March 2024
Welcome to this months newsletter - It has been such a busy month full of lots of different celebrations,
events and many new experiences for our children.
Babies
The babies loved looking at books this month and dressing up for world book day!
We have also been using the projector, looking at the different colours and shapes that it makes on the wall;
the babies have been really entranced by this!
Toddlers
Toddlers really enjoyed making fruit kebabs, we spoke about the importance of healthy eating, and our favourite foods! We carefully cut up our fruit and then slid them on to the skewers; We then enjoyed eating them too!
We also explored rainbow waterfalls where we poured coloured water through the shaving foam which we pretended was clouds and then watched the colour spread through the water, we added different colours and watched them mix together to make new colours!
Rising Three’s
World book day we dressed up as the Wizard of Oz and ordered a new book to read the the children will all of us as the characters. We celebrated Holi by getting the powder paint out and turning the children in to rainbows too! We have been going on listening and sound walks in the forest looking for the signs of spring such as blossom, daffodils and blue bells!
Preschool
Preschool have been incredibly busy over the month of March. They started the month creating snails food by practicing our cutting. Using courgette and kale mashing it together with water and then painting it onto the snails tank. We spoke about what nutrients this would give the snail and watched him slither around the tank as he enjoyed his new tasty treat. We also celebrated Science week, getting involved in lots of different experiments.
Finishing the month with lots of observational drawings and planting our own cress seeds too.
Staffing Update
As we are approaching a new term and the new room changes come into effect as of April. I would like to update you on the current teams in each room with the new updates.
Sign of the Month
The sign of the month for April is Butterfly!
Parents News and Reminders
Concept Photography - We will be having Concept Photography visit us on Tuesday 30th April and Wednesday 1st May. If your child does not attend these sessions and you would like your childs photo taken then please email the nursery and we can book a slot for you.
Preschool Parents - Please be aware that school allocations can be checked online from Tuesday 16th April. We will be placing a list outside of preschool if you would like to tell other parents where your child will be attending and also so you can see other children who may be attending the same school. Cathy and the Preschool Team will have a big focus on school readiness for the older children in the upcoming months. We will also be arranging Parents Evening in May for you to discuss starting school.
We will also be holding Preschools Graduation on Saturday 27th July - More information on this event will follow in the next couple of months,
Spare Clothes - Please can we remind parents that they are bringing at least one change of clothes for their children including spare pants and socks, We have become incredibly low on spare clothes that we have at nursery so if you are also doing a clear out we would love any trousers, pants or socks that you may no longer need.
Upcoming Events for April -
Vaisakhi 15th April
St Georges Day 23rd April Wear something red.
Earth Day 26th April We would like to invite Grandparents in to nursery to help with our growing areas.
Dance Day 29th April
Building Work - We are coming to the end of the building work over the next few weeks and you will start to notice the building return to its former glory. We just want to thank you all for your understanding during these last few months and being so flexible with room changes when they were needed.
Nominate a star - Is there a staff member that you would like to be acknowledged for all their hard work this year or someone who you would just like to thank? At Snapdragons we run a reward scheme for our employees, nominations from parents mean stars for the staff that can go towards a range of different rewards and prizes which can include sweet treats, hampers, meal vouchers and even a trip to the spa, so if you would like to reward the staff remember to fill in the online form sharing your lovely words.
Celebrations in March
This month we have been celebrating lots of wonderful festivals and celebrations. At the start of the month we celebrated St Davids Day by taking the children to visit the carehome where they gifted Daffodils and made Welsh Cakes. The children who stayed at nursery also got to bake Welsh Cakes with Chef Nick too!
Lots of Love,
The Keynsham Team x
February 2024
Welcome to this months newsletter where we look back through the busy month of February; full of love, pancakes and even colourful dragons.
Babies
This month babies have really enjoyed trialling out some recipes and making a variation of healthy snacks that they have eaten at snack time or tea time.
They made some love potions for Valentine’s Day in the tuff tray in the garden, and took part in dancing in the puddles.
