Our May blog

Dates for your diary

Mon 16th Jun - Fathers day bacon butties - Bacon butties for the Dads at drop off in the morning. If you have any dietary requirements please email into the office to let us know.

Fri 4th July - Warleigh Lodge Leavers' Trip - 11:45am to 3:30pm.

Sat 19th July - Preschool graduation - 2pm to 5pm

Extra sessions

We have had a recent shuffle around at the nursery with children venturing up into their next exciting rooms, so we may be able to accomodate extra sessions on certain days in the rooms. Please let us know if this is something you would be interested in.

School leavers

For anyone whose little one is off to school this year, we kindly ask that you give us one months notice prior to them finishing. Please can you let the office know your childs end dates. Thanks in advance.

Growing area

Our growing area is starting to produce some amazing fruit and vegetables. A great big shout out the Charlotte and the pre-school team who have been working hard to grow some wonderful produce for us to enjoy! It is really important to us that the children here see the process of growing food and that it doesn’t just come from a packet. Jo our catering manager works alongside ourselves for our soil association award and we are currently working towards another year of our gold standard!

Farewell Chickens…

What a lovely few weeks the children and staff have had watching our chicks - Sonny, Peggy, Blue, Stripe and Bruce, hatch and grow into the biggest characters. We all loved them so much and it was great for the children to not only see the life cycle but also to see how different they were, leanring about how we can be the same but still very different.

The chicks taught the children so much and it is already too quiet here in the office without them, so…..

We couldnt help ourselves and now have Turkey eggs growing in the incubator in the office!

Here are a few pictures of our michievious little friends from when they hatched throught to the chickens they grew into.

…hello Turkey’s!

Toddlers have been looking at books about chickens and making our own fluffy chick collages! They were so careful to be gentle when stroking them and holding them! 🐣🐣🐣🐣🐣

Farm trip to Warleigh Lodge

In July our school leavers will have the opportunity to join us on our famous farm trip. You should have recieved a letter from the pre-school team. If your child is off to school in September and does not attend on a Friday please do feel free to contact the office about adding on half a session or to see if we can swap their day. Below are some picture of what the children can look forward to!

Trip to Lovejoys

Last month a few of our pre-school children had the opportunity to visit our suppliers Lovejoys and a local farm where our potatoes are grown. As I mentioned above children having that deeper understanding about where their food comes from is really important and we had the best time seeing all the different fruit and vegatables that Lovejoys have to offer and seeing a real life farm with cows, grain and potatoes! A great big thank you to Lovejoys and Boyds farm for letting us visit.

Pre-school are now very much getting into supporting our little ones for their transition to school and part of that has been running little PE sessions which then lead to us having a little sport day up at the park!

How lucky have we been with the weather throughout May! Another wonderful month of sunshine has of course lead to lots of lovely outdoor play. Preschool have been cooling down in the sun, transporting water with gutters and pans. Looking at where the water goes, how quickly it moves and how to stop the leaks, which took some serious probelm solving!

Do you know a Snappy Super Star?

Is there a member of my team that has stood out to you that you think deserves a special mention? It means the world to the ladies to recieve a nomination so if there is someone who you would like to give a special mention to please follow the link below.

https://www.snapdragonsnursery.com/superstar

We are a Millie’s Mark accredited nursery. This means that all Snapdragons Atworth staff are paediatric first aid trained and are confident in how to respond to a paediatric first aid situation. This is a huge achievement and hopefully further reassures you all that your little Snappies are in safe hands. Please let me know if you would like any further information about this.

Permissions

As you may now notice we are putting together a monthly newsletter and I just wanted to reach out to check if you would like to change your childs permissions for photos to be included in these. The link is only sent to the parents who attend our nursery and these photos are not then included on social media. If this is something you would like to check or amend please feel free to email on in and we can get this changed for you. If you would also like to change your childs permissions for social media then again feel free to email in, this is a different permission to the one for our newsletter.

Dietaries

If your child has a dietary and you have recently made any changes could you please can you contact the office.

Mobile Phones

Can I kindly remind you of our Mobile phone policy here at the nursery- when dropping off or collecting your child could please leave your phone in your car in a pocket. You must not take any photos inside the nursery as this is against our safeguarding policy. Many thanks in advance for your co-operation with this.

Suncream and Hats

Dare we say the sun is starting to make an apperance so could we please ask that you bring in a named suncream and hat for your child.

Holidays

We know it might be the time of year where you have a few nice little breaks planned in. Could we please ask that you pop us a little email to let us know if your child will not be attending. This helps with us planning meals and knowing how many children to expect each day. Many thanks.

Bank Holidays

Just a reminder that we are not open for bank holidays.

Medication and Illness policies:

If your child has been prescribed medication then they will need to have had been taking it for 24hrs before returning to nursery.
Please do not leave any medication in your child’s bag, it must be handed to the office and a medication authorisation form must be filled out.

When Calpol or any temperature reducing medicine is given to your child prior to nursery, they are not able to attend nursery until they are 4 hours clear of the medication.

A little reminder about some of the more common illnesses and the exclusion periods:

Conjunctivitis - They have to have been treated for 24hours and the child has to be comfortable.

D&V - 48 hours clear of the last incident.

Chicken Pox - Children can’t return to nursery until the spots have all scabbed over and are completely dry.

Hand, Foot and Mouth - Children can return once all symptoms have subsided.

Thank you for your help and understanding. If you have any questions or are unsure of anything, please do get in touch with the office

Our April blog

It very much feels like spring and srung, we have loved spending so much time outside and having lots of varied activities for the children to enjoy, including plenty of water play which while lots of fun I know brings plenty more washing at home, for this I apologise but if you could hear the giggling that water play brings you would very much understand why we do it as soon as the sun comes out to play.

Dates for your diary

Mon 16th Jun - Fathers day bacon butties - Bacon butties for the dads at drop off

Mud painting!

Babies exploring a new way to paint. using mud, sticks and leaves to paint different shapes and patterns on the fabric.

Mothers day

Toddlers prepared for Mother’s Day by making some beautiful collage cards, delicious shortbread and amazing wooden vases in forest school!

We had such a lovely month with Nat and felt so fortunate that she was here to help the children create some lovely little vases with the children for them to bring home as gifts for all the lovely Mummys. The children had lots of fun exploring the garden for wild flowers to add to them adn choosing which ones they liked best, making each of them super special.

Easter egg hunt

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter and enjoyed some family time over the long weekend. We really enjoyed celebrating with the children here and seeing some older siblings come along and join our Easter egg hunt was very special 🐰🐰🐰

I have eggciting news by next week we will have some adorable little friends living with us at the nursery! these little eggs have been incubated in the office over the last few weeks and we are really looking forward to our chicks hatching.

Do you know a Snappy Super Star?

Is there a member of my team that has stood out to you that you think deserves a special mention? It means the world to the ladies to recieve a nomination so if there is someone who you would like to give a special mention to please follow the link below.

https://www.snapdragonsnursery.com/superstar

Permissions

As you may now notice we are putting together a monthly newsletter and I just wanted to reach out to check if you would like to change your childs permissions for photos to be included in these. The link is only sent to the parents who attend our nursery and these photos are not then included on social media. If this is something you would like to check or amend please feel free to email on in and we can get this changed for you. If you would also like to change your childs permissions for social media then again feel free to email in, this is a different permission to the one for our newsletter.

Dietaries

If your child has a dietary and you have recently made any changes could you please can you contact the office.

Mobile Phones

Can I kindly remind you of our Mobile phone policy here at the nursery- when dropping off or collecting your child could please leave your phone in your car in a pocket. You must not take any photos inside the nursery as this is against our safeguarding policy. Many thanks in advance for your co-operation with this.

Suncream and Hats

Dare we say the sun is starting to make an apperance so could we please ask that you bring in a named suncream and hat for your child.

Holidays

We know it might be the time of year where you have a few nice little breaks planned in. Could we please ask that you pop us a little email to let us know if your child will not be attending. This helps with us planning meals and knowing how many children to expect each day. Many thanks.

Bank Holidays

Just a reminder that we are not open for bank holidays.

Medication and Illness policies:

If your child has been prescribed medication then they will need to have had been taking it for 24hrs before returning to nursery.
Please do not leave any medication in your child’s bag, it must be handed to the office and a medication authorisation form must be filled out.

When Calpol or any temperature reducing medicine is given to your child prior to nursery, they are not able to attend nursery until they are 4 hours clear of the medication.

A little reminder about some of the more common illnesses and the exclusion periods:

Conjunctivitis - They have to have been treated for 24hours and the child has to be comfortable.

D&V - 48 hours clear of the last incident.

Chicken Pox - Children can’t return to nursery until the spots have all scabbed over and are completely dry.

Hand, Foot and Mouth - Children can return once all symptoms have subsided.

Thank you for your help and understanding. If you have any questions or are unsure of anything, please do get in touch with the office

Our March Blog

What a busy March we have all had! We have had a fun filled month with Nat the company forest school lead with us, this has been great for us to get our outdoor groove back and some great inspiration ready for some sunshine. We have also had some fun events and vistors to the nursery.

Dates for your diary

Monday 14th April - Come along to our Easter egg hunt and Easter bonnet parade. This is an event for all the family, there will be an eggs to find throughout the gardens and feel free to bring your little ones along in a Easter Bonnet.

Tuesday 15th April - We will be celebrating passover in the nursery with the children, it is important that the children have a understanding of different cultures and celebrations so we look forward to enjoying some Jewish treats and teaching the children about why passover is celebrated.

Tuesday 22nd April - It’s Earth day. Come to nursery wearing green and or blue! We will be having a focus on what we already do here at the nursery to have a positive impact on the environment and how else we can support the planet and having a positive impact.

Monday 28th April - Parents evening 6-7pm. Please see your keyperson to book your 10 minute slot. We hope to see you there.

All actions stations, we had the police come to visit!

We were so lucky to have a visit from the local militarty police. The children had the opportunity to try on some uniform and explore the big police truck. It is really important that the children have a positive impression of the police and understand that they are there to help us when we are in trouble so we were super grateful that one of our parents was able to take time away from base to meet with the children. As you can imagine the children really enjoyed the experience, there is a great video on our socials to show you what we got up to.

World book day!

We loved seeing all of your outfits for world book day and sharing so many great stories. Thank you so much to those of you who popped in over the week to share stories with us.

