have access, please ask to join using the button on the Facebook page.

We have produced a new version of the Croft Early Years prospectus. You can find this on the Home page and also links from the "About Us" page and in the Parents Zone resources.

The children (and staff) looked fantastic dressed as their favourite characters! We are looking forward to reading some of their favourite books. Check out the photos on our private Facebook page.

We have produced a new version of the prospectus for Croft Early Years, ready for the new school year starting in September 2019. You can find this on the "About Us" page and in the Parents Zone resources.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful Mums out there! Many thanks to our fabulous Team for ensuring that every child went home with their own hand-planted daffodils and hand-painted/crafted cards last week.

The children have been on a welly walk to explore the world around them at Spring time. They looked for new life: daffodils flowering, frog spawn and looked for rabbit holes

Fantastic to see everyone dressed up as their favourite story characters for this year's World Book Day. We had a fun day sharing our favourite story books.

We spent a lovely morning planting daffodil bulbs, ready for them to bloom into life later in the Spring.

There was a special visitor over at the primary school and we went to see all about how the Chinese celebrate the New Year. This year is the year of the Pig.

We have been counting down to Christmas with lots going on...
Our children have been busy practising for the performance of "Old Uncle Sam" ready for show day on Dec. 12th; having fun and games at the party on Dec. 14th - which had a visit from a very special bearded man in a red suit; and we have been super creative in making our Christmas tree for the Christmas Tree and Crib festival at Culcheth's Newchurch Parish Church.
Wishing all our children and their families the most wonderful time this Christmas.

The theme for the floats this year is "British Summertime" so we will be dressing up in our best wellies, raincoats and hats and bringing our umbrellas.
Thanks for all your offers of help in preparing our float - lots of raindrop bunting, sunshines and clouds need to be made over the next few weeks. If you can, please buy a clear umbrella (or two) - that we can decorate - that would be brilliant!
If you are able to help with the decoration, we will be at Pre-School on Friday 6th July from 4.00pm where many hands will make light work - please come along - tea, coffee & juice provided.
Other than that we just need your support on the day to turn up, dressed and ready to ride the float!! Please note, Parents/Carers must accompany their children. It can get bumpy on the float so please be aware - but it is great fun!!
On the day, you will need to be at Pre-School at 11.15 on Carnival Day - 7th July - to give everyone time to toilet, sun cream, load up and get to The Plough for 12.00.

To celebrate the Royal Wedding of Harry and Megan, we visited our friends at Holcroft Grange and held an indoor "street party".

As part of National Gardening Week we have been having lots of fun planting Broad Beans and Runner Beans and helping the shoots to grow.

Our home corner is now Superheroes HQ! We have been reading about the adventures of Supertato and making our own Supertatos, of all sizes, to bring home.

We had a great time on Saturday 24th March at our Easter Fun Day: Egg hunting, Easter bunnies, crafts and lots of yummy chocolate eggs in our raffle. The lucky winning ticket was drawn on Monday - check your inbox to see if you are a winner! Thanks to everyone for coming along to join in the fun.

We've been thinking about the people who keep us healthy and, following on from our dentist role playing, we had a visit from Joanne and Andrew from Mertons Opticians. The children were enthralled with their presentation about how they look after our sight.

On 14th February the children were really busy making Valentine’s cards for their friends at Holcroft Grange. These were delivered and warmly received by the residents. “We just wanted to let everyone know we were thinking about them on this special day” said Helen. Holcroft Grange Care Home and Croft Early Years have been working together to enable the children and residents to join in with a variety of activities and events over the last six months and are hoping to develop this further as we have recently applied for Lottery Funding.

Kate has had fun with the new Mega bubble blower. The children have a lot of fun with the bubbles too.

After the recent sprinkling of snow, we wrapped up in our coats, hats and scarves and went out to explore the school field.

We had the last of our very successful visits to Holcroft Grange today. The children and residents had great fun making Jesus in the manger out of shredded wheat, melted chocolate and jelly babies! We finished the visit with everyone singing along with Christmas songs and we all felt very festive.

A big thank you to Frances From Tennis Tots for coming in and doing two sessions with the children this morning. Pop over to our closed Facebook site for some great photos.

Our shoeboxes, filled with lovely gifts are ready to be sent to Link to Home, this year's Christmas charity. Many thanks for all the donations from our fantastic parents.