Toddlers
Toddlers have been creating their own bird food; they then let it freeze and hung it on the trees for the birds to enjoy.
To celebrate Chinese new year they also made a colourful dragon using different colours and paraded this around the room!
Rising Three’s
Rising Three’s have made their own dragon as they celebrated Chinese New Year!
They also made potions for someone they loved for Valentines and spoke about the people they love. So many other lovely activities too.
Preschool
Preschool have had a busy month celebrating lots of different celebrations and festivals which have involved lots of yummy food.
They prepared and made our pancakes in the mud kitchen for pancake day and made bread rolls for bread making week too
Sign Of The Month
“Mother”
Events and Celebrations
Over the month of March we have lots of celebrations and events happening across the nursery.
Friday 1st March - St David’s Day.
W/C 4th March - Valencia Fallas (Spain)
Thursday 7th March - World Book Day - Dress up as your favourite book character and bring in your favourite book to share.
Friday 15th March - St Patricks Day.
W/C 18th March - Science Week.
Thurday 21st March - World Downsyndrome Day - Wear and rock your most favourite odd socks.
Monday 25th March - Holi
Good Friday and Easter Weekend. - A reminder to all parents that we will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday.
Friday 5th April - Easter. Parents to join us for an Easter Egg Hunt.
Staff Nominations
Is there a staff member that you would like to be acknowledged for all their hard work this year or someone who you would just like to thank? At Snapdragons we run a reward scheme for our employees, nominations from parents mean stars for the staff that can go towards a range of different rewards and prizes which can include sweet treats, hampers, meal vouchers and even a trip to the spa, so if you would like to reward the staff remember to fill in the online form sharing your lovely words.
Love the Keynsham Team x
January 2024
This month has been a busy month as we have started the year with a bang! Celebrating story telling week and Burns night!
Babies
Babies have had lots of frosty fun in the garden, stomping around on the frost covering the grass and sharing lots excitement and smiles sliding down the icy slides. We have enjoyed a variety of messy play; making paint prints with wellies and animals. As well as developing our selfhelp skills pratising our pouring.
Toddlers
Toddlers have been working on their physical development and counting recently using the hopscotch to help. We have also been talking about different shapes and matching them on the tray. Toddlers have been talking about the habitats that different animals live in, exploring this in the beach tuff tray.
Rising 3
This week we made banana muffins! We measured all the ingredients, mixed them together and waited for them to cook with Nick our chef. We also made spider webs as lots of our children are really interested in Spiderman. We made the webs out of glue and paint, we had to let it drip on to the paper and make a pattern. We also made lots of different coloured volcanos!
Preschool
Preschool have had a busy month we have been practicing our yoga, teaching each other new ways of balancing and making different movements with our bodies. They have been exploring shapes in different ways, playing hide and seek with different shapes around the garden and having a shape hop game where moved in different ways; jumping, running and tip toe to the correct shapes.
Due to the wet month of January we also spent lots of time splashing in the muddy puddles we decided to make some muddy paint to create our footprint outside.
We also celebrated storytelling week and have been acting out our favourite stories and creating puppets. We made our own porridge to taste adding different ingredients to make it just right for us, some of us needed to add more honey and mash the banana to make it smooth.
Sign Of The Month for February
‘LOVE’
Parent News and Reminders
OFSTED - We are delighted to tell you that we have now recieved our report for our OFSTED inspection back in November. We are so happy to announce that we were graded ‘Good.’
You can access and read our report by following the below link.
Snapdragons Nursery Keynsham - Open - Find an Inspection Report - Ofsted
Nursery Carpark - Can we please remind parents that they must be going around the roundabout to access the nursery building if they are approaching from the Saltford area. Please also remember that we must be watching our speed when approaching as there may be families leaving the carpark during this time.
Maintence and Renovation Work - We are now nearing the end of the renovation work and we really appriciate all your support and flexibility you have shown during this work being completed. We are now hopefully on the final month of work and are hoping that the scaffolding will be taken down by the spring.