Grandparents gardening day

What a lovely afternoon we have had planting ready for another year of home grown fruit and vegetables. We were so lucky to have had seven families join us in making flower bombs, sowing seeds and planting our sprouting potatoes! all round muddy fun and a great event. I know we had a few Grandparents who would have liked to have joined us but couldn’t make it on this day so we will plan another one later in the year when we will be picking what has been grown and preparing for our next harvest so I hope to see them then.

Spring has sprung and we have made the most and enjoyed some observational paintings

The toddlers went on a trip to leafy lane to explore the woodland and found some animals while there too!

Toddlers had a lovely trip to Lowden Garden Centre to find seeds for growing areas.

Neurodiversity week

Babies have been exploring the soil and filling out plant pots with sunflower seeds as represented on the lanyards of people who are neurodivergent.

Pre school have been showing off their artistic skills, we have been looking in the mirrors and doing fantastic self portraits. The children talked about what makes us different on the outside but also opening up conversations about how we are different on the inside too and that not all differences can be seen.

Westonbirt Arboretum

Pre school had a lovely day at Westonbirt Arboretum, we role played our story of the month billy goats gruff by trip trapping over the bridge then making a trap for the troll. Then we joined the gruffallo trail by recognising all the characters from the book and finished off with a picnic

Something a little special for Mothers Day

Nat has been creating some lovely little vases with the children this week. The children also went to explore the garden for wild flowers to add to them. We hope you had a wonderful Mothers Day.

We have got ourselves some fabulous new wheels

The baby bus is a wonderful new addition to the nursery and babies jumped straight on in and got to stretch their legs going out for walk in the local area. We will be using our bus lots and hopefully you may get to see us out and about and can give us a wave.

Team News

Welcome back Kim

We can’t wait to have Kim back at the nursery. She has been on maternity leave for the last 9 months and we are so looking forward to her return. Kim’s first day back with us will be the 22nd April. Kim will now be working three days a week due to the commitments of having two children and has stepped away from the head of room position but will continue to be a wonderful assest to the pre-school team.

Ruby is making the move to our baby room team. She has been a wonderful part of our pre-school since starting but it has been clear that Ruby shows great empathy and a calm nature that suits a baby room perfectly. To those of you who had Ruby as a keyworker the team in pre-school are just in the process of looking at this and seeing who would be suited to Kim with her return only being a few weeks away or to Imogen.

Imogen and I have been working very closely together since I started here at Atworth. As you may notice Imogen wears her sunflower lanyard due to being neurodivergent and it was great to look at our neurodiversity week together and for us all to learn from Imogen. Imogen has spent the last few months in babies and is now moving into pre-school. I am looking forward to seeing Imogen bloom even more working this great age group alongside some wonderful practitioners.

Do you know a Snappy Super Star?

Is there a member of my team that has stood out to you that you think deserves a special mention? It means the world to the ladies to recieve a nomination so if there is someone who you would like to give a special mention to please follow the link below.

https://www.snapdragonsnursery.com/superstar

Permissions

As you may now notice we are putting together a monthly newsletter and I just wanted to reach out to check if you would like to change your childs permissions for photos to be included in these. The link is only sent to the parents who attend our nursery and these photos are not then included on social media. If this is something you would like to check or amend please feel free to email on in and we can get this changed for you. If you would also like to change your childs permissions for social media then again feel free to email in, this is a different permission to the one for our newsletter.

Mobile Phones

Can I kindly remind you of our Mobile phone policy here at the nursery- when dropping off or collecting your child could please leave your phone in your car in a pocket. You must not take any photos inside the nursery as this is against our safeguarding policy. Many thanks in advance for your co-operation with this.

Suncream and Hats

Dare we say the sun is starting to make an apperance so could we please ask that you bring in a named suncream and hat for your child.

Holidays

We know it might be the time of year where you have a few nice little breaks planned in. Could we please ask that you pop us a little email to let us know if your child will not be attending. This helps with us planning meals and knowing how many children to expect each day. Many thanks.

Bank Holidays

Just a reminder that we are not open for bank holidays.

Medication and Illness policies:

If your child has been prescribed medication then they will need to have had been taking it for 24hrs before returning to nursery.
Please do not leave any medication in your child’s bag, it must be handed to the office and a medication authorisation form must be filled out.

When Calpol or any temperature reducing medicine is given to your child prior to nursery, they are not able to attend nursery until they are 4 hours clear of the medication.

A little reminder about some of the more common illnesses and the exclusion periods:

Conjunctivitis - They have to have been treated for 24hours and the child has to be comfortable.

D&V - 48 hours clear of the last incident.

Chicken Pox - Children can’t return to nursery until the spots have all scabbed over and are completely dry.

Hand, Foot and Mouth - Children can return once all symptoms have subsided.

Thank you for your help and understanding. If you have any questions or are unsure of anything, please do get in touch with the office

Our February 2025 newsletter

What a lovely fun-filled Feburary we have had. It has been lovely to see the nights getting a little lighter and the flowers popping up in the gardens. Here is what we have been up to alongside some dates for you all.

Dates for your Diary

Friday 28th March 3:30pm to 4:30pm - Come and join our celebration for Mother's day and dig into an afternoon tea with your little one. There will be activities alongside some yummy homemade scones with cream and jam to enjoy. If you are able to join us please email in so we can prepare and make us aware of any dietary requirements.

Tuesday 15th April - Celebrating Passover. We will be sharing the Jewish festival with the children enjoying foods and talking about what this celebration means to the Jewish community.

Tuesday 22nd April - Earth Day. We would love to see the children arrive to nursery in green and blue to help us celebrate Earth day. During the day we will be looking at how we can support the planet and having a positive impact. What do we already do in our homes and nursery to keep the Earth healthy and what could we change or do differently.

Monday 15th April 3-4pm- We will be hosting an Easter egg hunt and would love to see your little ones in any homemade Easter bonnets! This is open to all the families no matter what day your child attends it would be lovely to see you and any siblings who would like to join the easter egg hunt that will be put on throughout the gardens. Please let us know if you would like to come.

Wassailing!

A great festival to celebrate the apple trees and bring on a great harvest for the next year. We pressed apples and made flat breads on the fire with Natalie, our forest school leader. We then enjoyed these while watching the flames and then went to feed the tree some of the juice and left the bread for the robins who are known as the guardians of the apply trees. Here’s to a summer full of yummy apple for us to enjoy!

It was Mental health and Wellbeing day

Toddlers did a spa day to celebrate children’s wellbeing, we did foot massage and hand massages, and cleaned their feet. babies had a foot spa, they enjoyed splashing the water with their feet to create bubbles.

Babies have enjoyed getting hands on with some large scale painting with the colours for children’s wellbeing week

Our book of the month - Goldilocks and the three bears

The toddlers enjoyed their teddy’s bear picnic and had fun reading Goldilocks and the three bears.

Pre school had porridge for snack with the three bears, good job Goldilocks was no where to be seen!

The babies have been exploring mark making by painting with the primary colours using their hands, feet and paintbrushes. Large scale art is a great way for our babies to develop their gross motor skills and explore mixing colours.

Valentines painting and letter making

Toddler’s have been feeling the love by making their very own love potion, writing letters to the ones they love, painting with love (hugs) ready for the Valentine’s Day

Toddler trip to the park

Toddlers enjoyed some fun at the local park exploring all the great equipment, climbing, swinging and sliding. A trip to the park is also a great way to build up friendships and turn taking too! We are so lucky to have such an awesome park on our doorstep.

Muddy puddles!

Toddlers and Pre school enjoyed a morning of jumping in muddy puddles (just like Peppa) then followed this on by making their own puddles for the farm animals to play in.

Pancake day

How lucky were we to have Nats first day with us fall on Pancake day! The children had so much fun making the banana batter in the rooms before bringing it out for Nat to use on the fire. We were also so lucky with the weather, the children and staff were able to enjoy the pancakes sat in the sunshine by the fire. It was all rather special really and a great way to kick off having Nat the forest school lead with us throughout March. 

Do you know a Snappy Super Star?

Is there a member of my team that has stood out to you that you think deserves a special mention? It means the world to the ladies to recieve a nomination so if there is someone who you would like to give a special mention to please follow the link below.

https://www.snapdragonsnursery.com/superstar

A great big shout out to our wonderful Leona on passing her L2 in childcare and education. Leona started with us as an apprentice and after plenty of hard work we are over the moon to say she has passed and is a qualified member of the team. I know you will join me in congratulating her.

Permissions

As you may now notice we are putting together a monthly newsletter and I just wanted to reach out to check if you would like to change your childs permissions for photos to be included in these. The link is only sent to the parents who attend our nursery and these photos are not then included on social media. If this is something you would like to check or amend please feel free to email on in and we can get this changed for you. If you would also like to change your childs permissions for social media then again feel free to email in, this is a different permission to the one for our newsletter.

Can I kindly remind you of our Mobile phone policy here at the nursery- when dropping off or collecting your child could please leave your phone in your car in a pocket. You must not take any photos inside the nursery as this is against our safeguarding policy. Many thanks in advance for your co-operation with this.

Medication and Illness policies:

If your child has been prescribed medication then they will need to have had been taking it for 24hrs before returning to nursery.
Please do not leave any medication in your child’s bag, it must be handed to the office and a medication authorisation form must be filled out.

When Calpol or any temperature reducing medicine is given to your child prior to nursery, they are not able to attend nursery until they are 4 hours clear of the medication.

A little reminder about some of the more common illnesses and the exclusion periods:

Conjunctivitis - They have to have been treated for 24hours and the child has to be comfortable.

D&V - 48 hours clear of the last incident.

Chicken Pox - Children can’t return to nursery until the spots have all scabbed over and are completely dry.

Hand, Foot and Mouth - Children can return once all symptoms have subsided.

Thank you for your help and understanding. If you have any questions or are unsure of anything, please do get in touch with the office

Welcome back!

Our January 2025 newsletter

What a lovely end of year we all had and really looking forward to what the new year brings. January has been a busy month so far and some more exciting activies still to look forward to over the next few months.

Dates for your Diary

Monday 10th February - Wassailing! A great festival to celebrate the apple trees and awaken them from their winter slumber. The children will be pressing apples and baking bread over a fire, dancing and music to encourage a great harvest for the next year.

