What a lovely year

I can’t believe we are at the end of my first year here at Atworth. Looking back over everything we have done has just filled my heart with joy. I have so enjoyed getting to know you all and your families, it is a big part of my job and you have all made me feel so welcome here. I have adored seeing our new little ones settle in and over time grow in confidence. Children have managed moving up through the rooms amazingly throughout the year and seeing their excitement for new challenges in a new age group has been wonderful. I am really passionate about building an environment where children can play, grow and thrive, seeing this take shape each and everyday, working alongside some wonderful staff, makes doing what I do the best job in the world.

This could not happen without your continued support so thank you for being such a big part of our Snappy family. We truly could not do it without you. Thank you for letting us be a part of your childrens journey.

Here’s to doing it all again in 2026. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year and I will look forward to opening the doors again to you all from the 2nd January.

Best wishes,

Rebecca

This month we celebrated Thanksgiving alongside one of our families and what would thanksgiving be without a bit of bit of pumpkin pie. The children helped at every stage: measuring and mixing the filling (practising counting and taking turns), and rolling and shaping the pastry (building fine motor skills and confidence).

Of course there was some taste testing once the pie was baked! Children spoke about the flavours and saying what they liked.

Thanks to our little pre-schooler who shared their tradition — it was a warm, memorable lesson in cooking, sharing and community.

We have loved taking part in the Shaw Christmas tree festival this year! The Christmas decorations made by the children were just wonderful and admired by everyone who came to visit. This is the email we received from the lady who organises the event- Just to say thank you for supporting our tree festival and going to such a lot of effort which helped to make it a great success. The standard of decorations this year was, as Shirley Ballas on Strictly loves saying, "Off the charts". We welcomed 250 people into our lovely church, some of whom said they'd never been in before. Donations were very generous and we plan to give a large amount of it to our 2 charities for this year, Motor Neurone Disease and Medecins sans Frontiere.

We look forward to supporting this event again next year!

The theme was Christmas carols songs, the children made jiggle bells from nuts and bolts and egg boxes and then made Christmas trees from foraged twigs.

Here are our little helpers helping to put up the tree at Shaw Church, it was a great way to start off all the festive celebrations here at the nursery.

We have been very lucky to have the wonderful Nat here with us for the last stretch before Christmas. Ellie and Nat took the Preschool Children for a trip to Corsham Court to explore all the fallen leave, puddles and trees. We also popped to the local Church to drop off our food bank donations at the church, the lady there was so happy to see us and grateful for our kind donations, especially at this time of year.

Christmas decorations made from scratch

The children had so much fun cutting down logs circles, drilling holes for antlers and lastly but most importantly painting a red nose for their Christmas decorations.

Dates for your diary-

New year and we already have so much planned! we can’t wait to share with you each month our plans-

6th January- Epiphany, will be looking at the tradition of the three kings and how they deliver presents. This is one of our families traditions and we are so looking forward to learning more about it and celebrating with them.

16th January- We will be celebrating Chinese new year with the children, it is the Year of the horse so we will be looking into their traditions and foods for the day. We would love to see your child wearing red for the day.

20th January- We will be Wassailing! so please ensure your child has plenty of layers and is ready for a day outdoors celebrating and waking up the apple trees for a great harvest in the spring.

Toilet training support

There has been a big focus to toilet training recently and we have been asked to share this useful link below with some super helpful potty training tips! If you have any questions or require any support with your childs potty training journey please do reach out, we are here to help.

https://startingreception.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/The-Potty-Training-Guide.pdf

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 receive a nomination so if there is someone who you would like to give a special mention to please follow the button below.

Your Snappy Super Star

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 contact the office so we can make amendments to our dietary lists.

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.

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.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year