Author Archives: BarrieDawson

Children from Ducklings Nursery have been visiting a farm where they met cows with their newly born calves. The trip stemmed from a shepherd bringing newly born lambs into Ducklings which sparked the children’s imagination and was also tied into the Healthy Heroes project that the nursery is currently undertaking.

They started by visiting the farm shop to see what vegetables they could identify and others that they didn’t recognise. Award winning Butcher Steve Perrins told the children that local farmers grow the vegetables and was pleased to hear from the children that they had just planted their own potatoes at nursery, which they will grow, harvest and then eat!

The farm prides itself on being a traditional working farm, producing cereals, beef and lamb to source their shop and the children were excited to see the cows and their calves up close. The tour continued into the butchers where Steve hand made some sausages and hand linked them. On the next visit they were shown how to make hamburgers and even had an opportunity to help make some themselves.

Nursery Leader Janet Dawson said, “The children were so excited when we invited a shepherd to bring lambs into the nursery that the next step was clearly to get them out into the country and visit a real farm! This was a fantastic learning journey and we are really grateful to the team at Taylors Farm who were wonderful with the children. What made the trip really memorable were the gifts of sausages and burgers that we were given to bring back and cook. The staff who took the children on the second trip were given shopping lists by their colleagues!”

They finished by going back into the shop to see if they could find sausages, bacon, sausage rolls and meat and then into the delicatessen which holds a wide range of cooked meats, homemade pies, olives and fresh bread. A full range of Lancashire cheeses is also stocked from Crumbly to Tasty, Blacksticks to Garstang blue to Cheese bombs.

Here is our Lesson Plan for the pre-school across the first half of the Summer term.

Our ethos is that our children learn through play, this plan is to is to show you what the children will learn and how they will achieve this.

You can download a copy by clicking the link below:

Ducklings Medium Term Planning- Summer term 1 2013

Ducklings Nursery was delighted to do it’s bit as part of the Love Ormskirk town team by getting involved with The Spring Clean.

A group of children carried out some weeding and planted pansies in the town.

Deputy Nursery Leader, Brooklyn Perkins said “we have been teaching the children about Spring and plants so this worked really well with our current lesson plans. We’ve also been talking to them about caring for their town and it was really nice to get them involved in a practical way in this project.”

This really was a community event as the children used gardening tools that they’d got through the Morrison’s Let’s Grow Campaign with vouchers that parents and friends had donated.

This is only the beginning of a series of exciting lesson plans for the summer about caring for our environment, plants, animals and other people and will include a number of trips into the countryside to experience these things first hand.

Love Ormskirk Director, Katie Givens stated: “Its ‘ really nice to have the children to come down and get involved. It’s educating the young children about the importance of taking care of what is around them. We have really enjoyed the planting project and would like to thank Ducklings Nursery for getting involved.”

For more details about Love Ormskirk, click on the logo below.

As part of our lesson plans we have been teaching the children about Spring. Some of the learning takes place at Forest School and now that the weather has improved we’ll be planting some flowers and vegetables – look out for us helping the Love Ormskirk Spring Clean campaign by planting some pansies in the town to make it look nicer!

The highlight was the visit by shepherd Mr Vose who brought along two newly born lambs.

The children were very excited and soon gained enough confidence to stroke and then hold the lambs which were very tame, especially seeing they were only a day old!

Janet Dawson the Nursery Leader said “The children really enjoyed this experience and we are grateful to Mr Vose for bringing the lambs to see us. We have a lot of exciting plans for the children to get closer to nature this summer through our Forest School classes and a number of trips.”

We have been asked to help raise money for a worthy cause and are delighted to help.

Just by collecting your old baby wipe packets, you could help raise money for Ellie’s Fund Brain Tumour Trust, to help families of children with brain tumours, and to raise brain tumour awareness.

Here’s what to do:

Just bring us your empty baby wipe packets (any brand) and we’ll send them off in large batches. Ellie’s Fund Brain tumour will be credited with 2p for each packet. EASY!

More UK children die from brain tumours than any other cancer, so please have a look at their web-site, read Ellie’s inspiring story, and help us raise money from your old rubbish – thank you!

www.elliesfund.com

Here is our Lesson Plan for the pre-school across the second half of the Spring term.

Our ethos is that our children learn through play, this plan is to is to show you what the children will learn and how they will achieve this.

You can download a copy by clicking the link below:

Ducklings Medium Term Planning- Spring (2) 2013

Congratulations to the members of our swimming class who recently completed their Grade 1 and Grade 2 Awards.

