Community Links

 

School Transition

 

At Little Pickles Nursery we recognise the importance of carefully planned transitions to ensure every child receives the best possible start in their new school. 

 

During their final year in Preschool the children have a number of opportunities to prepare for the transition to Primary schools. These include:

• Visits to the new school. These can vary from a day to a week, depending on the school.

• Visits from staff at the new school to meet the child and their keyperson

• Workshops and special events run by new schools

• Home visits from teachers of the school

• Parents can also meet with staff from the new school

• The nursery also provides role plays, talks and information booklets for the children and families, to ensure everyone is well prepared for the next phase in learning.

 

In recent years children from Little Pickles have transferred to the following Primary schools:

 

• Tenterden Infant School

• St Michaels C of E Primary School

• Wittersham C of E Primary School

• Rolvenden C of E Primary School

• Sandhurst Primary School

• High Halden C of E Primary School

• Benenden C of E Primary School

• Bethersden Primary School

• Dulwich Prep School Cranbrook

 

 

 

The Memory Cafe

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are so lucky to work with some really special ladies from our local Tenterden community (The Memory Café) who devote a lot of time caring for their own family members who are poorly.  Over the past couple of years, the children and staff have taken part in fun activities together, an opportunity for old and young minds to interact with each other.

 

Christmas 2019

The children and staff were exceptionally lucky to spend a fun packed morning with Shirley and Jan when they helped us decorate lots of gingerbread. There were plenty of giggles on the way. 

 

Later on the children decided to deliver them to our local community at Pickhill. The local businesses enjoyed receiving our gifts and the children were excited giving them and singing a little song too!

 

 

Charity Shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Pickles works closely with the YMCA charity shop in Ashford to buy and re-use materials and objects for the nursery. The YMCA benefit by receiving our donations of money for the charity and the children get to use their imagination and ignite life back into objects and materials purchased.

 

The Big Wrap

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We support our local Tenterden ‘Big Wrap’ by providing gifts for families at Christmas who may be financially disadvantaged.

 

December 2020

At this special time of year, we would usually be visiting our Pickhill community with singing and gifts. Our 'pickles' are very sad this won’t happen this year. Therefore, we decided that we wanted to think of a different way to give something back to our local community. Consequently, we got all our families and children involved in the Tenterden’s ‘Big Wrap’ to support those families and children that need a little helping hand at this magical time of the year.

 

Preschool talked about how it would feel if they didn’t get any presents this year.

O:”I would feel really sad.”

R: "I think I would cry.”

 

At times of the year like this, it’s important that our children gain an understanding of how fortunate they are and this was a lovely opportunity to demonstrate this. 

 

S:”Katie, how will Santa know where the children who might not get presents live?”

L:”He knows! I hope this makes the families feel happy.”

 

Even at such a young age, it’s lovely to see our children showing respect and concern for others.

 

 

 

The Ben Hammond Trust

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In August 2019 Little Pickles Nursery raised an amazing £1006 for a charity that’s very close to Little Pickle's heart - Team Ben Hammond (Ben was an ex-pupil of High Halden School, where I used to teach).

 

The staff, children and families made such an impact!  As a result a total of ten heart scans were able to be undertaken.