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