The Benwick Butteflies Pre-school Group

Benwick Butterflies Pre-school Group was first established in 1974, and has since become registered for a maximum of 24 children of ages 2-6 years. Operating from Benwick Children’s Centre since 2004, the pre-school currently has 13 children on role. The Children’s Centre is situated on the grounds of the primary school, and is a purpose built building comprising of a secure playroom and outside play area. The text and images for this page came from Jenny Fell. Many thanks to her for it.

The term ended with a Christmas party and an exciting visit from Mr & Mrs Claus and Rudolph! The children were taught the importance of “People who help us” in the spring term. They had visits from the police and the fire brigade, and they had the chance to listen to some parents speak about how their jobs helped others. The term ended with the necessary visit from the Easter bunny.

During the first half of the summer term we looked at “Underground and Overground”, the children made their own wormery and took part in the “Ugly Bug Ball”. This was in celebration of our recent Ofsted report. Government inspector Denise Smith praised the pre-school for its achievements, “Children enjoy their time in the pre-school and make progress because staff have a good understanding of the age and stage of development of the children who attend”. She added “The quality of teaching and learning is good. Staff use their sound knowledge of the Foundation Stage to provide a range of interesting activities across the six areas of learning. A good balance of free play and focused activities is offered during the session”.

We have recently been learning about creatures and things “Under the sea”. The children have enjoyed playing in their pirate themed role play area. Throughout the summer term the pre-school were visited by the school’s library service. The children enjoyed looking through many different books and were able to choose a book to take home with them.

On July 12^th 2007 the pre-school took part in Benwick Primary Schools circus day. Doody showed us how to balance a feather on our hand, how to walk on stilts and much, much more. We had loads of fun!

On the 20^th July 2007 we had our leavers party. The children had loads of fun but all the adults were crying!

Our current topic is colour and shape. The children have been experimenting with the primary colours to see what other colours they can make and playing with basic 2d and 3d shapes.

Benwick Butterflies Parent, Baby & Toddler Group.

Our parent and toddler group runs every Monday (term time) 1.30pm – 3pm from the Children’s Centre. There are lots of different activities planned through out the year. Look at some of the things we have made this year.

presently attending Benwick Butterflies have enjoyed several organized activities in keeping with the theme of the terms.

The autumn term played host to a farm day, where children were able to play with ride on tractors, and had a special visit from Alice the pony. The special Christmas theme was “festivals” and children were given the opportunity to find out all about other celebrations taking place around the world, such as Divali and Eid.

Benwick Butterflies Holiday Play Scheme

In February half term 2008, the Benwick Butterflies Holiday Play Scheme will open. The group received funding from Cambridgeshire County Council and Roddons Housing Association, which was used to purchase the items required; which include a Playstation II with accessories, Basket Ball Hoops, Books and much more, the scheme will cater for children aged 3-12 in all the school holidays - except Christmas holidays.

The opening times are 8 - 5:30pm, and the costs are as follows:

£2 per hour
All Day : £17, with a reduced rate for each extra sibling of £2. (for example 3 children = £45 (£17+£15+£13)
AM (8-12) or PM (12-5:30) : £10 with a reduced rate for each extra sibling of £1.

Parents can provide their child with a piece of fruit to have at morning snack time and a packed lunch if they are at the play-scheme between 12pm and 1pm. The club will provide breakfast and an afternoon snack for the children in attendance.

Lots of activities are planned for the February half term, including a make it fly day - making paper planes, parachutes, hot air balloons etc, cooking mini pizzas, having a karaoke and much much more. And they are hoping to organise a trip to the cinema in the Easter holidays and intend to have entertainers during the summer holidays such as graffiti and mc'ing and drummers.

For more information; or to join contact Jenny Fell.