Spare Clothes - Please can we remind parents to ensure that they provide labelled spare clothes for their children’s day at nursery. Unfortunately sometimes accidents happen and we are required to change childrens clothes and are currently finding children do not have any spares to change into.
Food - Can we please remind parents that they are not to bring food on site. We are noticing alot of parents are bringing their children snacks onto site and we have alot of children who have dietaries which we are finding is hard to manage when parents are bringing food on site.
Love the Keynsham Team x
December 2023
Wow, what a year it has been! We spent this month reflecting over the past year and the joy and happiness your children have provided us over the past year. We have welcomed new faces and said goodbye to some but we most importantly are ending the year looking forward to seeing what the new year brings us!
Baby Cottage
The babies have loved having festive pictures and joining in with snowy scenes for messy play. One of the most popular things to play with this month was cardboard boxes, we have loved sitting in them and drawing in them! It’s been a nice month of festivities and we hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and new year!
Toddlers
On the lead up to Christmas Toddlers have been getting into the spirit by creating mince pies! We have also been talking about the importance of cleaning our teeth and using the animals to help with this!
Rising Three’s
This month we have been doing lots of fun Christmas activities. The children were very interested why Santa like to eat so we decided to make some yummy mince pies.
We also made Christmas party hats ready for Christmas dinner day.
Preschool
Preschool have had a super busy month getting ready for Christmas! We held a lovely Nativity for our Parents and were lucky enough to show it to the Local Care Home too.
We have also made snowmen in playdough, creating a winter wonderland. We cooked Christmas Cookies, exploring letters in our names and used them in guessing games.
We were lucky enough to have a visit from Wessex Water and the Dentist this month too!
Wessex water we explored different jobs, where our water comes from and what we can do to help look after water. We also learnt all about Oral Heath with the Dentist.
Sign of the Month
Happy New Year
Parent News and Reminders
Christmas Break - We close our doors to the nursery today at 6pm and will be reopening to our families on Tuesday 2nd January 2024.
Applying for schools - Can I please remind our Preschool Parents that they need to ensure they have completed their school admissions and applied for school for their children before 15th January 2024. More information can be found online by following this link. School admissions | Bath and North East Somerset Council (bathnes.gov.uk)
The whole Keynsham team are wishing you the most magical christmas with your families! We look forward to welcoming you back on Tuesday 2nd January 2024
Lots of love,
Hannah and The Keynsham Team x
November 2023
Welcome to our November Newsletter where we see what we have been up to throughout our nursery, over the second half of October, as we headed into November.
A big thank you for joining us for our Spooky S’mores event - we were lucky enough to have Nat, our forest school leader, join us to make and enjoy s’mores together. Here are some of the photographs, you will find more on our Keynsham website.
Babies
The babies enjoyed exploring pumpkins and having their spooky pictures taken! We have done lots and lots of splashing in puddles and exploring the whole reign of the garden, climbing on the climbing frame!
Toddlers
Toddler’s have been celebratig Halloween, exploring orange play dough and making very our own pumpkins. We collected conkers from the garden to fill and empty using different sized containers and spoons!
Rising 3
This month Rising Three’s have been practising their mindfulness Yoga - Practising different moves and balance skills. We have also been practising our fine motor skills using ribbon and pipe cleaners to thread through objects!
Pre-school
Pre-school have had a busy month and lots of our activities have been around Autumn and Pumpkins!
We also got involved in lots of Yoga - Thinking about different ways we can relax and stretch! We had some great moves!
Sign of the Month
Parent News and Reminders
Food bank - As some of you may have seen we have set up a Food Bank in our Foyer area - We understand that this time of year can be difficult for some so if you are able we would love parents to donate where they can to support other families that may be in need this holiday season.
Welcomes and Goodbyes - Over the month of October and November we have welcomed some new lovely faces to our team.
Mia has joined our Rising Three’s Team
Leslie has joined our Rising Three’s Team.
Bonnie has joined our Baby Team.
