November 2020 at Atworth ...
So what’s been happening at Atworth?
Firstly can I say a huge thank you to all of our families, children and staff for being very patient and working with the new COVID regimes! It’s a strange time for us all but thank you for supporting us as usual and for following all of the new procedures that we have in place.
Please have a little look at whats been happening lately. I have popped a few handy dates and reminders at the bottom too!
Halloween Fun
Our babies had lots of fun playing and exploring with all the different colours and shaped pumpkins in readiness for Halloween.
Whatever Next!
One of our stories of the month is ‘Whatever Next!’ by Jill Murphy. Our toddlers have been inspired by the story so have grabbed their colanders, a box and tried to blast to the moon. Have a look at some of our pictures!
Children in Need
You may have been greeted by the team in some rather peculiar looking outfits this month! All for an extremely good cause, the children and staff dressed up in their pyjamas for the day to raise awareness for Children in Need. Thank you to all the parents that donated tins of food and long life items. As lockdown has been hard for everyone we wanted to show our support and help our local community and so all items donated were sent to our local food bank in Melksham who do some fantastic work. Our babies have been busy and have walked all the way to our local church to deliver the items to the food bank.
Team news at Atworth…
Firstly a HUGE congratulations to both Tilly and Sofia who have both welcomed their little ones during the craziness of Lockdown!
Both are doing well and we are looking forwards to welcoming them both back in the new year!
Congratulations Tilly!
Tilly has had a little boy called George.
Congratulations Sofia!
Sofia has had a little girl called Olivia.
Welcome Olivia!
Olivia is our new Deputy Manager, Head of pre-school and Deputy Designated Safeguarding lead at Atworth.
Some of you may have noticed that we have a new Deputy Manager and Head of Pre-school who has been with us for a few months now.
Please feel free to go and say hello to Olivia who has joined our team. She is a trained teacher and has not long returned from being an au pair in Australia! She is doing a great job and has worked for Snapdragons previously. She has hit the ground running so feel free to throw any questions at her :)
The rest of our team remains the same. Please have a little look through our team page!
https://www.snapdragonsnursery.com/atworth
Reminders and important dates….
Christmas opening dates and hours…
Don’t forget that we are closed from December 25th 2020 and we re-open on the 4th January 2021. Our teams will be having a very well earned rest!
Christmas Dinner…
We will be having Christmas dinner on the Wednesday 16th December for the children who are with us that day.
Christmas Nativity….
Unfortunately we cannot hold our usual Christmas Nativity but we are in the process of filming a nativity for our pre-school parents. Please bring in a lovely Christmas jumper from 30th November that can live in your child’s bag as we are going to start filming from then. Keep your eyes and ears open as you may hear us singing!
Collection and session times....
Please consider dropping off your child later and/or collecting earlier where possible. Please do avoid 8am to 8:30am and 5:30pm to 6pm. We are starting to get extremely busy early in the morning and close to 6pm and we are almost at the point where we will have to set and stagger drop off and collection times. To avoid this please try to avoid the times above.
Our baby and toddler sessions start at either 8:00am or 1:15pm. They end at either 12:45pm or 6:00pm. Please do ensure that you keep to these times as it is getting quite busy at drop off and collection times.
Our funded sessions start at either 8:00am or 1:00pm and end at either 1:00pm or 6:00pm.
However, if you are unsure of your session times then please do not hesitate to ask a member of the team!
Children that are dropped off early to sessions or collected late from sessions will be subject to additional charges as per the parental contracts, see the below extract from the contract.
Children that are collected late, without pre-arrangement, at the end of their session will incur a late pickup charge of £7.00. For children who are still not collected by 18:15, a further charge of £15.00 will be administered.
For children who are still uncollected by 18:30, a further charge of £1.00 per minute will be administered.
Tote bags
As a company we are really trying to focus on how we can reduce waste, recycle and reuse items more. If possible please can all parents pop a little tote bag in their child’s main nursery bag. This will be for any wet clothes and this will help to reduce the amount of plastic nappy bags that we are using during our nursery day!
Car park
Can we please remind parents to be mindful when entering and leaving the car park here at nursery! There are lots of people and children around so please drive slowly and be mindful when entering and leaving.
Invoices
Please remember that invoices are due to be paid in full by the 15th of every month. You are able to view your most up to date invoice on the parent zone app by requesting a new invoice through the finance tab.
Just a few more COVID reminders...
Sorry to send these continuously but please do ensure that you are aware of the below.....
Please do remember the below as it is important that we are keeping all bugs out of the nursery:
• Children can only attend nursery who are fit and well. This is to ensure that we are keeping staff, children and families safe and well.
• We are no longer administering any fever/pain relief medication.
• We will not accept any child in our care that has had pre-existing fever relief medication on the same day (this can mask a temperature).
Please ensure you are driving slowly and carefully on the site.
If anyone is already out and near the door entrances REMAIN IN YOUR CAR or at a safe distance using the small cones which illustrate 2m distance between waiting areas. Please respect that many people will be nervous and will want to socially distance away from everyone. With this in mind I will be trailing not staggering drop off times. This may change in the future but please do ensure that in the car park social distancing is being adhered to.
Parents are not permitted to enter the nursery unless the manager has pre-arranged this. This is to keep the staff and children as safe as possible. You will be met at the entrance by a familiar face to the child who will take them in to their base room.
Depending on your entrance, you will see a hand washing station for you to wash your child’s hands before you hand them over to the staff member. Please follow the hand washing guidance and clean your child’s hands using soap and water before you drop them off.