Monday 3rd March - A week of storytellers. We warmly invite any member of the family to join in! If yourself, a Grandparent, Aunt or Uncle would love to participate across the week, then please email us, we would love to hear from you. All it will involve is bringing along your favorite story to share with the children.

Thursday 6th March - World book day. Come dressed as your favourite book character for the day! We look forward to seeing all the childrens fabulous outfits.

What a brilliant day we all had when the Tiger came to visit the nursery for tea!

The Tiger who came to tea has been our book of the month and the children have loved reading and sharing invitations to play based on this lovely story.

Who would like to visit our shop today? and all the other fun we have been up to.

We enjoyed playing in the grocery shop, buying and paying for our weekly supplies! So many skills being used and the children really enjoyed how the team extended on what they already love to do. We also enjoyed creating fireworks pictures as part of our Chinese new year, some sensory play and reading.

Garden fun

We love the great outdoors and the children are so lucky with the spaces they have here to play. I have a big passion for the great ourdoors and look forward to working with the team to extend this even more and developing our spaces over the next few months. So keep your eyes pealed for more outdoor fun here at Atworth.

Chinese New Year celebrations

The children have really enjoyed learning about all of the traditions linked in with the Luna New Year. We have looked into what the year of the Snake means and traditional Chinese foods. It is so important for the children to learn about how big the world is and all the wonderful things there are to celebrate.

Do you know a Snappy Super Star?

Is there a member of my team that has stood out to you that you think deserves a special mention? It means the world to the ladies to recieve a nomination so if there is someone who you would like to share give a special mention to please follow the link below.

https://www.snapdragonsnursery.com/superstar

Medication and Illness policies:

If your child has been prescribed medication then they will need to have had been taking it for 24hrs before returning to nursery.
Please do not leave any medication in your child’s bag, it must be handed to the office and a medication authorisation form must be filled out.

When Calpol or any temperature reducing medicine is given to your child prior to nursery, they are not able to attend nursery until they are 4 hours clear of the medication.

A little reminder about some of the more common illnesses and the exclusion periods:

Conjunctivitis - They have to have been treated for 24hours and the child has to be comfortable.

D&V - 48 hours clear of the last incident.

Chicken Pox - Children can’t return to nursery until the spots have all scabbed over and are completely dry.

Hand, Foot and Mouth - Children can return once all symptoms have subsided.

Thank you for your help and understanding. If you have any questions or are unsure of anything, please do get in touch with the office

We wish you a Merry Christmas

Dear Parents, how are we only a few weeks away from the big day! I am sure you are so busy with all the preparations and plans. It is such a magical time of year for us all here at the nursery and we have loved getting in the spirit with your little ones. Please have a read through to see some fun we have been having at the nursery alongside some dates and other useful information.

All the December Dates and our Christmas closure

11th December- Pre-school Natvity being held at the Church from 2pm-3pm. This is for pre-school parents and children only, we cannot wait for you to see all the practice they have been putting in pay off. The children and staff are all really excited to be putting this on for you.

12th December- Christmas dinner. Mel will be cooking up a storm in the kitchen for us all. We will all be in our Christmas gear so please feel free to pop your little ones into any Christmas jumpers or clothing they may have.

17th December- Our Christmas Party will be 3.15-4.45. Feel free to bring your little ones along for some festive fun, siblings are also more than welcome to join us. If your child attends on a Tuesday then feel free to bring them in wearing their best party gear. If your child doesn’t attend on a Tuesday and you would like to join us for some festive fun then just send me over a email so I have an idea on numbers.

24th December- We will be open on Christmas eve as normal. If your child will not be attending or will be only in for part of the day could we please ask that you let us know. Due to our closure between Christmas and New Year we are trying to ensure we are not over ordering in the kitchen to try and reduce as much food waste as possible.

2nd January- Our first day open of 2025! and we will very much look forward to seeing you all to hear all about the joys of your festive break.

Spooky Smores

What a lovely evening we had with those of you who were able to attend. I was so pleased that the rain held off and we could enjoy a night under the stars.

If you head over to our website you will find more photos of the evening.

Do you know a Snappy Super Star?

Is there a member of my team that has stood out to you that you think deserves a special mention? It means the world to the ladies to recieve a nomination so if there is someone who you would like to share a bit of Christmas joy over then please follow the link below.

https://www.snapdragonsnursery.com/superstar

Medication and Illness policies:

If your child has been prescribed medication then they will need to have had been taking it for 24hrs before returning to nursery.
Please do not leave any medication in your child’s bag, it must be handed to the office and a medication authorisation form must be filled out.

When Calpol or any temperature reducing medicine is given to your child prior to nursery, they are not able to attend nursery until they are 4 hours clear of the medication.

A little reminder about some of the more common illnesses and the exclusion periods:

Conjunctivitis - They have to have been treated for 24hours and the child has to be comfortable.

D&V - 48 hours clear of the last incident.

Chicken Pox - Children can’t return to nursery until the spots have all scabbed over and are completely dry.

Hand, Foot and Mouth - Children can return once all symptoms have subsided.

Thank you for your help and understanding. If you have any questions or are unsure of anything, please do get in touch with the office.

Amy and I have had a wonderful first few months here at Atworth. It has been lovely to get to know all the families and children here. Thank you for making us feel so welcome. We are looking forward to 2025 and all the fun we can plan for the year ahead. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New year.

October 2024

Autumn Days…

Our little Snappies have been getting Spooky creative making lanturns and ensuring there isn’t too much waste, pumpkin inspired snacks for the nursery too!

We have been out hunting for natural resources to make our decorations. Here we have collected leaves to turn upsidedown to look like ghosts!

A BIG BIG thank you for supporting our Sponsored Toddle and Raffle to raise money for Breast Cancer Now.

This month we have been taking moments to really relax in celebration of Wellbeing week; our Snappies have been to the Spa, have been practicing yoga and have been having lots of fun turning the nursery green!

Notes to Parents:

• Now those colder months are closing in, please make sure your little one is well prepared to go outside in all weathers. Anything that is sent into nursery must be named please!

• We do have a vacancy for an admin role working alongside our really lovely team. The hours would work perfectly around school or childcare so please do have a look at our website if you know someone who might be interested.

• Funding - If you may be due to receive funding for the coming Janurary for the first time, you would have seen an email from our accounts team. Please do go through it and contact accounts if you have any questions. Also please contact them if you have not received this email.

Dates for your dairy:

Friday 8th November 5pm-7pm - Spooky S’mores
We hope you will join us for an evening of fireside fun!

Wednesday 11th December - PreSchool Nativity at St Michael & All Angels Church.

25th Dec - 1st January We are closed for the Christmas break. This period is not charged. Our first day back is Thursday the 2nd. If you know that you are not planning to come in days surrounding the break, please do let the office know.

School Notices:

If your child is turning four this school year then you will need to start thinking about applying for a school place and heading off to a few open days or booking in for a school tour is a great way to get a feel for our local schools. Applications close in January, so you have some time to start looking but if you have any questions at all please feel free to come and speak to one of us in the office.

Neston Primary are not hosting an open day but will be offering show rounds by appointment.

Holt Primary please also get in touch with them using the infomation below.

Do you know a Super staff member who is always making your little Snappy smile?

(We hope so!)

If you think that any of our staff deserve an extra special well done or thank you, please nominate them as a Snappies Superstar using the below link so that we can give them a little treat. This is available all year round, you can make as many nominations as you wish and do this as frequently as you’d like. We love to hear how wonderful our staff are so please get nominating!

Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery

Medication and Illness policies:

If your child has been prescribed medication then they will need to have had been taking it for 24hrs before returning to nursery.
Please do not leave any medication in your child’s bag, it must be handed to the office and a medication authorisation form must be filled out.

When Calpol or any temperature reducing medicine is given to your child prior to nursery, they are not able to attend nursery until they are 4 hours clear of the medication.

A little reminder about some of the more common illnesses and the exclusion periods:

Conjunctivitis - They have to have been treated for 24hours and the child has to be comfortable.

D&V - 48 hours clear of the last incident.

Chicken Pox - Children can’t return to nursery until the spots have all scabbed over and are completely dry.

Hand, Foot and Mouth - Children can return once all symptoms have subsided.

Thank you for your help and understanding. If you have any questions or are unsure of anything, please do get in touch with the office.

We have a total open door policy at Snaps so if there is anything at all we can help with, please do pop in!

Summer at Atworth 2024

Summer has come and gone at Atworth Snapdragons, and what a great summer it’s been! From Sunny days and picnics on the grass, to saying goodbye to our Preschool graduates, it has been a blast!

Let’s take a look at what we’ve been up too…

Look at what we’ve been growing…

We have been growing lots of vegetables in our patch and the children have been eager to help water the plants and help them thrive! We’ve been talking about healthy food and what we need to eat to grow up big and strong. We have been growing - radishes, green beans, rainbow corn, pumpkins and strawberries. YUM!

Newest Member of our Snappies Team!

We have some very exciting news! Kim has given birth to a beautiful baby girl. Kim welcomed little Layla into the world on the 2nd August weighing a very healthy 8lb 6oz! Both mum and baby are doing well and we can’t wait to meet her soon. Congratulations Kim and family!

A big goodbye and good luck to our Preschool leavers!

It’s time to say goodbye to our Preschool leavers; we had a great time celebrating their last few weeks with us, ending with a great leavers party as a last hurrah! They are now adventuring off into the new world of school, we have loved having you at Snapdragons. From all of us here at Snappies - we wish you all the best of luck and will miss you! Don’t be shy to pop in and say hello so we can see you in your school uniform!

Just a reminder…

This is a polite reminder to remember to bring water bottles each day. We have cups for meal times but every child should be bringing in a bottle of water from home to drink throughout the day so please can you remember to pop one in their bags and take it home at the end of each day to wash.

Now the summer has offically ended and the weather is getting colder; please can you also remember to bring in appropriate clothing. We love to go outside in all weathers so we want to make sure they are wrapped up well, especially for those wet rainy days. Please also ensure that everything you send in is named.

Staff News

Ella our Nur

sery Manager will be leaving us to embark on a new adventure, her last day with us will be Tuesday the 1st October. It is a sad moment for us to say goodbye after over 4 years of hard work and care, she has been the forefront of creating a happy and fulfilling environment for your little ones to thrive but we wish her all the best of luck!