Ellie has joined our Baby Team - Ellie used to work at our Shirehampton nursery but has recently moved to Keynsham.
Beth R - Will be returning from Maternity and will be back in our Preschool Team at the end of November.
Ayesha - Who used to be based in our Preschool Room but left a few months ago will be returning in November to take over from Katherine Maternity Leave. She will be starting her handover over the coming of weeks.
Unfortunately we have said a goodbye to Catherine M this month who has decided to retire. Myself, the team and the children will all miss Catherine massively but we wish her the happiest and restful retirement.
Childrens Christmas Parties - On Tuesday 5th December (4:30 - 6pm) we will holding our annual childrens parties. These will be held in your childrens rooms with activites on offer and also a chance to meet Father Christmas. We invite all parents to join us for these parties - If your children do not attend this session you are more than welcome to join, but please can you inform the office so we know how many children we are expecting. Feel free to wear your Christmas jumpers or outfits to celebrate this occasion.
Preschool Nativity - Friday 15th December. All Preschool parents should have recieved their letters and returned permissions slips to the office - Please be aware if you are struggling with outfits then please let us know so we can support and source one for you.
Christmas Dinner Day - Wednesday 20th December.
Last day of 2023 - Please remember that the nursery will close on Friday 22nd December for our Christmas Break, nursery will reopen on Tuesday 2nd January 2024.
Term time only children last day for 2023 - Last date for Term Time Only children will be Friday 15th December 2023 - If you want to confirm exact dates for your child please drop us an email or pop in and we can confirm for you.
We can’t wait to see the fun that December brings!
Lots of love
The Keynsham Team x
October 2023
Welcome to our Autumn Newsletter, we have certainly seen a variety of weather over the last few weeks, however this did not stop our children or staff from having fun adventures throughout the nursery.
Baby Cottage
’Beep beep’ starting with our babies who have enjoyed spending as much time as possible outside, playing on the swing and the bikes in particular!
They have also really loved our sensory lights and getting stuck into messy play activities too.
Toddlers
Stomping our way over to our toddlers who have been making some crazy colourful monsters by splatting paint spots. When they hit their spoon they all shouted “splat” and watched to see what monsters appeared on their paper!
Toddlers have also been using natural resources to make cakes in the garden, they all worked together to hunt and gather mud, sand, sticks and grass. They took it in turns to add different ingredients to the bowl, would anybody like to try a cake?
Rising 3’s
Zooming over to our Rising 3’s who have loved visiting space week this month, looking through exciting new space books and learning all about space. They then had the challenge of creating their own rockets to blast off over to the moon tray, following on by practising their fine motor skills creating space pictures and exploring play doh by adding different materials for stars and planets.
Our Rising 3’s have also recently been showing great interest in shapes, so we headed out to our garden to take part in game of shape hop!
Preschool
Stepping over to our preschoolers who have loved being outdoors starting with an obstacle course thinking of different ways to move including balancing, jumping and spinning. They then took part in a bug hunt, which made great obstacle drawings. Lastly they headed out into our front garden for a conker hunt, which were great to practice our counting and make great messy play tools too.
Sign of the month
Halloween
Parent News and Reminders
Preschool Parents - Hopefully preschool parents should have now received their Banes school admission letter, if you have not yet received this from our admin Max, please visit us know in the office as we will have them waiting for you.
Spooky S’mores - Wednesday 1st November 5:30pm-7:00pm. Squishy snacks, creepy costumes and ghoulish games. This will be an opportunity for you and your child/children to join our Forest School Leader, Nat, alongside our fire to make some yummy s’mores. Please be mindful when driving into the nursery, being aware that the car park may also be fairly busy.
Concept Photography - Thursday 2nd November and Friday 3rd November. If your child does not attend these days then please let us know in the office if you would like to book in to have your photos taken. Just in time for Christmas too!
Preschool Nativity - DATE CHANGE. Friday 15th December we are looking forward to starting our Nativity rehearsals in the coming weeks, more information will follow.
