Midland Road Nursery School & Children's Centre

I have great pleasure in presenting to you our Annual Report to parents.

(Please note that due to technical difficulties you can not at present view the pictures - we have copies in school if you would like to have a look. Thankyou)

Our children have been involved in a variety of interesting and absorbing activities over the last year.

A priority area for development is outdoor play facilities and we have continued to develop our outdoor area over the last year.

Our Garden has grown year by year as you can see from last year’s photograph below.

New Planting……Autumn 2007                           and 2 years later………     August 2009

During Christmas holidays we had our ‘Wild Garden’ planted at the back of the school.                        

There are bird boxes and bird tables.  Little mushroom seats were made for children to sit and listen to the sounds around them, spot birds and insects.                                                                  

Small huts made from hazel have made the upper part of the garden attractive to those wanting to play hide and seek or houses outside. Posts and small stumps invite children to use their physical skills.

 Also outside we had a large sandpit constructed which enables groups of children to work together.

In the previous Summer Term we had entered Manningham in Bloom and in September some children and parents went to the awards ceremony to receive our certificate .New large planters have meant more children and parents have been involved in growing flowers and vegetables this year.                                                           

Early in the term we celebrated Bookstart week. The theme was pirates and parents made some very inventive pirate costumes. We were invited to take some children to a Pirate day in Lister Park and we read stories about pirates.

In the same term we helped children and parents become more aware of safety in Road Safety Week through talks and role play.

This year we’ve continued to develop our work on Creativity by encouraging children to use cameras to record their work, their friends or things they like. They choose the photos they like and paste them into their books adding comments to their photos. Staff devised a Photographer’s Studio after children were interested in how the School Photographer worked. Children took it in turns to be the photographer and the subject choosing their own props. The children took some excellent photos using a tripod camera.

Later on in the year we took groups of children to visit The Impressions Gallery in the centre of Bradford and the same group went to St Ives Park to experience a different environment. In both places children used their photographic skills after exploring and learning about each place. In the city centre they could see the huge buildings and watch people preparing for Bradford Festival. It was a very different experience at St. Ives where there were lots of trees and an interesting play area.

Early Years Foundation Stage

One of the main areas of focus has been the implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage which has meant a review of our practice. To this end we changed some of the ways in which we record children’s progress. We now have ‘My Nursery Book’ for each child. In their book we collect observations of children’s work, drawings and photos of children at work. Parents and children are encouraged to look at the book and also to add to it.

Sharing ‘My Nursery Book’

Healthy Living

We had a number of activities linked to Healthy Living including a Healthy Food Café, a visit from the Life Caravan and a Puppet Show called ‘Snapper’s Five a Day’. We also had a new hand wash sink installed next to the snack area so that children learn to wash their hands before eating.

Toddler Group has also had a focus on healthy eating encouraged by our Manningham Healthy Living Initiative Outreach Worker, Saleha Islam. They’ve taken part in planting and growing vegetables and making healthy snacks.

.Many parents have taken part in our Family Learning Activities run

by Rahima Ali our Parental Involvement worker including a visit to

the National Media Museum which was a first time visit for the majority of the mums and children .Many other sessions such as Time Out , Swimming ,ESOL , Home Safety and Baby Massage groups have been organized by our Family Services colleagues in the Centre. Joint sessions during Child Safety week have also taken place.

Almost all the children took part in visits to Lister Park. One group of full time children helped to arrange their visit by making lists of things they would need and arranging the minibus to collect them. They used our new school and centre map to find the best route to the park. We asked the children what they had liked best about the visit and they said ’the swings’!

We also had visits to school from the Park Rangers who came on their motor bikes. Some of the children had a go at sitting on them. The Park Rangers explained that their job was to look after the parks and make sure that children stay safe in the parks.

Over the year children and families have been involved in several charity fund raising events… Children in Need, Breast Cancer Pink Day, Red Nose Day and the UNICEF ‘Food Carry’ where we raised over £500 to support children’s Health and Education in Papua New Guinea .Parents contributed to the Bring and Buy and children had a sponsored food carry . They carried little bags of lentils around a trail emptying them out and filling them again each time they went round. They really enjoyed it.