We are also very sad to be saying goodbye to Gabby who has been part of Snapdragons for eight years. Gabby has worked at three of our nurseries and Atworth have been so lucky to have her for the last five months supporting the teams and strengthening the practice Snapdragons are so proud of. Gabby is sticking to her strengths, and will be working as a tutor for new nursery practitioners. We wish her all the best in her new role!

On that note, we have some very exciting news to share with you. Rebecca the Nursery Manager at Corsham, will be taking over the reins from Ella! Rebecca has decades of experience under her belt and many years ago, used to call Atworth her home. Rebecca is a mother of 4 and brings with her a wealth of knowledge, experience and love; we can’t wait to have her here with us!

We are also excited to announce that Nicole from our Corsham Nursery has taken the next big step in her career and has accepted the role of Head of Babies here whilst Jadea is away! She will be starting with us on the 23rd September and i’m sure you will all join us in giving her a big “WELCOME” when you see her around!

We have had two lovely apprentices start with us over the last few months too. Casey who is based in our baby room and Ruby who is based in our pre-school room. You may have seen them around already, as they take on more responsibility they will be introducing themselves to you very soon!

Breast Cancer Awareness

It is Breast Cancer Awareness month in October and this is a cause we hold very close to our hearts. Throughout the month we will be holding fundraisers to try and raise as much money as possible. We will be playing games such as “Guess the name of the Teddy” and seeing who can guess how many pink smarties are in the jar. We will also be having a bake sale, a raffle and a ‘Wear Pink’ day so keep your eyes peeled for dates and further information in an email that will be going out in the next few weeks.

Do you know a super staff member who is always making your little one smile?

(We hope so!)

If you think that any of our staff deserve an extra special well done or thank you, please nominate them as a Snappies Superstar using the below link so that we can award them a little treat. These nomination are available to make all year round, you can make as many as you wish and do this as frequently as you’d like. We love to hear how wonderful our staff are so please get nominating!

Dates for you Diary…

Parents Evening - 21st October

Spooks and S’mores Party - 8th November

Wear Pink Day - 18th October

Sickness and Pesky Bugs

As we enter into a new term, we welcome back lots of you who have been away on holiday, along with some unwanted new friends! Unfortunately, the return to school period can see a significant increase illnesses. As always, we do all we can to minimise the spread of bugs. The team are dedicated to keeping all our children and families as well as possible. With this in mind, we do ask that you do your best to support us by ensuring that when your child is not well, you keep them at home and follow any exclusion periods stated in our illness policy. A polite reminder that children are not able to attend if they have had calpol, they must be four hours clear before coming into Nursery.

Please familiarise yourself with our illness policy below;

https://www.snapdragonsnursery.com/illness

Below is a link that has been put together very carefully by our wonderful accounts team. It should answer any questions you may have regarding Nursery fees and funding, however if you have any outstanding queries, do let us know!

May 2024 at Atworth

Another month done and what a busy month it’s been! We have been celebrating lots this month and we have had our lovely forest school leader Natalie with us!

Mental health awareness week!

Earlier in the month we celebrated mental health awareness week. This years’ focus was on ‘moving more for mental health’ so with that in mind, we planned a scavenger hunt in the garden for the children, took some trips out in to the local community and asked you all to come in wearing something green! We looked for caterpillars, shoes, frogs and even aliens! Pre-School made some green playdough to support the occasion and enjoyed making shapes and mark making! We also treated our amazing team to a lovely lunch and breakfast to show our appreciation for all their hard workand their support with this months activities!

If you want to learn more about world mental health day please click the link button below:

Forest school

We love a forest school month at Atworth! All of the children have been getting stuck in with Nat to explore the outdoors. Nat demonstrated leaf and flower printing for the children to try, taking time to appreciate the very pretty patterns nature can acheive! They also tried out some messy mud painting which they thouroughly enjoyed. Some of your little ones made seed balls that we plan to throw into our garden to grow beautiful flowers.. Nat even got the kelly kettle out to make some hot chocolate over the fire!

How to make seed balls at home:

Seed balls:
1. Mix seeds and potting soil together in a large container.
2. Add dry clay and mix again.
3. Slowly add water while still mixing the ingredients into a paste.
4. Form balls with the paste in your hands. They shouldn’t fall apart easily.
5. Let the seed balls dry in a sunny place for a few days.

National bee day

This month we also celebrated and supported national bee day on the 20th May. Paying particular attention to acknowledging the role that bees and other pollinators play in a healthy ecosystem. In celebration of national bee day, pre-school practiced their cutting skills to make stripy bees using black and yellow card. They continued to extend this with symetry cutting to make lovely leaves to show their appreciation of nature. They really are very clever!

You can find out more about national bee day by checking out www.bbka.org.uk

Time for PE!

Charlotte has been busy getting your older ones ready for their next adventure in to school! She has been hosting weekly PE sessions to get them excited! They have enjoyed sack racing, hurdles and beanbag balancing to name a few! Charlotte has been really pleased with the childrens participation, noting that they have been very independent in getting themselves changed, and have been loving their warm up sessions. They have flourished in working as a team in the three legged races and have loved being super active outside!

Africa day

25th May was Africa Day! Pre-school embraced this by reading books from all over the world and partaking in some African crafts. They decided to make coriander bread and asked Mel to cook up some curried parsnip soup. Pre-school looked at images of masks and drew their own african dolls! They also worked on their bead threading skills and really enjoyed learning all about Africa. Africa day focuses on celebrating African diversity and success!

Updates and reminders

Please remember your concept pictures need to be returned as soon as possible. We still have lots of proof sheets outstanding that need to be in before collection.

A sad note that Beth has decided to spread her wings in a new adventure and will sadly be leaving us on 4th July! Beth has been part of Snapdragons at Atworth for just over seven years starting as an apprentice and working her way up to being an advanced practitioner in our baby room. Beth has decided it’s time for a completely new adventure and she will be sorely missed. We would like to say a big thank you to Beth for all of the love and care she has given over the last 7 years.

We have some very exciting news that Jadea is now a mummy! Jadea welcomed her little boy, Leo, in to the world on Monday evening at an impressive 9lb! Both mum and baby are doing well and hope to be home in the next few days. Congratulations!

Hopefully you have all received the e-mail about our exciting plans for soccer aid! We are running a parent quiz where you can win a free days childcare alongside other exciting prizes! If you would like to take part in our guess the footballer quiz please pop an e-mail to atworth@snapdragonsnursery.com or pop in to the office to ask for a quiz sheet! These quizzes are due back on Friday 14th June for winners to be anounced! We are also heading to Atworth park on Wednesday 12th June for a beat the keeper penalty shoot out! Charlotte will be hosting one of her famous warm ups before the big match!

Upcoming dates

Tuesday 18th June - National Picnic Day!
Thursday 4th July - Pre-School leavers trip (letters to follow)
Saturday 20th July - Pre-School leavers celebration

April 2024 at Atworth

We have had lots of new families join us over the past month so a big hello and welcome if this is you! It has been so lovely settling some new faces in to the rooms and watching them get stuck in making some new friends!

Babies have been enjoying the outdoors and taking in every little bit of sunshine they can get! They have been shaping up their skills on the balance bikes, and enjoyed a little scoot around the garden with some of the grown ups! They have also been taking their messy resources outside and adding a splash of colour to our fences!

Toddlers have been getting v e r y messy indoors and exploring all new kinds of textures! Not only have they been making puffy paint by mixing the shaving foam and paint together with their hands, but exploring the different marks they can make with textured rollers!

Pre-School have been busy getting our vegetable patch ready for its next season! They have been refreshing the soil and have sprouted some seeds ready to plant! They have been talking about what the plants need to help them grow and have done such a good job of taking care of them. This year we will be growing some corn, broad beans and cucamelon!

Its warming up!

Now that the sun is starting to shine and we are spending more time in our lovely outdoor spaces we do ask that you provide a named suncream and sun hat for your child. If we don’t have these items your little one may not be able to enjoy as much sunshine as we’d like! Extra changes of clothes are also a bonus, as in the warmer months we do like the hose pipe!

Earth day

This month we celebrated Earth Day on 22nd April. This years focus was ‘planet vs plastics’. We have been talking about all things recycling and even created a littered beach in our pre-school room which they cleaned with a real litter picker! We have been discussing why it is important to look after our planet and the world around us, including the little bugs in our forest garden! Toddlers enjoyed making some collages of land and sea using blue and green tissue paper and paint, whilst babies mixed blue and green playdough to create the globe!

If you want to find out more about Earth Day and how you can do your bit, please follow the link below.

A few staffing updates

Whilst Jadea is still patiently awaiting the arrival of her little one, we have been celebrating the news that Kim is also expecting a little one in the coming months! Kim will be here to see our older children off to school before she kicks back on maternity leave and awaits her arrival in July. Congratulations Kim and family!
We also have news that Gabby has joined the team at Atworth! Gabby has been part of Snapdragons for eight years, covering roles from head of room to head of early year practice and even manager. Gabby will be spending the next year with us here at Atworth overseeing both our Baby room and our Pre-School room whilst we eagerly await Kim and Jadea’s return! Gabby will also be supporting the nursery as our deputy manager so feel free to grab her for a chat!
We are also wishing Charlotte a HUUUUGE CONGRATULATIONS on being with Snapdragons for a whole ten years! Charlotte started out as our nursery chef here at Atworth before moving to our Pre-School room where she is now so close to completing her Early Years qualification! A big thank you to Charlotte for all of the smiles and delicious bakes she provides for all of us!

If you are a pre-schooler…

It is that time of year where some of our children are ready for their next phase in their education - school! Now that you all know which schools your little ones will be attending we really ramp up the school readiness in to full swing! Over the coming months we will be looking at pictures of the schools your little ones are heading to, having visits from teachers and passing you lots of information around open days and settling days. In the mean time we ask that if your child attends on a Monday or a Thursday in the Pre-School room and they are going to school this year that you bring in a change of clothes to act as a ‘pe kit’ for them on these days. One of the main aspects of school readiness is independence, so our lovely Charlotte will be hosting a little ‘pe session’ twice a week for our school leavers!

Upcoming dates

Friday 24th May - end of term for our TTO children
Monday 27th May - nursery closed: bank holiday
Monday 3rd June - first day back for our TTO children
Tuesday 18th June - international picnic day
Saturday 20th July - Pre-School leavers celebration

March at Atworth

Another busy month here at Atworth! Take a look at everything we have been up to…

We started off the month with St. Davids's day!

