December at Atworth...
So what’s been happening at Atworth in December?
The children and staff have been busy getting in to the Christmas mood this month! Have a little look at what we have been up to…
Christmas Jumper Day!
The children have been getting festive in the run up to Christmas in a variety of ways including Christmas Jumper day! We have been collecting for the food bank which we will continue to collect up to the 22nd of December and taking to The White Hart pub in Atworth, who are also collecting for their food bank underneath their wishing tree.
Slippers and wellies please…
As part of the curiosity approach, we pride ourselves to be a homely environment and have decided that from January we will wear slipper inside and wellies outside. Please bring a pair of slipper that you are happy to stay here and either bring in or have your child wear a pair of shoes or wellies that you don’t mind getting muddy.
As our spare wellies have been used a lot this year they are looking a bit worse for wear. Due to this please can you make sure that you bring in some wellies for your child to wear (perhaps Santa and his elves could bring some this Christmas?). If you have any spares at home, please don’t throw them away as we would be happy to give them a new home.
Family Photos
Please could we ask that you send in some family photos to us. We create family photo books for the children to look through during the day so it would be lovely to have some new pictures of you all having fun. As we have shared our family photo (above) please send in some of yours. Get happy snapping and creative as you like! We can’t wait to see them.
Our code of kindness
We have been working really hard to follow our code of kindness which focuses on reinforcing positive behaviour. Below are some pictures of the children in action.
A step-by-step guide to making salt dough - Thanks to our babies
Step 1:
Mix up all the ingredients. We have added a handy little recipe below…
Step 2:
Roll out so mixture is nice and flat.
Step 3:
Cut and shape.
Step 4:
Paint and leave to dry.
Pre-School have been helping decorating the tree with some unusual bits and bobs.
Babies have been having fun dressing up in their Christmas hats.
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!
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.
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.