Towards the end of the year we entered the Young Open Art competition at Cartwright Hall. We entered a very large collage comprising of the photos and drawings and comments by the children on their visits to Bradford City Centre and to St Ives.We didn’t win but we certainly had the largest entry!

Parents also had a chance to be creative when we arranged visits to Challenge College Art Room.

Ten parents and children were able to make use of the extensive facilities in the Art Room and used paints, printing and clay supported by school staff and artist Abbi May. Their work is displayed in our school corridor. It was a great chance for parents to be involved both with their children’s creative development and to have a go themselves alongside students from the college. Comments from parents were so very positive that we will try to repeat the event this year.

We were very pleased with the outcomes of our ‘Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale’ (ECERS) Assessment carried out by the Local Authority in April 09 where we scored very highly in the provision of education for young children particularly in those areas relating to staff interaction with children.

Towards the end of the year when children were due to leave we tried hard to ensure all children had a visit to their Primary School .To enable a smoother transfer we hosted a Transition meeting for local Reception and Nursery Class staff to exchange information about children. Some of the reception staff visited our children in school.

As school closed we said goodbye to Mrs Stevens Bradford a Nursery Nurse who had been at the school for over 20 years. We wish her well in her new endeavors.

The School and Centre now have a new website where you can find information and news about our activities at www.midlandroad.co.uk

I thank you for taking the time to read the report. If you have any questions regarding any aspect of the Report please do not hesitate to contact Mrs. Dix or myself at the School.

 Mrs Rizwana Ayub (Chair of Governors)                                                                                 

MIDLAND ROAD NURSERY SCHOOL AND CHILDREN’S CENTRE

GOVERNING BODY

Chair of Governors

Mrs Rizwana Ayub

Vice Chair of Governors

                                                                                           Mr Shahnawaz Ali Hussain

Staff Governors (3)

Mrs. Jo Dix – Headteacher

Mrs. Diane Burton – Nursery Nurse

Mrs. Saiqa Azam – Childcare Deputy

LEA Governors (2)

Mr. Haq Nawaz

Mr Shahnawaz Ali Hussain

Community Governors (3)

Mr. Jawaid Din

Mrs Asia Khatun

Vacancy

Associate Members of Children’s

Centre Committee (4)

Ann Hedley Children’s Centre Development Officer

Abu Saleh – Family Services Coordinator

Sandra Walker – Childcare Co-ordinator

Vacancies for Parent representativ

           Parent Governors (4)

            Mr. Jamal Ahmad

             Mr. Zahid Qayyum

            Nasrat Raqib

             Mrs Rizwana Ayub

           Clerk to the Governors

              Bob Wilkes

If you want to contact a Governor, please telephone the school on 546492 and we will arrange for the Governor to contact you.

Governance

The school has a governing body made up of parents, staff, people from the community and

representatives of the local authority. The Governing Body meets 6 times a year but also has sub group meetings to discuss particular areas of work such as staffing and finance. If you would like to attend a meeting please contact the Headteacher.

The Headteacher and the Governing Body have responsibility for a delegated budget.

The day to day running of the school is the responsibility of the Head and Senior Management.

We also have a School and Centre development plan which is agreed by the Governing Body.

                                                                     This report contains information the Government thinks parents should have under the Governing Body’s

                                                                            Statutory obligations.

Number of Children on Roll

We have 75 3-5 year old children on roll.

Of these up to 21 are Full Time places.

In the under 3’s provision we can have up to 12 babies and 16 2-3s as well as wrap around places for Nursery School children.

We offer 8 Pilot 2 year old places for children of some families.

We also make provision for children of parents attending courses

through Crèches

We run a weekly Toddler Group in the Crèche Room.

Childminders and their children also have a weekly session in the Crèche room

Transfer to Primary Schools

Children generally transfer to Primary School in the September or January of the year in which they are five. Our main feeder schools are:

Green Lane Primary

Heaton St. Barnabas

Springwood Primary

Iqra Primary

St Cuthbert’s RC

St. Lukes C.of E

Shipley C of E

Saltaire Primary

Thornton Primary

Grove House Primary

Sandy Lane Primary

Margaret Macmillan Primary

Frizinghall Primary

Heaton Primary