St David’s day is a Welsh celebration on 1st March in memory of St David. Typical celebrations include parades with bright yellow daffodils and a focus on culture. Here at Snapdragons we celebrated by making daffodil sun catchers using tissue paper and sticky back plastic. You may have spotted these on our windows! We also got stuck in making Welsh Cakes, the Pre-Schoolers used their hands to mix and knead all of the ingredients together before giving them to Mel to cook in the pan on the hob.

If you would like to have a go at making Welsh Cakes at home, take a look at the recipe we used!

We have been very keen bakers throughout the month of March! Lots of our little ones enjoyed cooking up some yummy treats for Mothers Day. they worked really hard to carefully measure out all of the ingredients, mix it all together, roll out the dough and stamp out the shapes. We hope all of our mums enjoyed their little treat (if they made it home!)

Science week

The 8th-17th March was science week! This year was the 30th anniversary making it extra special. The babies experimented with magnets, they had a table with different objects such as spoons, forks, pots from the role play and a few non magnetic items. The babies enjoyed seeing which objects were magnetic, saying ‘stick stick’ as they successfully picked up objects. They also experimented with salad spinner pictures, squeezing paint in to the spinner and turning it around to make abstract art.
Pre-school explored sinking and floating. They filled their water tray and collected different objects from around the room to pop in and see if they sink or float. They found that sponges float and collect all of the water with a big squeeze! They also found that pots will float on the top of the water if they are empty, but they sink if they are full!

If you wanted to have a look at things to do at home, click the link below!

World book day!

World book day was another fun one this year! We saw some really great outfits from all of your favourite stories and we all enjoyed dressing up with you to celebrate. We explored lots of activities around our favourite books such as cutting and sticking to make our own ‘room on the broom’ magic wands. We explored both fiction and non-fiction books. The Toddlers enjoyed looking at books on butterflies and creating their own symmetrical pictures by painting on one side of their paper and folding it over.
The Babies enjoyed listening to stories read by authors on the sonos and had their very own the tiger who came to tea picnic! They also made their story time interactive by using our story sacks.
Pre-School shared their favourite stories from home and acted out their favourite characters in their role play.

We hope you all spent your book token wisely!

Persian new year

The Pre-Schoolers took a deep dive in to Persian new year. Persian new year, otherwise known as ‘Nowruz’ is a celebration that marks the beginning of spring. One of our pre-schoolers brought in their ‘haft sin’ box from home with items that symbolise this celebration. In the box they had "sib" (apple), "senjed" (oleaster or Russian olive), "sumak" (a spice from a flower) "sir" (garlic), "sabzeh" (greenery) and "serkeh" (vinegar). There would also usually be a "sonbol" which is a hyacinth. After they had a little look at these items, the Pre-Schoolers painted their own hyacinth flowers and baked some barbari bread. Barbari bread is a type of flat bread that is a traditional part of persian cuisine, the Pre-Schoolers enjoyed sampling this alongside their tea!

Upcoming dates!

April is national pet month! If you have pets at home we’d love to hear about them and see some pictures. We may also organise some visits from some special guests!
April 22nd is ‘Earth day’ when we will be placing a focus on our planet and how we look after our environment
We have Babies and Toddlers parents evening coming up on Monday 8th April so please contact the rooms if you would like to book a slot!
Pre-School parents evening will be on Thursday 25th April, again if you have not booked your slot please chat to the team!
Our next concept photo shoot will be on Wednesday 8th May. If you child attends on this day, please bring them with an outfit you’d like them to have their photo taken in. If your child does not attend on this day and you’d like them to have their picture taken, please let the office know

Just a quick reminder also that the nursery will be closed this Friday 29th March and Monday 1st April due to the Easter bank holidays.

Staffing updates

As most of you know Jadea is expecting a little boy in May! Her last day with us before her maternity leave will be Thursday 18th April. We cannot wait to meet her new arrival and wish her all the best!

Holly is also moving on to a new adventure. She will be moving on to become a year one teacher at a local primary school. We are so excited for her to embark on this journey and have loved having her as a part of our Atworth team. Holly’s last day with us will be Tuesday 9th April. Some of you may be seeing her again as your little ones take their steps in to school!

Helena will be stepping up from deputy Head of Toddlers to Head of Toddlers and taking over from Holly. Helena has a wealth of experience in the Toddler room and is really excited for this next chapter. If you are a Toddler parent and Holly is your key worker, please bear with us as we assign these ahead of our staffing changes. Keep an eye on your iConnect for these updates!


The last thing to say from us is that we hope you all have a wonderful Easter - and as always, if you have any queries please get in touch!

February 2024 at Atworth!

What a busy month! We have had lots to celebrate in February including the British Heart Foundation, Pancake day and Valentines day, and we have plenty more coming up in March!

Children’s mental health week

From 5th to 9th February we promoted children’s mental health week here at Atworth! The aim this year was to give every child a voice and an opportunity to express themselves. We encouraged children and staff to come to nursery in clothes that make them feel like them! We spoke about what makes us unique and expressed ourselves in new ways such as through art, dance, and being out in the community.

Place2Be say ‘When we feel empowered, there’s a positive impact on our wellbeing. Children who feel that their voices are heard and can make a difference have a greater sense of community and self-esteem. This year, we want children of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to be empowered to work together to create a positive change for their mental health and wellbeing.’

We really enjoyed watching your little ones get stuck in throughout the week and empower them. If you wanted to explore this at home, please find some useful links below.

Babies

The babies have been enjoying their sunshine circles sessions this month, they particularly like rubbing lotion in to their hands! Sunshine circles is a type of theraplay that we incorporate in to the children’s day here at Snapdragons! By taking turns, exploring different senses and textures, singing and playing games, children are able to build confidence and self esteem and form positive attachments. The babies took time to massage the lotion in to their hands, and played a game of peekaboo with the coloured scarves before a little song and dance! Our ‘rub lotion’ song is a firm favourite, so keep your ears peeled for this at home.. and keep your lotion out of reach!

The babies have also been exploring sound and light using the musical instruments and the colour changing pebbles. Some of our little ones have mastered the skill of the maracas this month! They created a little den in their room and took turns to sit inside, watching how the colours changed around them as they pressed the buttons on the pebbles.

The babies loved making their little valentines treat to bring home too - carefully stamping hearts on to their cards to bring home.

Toddlers

The toddlers really went all in on pancake day! They had their own little pancake making station with playdough pancakes, scented leaves for toppings, frying pans and some scales to make sure they got all of their ingredients right! The toddlers cooked up enough playdough pancakes for the whole nursery before enjoying their own at snack time made by Mel in the kitchen. Although they decided to top their pancakes with fruit instead of leaves!

The toddlers have also been exploring Handa’s surprise - a story of Handa delivering delicious fruits to her friend, but meets some hungry animals along the way! We had some very hungry toddlers when Handa’s fruit basket ended up at nursery! They sampled orange, avocado, mango and even lemon! They spoke about the different smells and textures and chose their favourites!

Pre-School

To start the month the pre-schoolers learned a little bit about Chinese new year. They looked at some pictures of the celebrations in China and decided to make some spring rolls for their snack to mark the occasion! They enjoyed their spring rolls alongside a sneaky prawn cracker which went down a treat! Yummy!

Pre-school’s story of the month was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They started the month by making their own bears out of loose parts, thinking about what shapes would be good for each body part. They then enjoyed a bowl of yummy porridge for their breakfast - it was just right! Some of the pre-schoolers got stuck in making bread to have with their tea - but they made sure this was bear shaped to fit in with their theme!

Pre-school have also been exploring lots of new textures, they took some paper and crayons out into the garden to create some rubbings. They rubbed the crayons over wood, stone, and astroturf to see what patterns they could create! Whilst making their beautiful pictures they realised that it is nearly time to plant our seeds in our vegetable patch! They remembered that when we planted our raspberries last year the birds had a little nibble before we managed to pick them, so they drew some scarecrow designs to keep them away from the fruit this year!

What’s coming up?

Hopefully you have all received your book tokens ready for world book day! If not, please let us know as we have plenty of spares we can give you. We will be celebrating world book day on Thursday 7th March. Please come to nursery dressed as your favouite book character! If you’re looking for something to do to mark the occasion, head along to Broughton Gifford and join their world book day trail!

Dates for your dairies..
Thursday 28th March - last day at nursery for term time only children before the Easter break
Friday 29th March - Nursery closed to all children (bank holiday)
Monday 1st April - Nursery closed to all children (bank holiday)
Monday 15th April - first day back for term time only children after the Easter break

Is it a bird.. is it a plane?

Throughout the month we have been talking to all of the children about the birds in our environment and seeing which birds we can spot around the nursery using the big garden bird watch! The little ones have had their listening ears and their beady binoculars out to see which birds they can find hiding in our apple trees! Please find below a link to our article from last year on how to make bird feeders. We love this activity at nursery, and it is super simple for you to do at home for the garden, or the local park and sit to see who visits!

Wear it Red for the British Heart Foundation

We hope you've had a great week! Today we had a fantastic time celebrating "Wear It Red Day" in support of the British Heart Foundation. It was a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness about the incredible work they do and discuss the importance of maintaining a healthy heart.

Our little ones had a blast making red play-dough and using their hands to shape it. The Toddlers had an exciting trip to the meadow, where they learned how their heart rate increased after running around the fields. As for our pre-schoolers, they had a great time making heart-shaped bread to enjoy with their chicken and vegetable soup for tea. They also created beautiful red pictures during their art session.

This cause holds a special place in our hearts here at Atworth, as we have a brave little warrior in our pre-school room who underwent life-saving heart surgery as a baby. She takes immense pride in her scar and what it represents, all thanks to the amazing work of the British Heart Foundation.

In light of this special day, the British Heart Foundation has released a free 15-minute training session on basic CPR. We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to enhance your knowledge and skills in emergency situations.

Thank you for your continued support and for being part of our nursery community. We look forward to sharing more exciting updates with you soon.

January 2024 at Atworth!

Welcome back! We know it’s been a while.. but we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Here is everything we have been up to over January, and a few things we have up and coming this side of 2024!

Burns night!

