Summer holiday 2018

[Panders]

1 hour ago, louby loo said:

We're back Tuesday, children on Wednesday ...... then I'm off for three days next week   x

Perfect😃

[Froglet]

I'm back Tuesday, children Wednesday but I shall be doing a 'normal' school day tomorrow just at home rather than at school.  Today I've been doing the cleaning, laundry, food shopping etc so I can start the term with a clean slate.  I've done a little bit of crochet and will later sink into a bubble bath!  Yesterday I got back from a lovely few days with my sister and some Aunty Froglet time with my niblings.  I had a couple of texts from my sister's phone to read on arrival - one said that the youngest tadpole (6) had just come downstairs from bed because she couldn't stop thinking about Aunty Froglet and then second was a message from her saying: "Dear Aunty Froglet, I love you.  You make me happy.  Love from Tadpole."  So sweet (although I'm not sure about being used as an excuse for getting out of bed! 

As always, I'm going to make a few resolutions for the school year ahead - mostly revolving around staying on top of the TDL and not letting work overtake all other things.  I'm hoping that my new found crochet bug will help with that although I suspect that it may hinder the staying on top of the TDL part of that resolution!

[sunnyday]

9 hours ago, zigzag said:

Well that’s it, all over for another year and back to it tomorrow.  Can’t wait to see the children and begin to find our way with the smaller group that we have.  Good luck to anyone back to it tomorrow🙂

Good luck zigzag - we are not back until Tuesday

[sunnyday]

5 hours ago, louby loo said:

We're back Tuesday, children on Wednesday ...... then I'm off for three days next week   x

Sounds like a plan to me 

[zigzag]

7 hours ago, Panders said:

good luck zigzag, don't think some of ours are back until next week.  Does your funding start tomorrow?

Yes our funding begins tomorrow.  I have had a bit of a reshuffle with our term dates to fit the funded weeks in appropriately, so will be slightly different from the schools dates.  But all cleared with the Funding team!

[sunnyday]

7 hours ago, Panders said:

I am tussling with my coffee machine.  It was a gift a couple of years ago, but have never really got to grips with the darn thing.

Have you won yet? 

[louby loo]

25 minutes ago, zigzag said:

Yes our funding begins tomorrow.  I have had a bit of a reshuffle with our term dates to fit the funded weeks in appropriately, so will be slightly different from the schools dates.  But all cleared with the Funding team!

When do finish for Christmas ? we finish 14th 

Also what are you weeks for the spring term our is 11 and it's really messing us up    (I'm have a bit a deja vu as I think I've asked you this before )

[sunnyday]

21 minutes ago, louby loo said:

When do finish for Christmas ? we finish 14th 

Also what are you weeks for the spring term our is 11 and it's really messing us up    (I'm have a bit a deja vu as I think I've asked you this before )

You used the 'C word' 

But the answer is......17th December

Spring terms gave me a real headache too - we ended up with 7th January - 15th February, 25th February - 2nd April 

[Mouseketeer]

I’m not back until 10th, is anyone else then? We’ll finish with school on the 21st.

We are 11 wks funded for Spring but will run a 12 wk, the extra weeks funding will be added onto the summer terms (I checked with county as I couldn’t make the weeks fit, I also think this happened 2 or 3 yrs ago).

[louby loo]

26 minutes ago, Mouseketeer said:

I’m not back until 10th, is anyone else then? We’ll finish with school on the 21st.

We are 11 wks funded for Spring but will run a 12 wk, the extra weeks funding will be added onto the summer terms (I checked with county as I couldn’t make the weeks fit, I also think this happened 2 or 3 yrs ago).

I think I'm going to ask if we can do this. I also think it's actually the first time our LA has enabled us to run our spring funding into April. Our dates are 11 weeks between 3rd Jan - 5th April.

Toying with the idea of a three week Easter break- but really I'd prefer to finish a week early in Summer if possibly.  Not helped by one of the Academy's near us finishing 12th July so a couple of staff would love an early deal holiday wise (fully understand that). 

[zigzag]

Autumn term 03/09 - 14/12 with one week half term (14 weeks)

Spring term 07/01 - 29/03 with two weeks half term(10 weeks)

Summer term 01/04 - 26/07 with one week half term (14 weeks)

It seemed a real pain in the neck sorting it out this year for some reason, but these are the dates that we are doing.

[Mouseketeer]

That’s a late summer finish zigzag, we are doing 

Aut - 14

Spring - 12 (11 funded) just have to remember to offer any increasing for the summer term  the extra for the last week of spring.

Summer - 12 (13 funded) 

[Panders]

12 hours ago, sunnyday said:

Have you won yet? 

trickier than a tricky thing!   Have got the mechanics right, but it's the flavour I'm struggling with youngest son tells me that I need to get the grind right!   So now practicing my grinding skills

[louby loo]

Well-

Autumn   14wk

Spring.     11wk

Summer   12 wk

Which all add's up to 37 weeks!  Obviously they work their 38 weeks April- March, but I can't help thinking someone somewhere along the line (possibly a high finance working parent!) is going to work out this anomaly and cause issues.         

 

[sunnyday]

37 minutes ago, Panders said:

trickier than a tricky thing!   Have got the mechanics right, but it's the flavour I'm struggling with youngest son tells me that I need to get the grind right!   So now practicing my grinding skills

I don't want to think about that 

[sunnyday]

1 minute ago, louby loo said:

Well-

Autumn   14wk

Spring.     11wk

Summer   12 wk

Which all add's up to 37 weeks!  Obviously they work their 38 weeks April- March, but I can't help thinking someone somewhere along the line (possibly a high finance working parent!) is going to work out this anomaly and cause issues.         

 

As far as I know that's completely fine just as long as parents are made aware of number of weeks 

[sunnyday]

Right - I have some serious play-dough making to do!

[Mouseketeer]

2 hours ago, louby loo said:

Well-

Autumn   14wk

Spring.     11wk

Summer   12 wk

Which all add's up to 37 weeks!  Obviously they work their 38 weeks April- March, but I can't help thinking someone somewhere along the line (possibly a high finance working parent!) is going to work out this anomaly and cause issues.         

 

Ours always works out to 38wks school yr, county carry over a wk if spring to start of new financial, (we will open 12 spring and get pd 13 in summer) but our financial yr swings between 37 & 39wks, it’s a right headache 🤕 

[Mouseketeer]

2 hours ago, sunnyday said:

Right - I have some serious play-dough making to do!

Could you make me some please ....I hate making play dough 😞 

[sunnyday]

1 hour ago, Mouseketeer said:

Could you make me some please ....I hate making play dough 😞 

Oh that's music to my ears - so do I - thought it was just me!

Play-dough made, have been up to my setting to set up for tomorrow, have emailed reminder to parents 'what to bring to preschool', emailed plan to staff...…..

I am, actually, really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things - but I'm having the usual little wobble re 'do I remember how to do it'

[zigzag]

Great first day back, so quiet though!  All so happy to bound back through the door and the newbie settled really well.

I have just discovered the no cook playdough recipe and do not know why I have been using the cooked recipe all these years!  The no cook is so easy, lovely smooth dough and the kids can get involved in making it as well (under supervision)

Have a great day back tomorrow.

[Mouseketeer]

Which recipe do you use zigzag? I always find the no-cook goes very crumbly very quickly and no amount of rescue remedies seem to work.

[Panders]

good to hear to went well zigzag - yes when you have fewer numbers I think it's hard there's a buzz you have to try and replace.   The no-cook recipe was fabulous, I had done the whole cooked stuff for years, I had messed up a no-cook version and was put off, however, I eventually found one I was  happy with and never looked back and, as you say, the children can help with it too.

[Panders]

1 minute ago, Mouseketeer said:

Which recipe do you use zigzag? I always find the no-cook goes very crumbly very quickly and no amount of rescue remedies seem to work.

I think cream of tartar is the secret here Mousie

[Mouseketeer]

19 minutes ago, Panders said:

I think cream of tartar is the secret here Mousie

I always use tartar, but I have to say since it became very expensive in the shops and I’ve started buying it bulk even my ancient/trusted cook recipe isn’t the same so maybe it was a false economy :-( 

[Panders]

no cook play dough recipe.docx

 

This is the recipe I've had the most success with, do have to have correct proportions or it doesn't work properly and strangely, yellow food colouring seems to give it a crumbly texture

[zigzag]

I use the same recipe as Panders but add some drops of glycerin at the end and this makes all the difference.  Once mixed keep kneading it and it will be beautiful!

[finleysmaid]

ok so where did the summer go????

Back to work today, children back tomorrow. Very quiet to start with not sure whether to be pleased or worried.

Anyway i'm sure we'll pick up quickly though suspect we'll have a young year group

Ive tried really hard to destress over the holidays and not think about work too much so feeling fairly chirpy about going back!

[zigzag]

Hope all goes well tomorrow Finleysmaid.  🙂

[sunnyday]

Our first day went well  only 12 children but 5 of those were newbies so it all felt quite busy - all happy and settled well so very pleased about that 

I don't work on Wednesdays, so this feels like a nice easy way to get back into things...….