March / April 2016 Newsletter
Staff News
Staff Training & News
 We have employed a temporary member of staff, to help maintain ratios over
lunchtime as we have enrolled a few new children in the last couple of weeks.
Joanne has been qualified for 8 years and has 10 years experience working in
nurseries in Glasgow. Joanne will be based in the 3 – 5’s with Chelsea and Anna.
 Cheryl will be back with us on 18 April 2016 
Monitoring
This term we gathered parents views using text message, as suggested at the Parents’ Forum. This method received a
24% increase in responses  Thank you to all parents who replied! We asked parents if they felt their children were
very well supported by nursery and if their individual needs were listened to and met – all parents who responded
“yes, very much so”. This is great to hear and we will continue to work closely with parents to support the children.
From next year we will be using the revised Monitoring document from Glasgow City Council and Scottish Executive,
Kim will be preparing this over the summer holidays ready to start in August!
What improvements have we made recently as a result of monitoring and parent consultation
Staff have received training in HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) from Samantha and our Glasgow City Council
Teacher. We had time to review what we are doing at present and how we could develop this to better support
children’s learning and development. We have created individual recording sheets to identify children’s current level
and learning style, and this is included in the children’s learning journals. We have also created booklets for staff to
use giving examples of level appropriate questions. We will continue to develop this by incorporating HOTS into
medium term planning.
We have now audited the playrooms against Experiences using Building the Ambition. This has identified strengths
and areas to develop. The Baby Room will be developing the garden area to enhance the view from the playroom, and
developing opportunities for babies to self select. The Tigers are developing their art and craft area and resources to
allow children to choose resources more easily. The 3 – 5’s will be developing outdoor experiences and providing
opportunities for investigative play and open ended learning outdoors.
Staff have all read Building the Ambition section 8 which encourages all staff to consider what quality means to us.
This involves all staff in evaluating their own work, that of each other and as a nursery as a whole…and most
importantly what impact this has on children’s learning.
Transitions – the 3 – 5’s have been learning about transitions since January and have been asking older siblings for
their memories of starting school. We also had an ex pupil in to visit and talk about school . They have been recording
their information in the Big Book of Transitions.
Parents’ Forum
We will be having a meeting on Thursday 21 April at 6pm – we will
be able to offer extended childcare including a light dinner for
the children to allow parents to attend the Forum.
Jack Jill Nursery
Diary Dates + PSF and College Holidays
Easter Holidays – Mon 4 – Fri 15 April incl.
Parents’ Form – Thursday 21 April @ 6pm
Graduation Day - Friday 29 May 2016 @ 3pm
End of Term - Wednesday 24 June 2016
Nursery Improvement Plan – Termly Updates
HOTS – All staff have received HOTS training from Samantha
and our GCC Teacher.
Nurture – Staff have helped audit the nursery against the How
Nurturing is Our School document – staff focused on Staff
Development and Review. Staff have also developed Personal Plans
by creating a Spontaneous Learning sheet to record significant
learning outwith the individual aims. Staff have also developed
Schema recording sheets to help them record and plan for any
schemas observed.
Self Evaluation – We asked Samantha to audit our monitoring to
ensure observations are leading to improvements in experiences
for children.