We got stuck in to celebrating burns night on 25th January. All of the rooms had a wonderful day of crafts and food tasting whilst talking about burns night and what it stands for. We learned that burns night is a Scottish tradition to celebrate the poet Robert Burns. One of his most famous poems is called ‘address to haggis’! Toddlers made blue playdough to re-create the Scottish flag, Pre-School painted their very own tartan pictures whilst listening to the sound of bag pipes! And babies chomped away on their haggis which they really enjoyed!

Babies!

The babies have been exploring the story of ‘The Tiger who Came to Tea’ this month. They had their very own tea party in the baby room where they shared items of food with eachother, and carefully mixed and cooked their different ingredients. They even had a special visit from the tiger who came to tea himself.. who really did come to the tea party! Despite the tiger being bigger than the babies, they welcomed him with open arms!

Toddlers!

Toddlers have been really exploring the dinosaurs this month which seems to be a common interest across the age group! They have been talking about the different names of dinosaurs and where they live. The toddlers created a home out of playdough and collected some sticks and other natural resources from the garden to make sure they had something to eat, and places to hide!

Pre-School

Pre-School have been getting very hands on with their activities so far this year! They explored painting using forks and toothbrushes. They dotted and dragged the utensils across the paper to see what different marks they could make. The Pre-Schoolers have also been getting our tables nice and grubby! They used their fingers to swirl patterns in paint on to the table and pushed their paper on to the top to see what would happen… they sure do know how to make a mess!

Updates and reminders

• We have a new member of staff on the block! As you all know, our admin Kathryn has moved on to a new role in central bookings. This means we have a new admin assistant, Kerry! Kerry is learning the ropes being the scenes at the moment but it won’t be long until you see an e-mail pop through from her or meet her at the door!

• We would like to inform you that Ellie has made the decision not to return to us after her maternity leave. Both Ellie and little Harley are doing really well and are going to spend a bit more quality time together!

• We kindly ask that you name as many items of your little one’s belongings as possible. This includes their clothes and water bottles. We try our utmost to make sure that belongings make their way back to the right child, however we cannot always remember which blue top belongs to who! When items are named, it makes it much easier for us to return them to their rightful owner!

• A polite reminder that our nursery sessions run from 8.00 until 6.00. These are the times that our wonderful team start and finish for the day. We are seeing an increasing number of parents arriving before 8am making it tricky for some of our staff to make their way in to the car park and set up ready for the day. We are also seeing an increase in parents picking up at 6pm. If you require a detailed handover of your child’s day we do ask that you collect before 6pm to allow the team time to chat to you before they finish at 6. We do offer an early drop off at 7.30 for a small fee so please do get in touch if you feel this would benefit you.

• Toys toys toys.. along with items of clothing, toys can quite easily be misplaced in a nursery full of them! We do encourage that all toys other than comforters needed for sleep time are left at home. If toys come in to the nursery, we cannot guarantee that they will not get lost or broken.

Upcoming dates and events

• Friday 2nd February: Wear red day for the British Heart Foundation

• Tuesday 13th February: Pancake day

• Friday 9th February: Last day of term for term time only children

• Monday 19th February: First day back after half term for term time only children

• Wednesday 14th February: Valentines day

• Thursday 7th March: World book day

• We also have Mothers Day on the horizon on 10th March so keep your eyes peeled for this one!

Nursery kit list

New here?! Let us give you some pointers of what to pop in your nursery bag!

• spare changes of clothes including socks/vests

• weather appropriate outdoor wear - at the moment an all in one waterproof and wellies and really helpful along with a warm hat and gloves/mittens

• a water bottle

• comforters for sleep

• nappy cream if your little one is still in nappies

• suncream in the summer months with a sun hat

Childrens mental health week

We will be supporting children’s mental health week from 5th-11th February! This years theme is ‘my voice matters’ to empower, equip and give a voice to every child in the UK. This is about empowering children and young people by providing them with the tools they need to express themselves. The aim is for all children to be able to say and believe ‘my voice matters’. Feeling empowered can have a positive impact on wellbeing - children and young people who feel that their voices are heard can make a difference have a better sense of community and self-esteem.

During the week we will be..
Monday - Wear whatever makes you feel like you! Whether this be a superhero outfit or your pyjamas!
Tuesday - We will be heading out and about to take in the fresh air which is known to reduce anxiety and build a connection to nature
Wednesday - We will be putting the spotlight on sign language and learning some key signs for everyday communication
Thursday - We will be expressing ourselves through song and dance
Friday - We will be taking part in expressive art so please come to nursery wearing something you don’t mind getting messy.. as the paint may be flying!

If you would like to read up on this a bit more at home, please find a helpful link below.

Fancy a winter warmer!?

As you know, we really pride ourselves on our fresh menu’s here at Snapdragons and we love to extend this out to you at home! If you fancy giving it a go, below you will find a link to our recipe for our spiced root vegetable and lentil soup with wholemeal scones! If you have a go at this recipe please send us some pics!

December 2023 at Atworth

We’ve made it.. the end of the year! And what a year it’s been!

What have we been up to in December?

Forest school

We have had the pleasure of having Nat, our forest school leader, with us throughout November and December! We have been super busy with trips, cooking and crafts. A few of us have hopped on the minibus and headed over to Whitehall Garden Centre where we discovered the festive lights, and got to see some reindeer, donkeys, sheep and goats.. although our favourite part is singing on the minibus!
We have learnt how to make flatbreads and cooked them over the fire. Some of us had a little nibble outdoors after they had cooled down, and we let the rest of our friends at nursery try them for our snack!
Nat has also been helping your little ones make some resources for the nursery. They have made a Christmas tree in the garden by balancing lots of different shaped logs, a mobile using natural resources such as leaves for the Toddler room, and a few reindeers to make our nursery look that little bit more festive!

Nat has written a blog on how you can encorporate forest school at home, click the link below to have a read!

It’s Christmas!

We have had an action packed December here at Atworth on the lead up to Christmas! We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to those of you who attended our Christmas party. We hope you enjoyed having a little insight in to nursery life and your little ones enjoyed their gift from our special guest, Santa!
The Pre-Schoolers worked really hard to put on a brilliant show for their Nativity this year! We are so so proud of them, and if you are a parent, we’re sure you are too! They did such a good job and remembered ALL the words! If you are a Pre-School parent and would like to purchase a digital copy of the performance, please bring £5 in to the nursery office.
Aside from our big events the team have been putting together lots of Christmas activities for the children to explore, and they have been crafting away on their Christmas bags to bring home. We even enjoyed a Christmas lunch complete with yorkshire puddings and pigs in blankets! Each room has decorated ornaments to place on our tree, and put their own unique twist on a little Christmas gift.

What else have we been up to?

This month the babies have been focusing on their ability to mark make. They explored this through all different kinds of media such as a sticking, drawing, and printing. They especially liked using cookie cutters to stamp Christmas shapes on to their paper bags.
Toddlers have been learning how to make shortbread! They listened really carefully to the instructions and made lots of different shaped shortbread biscuits for their friends all across the nursery to enjoy as a little treat after their Christmas dinner!
Pre-School have been sharing their favourite Christmas stories with their friends before settling down to read them together. They have also been really creative, turning boxes in to Santa’s sleigh and delivering presents to all of their friends. They also sculpted clay in to different shapes to make their very own reindeer!

A little look back at 2023!

We have had an INCREDIBLY busy year this year! We thought it would be nice to have a little look back at everything we have done!
In January we tried haggis for the first time whilst we celebrated Burns Night. We also cooked sausages over the fire to celebrate Australia day for one of our friends in Pre-School!
February brought love and pancakes with valentines day and pancake day! We got up to lots of crafts and made our very own pancakes which we topped with berries.
March was a particularly busy month at Atworth, we got all dressed up for World Book Day, cooked up a storm for Mothers Day, and hosted our very own wellbeing week all about the importance of exercise and connecting to our community!
April was all about Forest School. We painted with mud, toasted apples over the fire, and hopped on the minibus to Whitehall to choose which seeds we wanted to plant back at nursery!
In May we took some goodies we collected for wellbeing week to our local residents in one Atworth’s care homes. Whilst we were there we met a little cat! Back at nursery we planted all of our seeds in our vegetable patch and invited our mummies and daddies in to celebrate the Kings Coronation with games and a picnic in the front garden.
In June we prepared to say goodbye to some of our Pre-School friends. They enjoyed their leavers trip to Bath City Farm where they got to feed baby sheep!
We took a step back in July to enjoy the sunshine. We spent lots of time outdoors creating new activities and exploring our environments.
We harvested our crops in August! Everything had been really well looked after and we were able to enjoy our potatoes, cucumbers, strawberries and carrots in our meals and snacks! It was also time to say goodbye to our Pre-School leavers who headed off on their new adventure at school.
The weather began to change in September, so we hopped back on the minibus, this time to Westonbirt, to have a look at what was happening to the trees. We saw lots of pretty colours!
In October we hosted another wellbeing week, we enjoyed yoga outdoors. October also brought Halloween! We had a particularly spooky party in our best costumes.
In November we supported armistice day by making our own poppy wreaths and walking them up to the clock tower in Atworth where we left them for the community to see. We also had our delicious s’mores event, toasting marshmallows over the fire!
And here we are.. December! We have really enjoyed getting in to the festive spirit and sharing this with you back at home.

And so on to 2024!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support. We really hope you have enjoyed the year as much as we have - it’s been a busy one! We will re-open to our all year round children on Tuesday 2nd January, and we will welcome back our term time only children on Thursday 4th January. We kindly ask that you remember to return with a named water bottle, coat, waterproof, wellies and hat/gloves if you are able. If you want to send some last minute Christmas cheer to any of the staff here at Atworth, please do so by nominating them for a snappy superstar below. All that’s left for us now is to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

November at Atworth

Winter is coming! What a busy month we have had, and what a busy month we have ahead!

What have we been up to?

We have had a busy month celebrating all things Autumn. We started off the month with bonfire night arts and making poppies for Armistice day, and ended it with our pyjama day, blue day for UNICEF and s’mores around the fire! We have been lucky enough to have Nat, our forest school leader, here with us throughout Autumn which has meant lots of outdoor activities and sneaky trips! We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you who contribted to any of these recent events and joined us for our wonderful s’mores evening. Our team really enjoy hosting these events for you and putting smiles on the little ones faces! We hope you enjoyed them as much as we did.

