A Man in Child Care

It’s that time of the year when the tv channels are full of those cheap programmes reviewing the last year, so as I sit here recovering from my annual bout of Christmas flu, why don’t I do the same? Actually, we published our annual report in September, so I’ll just update you on the last few weeks leading up to the big day (for most of which, I was in bed – ill! – sympathy vote).

This year, we found a great simple nativity play – “Our First Nativity” which was really effective. I attended all 5 lives performances at the various churches and can confirm -

• incredible audiences! – parents, relatives and friends came out in droves this year, there were over 70 people at some of the venues.
• some amazing Oscar nominations -

1. the pregnant Mary with a cushion up her dress, who sat back and stroked her bump – method acting at its best
2. the wise man who shouted, ‘Mum, Dad, it’s my bit. Are you watching?’
3. the angel who performed an energetic Michael Jackson inspired solo disco routine
4. the Joseph who also boogied his way through the show

• Universal praise for the presentations, the children and the staff.

To celebrate the opening of Harefield preschool, Mrs W decided to organise an open day with a special guest.

The guest arrived yesterday at Paintpots Mansions in the back of a van, taped up in a large cardboard box.

By the time I emerged downstairs for breakfast this morning, Mrs W had already adopted her alter ego and was posing out on the drive by the Paintpots mobile.

I hope she doesn’t scare the children in this guise. It terrified me!

We received confirmation this week of our funding from the British Council, followed by the funds themselves into our bank account. This will pay for our travels and activities over the next 18 months as we work together with our colleagues from Austria, Belgium and Spain in our EU twinning project. We kicked off with a Skype meeting where we introduced ourselves.

I arranged a “Doodle” poll where between us we identified a “window” of availability in the first week of December. Our first project planning meeting will be in Vienna. We will arrange our activities for the rest of the project and get to visit some of the nursery facilities and local places of interest. Mrs W will accompany myself on this first meeting after which we will invite other interested staff members to apply for a trip.

We look forward to our turn at hosting – with the opportunity to show our friends from Europe around the area. We are also excited about the opportunities for our children to learn about other cultures and to extend our skype activities to other countries.

As lead country, we are investigating web hosting facilities for us all to add our contributions on the project. Quotes so far seem quite expensive and probably beyond our budget so we will keep looking.

Now everything is confirmed, I am sure it will be a really positive and exciting opportunity for us all to participate in this experience.