Dear Parents, 

This Wednesday was Careers Day at the Senior School.  We were delighted to welcome 24 visiting speakers, largely drawn from the parent body, covering a wide range of sectors, including AI, engineering, programming, medicine, sport, and the arts. Careers Day is an important event in our school calendar, as it provides our students with the opportunity to learn about a wide range of careers and to meet with professionals in their field. We believe that it is important for our students to start thinking about their future careers early on, so that they can make informed decisions about their further education and training, Wednesday would certainly have helped with that. 

Careers Day is just one of the many ways in which we support our students to develop their career aspirations and we were delighted to be nominated for Careers’ Programme of the Year for this year’s national schools’ awards. We have since been confirmed as a finalist and will hear next week if we are a winner. The full programme includes a range of other careers-related activities and events throughout the year, such as work experience placements, our Post-16 Fair, interview technique, InvestIN talks, Morrisby careers profiling, enrichment activities, guest speakers, assemblies and the Dukes Careers School. 

We were lucky to have a range of speakers on the day and they were largely drawn from our parent body.  I’d like to encourage any parents who are interested in helping out by speaking at next year's Careers Day to sign up using the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/WRpz6fm3xv 

In terms of what’s involved, volunteers are asked to do two sessions, one aimed at our KS3 children, aged 11-14, and one for KS4, aged 14-16.  Each talk is allocated an hour, although this includes time for Q&A and also, if time permits, an opportunity for the children to make notes and update parts of their Careers' Journal.  There will be no more than 25 children in each session.  Visitors have a teacher with them in each session, they can facilitate a Q&A or, if speakers have a presentation prepared, will ensure that this is shown. 
  
Our hope is that the children will learn more about the different opportunities available to them when they leave school and that these talks will help them understand more about the different routes into work they might consider, the skill sets needed to succeed in them, and the path through higher education that will allow them the best chance of success. 

You’ll find a pdf copy of the full programme of this year’s event in your Parent Portal. 

Thank you again for your support. 

Richard

Dear families, 

Yesterday was National Poetry Day and to celebrate this the children have listened to poems in class and explored activities relating to nursery rhymes and rhyming words! 

Thank you to everyone who kindly donated a shoebox donation of non-perishable food items as part of our offerings linked to Harvest Festival. The donations have been taken to St Paul’s Church for Cambridge City Foodbank. We appreciate that times are challenging due to the cost of living crisis and appreciate your generosity. 

We are hosting our first Open Morning event tomorrow. Thank you to the children who have offered their time to support this event. 

Looking Ahead 

Next Friday 13th October is Just One Tree Day JUST ONE Tree - £1 plants 1 Tree. Combat Climate Change through reforestation The children are invited to bring in a £1 donation in exchange for wearing clothes that are earth coloured (green/brown). The donations raised will be put towards planting trees in an aim to combat climate change through reforestation. If your child has PE on this day they can bring their home clothes with them. 

Reminders 

Please ensure that your child is well enough to attend nursery each day. If they have had a bought of diarrhoea or sickness they must not return to nursery until they are 48 hours clear of illness. 

TIGER CLASS ONLY: Parent Consultations will be taking place on Tuesday 17th and/or Wednesday 18th October.  Last week you should have received an email asking you to book a session with your child's teachers. If you have any questions regarding this booking system, please contact ioana.bird@sanctonwood.co.uk  

Please ensure your children’s clothes are labelled and they have spare clothes on their pegs. Thank you. 

Holiday Club

Holiday club will take place on Friday 20th October, this is the only date it will run as there was not enough interest in the other two dates. If you would like to book your child in the December holiday club, contact Clara by emailing nursery.holidayclub@sanctonwood.co.uk   

Have a super weekend. 

Nic Henson 

Head of Nursery and Pre-Prep 

Highlights from the week from Spots 

This week there has been some messy rice play, dinosaur footprints using paint, playdough, green gloop and pasta play. We have seen lots of role play with the kitchen, doctors, and baby set. On the decking the children have enjoyed ball and hula hoop play. Inside we had story sacks, yoga and dancing. The children are starting to get to know each other, calling their names and giggling together in the Wendy house.  

Tapestry 

Please upload some photographs to your child’s Tapestry account. We have a class book which the children like to look at.  It would be lovely if every child had some photographs of their family in there to share with their peers. 

Reminders 

On Friday 13th we will be taking part in Just One Tree Day JUST ONE Tree - £1 plants 1 Tree. Combat Climate Change through reforestation. The children are invited to bring in a £1 donation in exchange for wearing clothes that are earth coloured (green/brown). The donations raised will be put towards planting trees in an aim to combat climate change through reforestation. 

• Please can all children come in with a washable laundry bag so that we do not use plastic bags when sending soiled clothes home.
• Please bring 3 sets of named spare clothes – including warm clothing as the weather is changing
• Please post some photographs from home on to Tapestry, ideally with family members or close friends 

Have a great weekend. 

The Spot ladies 

Highlights from the week from Elmers 

We have had a lovely week; we have been doing self-portraits and talking about what we have that is the same and what is different about us. The children then throughout the week have been noticing more similarities and differences with one another and things around the nursery.  

We had some lovely playing with our space tuff spot and talking about the planets in our solar system. We then read The Smeds and the Smoos book. 

We did some dinosaur foot printing on the table, and we looked at which dinosaurs had the bigger feet. 

Thank you to the parents that sent in your child’s blue pictures, they have really enjoyed talking about them and showing them off. Next week's colour is Yellow. We did some lovely colour mixing and experimented what happens when you mix two colours together. 

Christmas cards, each of you will have an order form being sent home this week and I need you to fill it in and bring it back to us before the date on the order form. Any forms which are handed in late will not be sent off to the printers. We have a very limited time frame to get the designs to the printers. 

Reminders

• Please could we ask that children come into school with their uniform on each day they attend. There is a Tapestry post about the uniform if you can’t remember what they should be wearing.
• When you pick up your child, could you please not ring the Spot class bell as it wakes the children up - and we also won’t know that you are there! 
• To make handover quick and easy could I ask you to please hand over your child to the member of staff that is at the gate in the morning. All the children from both classes know the teachers and are very happy to play with them. 

Have a good weekend. 

Jo and the Elmer team 

Highlights from the week from Tigers 

The Tigers have had a great week this week. They enjoyed learning about ‘Space’ and the planets. They had a fantastic morning at St. Paul’s Road, joining the Reception children for a ‘Little City’ experience. They absolutely loved this, dressing up and exploring all the different role-play opportunities, such as the vets and the supermarket. We were very proud of how well they played with each other and how absorbed they were in their play.  

The Tigers also enjoyed listening to a variety of poems for National Poetry week.  

They are looking forward to exploring our new role-play area in the Tiger Class next week, based on the ‘Room on the Broom’ story. 

Reminders 

The Tigers are really enjoying their Forest School sessions and we would like to continue promoting this interest, no matter the weather. If you have not done so already, could you please provide us with a set of (named) waterproofs and a pair of wellies for your child.  

We would love to share your children's weekend news with their friends on Tapestry. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to gain confidence speaking in front of their peers. This could be anything from a trip to the park or a swimming lesson, whatever they would like to share.  

Have a lovely weekend. 

Holly, Elly and Kayleigh

Events and Articles 

• Growing strong and happy families - Online 3-part parenting course with coach and counsellor Lulu Luckock – Part 2 (12 October), Part 3 (9 November) Recording of part 1 can be found here.
• Bookish Delights – Dandelion London’s suggest their pick of the Autumn crop  of new titles.
• Telling Tales – Magoo Giles, Principal of Knightsbridge School explores the role of storytelling as a powerful educational tool
• Power of Poetry – Fran Johnstone on poetry being essential for intellectual growth in young people.
• Ten tips to make reading fun – Article by Book Trust’s ‘Writer in Residence’, Michelle Robinson on how to engage young children in books and stories.
• Play is the glue that holds everything together – Play is a child’s approach to life says Zanna Clarke, Principal of Miss Daisy’s Nursery Schools
• Mini Chefs En Cuisine -  En Cuisine’s immersive cooking camp for 3-5 year olds (16 – 20 October)
• 25% off Ultimate Activity Camps – Dukes Club members can claim 25% off Ultimate Activity’s half term and holiday camps across the UK