Christmas Parties - Dates to be confirmed. Christmas activities, fun and games within your child's room.
Christmas Dinner Day - Wednesday 20th December.
Christmas Break - The last day we will be open is Friday 22nd December 2023 and we look forward to welcoming everyone back Tuesday 2nd January 2024. Dates may change for term time only children.
September 2023
Welcome to another month’s newsletter. This month we welcomed September and we welcome all the children back from the Summer holidays.
We have seen many transitions happening across the rooms this week as the children start to settle into their new rooms with their new keyworkers.
We have also been lucky enough to see some beautiful weather join us as we have experienced this years heatwave in September.
Babies
This month the babies have joined together in the Baby Cottage - The babies have loved spending time getting to know each other as well as some of the children getting used to their new environment.
The babies have also taken the time to explore the outside, riding on the bikes, building towers and getting super messy!
Toddlers
It’s been a busy month for Toddlers, who have enjoyed a teddy bears picnic, building bridges in the garden to cross over the bridge like the 3 billy goats, a trip to see the fire engine and of course enjoy the beautiful weather!
Rising 3’s
This month we have been keeping cool in the garden with some frozen dinosaur eggs. First we had to hatch them out of their balloons and then pour warm water over them to melt the eggs and rescue them.
We also picked some apples from our apple tree and then made some yummy apple crumble to take home.
We have also had lots of fun using our overhead projector to create shadows on the paper and then draw around them.
One of the children’s favourite things to ask to do was on the bikes and scooters.
Preschool
Preschool have had a busy month, they have been exploring the garden, making the most of the sunny weather. The Preschool room helped Chef Carey make some overnight oats that they then enjoyed the following morning for breakfast. They also put their gross motor skills to the challenge as they celebrated National Fitness day too.
Sign of the Month for September
Fire Engine Visit
We were lucky last month to have a visit form the Fire Engine - The children were lucky enough to hear the siren, use the fire man’s hose and even got to sit inside of the fire engine.
Thankyou to the team for allowing us to experience this and we hope to have another visit from them soon.
Parent News and Reminders
Breakfast - Can I just remind parents that we offer a rolling breakfast and snack in the morning between 8.30-9.30am, We used to offer this from 9am but we will be offering this slightly earlier of 8.30am.
Team News
We have some sad news to share with you this month, that Halle and Tia have decided to leave Snapdragons and would like to try a new career path. Both girls will be missed so much by the team, parents and especially the babies that have been lucky enough to have spent time with them. We are wishing them all the luck in their new adventure.
On a more positive note I would love to share some lovely news with you all - Katherine (Head of Rising 3’s) will be expecting her first baby in February 2024. We are so happy for Katherine and we will keep you updated for the future plans for her maternity leave.
Dates for the Diary.
Concept Photography - Thursday 2nd November and Friday 3rd November.
Spooks and Smores Halloween Party - Wednesday 1st November - More information to follow in next months newsletter.
Children in Need - Friday 18th November - More information to follow in next months newsletter.
Preschool Nativity - Tuesday 12th December - More information to follow soon.
Lots of love, The Keynsham Team x
Summer 2023
Welcome to our Summer newsletter, where we look back over the months of June and July.
The past couple of months have flown by for us at Keynsham and we have been super busy throughout! We have celebrated our Preschool Graduation, said goodbye to some of our school leavers and also had some lovely visits to the Care home too.
Baby Cottage
The cottage this month have been very smiley and have loved the cuddles! We have played lots of peek-a-boo, it has been a firm favourite this month, causing lots of giggles and smiles. We have spent lots of time getting messy again, with paints, gloop, playdoh, along side splashing in puddles in July, who would have thought!
Baby Barn
Babies have been enjoying the little sunshine we have had, playing garden games outside and doing obstacle courses. They have also enjoyed water painting to keep them nice and cool! Babies have enjoyed playing inside too where they have been getting messy, using their hands and different utensils to feel the textures of the several types of messy play!