We had another fantastic trip on the bus to Holcroft Grange last week. We played the parachute game with lots of action songs. Kate told everyone the story of the Snail and the Whale followed by an activity of painting rocking whales. Everyone had a fantastic time!

We had a wonderful day visiting the residents of Holcroft Grange in Culcheth. We took the children on the bus and spent the morning sticking, playing with play-dough and chatting to the wonderful ladies and gents. Thank you to everyone there for their help in giving us a fantastic experience. Looking forward to the next visit in November.

Jane from Forest School came to visit us again this month. The children had a great time out in the fresh air, toasting marshmellows, drinking hot chocolate and making our fabulous lacing log!

There is a new programme of activities available at the 2 Children's Centres in Warrington East - Sandy Lane, Orford and The Orchard in Padgate. There is a lot going on, with great support and advice for parents of young children and babies. To view or download the programme click here. The programme also shows the timetable of outreach sessions at Spencer House in Birchwood.

The Sensory Room at Orford Children's Centre is a special place filled with opportunities for light and sound play. Please contact the centre directly to make a booking or for any enquiries.

The lovely weather this week has been a great time for having fun and playing outside with the new sand and water tables.

We would be delighted if you could take just a few minutes to complete our Parental Questionnaire to tell us your opinions of the pre-school. If you can, please download and print the questionnaire from the Parents Zone page. We really appreciate your feedback and of course the staff are always available to speak to if you have any comments or worries.

We carved some pumpkin lanterns for Halloween and used them in our Science Experiments - seeing what happends when vinegar is mixed with bicarbonate of soda. The children loved the Spooky results!

We have had some of the grassed area paved so we have more room to play out when it's wet. A huge thanks to Travis Perkins for donating the flag stones to us. Hope you'll agree that the new area looks fab and very smart. Belle the Help dog, who came to see the children, seemed to be impressed! Belle's visit was part of our "People who help us" topic. Belle's visit showed the children that it is not just people who help us.

We have had some good news from Warrington Borough Council regarding free childcare places for 2 year olds.
We are eligible to receive 2 year old funding for children when parents meet certain criteria. These are based on being in receipt of various benefits, for example: Income Support; Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA); Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA); Universal Credit. The full eligibility list can be found on .gov.uk website Please come in to talk with us about claiming this funding.

A very warm welcome back to everyone after the Summer holidays and a big Hello to all new starters - we're ready for more fun and learning adventures!

Our last day of the pre-school year will be on Friday.
We wish all the very best to the children moving up to primary school in September and look forward to seeing everyone else and lots of new faces after the break. Hope you all have a wonderful time over the summer holidays - we can't wait to hear all about your adventures.

We have nursery spaces available on Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays for under 2s. If you need a place for September, please get in touch with us by phone or email. Contact details here

A very special visitor came to our Family Fun Day on Saturday - none other than Superman! The Man of Steel took a break from his busy crime-fighting life in Metropolis to fly in to join in the fun with the children and their Mums and Dads. We're sure his super-abilities help to inspire the children to run and jump their best in the Sports Day races!

Our Summer Fun & Sports Day was on Saturday 16th July. It was a great day, (even though Mr Sunshine was a bit shy to show his face) and the children really enjoyed the visits from the Fire service, the bouncy castle and, of course, Superman.

Our Family Fun Day is on Saturday 16th July at St Lewis' Primary school. There will be tempting treats for afternoon tea with Primrose Teas, a children's lunch, Bouncy Castle, arts and crafts plus a visit from Wolfie! The fun starts at 11 with Sports Day from 1 to 2pm.
The Fun Day is sponsored by C:Q Catering

If you wish make a change to the days and/or times that your child attends the pre-school, please use the new form, which you can download from the Parents Zone page. Please give at least 14 days notice for any requests to make changes.

Exciting news that Croft Early Years has been shortlisted for Sainsbury's Charity of the year and the voting starts now! (13th June). Click here to go to the voting page. You'll see a box to search for your local store - please type in "Culcheth" and hit the Select button. Please, please please vote for us. It would make a HUGE difference to the children as we will be able to get better resources.

We've had some new life emerging in the Early Years pond - tadpoles!

We are very proud that we have acheived this award from Change4Life. This award reflects that we give the children in our care the best start in life by exceeding the "Eat Better, Start Better" guidelines set by the Children's Food Trust. You can view the bright bold certificate we have been awarded here.

Learning in the Woods came again last week. We explored the life cycle of a caterpillar into a butterfly by using the hammock as a cocoon.