Babies

As the colder weather draws in, the babies have been exploring their creative side! They have been painting using different tools and parts of their body to make marks.. including their feet! They made some wonderful collages for Diwalli using glue sticks and coloured paper, sticking each piece down independently to make their own rainbow! They used black card and DIY stampers to create some vibrant firework pictures alongside! The babies also headed out to the garden to collect the fallen leaves and used their new artistic skills to create an Autumn collage.

Toddlers

We just can’t keep the Toddlers inside! They have absoluted loved playing out in the Autumn weather. Like babies, they collected the fallen leaves in all different shades of green, brown, orange and red and turned them in to a beautiful mobile to hang in their room. They have also been exploring our garden games, seeing how many balls they can bounce on the parachute, practicing their aim with a spot of croquet and seeing who can score the most points on the beanbag game!

Pre-School

Pre-School have been reading ‘Whatever Next’ this month! They have taken the theme of space and explored this in any way they can! They have been using large bubble wrap to print some textured moon pictures and mixed their own colours to paint their very own planets. They also constructed their own wooden rockets from different shaped pieces of wood threded on to a dowling, and conducted their own experiment using oil, water and colourings to create their own planet in a jar!

Forest school fun

SO… what have we been up to with Nat!? Our little ones have been working on their balancing skills on their new see-saw in the garden, made from all natural wooden materials! Nat has also helped the children add to our garden games collection, teaching them how to make a ring toss game and an abacus to work on their counting skills. We have had plenty of fires to toast our snacks over, and even tried our hand at making some flat breads for our snack, they were delicious! Pre-School would like to say a huge thank you to Nat for creating all the bits and bobs they needed to create their very own wooden rockets.

Staff updates

We have just a few changes heading our way that we are delighted to share with you. Kathryn, our lovely admin here at Atworth, will be packing up her desk and moving in to head office! The way we register our new families is changing a little bit from the new year, so Kathryn and another member of the Snapdragons team, Stevie, will be starting a new role around all things bookings! You may still be lucky enough to see Kathryn around however we wish her all the best with her new role. We have a new admin lined up to deal with all of your queries in the meantime, so don’t panic!

We would also like to share the news with you all that our Deputy Manager and Head of Babies, Jadea, is expecting her own little one! Jadea has been trying to hide a bit of a bumpy secret over the past few months and is thrilled to be able to announce the news to you all! Jadea will remain with us in her role in to the new year, and we cannot wait to meet her new addition!

Usual dates and reminders

Our Pre-Schoolers have been working extra hard on perfecting their roles for this year’s nativity! The Pre-School nativity will take place on Friday 8th December at 10.30am at St. Michaels church. If your child already attends on this day, please drop them to nursery as normal and we will walk with them up to the church. If your child does not attend on this day please drop them at the church for approximately 10am. As always please note that we unfortunately do not allow pictures or recordings during the nativity due to GDPR, we will be recording the entire performance which can be ordered from us for a small fee of £5. If you have not yet ordered this and would like to, please drop us an e-mail.

We will be hosting our annual Christmas party here at the nursery on Monday 11th December! If your child is attending nursery on this day you are more than welcome to join them between 3.00pm and 5.00pm for some festive fun and a little party treat! If your child does not attend nursery on this day, please feel free to pop along with your child to their base room between 3.00pm ad 5.00pm on the day! We cannot wait to get our party planning underway, and even have some intel that santa could be making a visit….

• Term ends for term time only children - Friday 15th December

• Nursery closes for Christmas - Friday 22nd December

• Children’s Christmas Dinner day - Wednesday 6th December

• Pre-School nativity day - Friday 8th December

• Whole nursery Christmas party - Monday 11th December

Kit list!

One final reminder of the bits and bobs we require here at nursery now the cold weather is closing in. We do go outside in all weathers and wet weather can sometimes come with lots of changes of clothes, so we kindly ask that if you are able, you provide the following for your child, all of which will need to be named

• A winter hat

• Gloves/mittens

• Wellies or shoes that you do not mind getting muddy/wet

• A waterproof suit/trousers

• A warm coat

• A water bottle

• Lots of fresh clothes

• Cream if your child is still in nappies

October at Atworth!

Another month gone, and what a busy month we’ve had!

Wellbeing week

Our wellbeing week was a huge success so thank you to everyone who contributed! Our little ones enjoyed visiting other rooms for their lunch and talking to some new faces, especially our siblings who got to join up for their meal! We did some really relaxing yoga outside in the garden and dropped all of our food bank goodies to ASDA, kindly donated by you. Whilst we were dropping them off the toddlers had a secret mission, to collect items on their shopping list containing flowers for Kim, formula for the babies, and a sneaky treat for the grown ups back at nursery! They did such a good job!

Babies

The babies have got really stuck in with their Halloween activities this month! They have created foot print ghosts to decorate their room, along with some spooky cobwebs and spiders. Some of the babies enjoyed using glue and collage materials to create some spooky pictures, whilst others used oranges to squeeeeeze in to their orange playdough to make it smell delicious! Then moulded the dough in to little pumpkins, using sticks collected in the garden as stalks!

Toddlers

Toddlers have been getting in to the autumnal spirit whilst exploring their book of the month ‘Room on the Broom’. They have been out in the gardens collecting natural resources such as conkers to roll through paint and make abstract patterns. They used leaves to create hedgehog pictures and enjoyed using craft materials to make their own broomsticks from their book of the month!

Pre-School

Pre-school have also enjoyed getting stuck in to Halloween. They have been exploring pumpkins and carving them out to turn them in to tunnels for the trains! They have also been making magic potions with lots of different colours and bubbles to stamp patterned pictures. Some of the pre-schoolers have also been showing off their artistic side, carefully drawing their self portraits to go up on the wall.

Notes and Reminders!

• We are now well and truly in to the autumn weather! We kindly ask that your little one has some essentials to keep here on site for the winter, as we do go out in all weathers!
  
  These are, a warm coat that is named, a waterproof suit or trousers that is named, a pair of wellies that are named, a water bottle that is named and a pair of shoes regardless of age so we can avoid soggy socks! If you’re willing we would also appreciate a pair of named slippers to keep our toes toasty indoors.

• Some of your children will be transitioning to their next step through the nursery at this time of year. If this is you, and you would still like a further conversation with your child’s new keyworker, or another tour of their new room, please just let us know.

• Charlotte was THRILLED at everyone’s efforts on pink day this month to raise awareness for breast cancer support! We are still planning some more events and games for you to be involved in so keep your eyes peeled.

• Jadea will be on annual leave from 6th November until the 15th November. If you have any queries relating to babies in this time please contact either Beth or Ella until Jadea’s return.

• We have a new team member! Martyna, our house keeper, will now be working on site from 5pm until 7pm, so if you see her around on pick-up please feel free to say hello!
  

• This year’s flu vaccination programme is underway.  Children aged 2 and 3 years old (on 31 August before flu vaccination starts in the autumn) are eligible for a free flu vaccine given as a nasal spray.  

  Bristol Early Years encourages all early year’s providers and schools to share the Flu Immunisation leaflets and information with families, and to encourage parents and carers to take their child for a flu immunisation in half term where appropriate.

  Annual vaccination of children helps provide protection to each child and reduces the spread of flu to their families and the wider community, protecting others who are at increased risk of becoming seriously ill from flu. The flu vaccine also promotes a healthy working environment in nurseries and childcare settings by reducing the risk of flu being spread to others including staff.

We are collecting!

As you all know, we are a curiosity approach setting. As we are in the process of renewing this, we are looking to extend the provision that we have around this area. If you ahve any ‘curious’ or homely objects lying around that are not being used we would LOVE a donation! This can be anything from saucepans and vases to conkers and shells. We have put a little kit list below with a few suggestions.

- Bowls. - Spoons. - Trays. - Dishes - Boxes. - Massage rollers. - Trinket boxes Chopping boards. - Curtain rings. - Wicker mats. - WIcker baskets. - Mug trees. - Pots. - Wooden animals. - Baskets. - Picture frames - TV remotes. - Old phones

Key dates

• Babies and toddlers parents evening - Thursday 2nd November

• Pre-school parents evening - Wednesday 1st November

• Spooks and smores - Wednesday 22nd November

• Pre-school nativity - Friday 8th December

• Nursery closes for Christmas - Friday 22nd December

• Nursery re-opens for the new year - Tuesday 2nd January

September at Atworth

Rolling in to October!

What have we been up to?

Toddlers have been busy baking some gingerbread biscuits (that just so happen to be both gluten and dairy free!). They very carefully weighed out all the ingredients using the scales and took it in turns to tip each ingredient in to the bowl. They used their super strong muscles to mix mix mix the dough, until it was ready to be rolled out and cut into perfect little gingerbread shapes! Some of the toddlers enjoyed this so much they used some of the skills they used such as rolling and ‘cooking’ in their play, using playdough to roll out as dough and making their own campfire in the garden to cook over!

Babies have been exploring the balls! It turns out there’s quite a lot of things you can do with a ball… some of the babies have been practicing their throwing and catching skills with the grownups. Others realised that if you bash the balls together, they make a great noise! And some of us just enjoyed filling and pouring.. filling a container and pouring the balls over our heads! Hilarious!

Pre-school have really dived into their story of the month. The story for them this month is The Gingerbread Man. They have worked together to make a really lovely display of their artwork, of their own pictures of the gingerbread man! They used paint that they mixed themselves to make all different shades of brown with spices to make it super authentic and smell deeeelicious. They are so proud of their pictures and love pointing them out on the wall!

Want to try our recipe at home?!

Ingredients
100g dairy free butter
3tbsp golden syrup
100g dark muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
225g gluten free plain flour
50g icing sugar (optional, for decoration)

Method
Step one
In a small pan heat the butter, syrup and sugar together until melted, stirring occasionally.
Set to one side to cool slightly.
In a large bowl mix together the bicarb, ginger, cinnamon and flour.
Pour in the melted butter mixture and stir to combine.
Using your hands, bring together to form a dough. This will be soft but will set up in the fridge.

Step two
Take 2 sheets of greaseproof paper, lay the dough down on one, shapre it in to a rectange, and place the other sheet on top of it
Roll the dough out to 1/2cm thick and put flat in the fridge for one hour.

Step three
Heat the oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5 and line a large baking tray with non stick greaseproof paper.
Take the rolled dough out of the fridge and cut out shapes from it.

Step four
Pop the gingerbread in the oven for 15 minutes.
During this time make your icing if you’re using it, combining the icing sugar with 1-2tbsp of water
When the biscuits are cool - decorate and enjoy!

