February 2022
February was a busy month here at Snapdragons Atworth… The children have been busy making to celebrate Chinese new year, valentines day and national bread making week which included bread and pizza!
We hope you all enjoyed making your bread at home… Don’t forget to pop pictures on to Parent Zone so we can explore this with the children!
Updated Covid regulations
We have made the decision that it will not be mandatory for our staff members to wear masks when on site. During handovers we would respectfully ask that you continue to adhere to social distancing. Mask wearing by parents will also be discretionary.
We will no longer be operating in bubbles at the nurseries. Recently our bubble groups have grown to be whole rooms (classroom bubbles) with no mixing outdoors but we feel that it is now time to allow the children free movement in all nursery spaces.
We would like to thank you, again, for your continued support as we cautiously relax our restrictions. We are looking forward to holding parent events in the near future and welcome you into the nursery for Parent’s evenings and Graduations. Your individual nurseries will be in touch regarding any upcoming events.
From 1st March we would like to welcome you back into the nursery. We are finding that the majority of children start their day much calmer and happier when collected by their key person in the morning. Our procedure remains that children are dropped off outside the nursery. When collecting we will direct you inside to collect your little one.
Updated Calpol policy
If you have a confirmed positive test result for your child we ask that you notify the nursery immediately and follow this guidance below. Please note that we do not expect parents to carry out routine testing on their children and will not be offering advice of when tests should be carried out.
If a parent wishes to take their child to or from nursery while they, themselves, are positive with coronavirus we ask that you remain mindful of others and please consider mask wearing, social distancing and the possibility of remaining outdoors.
We will continue to administer Calpol/Paracetamol at doctors’ discretion for pain relief. This medication must be signed in on a MEDICATION AUTHORISATION FORM.
If a child has an unexpected temperature spike or is clearly in pain, we will administer an emergency dose of Calpol at nursery. We then ask that your child is collected within four hours. We will not administer more than one emergency dose of Calpol. We can only administer emergency medication with pre-signed consent from parents on a RECORD OF CALPOL, PIRITON AND TEETHING GEL FORM.
If you have administered Calpol/Paracetamol to your child, please ensure that this is more than four hours prior to their session starting. This dose must be signed on a PRE-EXISTING MEDICATION FORM. If children are needing regular doses of paracetamol, they may need to see a medical professional and should stay home until they are well in themselves.
We want to continue welcoming children to nursery, healthy and happy and stop illnesses spreading to our more vulnerable groups. We have already seen a reduction of colds and other illnesses over the last two years and our prevention methods have been proven to minimise the spread of infection. We will continue with our heightened cleaning measures at the nurseries.
If your child is not well then please help us to keep everyone well and healthy by keeping them at home if possible.
What’s coming up at Atworth…
Ukraine day
Snapdragons' appeal to support child victims of war in Ukraine
No one can be unmoved by the stories coming from the horrific war in Ukraine and we feel we cannot stand by and watch without trying to help in any way we can. We have decided that the best way is to support Unicef UK in its Fundraise for Ukraine appeal. Unicef helps children across the world – children caught up in wars, in disasters, in poverty and without education. At the moment, we would like to support the children of Ukraine, displaced by conflict, torn from their homes, their schools, their friends and extended families, or worse, trapped in a deteriorating war situation and unable to get away.
All of our nurseries will be holding a selection of fundraising events, from bake sales and plant sales to singing and dancing, all with a Ukrainian theme. We will approach any activities involving the children at nursery in the way that we normally celebrate other countries and cultures, through food, colours, stories and pictures. We want to reassure you that children will not be exposed to any upsetting concepts or explanations of the current conflict.
We have set up a Justgiving page for any donations you kindly make and Snapdragons is pledging to match any contributions received before the end of March up to £5000.
Snapdragons Nurseries is fundraising for Unicef UK (justgiving.com)
At Snapdragons Atworth on Monday 21st March we will be having a Ukraine day, the children can wear yellow and blue. We will be having Ukraine inspired meals and will have inspired activities. Please either donate via our just giving page or feel free to bring in any non perishables, children’s clothes as we will be collecting for charities that will transport these to the families and children that need them in Ukraine.
We are also planning to continue supporting Unicef UK as one of our primary charities into the future to support their work across the world “For Every Child in Danger”.
Holi Festival
On Thursday 17th March we will be celebrating Holi Festival.
Holi originates from Hinduism and is known as the festival of colour, celebrating the changing of the seasons. We have already created some fantastic art work by flicking paint with straws and baked some colourful bread for our snacks!
As these activities continue throughout the week, if your child attends on Thursdays we kindly ask that you bring them in a white t-shirt on 17th March. We will be participating in powder paint throwing to create our very own Holi Fest t-shirts!
Feel free to push the boat out with an all-white outfit!
Comic Relief day
Following on from our Holi celebrations, on Friday 18th March we will be supporting Comic Relief.
The popular CBeebies animated series, Love Monster, has struck up a new partnership with Comic Relief to help raise money for Red Nose Day 2022. Under the new partnership, the heart-warming hero will take pride of place on the Red Nose Day early years fundraising packs, a series of activity packs that will be made available to children and families ahead of Red Nose Day on 18th March 2022.
To show our support for this we will be holding ‘monster balls’ across the nursery, featuring Comic Reliefs very own Love Monster! These balls will incorporate a crazy hair day! Please bring your child to nursery dressed in their best red outfit with their craziest, scariest hair style! We can’t wait to see them!
Watch out as we will have our face paints at the ready for you to collect a real life Love monster from nursery! You’ve been warned!!
We will also be in touch shortly about our Mothers Day plans that are currently underway, watch this space for further information and finer details! As always, if you have any questions or queries about any of these upcoming events, please do not hesitate to give us a call, or send an e-mail.