Toddlers
Toddlers have been exploring mess free paint using different resources to mix the colours together! We have also been working on our physical development, using the slide in the garden and the soft play! Toddlers have been using the animal cards to match the animals heads and bodies together!
Toddlers have been exploring texture this month, using bubble wrap and popping it with different tools and painting with different materials! We have also been role playing with the animals and learning about their environments!
Rising Threes
The children have been very interested in treasure hunts and pirates, so we decided to make our very own treasure maps. We drew on them where we had to go to find the treasure and to make our maps look old, we used tea bags on the paper.
We were also interested in what animals live in the water so we made our very own marine pictures and talked about what we would find in the ocean.
We have also loved taking our messy play out into the garden creating potions in the mud kitchen.
We were experimenting with our lemons and limes, juicing them, adding bi carb and then pouring the juice back in to create volcanoes.
Preschool
Over the month of July we spent a lot of time in the lovely sunshine when we had chance, we had a paddle in the pool to keep warm and even made some yummy flavoured ice cubes with some lemons and limes to add to our water.
We have been looking after our snails in Pre school doing some observational drawings of them and ensuring their tanks are clean as well as feeding them foods they like. Some of us were even brave enough to hold them.
We have been doing some baking this month we have made some banana and raisin bars and some blackberry and apple crumble too.
Preschool Graduation
On Saturday 22nd July we held our Preschool Graduation for our School Leavers - Despite the weather not being on our side we were still able to have a lovely afternoon with games, a balloon man, a special visitor, a BBQ and finishing off with a graduation ceremony.
We wish all the children off to school in September the best of luck in their new adventure to school, we will miss them all.
Staffing Update
As we are approaching a new term I would like to make you aware of some changes and update you on the current teams in each room.
We have a few staff who are off to embark on new adventures, return to uni or fancy something new.
Sophie Reed (Baby Unit Coordinator) - will be working some extra sessions over the summer before she returns to University in September - Sophie will still be around the nursery during holidays, so it won’t be a final goodbye!
Shannan (Deputy Head of Preschool) - Will be leaving Snapdragons to take on a promotion at another local nursery.
Charlotte (Nursery Practitioner in Preschool) - Has also decided it’s time for a change for her too.
Bethany (Nursery Practitioner in Rising 3’s) - Has decided to take a new step and will be becoming a Swimming Teacher.
Maisie (Nursery Practitioner in Rising 3’s) - Will be leaving to see the other side of the world for the next 6 months. Maisie will be returning in January and I’m sure she will keep us posted with lots of photos.
As staff leave, we are lucky enough to welcome new faces to the team too -
Toni - Nursery Apprentice in Babies
Kaila - Nursery Apprentice in Babies
Shannon - Nursery Apprentice in Babies
Jodie - Nursery Apprentice in Toddlers
Kia - Nursery Apprentice in Toddlers
Olivia - Nursery Apprentice in Toddlers
Lily - Early Years Support Assistant in Babies
Agata - Nursery Apprentice in Babies
I would also like to make you aware that after a successful interview Ashaya will be taking on Deputy Head of Preschool in September too.
With all the changes that we have happening I am aware it may cause you to question who is who as well as ask who is now in each team. So I have attached the following team sheets to reflect September.
Please pop to the office if you would like a handout of these documents and we will happily print a copy for you to keep.
Meryton Place Carehome
We have been lucky enough to visit the local care home frequently. Which we have found to be so rewarding both the children and resisdents have loved to spend time together and sharing experiences. We have many more events booked in with the Carehome so hope for all children to have the opportunity to visit as frequently as possible.
We have been involved in a Retro Play day, The Kings Coronation, Celebrating India and also joined them for a music and movement afternoon.
We have a Heroes and Legends day planned next week as well Sports day at the end of the month too.
We can’t wait to see what the rest of the months bring, we are hoping for a little more sunshine and we can’t wait to share with you at the end of the month.
We hope our Term Time only families are enjoying their summer break and we look forward to welcoming you all back in September.