Janet Dawson, Nursery Leader, takes the children to their weekly swimming lesson said, “The children completed the aptly named Ducklings Award. They had to perform a number of tasks, like putting their head in the water, jumping in, swimming, and turning round without touching the floor. The children have come on so much since starting in September and we have really seen their confidence grow, not only in the water, but out of it too.”

The Kellogg’s ASA Duckling Award

Apart from the obvious benefits of learning to swim and becoming confident in water, there are so many other learning opportunities which we link to the Early Years Foundation stage.

The lessons take place at Park Pool with a qualified swimming instructor who is in the water at all times with the children and have proved so popular that there is a waiting list and we are looking at starting a second class.

We are delighted to announce that our Deputy Nursery Leader Brooklyn has successfully achieved Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) awarded by Edge Hill University.

Nursery Leader Janet Dawson said “This is a fantastic achievement by Brooklyn and all the staff congratulated her on her hard work in completing the EYP after her BA (Hons) in Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status.”

“There has been a lot of discussion in the media recently about staff qualifications in the child care arena, and one of the reasons that Edge Hill and the local colleges partner with us to place their students into our setting is the support they receive from our experienced team.”

At Ducklings we believe in continuing professional development and all of the team undergo regular training to update their skills and knowledge.

Only recently Sandra and Barrie completed a Certificate in Children’s & Young People’s Workforce (Level 2).

Katie is building on her Foundation degree and is on course to complete her BA (Hons) in Early Years Practice this year and as well as becoming qualified in First Aid she has achieved a Level 2 award in Food Safety and a Safeguarding Child Protection Level 2 award as has Janet who has renewed these.

Victoria will complete her Foundation degree this year.

Joan, Janice, Sandra, Ginny, and Zoey recently renewed their Safeguarding Level 1 award and Janice and Brooklyn are booked on a course to renew their First Aid qualification in the next few weeks.

Janice recently attended a training course on Heuristic Play and has cascaded this to all the team.

Barrie has accepted an invitation to deliver a lecture on Forest Schools at Edge Hill University and has been asked by the Early Years team at Lancashire County Council to be a business mentor to other nurseries.

Ducklings best practise is that every member of the team, including volunteers, has a child care qualification, holds a current First Aid qualification, and has an award in Safeguarding. In addition everyone is encouraged to participate in Continuing Professional Development events to constantly extend their knowledge and skills.

Nursery Leader Janet Dawson concluded “Our aim is to deliver the best quality care for our children and we aim to achieve this through a blend of training and experience. We recognise the commitment of the whole team in buying into these values and willingly attending on-going training, often in their own time, to ensure that children at Ducklings are safe and sound and have the best support to reach their full potential.”

Starting shortly at Ducklings, children will have the chance to join a fantastic programme that promotes healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. This 18 week programme is designed to give children the functional and fundamental skills needed for a life time of physical activity.

Different challenges are set each week, such as healthy eating with Healthy Heroes recipes, physical activities with songs and rhymes, oral health and road safety. Once the 18 week programme has ended and all 18 challenges have been completed, children will become a Healthy Hero and receive a certificate to celebrate their great achievement!

There are four characters known as the “Healthy Heroes” and their cheeky sidekick “Freddie Frog”. Freddie will issue a set of challenges (Freddie’s Challenge) which offers the opportunity to focus on one element of a healthier lifestyle.

We will be introducing these, at Ducklings, over the next few weeks. The nature of the activities requires family participation, at home, as the children try to maintain their challenges, which are designed to be fun and easy to incorporate into every day routines.

A range of stickers will be given to children to help motivate and reward them as they progress through the Healthy Heroes campaign and meet Freddie’s weekly Challenges.

It is hoped that during the project all children and their families will discover at least one healthy eating and one physical activity challenge they really enjoy and retain as part of a healthy lifestyle.

There are lots of materials to support families which will shortly be sent home, even hints and tips on how to make shopping fun! Many of which will be added to a new dedicated parents resources page on our website. These innovative and exciting resources aim to increase both parents and their children’s knowledge of healthy eating and physical activity.

To start with we would like parents help to plan what exciting activities your child will be involved in as part of Healthy Heroes, and will be sending out a survey form to help us do that.

We hope as many families as possible will join us on this exciting programme to promote healthy eating and physical activity.

Here is our Lesson Plan for the pre-school across the first half of the Spring term.

Our ethos is that our children learn through play, this plan is to is to show you what the children will learn and how they will achieve this.

You can download a copy by clicking the link below:

Ducklings Medium Term Planning- Spring 2013