Windmill Under 5s Preschool

click Elf Houses mentioned below in Hallmark February 2021 (in covid lockdown) for photos of the little homes

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!

Hallmark February 2021. Windmill Under 5s Preschool by Natasha Kann

The second half of the Autumn Term started well albeit with a few restrictions in place. We knew the term was going to be slightly different and that our – usual Christmas festivities would not be the same. However, that didn’t stop the fun happening at Windmills!

The children have spent lots of time outside making the most of the nice weather and outside equipment, before it became much colder. They also enjoyed watching a local tree surgeon cutting some branches off a neighbouring tree and spent a long while at the window talking about what he was doing.

When the weather turned a little cooler, the children spent a little more time inside building, painting, cooking, creating and practising their Christmas songs.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t perform our usual Christmas performance to the parents on the stage in the village hall, but the children and staff still put on a wonderful performance of songs which was recorded and shared with families to watch together in their own homes.

Although it was a different Christmas for us at Windmills, the children still received a gift from Santa (which was delivered by the woodland animals this year), made cards for their families, made reindeer food and had an end of term Christmas party.

We were excited to begin the Spring Term with a new member of staff, Michelle, who has many years of experience working in preschools and will be a great addition to the Windmills teaching team. We have also been able to increase our opening hours, offering 9am-3pm Monday to Thursday, with our usual 9am-1:30pm on a Friday. We are hoping that this increase to our hours will support more local families and make Windmills the preschool for them!

As I write this, we are now days into our 3rd national lockdown and luckily for the preschool and their families, we have been able to stay open.

Having a routine and playing with friends is so important for under 5s, and we are grateful that we can be there to offer this to our children. The staff, families and children are now so schooled at what to do, that this has been an easy transition for them. | would like to say a huge thank you to all the staff and families for their hard work, understanding and support during these unprecedented times.

It really does show how much of a fantastic ‘Windmills Family’ we truly are!

The children have also been involved in searching the village on muddy walks with their parents for the Elf Houses! They have all really enjoyed finding these and would like to say ‘Hello’ to the Elves who have moved into Lacey Green! Click Elf Houses for photos.

Thank you to whoever has made these wonderfully cute structures for us all to enjoy!

This term we are learning about Winter, animals and birds, keeping warm and healthy, storytelling, Chinese New Year (2021 is the year of the Ox) and Valentine’s day.