Out and about.. again!

Some of our pre-schoolers were lucky enough to take a trip to Westonbirt! They had loads of fun looking at all of the different trees and finding out what they were called. They even found a tree that fell down and took turns to use their balancing skills to walk from one end to the other. They then spotted some rabbits and followed them reeeeally slowly to see what they were up to! Once they’d finished their adventures they had a lovely picnic in the sun with some sandwiches, fruit, cucumber, breadsticks, and lots of water before popping back on to the bus and singing all the way back to nursery!

Equality and Diversity

We are delving into our equality and diversity policy next month. This means we are looking at how we celebrate diverse cultures and our differences. If you have anyone in your family, maybe grandparents, aunties, uncles or even yourselves that come from a different background, culture, or celebrate something a little bit different we’d love to know about it so that we can include this in our curriculum and celebrations. If this is you then please either get in touch by e-mail or let your child’s key worker know!
Have a look at our policy below

Wellbeing week

Some exciting news that 9th-13th October Is WELLBEING WEEK

This week Is all about the 5 ways to wellbeing, we will be focusing on a different aspect each day and we’d love for you to be involved!

On Monday we will be CONNECTING, so your little ones may visit a different room to have their lunch as an opportunity to mix with some fresh faces or their siblings. We may even treat the staff to a special lunch themselves! (shhh!)

On Tuesday we will be ACTIVE
Please send your little ones in in their active wear!! We will be having a day of getting up and moving. This may include a little bit of walking (maybe even to the park) and a little bit of yoga!

On Wednesday we will be TAKING NOTICE
This is all about focusing on mindfulness and our emotions. We would love to focus on the emotion of joy and laughter! If you have a particularly funny (or unfunny) joke, email this across to us or let the team know so we can pop it in our jar that we will be accessing all week!
How do you make a tissue dance? Put a little boogie in it!

Thursday is about LEARNING so we are asking you to share your skills. Do you play an instrument, knit, or bake? We’d love you to come in and share your skill with the children or give us some information around it so that we can give it a go ourselves. We will also be sharing some recipes around the skill of cooking!

Friday is about GIVING so we will be focusing on our acts of kindness and snappy superstars! We will be collecting items for our local food bank, so if you are able, we would really appreciate any donations. We will pop a list of accepted items below and in the box for donations that will be just outside the office door. If you want to get involved and nominate your superstar, you can do so below!

accepted items for food bank donations
- tea bags. - soup. - pasta. - tinned fish.
- baked beans. - tinned tomatoes. - cooking sauces. - biscuits.
- chocolate bars. - tinned veg. - long life milk.
- instant coffee. - instant mash. - squash.
- jam. - tinned fruit. - sugar. - tinned spaghetti.
- custard powder. - tinned rice pudding. - long life fruit juice.
- cereal. - sponge pudding. - tinned meat.

Essentials for the colder months

Now that the warm weather has sadly left us, we would like to kindly ask for some updated essentials! We would be really grateful if you could provide the following for your little ones
- a warm coat that is named
- a rain jacket or waterproof suit that is named
- a pair of wellies that are named
- a water bottle that is named
- a pair of shoes regardless of age so we can avoid soggy socks!
- a pair of slippers to wear indoors

We go outside in all weathers!

Dates and reminders

Holly will be off having a lovely time in the USA for the first three weeks of October so if you have any questions regarding Toddlers, please come to myself or Helena!

We of course provide focus planning for each child each term to ensure we are up to date with all of their skills and interests! Please can we ask that if you have not received any e-mails around focus planning to check your junk just in case it is hiding in there. It is really helpful for us to have your input from home.

Dates dates dates
Wellbeing week (with lots of activities!) - 9th-13th October
October half term – 23rd-27th October
Wear it pink - 16th-31st October
Pre-school parents evening - Wednesday 1st November
Babies and Toddlers parents evening - Thursday 2nd November
Concept photography – Friday 10th November
Smores evening – Wednesday 22nd November

Summer 2023 at Atworth

What have we been up to over July and August!?

Fun in the sun

Our little ones have been BUSY out in the gardens! Our babies have been working on their physical development, challenging themselves on the climbing equipment. They have also been exploring mark making in the outdoors using pencils and water. Of course, they also couldn’t resist a little splash in some water themselves!
Toddlers have been exploring their creative side using puffy paint and salad spinners! They carefully selected the colours they wanted to use, before squeezing them in to the salad spinner and spinning it really fast to create their artwork! This was so much fun they wanted to paint some more, using puffy paint to create some more beautiful pictures.
All our little ones have enjoyed using the soft play to create towers, and to climb over and crawl under, even taking some of our cars for a ride through the tunnel!

Our little ones have been very excited by the addition of some bikes and scooters into our forest garden. They have been working on their strength and co-ordination to push the pedals around and use their legs to scoot across the garden!

Our nursery garden..

Charlotte, Holly and the Pre-School room have been doing an a m a z i n g job at growing our fruits and vegetables this year! They have helped to water them, and harvest them when they are ready to eat. Everyone has enjoyed a little snack on an alpine strawberry, and some of our Pre-Schoolers even got to take some potatoes home - lucky ducks! Have a look at how tall our runner beans have grown!

Out and about!

With summer comes lots of local trips! The toddlers and babies have headed out to Atworth Park and took a long stroll down the farm track to find some sheep! Our Pre-Schoolers popped over the road to visit the little stream and have a paddle in their wellies! They looked for bugs with our Forest School Leader, Tim, who has been spending some time at Atworth and making some things for our gardens with each of our rooms. We have been using our abundance of apples to make marks with paint by rolling them, and learning how to chop down some wood in the garden!

A special visitor…

We had a VERY special visitor come in to visit us! Ellie who is currently on maternity leave brought Harley in to meet her friends! He was very well behaved and enjoyed a little nap as the children gave him some very gentle strokes on his head!

Pre-School Graduation!

We had an amazing time celebrating our school leavers as they venture on to their next journey at school! The rain did not stop us having a lovely send off! All of our little ones received their certificate and goodie bag and enjoyed some indoor games, BBQ food and a delicious cake made by Charlotte! We would like to thank each and every person who came to the event, and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Staffing updates and some key dates

Our team is growing here at Atworth! You will be seeing some more new faces popping up around the nursery this month. We have welcomed Amelia who is working across our Pre-School and baby rooms. Amelia is level 5 qualified and has a degree in childhood studies! We have also welcomed Lucy to our baby room who has completed her Level 2 in childcare and is completing her Level 3 alongside joining our team. Lucy works in the baby room Tuesday through to Friday. We have three new nursery apprentices with us, Leona, Ellie and Rosie. Leona and Ellie will be learning the ropes under the guidance of Jadea in our baby room, and Rosie will be getting stuck in with the toddlers alongside Holly - make sure you say hi!
Aimee from our baby room will be making a move to Pre-School over the coming weeks too! This is to benefit Aimee’s level 3 apprenticeship and allow her to experience a new age group, so keep an eye out for her.

Key dates
August bank holiday - Monday 28th August (nursery will be closed)
Start of term - Friday 1st September
Concept photography - Friday 10th November
Smores evening - Wednesday 22nd November

Fancy making some puffy paint at home?

Here’s how!
You will need:
Shaving foam
Paint
Paper and paintbrushes! (or fingers will do just fine..)

Method:
Simply squeeze a little shaving foam in to a bowl
Add a few drops of paint and mix!
The more paint you add.. the more vibrant the colour!

Want to nominate your snappy superstar? Follow the link below!

June 2023 at Atworth

We have all been enjoying the summer weather recently! We hope if you took part in our Father’s Day breakfast this was a nice treat for you, our little ones certainly enjoyed making all of your cards! Just another reminder that if you haven’t already brought in a named sunhat, water bottle and sun cream we do really need these!

Babies Snapshot

The babies took a little trip out to Atworth park. They had a lovely sunny stroll in the pushchairs and were eager to have a go on the swings! They sat down for a little drink stop before exploring some more, and a few took a little doze on the way home! The babies have also enjoyed getting stuck in with the water play and messy activities outdoors!

Toddlers Snapshot

The toddlers have been busy taking the indoors outdoors! Alongside loads of water and ice play to keep cool they have been exploring mud, paint, and foam. The cars took a drive through some sand, foam and clay which was very sticky on our hands! Some of our Toddlers found some dinosaurs hiding in the mud tray, whilst others made some beautiful marks with colourful foam.

Pre-School Snapshot

Pre-school have been focusing on Jack and the Beanstalk this month! They very carefully used scissors to cut out some leaves before working together as a team to create the biggest beanstalk imaginable! All of the Pre-Schoolers worked together to line up natural sticks and leaves and then used a tape measure to see how big it was. Some of the Pre-Schoolers have been using the magnetic shapes to create a castle from the top of the beanstalk!

Life on the farm

Lots of you may be aware that it is time to say goodbye to some of our Pre-Schoolers soon as they head off to school. Our school leavers took a trip to Bath City Farm to celebrate! They had a great time running through the long grass, riding on the tractor, and feeding the animals.

Staffing updates

Imogen has now started with us full time! Imogen will be based in our Pre-School room and works every day other than a Tuesday. You may start to see a few new faces across the nursery as we welcome some new staff over the next few months. We will keep you updated as and when this happens and introduce them to you as they begin with us.

A reminder that Lorraine in our Pre-School room is term time only, so she will be off over the summer months!

And a huge congratulations to Ellie who welcomed her beautiful baby boy, Harley, born on 16th June 2023, weighing 8.12oz! Both mum and baby are doing well at home!

Dates and reminders

• Funded term time only end date: Friday 14th July (this is if your child is term time only, and receives 2, 3 or 4 year old funding)

• Term time only end date: Tuesday 25th July (this is if your child attends term time only and does NOT receive any funding)

• Pre-School graduation date: 5th August
  
  

• If you are a Pre-Schooler due to go to school, please remember there is no funding for the month of August. If you would like to end your child’s contract before this, then please let us know. If you do not contact us, we will assume their end date is 31st August and you will be billed for this month.

• A polite reminder than we do ask that children only have water in their bottles

• Another gentle reminder that the nursery opens at 8am and closes at 6pm so please ensure your little ones are dropped off/picked up within these hours.
  

We have had a little bit of illness floating around recently! Due to this please find below a link to our illness policy for an update on our rules and exclusion periods!

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