We have joined easyfundraising.org.uk to help you to help us raise funds every time you shop online.
Easyfundraising.org.uk is a great way to raise money for charities, schools, sports clubs and other good causes just by shopping online. You don’t pay anything extra - the donation comes from the retailer and all the major shops are there to choose from. Please check out the scheme and sign up today.

Here's wishing everyone a happy and successful 2016!

We recently had a visit from "Learning in the Woods", who lead the children through many activities including learning about nature and making bird feeders.

Christmas Tree Festival - please read our statement about Croft Early Years' aims for the children in our care.

We would love to know what you think of your pre-school; what things we do well and what we could improve on. A new questionnaire for all parents can be downloaded from the Parents Zone page of this website so that you can give us your feedback. We would really appreciate you completing this questionnaire and handing it in to us at the pre-school. Thank you.

Join us for our Rustic Fayre and Open day on 14th November from 11am to 2pm. We have lots of activities planned including a photo booth, homemade gifts for sale, Forget-me-not books, tea, cake and more. All parents and children welcome. Please let your friends know and invite them to join us.

From 2nd November, we shall be open until 5pm.

A hedgehog has moved into our Bug House at the nursery...

Free early years entitlement is available for children the term following their 3rd birthday. However, this funding only covers 38 weeks of the year and we are open longer than 38 weeks this year and next. So, we are proposing that the first and last week of our year will not be covered by the funding.
For most of you this will mean no change at all, however, for those children in receipt of funding, there will be an additional cost which will be included in your invoice.
A number of you have asked about this, and we are more than happy to answer your questions. The funding arrangements can be confusing, particularly if you are using your funding in more than one place.
Warrington Borough Council's website has information that may help to explain how the funding works.
Invoices for the Autumn term have been sent ready for payment by the 5th September. If you have any questions at all, please do email or speak to Helen or Viktorija. Warrington Council can be contacted on 442983

Congratulations to us on wining Best Float at Croft Carnival! A huge thank you for everyone's help and support. See our "Home" page for photos.

We've produced a new and colourful flyer to tell everyone about Croft Early Years. Download a copy and help to spread the word about the best pre-school in the area to friends and family.

Saturday 20th June is our open day from 10am to 1pm. As well as being able to explore our fantastic building and outdoor area, we will be having a special visit from The Creepy Crawly show who will be bringing along some of their amazing animals and children will be able to make their own creepy crawlies from salt dough. There will be lots of our resources for the children to play with. Please spread the word to friends and family about this special day - download our fab poster here for more details.

Croft Carnival is just 2 months away, on 4th July and we will be taking part in the procession! The theme for our float is a closely guarded surprise but if parents want to know they can speak to Helen or any of the Early Years staff.
An information sheet from the carnival chair, regarding safety and what to expect on the day of the procession, is included here for your information.

Hi Hope everybody had a fantastic Easter - the weather has been great.
We are hoping to enter a float into the parade for Croft Carnival on the 4th July 2015. We have already picked our theme (we are being very organised) so have a chat to a member of staff for details, if you would like to join us, the more the merrier.

Just a reminder that the Bags to School collection is next week and we need the bags to be at nursery by Monday afternoon.

Tempest photography will be coming in on Thursday 27th November 2014 at 8.30 to take photos of the children. Siblings are more than welcome!

Information about our forthcoming parents evening can be found here.

Jakki, Abi and myself will be in Nursery and Pre School on the 19/11 from 5.30 pm to share information on the EYFS curriculum. If you would like to find out more on what we do and why, then please come along at 5.30 and we will be happy to discuss this further with you.

Croft Early Years is a charitable, non-profit organisation and as such requires a committee of parents to manage the overall 'business'. It is effectively run on a day to day basis by the staff team

As a parent of a child in Croft Early Years Preschool or Breakfast Club you are entitled to a place on the committee. There are a variety of roles available and I hope you will join us in helping to influence the way we run the setting

If you are interested in attending, our Annual General Meeting will be held on the 30th September 2014 at the Croft Early Years Centre at 7:30pm

Concerned about a child's talking, listening and understanding? Are you looking for more information about speech, language and communication?

Call 020 7843 2544020 7843 2544 to arrange a free phone call from a speech and language therapists through the I CAN Help Enquiry Service or you can email your questions to help@ican.org.uk

They can help explain any aspect of children's talking and communication development that you may be concerned about. They can also talk you through ages and stages and what you can do to help your child and get the right support

You can find useful free factsheets on their site