Dear Parents/Carers,
We hope you have been enjoying the summer break, its nearly over and we will be returning to preschool soon.
We just wanted to give you all some information regarding the return to setting, some of you are returning others are new to Happy Hours.
As you are aware COVID-19 affected everyone and so things were certainly different for us from last September 2020 – and now are different again. So as Committee and Staff we felt that we needed to give you this information ready for the start of term.
We open for children on Monday 6th September 2021, please come in on the sessions you have been allocated from that week. New starters you will have been given visit times from that point, usually an hour session to start with.
Times for sessions will be changing to our previous pre-Covid times o Morning 9:15am – 12:15pm (3 hours)
- Afternoons 1pm – 3:30pm (2.5 hours)
- Full Days 9:15am – 3:30pm (6hrs 15 mins)
Dropping off and collecting will change to the front door of the centre, everyone will wait outside until the main door is opened just before the start of the session in the morning, the doors will then be locked and re-opened at collection time. This will be the same for the afternoon sessions. Please remember it’s a community centre and there are other users around at those times, if the main doors are open (staff may be in the office) then please wait outside the building allowing the centre staff to continue to work. If the door is locked when arriving for a visit session, you will need to ring the preschool to come and let you in, details will be on the main door.
Parents/Carers will be allowed into the main room, bringing your children in, dropping them off, putting their bags/coats on their pegs as usual. We will be continuing to give Antibac as you enter. Social distancing and mask wearing is not needed as per the DfE however we would ask that you are mindful of others around you and respect their thoughts and wishes.
COVID-19 is still around and the staff will continue to complete twice weekly lateral flow tests, we will also ask that you inform us of any COVID-19 cases that occur within your homes, along with vaccination status and certainly if any of your children test positive please let us know, we as a setting still have duty of care to those around us, we will be following West Sussex direction along with the Dept of Education (DfE) requests in terms of closing/cleaning and closing/re-opening.
Fruit/Snacks will be able to be brought into setting again, this for new children was something that we asked parents to bring in with them, bags of fruit, breadsticks, Cheese shape snacks, vegetables, anything that we use for children’s morning and afternoon snacks. There will be a bowl on the table as you enter for you to place items in, once a week from each parent would be great – thank you.
NAMED Lunch boxes for those attending lunches, along with a named drinks
bottle. Please remember to encourage your children to bring healthy lunches, we will support them to eat their lunches during the lunch break.
NAMED bags please with change of clothes (all named), nappies/pull-ups, wipes etc that we will use when changing your children during their sessions.
Your child will be allocated a Key-worker, feel free to chat with that staff member building a relationship with them, giving information about your child that you will feel will help them to settle into our setting.
Fees can be paid via BACS or cash – these are to be paid weekly, monthly or termly IN ADVANCE.
CLOSED Facebook Group – we have one set up for Happy Hours, and we will update the group during the week with photos and information about all the different activities that are takingplaceinsetting.Itsgreattoseehowyourchildrenaregettingon. Pleaselookforthe group and ask to join – its Happy Hours Preschool, Crawley. Please note this group is for Parents/Carers only – unfortunately we cannot accept requests from extended family or friends.
If you have any queries at all regarding the above information then please contact us via email – we still access these at present (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). We will also be in setting on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd September if you feel you need to call or pop in to chat with us.
We are looking forward to a new term, new experiences and see you all again. Kind regards
Staff & Committee at Happy Hours Preschool