Lots of love The Keynsham Team x
May 2023
Welcome to this month’s newsletter, where we look back on the Month of May!
We have welcomed the sunshine with open arms as we have spent time outdoors celebrating outdoor learning day. We practised our baking skills as we baked a range of items for world baking day, and we also celebrated the Kings Coronation taking a visit to the local care home to create Coronation Crowns.
Baby Cottage
The Baby cottage have moved their ball pit around and added more balls and they have absolutely loved leaping in it and hiding! We have spent lots of time outside in the garden with the weather getting nicer, we’ve explored puzzles in the garden, making marks with paintbrushes and water and we also celebrated The coronation! We found items of the same colour as the flag and had fun trying to match the colours up in the tufftray!
Lots and lots of fun getting messy too!
Baby Barn
This month the babies have been enjoying getting super messy, trying different ways to explore the messy play, they have also loved caring for the babies where we have been setting up little picnics for them and also washing them to make them nice and clean! Our babies spent some time baking cinnamon swirls on cooking day which they loved too!
Toddlers
We celebrated the Kings Coronation by having a party in the garden with all our friends and families, we made party streamers and danced around the garden, we created our own tea parties and waved flags for the King, we ended the afternoon by indulging in a gorgeous picnic in the garden! We ate like Kings and Queens thanks to Carey and Nick!
Toddlers celebrated world baking day by making some scrumptious pizzas! We spread our sauce on the pizzas and sprinkled on our cheese! After we cut up our peppers and added them to our pizzas, we also tasted the peppers and they were very tasty!
Rising Three’s
This month we celebrated the kings coronation by having a tea party with our teddies from our homes.
We also done lots of lovely activities outside with Tim, we have been making bird feeders and scarecrows. We have also been very busy planting sunflowers and tomato plants which had got to big for the windowsill so it was time to get them planted outside.
We have also been very lucky to have Carey from the kitchen come up and make some yummy mini quiches with us.
Preschool
Pre school have been showing an interest in sticks this month so we decided to make our own paintbrushes with them to make marks with. We have been focusing on numbers and matching them to the correct amount of objects by singing different songs such as currant buns and 12345 once I caught a fish alive.
We have also been working together to construct different balancing courses thinking about to ensure it is safe
We were also lucky enough to have a visit to the local care home where we created Rangoli Pictures as we got involved in the Around the world day for India.
Sign of the Month
Parent News and Reminders
Suncream - If you haven’t already, please can we ensure that you are bringing a labelled bottle of suncream for us to store at nursery - Now the weather is getting warmer, and the UV is getting higher the children will be wearing this a lot more.
Preschool Leavers - For our school leaver children, could I please remind you to return your farm trip letters, as well as making us aware if you will be attending the Preschool Graduation so we can start to prepare for the graduation event, we also request that you make us aware of any dietary needs. This year it will be held on Saturday 22nd July from 11.30am - 1:30pm. This will consist of a graduation ceremony with a BBQ along with activities and time for the children to all play together before they venture off to school.
As we all start to prepare for the transition to school we will start to have visits from teachers and will start to prepare our moving to school documents, if you haven’t already please could you let the girls know what school your child is attending and if you would like to add your name to the list outside preschool then feel free too. Cathy would also like parents to provide their children with a P.E Kit, for the team to support and encourage self dressing and independence.
Last dates - I would also like to remind parents that children’s last day before they head to school will be 31st August for All year round children. Some weeks in August are not fully funded for these children, so a polite reminder that if you would like your child to finish earlier then the 4 weeks notice still applies.
Term time children will finish on Friday 14th July.
Fathers Day - Fathers day is on Sunday 18th June this year - to celebrate we will be providing Bacon Rolls at drop off on Monday 19th June for all the fathers and grandfathers - if you would like to have one on this day can we ask that you drop us an email to book this so that we can order the correct amount of food.
Little Dots Photography - Little Dots Photography is offering all Snapdragons parents a 10% discount on any photoshoot of your choice. