Windmill Under 5s Preschool

From ? the reports in Hallmark for Lacey Green Play Group were published under the heading "Windmill Under 5s Preschool"

click Sports and Social Club for list of articles about the club, including the Sports Pavilion.

2004. Letter published in Hallmark from Jane Oakford, Margene, Main Road, Lacey Green. click Chris & Jane Oakford for more about Jane

Windmill Under 5’s / Sports Club -- Sports Club Redevelopment

As many of you will already know our Village playgroup, Windmill Under 5’s, is based at Hampden at present. The aim has always been to get back into the Village with the obvious location being the Sports Club, as it is right next to the school, near the church and has lots of open space.

The Sports Club needs considerable work doing to it, not only to ensure that it is up to the standards required by OFSTED, but also from a practical point of view: storage for the playschool, hygienic showers for the Sports Club, cost-effective heating etc.

We have managed to raise in the region of £16,000 towards this redevelopment and are very grateful to the Parish Council who are helping with the cost of new heating.

The good news is that work has started with old toilets, showers, walls etc. having been taken out. Most of the work, so far, has been done voluntarily by work parties who started after Christmas and have continued most weekends. My thanks go to Bob, Nigel, Chris, Duncan, Colin, James, Kevin and anyone else who has helped us get off to a great start. The more that we can get done voluntarily, the further we can make our money stretch to ensure that we finish within budget!

On that note fundraising is still on- going with an Indoor Car Boot, the Christmas Quiz at The Black Horse which raised £110 (thanks), and with Village Day just round the corner there will be plenty of Draw tickets to sell!

The move of Windmill Under 5’s to the Sports Club will mean that the Sports Club becomes viable and that the club house will be cared for and used so that its existence is saved. There is also the bonus of our Village regaining an important asset of its playschool, saving the use of cars every day to take our children to and from Hampden. Anyone who has had any connections with either the Sports Club or Windmills whether it be past, present or future and may feel that they could donate either time or money, it will be gratefully received and help reduce my stress levels!

click Sports and Social Club for list of articles about the club, including the Sports Pavilion.

2004. Letter published in Hallmark from Jane Oakford, Margene, Main Road, Lacey Green. click Chris & Jane Oakford for more about Jane

click Sports and Social Club for list of articles about the club, including the Sports Pavilion.

2004. Letter published in Hallmark from Jane Oakford, Margene, Main Road, Lacey Green. click Chris & Jane Oakford for more about Jane

Hallmark June 2020. Windmill Under 5s Preschool by Natasha Kann

We started the year well, with the children having chance to do lots of fun learning in the first part of the term. They enjoyed learning about ‘Winter’, where the setting was turned into an Ice Kingdom while the children learnt about animals from the North and South Pole. Chinese New Year was celebrated in the preschool by making dragons and doing some fantastic dragon dancing!

Dan Smith from the Lacey Green and Loosely Row Tennis club delivered weekly tennis lessons to some of the older children, which they thoroughly enjoyed. Not only walking over to the ‘big’ tennis courts but having a real-life coach and learning some wonderful new skills. Hopefully some of them will be inspired to take it up as a sport and join the tennis club when they are a bit older!

The children also enjoyed dressing up and sharing their favourite books for World Book day. We had costumes from a wide range of books including a frog and a crayon! (and that was just the staff!) Thank you to all the parents who made the day a great success and making sure the children could take part in the fun.

As the term went on, the children were learning more about germs and did a ‘germ experiment’ to show how germs are transmitted. This turned out to be a very useful learning activity!

It wasn’t long after this that we had to make a few changes at the preschool. Parents could no longer sign the register, everyone was hand sanitizing before entering the building and the children were learning to sing Happy Birthday whilst they washed their hands. The Corona virus meant that we had to close our doors on Friday 23rd March. and everyone had to stay at home. For such young children the change in routine, not seeing their friends and not being able to do what they usually do, is hard for them to understand. The staff were now doing what they could to help the families with activities to carry out at home.

As a result, the children and staff have been sharing their activities with each other online and the children have even had a few Zoom meet ups, so they can see their friends. (Interesting to say the least! Anyone with small children in the family will know that video calling is hard work at the best of times, let alone when there are 10 or more!) The staff have put together videos of songs that the children sing at preschool and the children have really enjoyed seeing videos of their teachers reading their favourite stories. The staff and children have also been putting together their own version of the ‘Toilet roll challenge’, which the children have really loved doing!

Hopefully we will be able to say goodbye to our children leaving us at the end of the year and starting at big school in September. We look forward to when we can open safely again and welcome our remaining families back!