The property, Ellsbridge House, was previously the vetinerary teaching centre for Norton Radstock College and sits in 2.2 acres of grounds beside the A4 just outside Keynsham between Bristol and Bath. The nursery is due to open in September 2012.

As with all our other nurseries, Snapdragons Keynsham will provide fun and stimulating learning supported by qualified and caring staff. The gardens and additional buildings at the site also offer an exciting opportunity to expand our Forest School sessions and outdoor learning, including growing our own resources and caring for nursery pets.

The nursery will create around 40 jobs and we have already begun actively seeking the high calibre staff that will allow us to maintain our existing exemplary standards. The new team will be supported by a team of Snapdragons colleagues who will share the expertise we have built up over the past 14 years. Additionally an on-site training centre will be established where professional development and training courses will be run by outside professionals and qualified Snapdragons Teachers for the staff from all of our nurseries.

We have some truly exciting plans that we know will benefit all the children, families and staff in Snapdragons and we really want you to be a part of it. Take a look at the plans and watch this space for more news 

All the children have been busy preparing for our Valentines Ball by decorating beautiful hearts to hang around the nursery and also making special gifts for our mummies and daddies!

Toddlers

The children have been busy exploring outside this week. They walked to the school to help us pick-up their friends for After School Club and participated in Forest School with Janey and the Pre-School. We looked at the bug houses they had made and had a drink of hot chocolate. Thank you Janey and Pre-school!

Pre-School

The children must have had a premonition because they have been talking about the snow and winter weather this week and so were very lucky and excited when it snowed on Friday. They had a brilliant time out in the garden building a very original snowman! They made some beautiful snow pictures, too, using lots of wintry colours. Well done Pre-School they are looking lovely!

Babies

The lucky babies have had a delivery of new books, so they've had a lovely time looking at the pictures and listening to stories.  The children have been exploring different paper by ripping and crumpling.  They loved it!

Beth and Rebecca have both been on courses this week.  Beth was doing the second part of her Playworking Practice course so we are excited to see what lovely new games she will be leading. Last week she and the children made a fantastic assault course in the Pre-School room using softplay, nets and all sorts of other goodies.

Rebecca has been to Coming on Leaps and Bounds which is designed to help practitioners understand and meet the specific needs of boys in education. 

Sainsbury's Active Kids Vouchers - We've started collecting Active Kids Vouchers again so please bring yours in if you can. Last year we were able to buy some beautiful outdoor play resources, including balls, hoops, beany bags and sit-on toys that have really enhanced the children's development and enjoyment.

Kayleigh Dainton (Deputy Manager) is available: Tuesday 9am till 6pm, Wednesday to Friday 7.30am till 4.30pm and Monday she is off.

This will allow all of our Managers to concentrate their efforts on the day to day running of the nurseries and most importantly the children.

We do appreciate that this is a big change for many parents that have been with Snapdragons for a number of years but we are keen to delegate this growing responsibility to a team of professionals who are trained in this area.

For those of you who have signed up for our new e-billing service you will now have received your electronic bill which for the first time has been sent to you from our dedicated invoicing email address. Any invoicing queries or questions should be directed to this address where a team of accounts wizards will be waiting and happy to assist you.

The contact details for the Finance and Administration team is: accounts@snapdragonsnursery.com. At the present time we do not have a dedicated phone number for this team but this is currently being organised and in the mean time we are happy to call you back so that you can speak to someone directly if you provide a contact number at the time of enquiry.

Please ensure that all invoicing queries are sent via this method however your Nursery Manager will still be able to assist you with basic questions or account balances.

Any families that have not yet signed up for e-billing can do so by emailing the above address stating the name of their child and the nursery that they attend or by advising the Nursery Manager.

Thank you for your understanding and co-operation throughout this period of change.

There have been lots of new faces in our baby room this week, we are very pleased to see them settling in so well. The children have also been practising their balancing and climbing skills using the softplay and outside play equipment.Well done babies you are doing really well at this!

Toddlers-

The Toddlers have loved playing in the role play corner this week. They have been pretending to work in a shop, feeding their babies and playing at being happy families. It has been really great listening to them interacting with their friends so nicely. Well done toddlers. We have also been busy making treats for our mummies and daddies too!

Pre-school-

Have been outside lots this week looking at icicles and learning about them, going for winter walks around the gardens and joining Barry kicking balls and playing listening games.

Our first ever Valentine’s Ball will be held on the 14^th February so put on your party wear and come to the ball!! There will be Valentine’s fun throughout the day: we’ll be baking heart biscuits, playing party games, enjoying party food and much, much more.

You are more than welcome to put your child in for an extra session if it’s not their usual day, but there is limited space so this will be on a first come first served basis.  If we haven’t got space for your child, they don’t have to miss out, you can bring them along as long as you stay too - it just means that you get to join in the fun with us!  

Hope to see you all there!

Kayleigh Dainton (Deputy Manager) is available: Monday, Tuesday,Thursday and Friday- 9am till 6pm and Wednesday 1pm till 6pm.

Later on in the week the pre-school children enjoyed making a dragon, lots of sticking with tissue. We are all looking forward to seeing the dragon on display!

Toddlers had fun, looking at the sainsbury shopping and the van that delivers our food every week.They have also been busy making romantic cards for a very special date soon.Toddlers also joined in with pre-school for Sportzcoach and had great fun with Barry.

Babies enjoyed the soft play that has been put out in their room and lots of singing of see saw and row, row the boat could be heard. Some of the babies have become very vocal and lots of new words can be heard, well done babies. Some babies are picking up the simple Makaton signing that we are using and using both verbal and non verbal methods of communication. Superstars!! 

Staff have been attending training this week and we look forward to Alice sharing her newly learnt knowledge of 'Working in the Early Years Foundation stage, for new practitioners,'  Beth's input into after school after attending 'Playwork in practice,' and Emma has attended a speech and language programme, called 'Blast' which all the children will benefit from in nursery.

Kayleigh Dainton (Deputy Manager) is available: Tuesday to Friday 7.30am till 4.30pm (Monday not in)

Our illness policy is quite clear, that when a child has a vomiting or diarrhoea bug they are not to return to nursery until 48 hours after the last episode of illness. This also applies to our staff. This is common practice in schools as well and hopefully it will help stop passing it on.

Also our medication policy states clearly that ALL medication should be handed to staff and they will complete the forms required for us to adminster medication and store correctly. This applies to nappy creams, teething gels and any other creams your child may use.

 Children must have been on the medication for 24hrs previous to attending Nursery or have had it before. Non prescribed medication can ONLY be given if a child attends a WHOLE day, not am, pm or part day only.  If you would like to see a copy of this policy then please ask, there are some in the reception for you to take as well.

Thank you for your co-operation with this policy, it makes nursery a healthy place for us all.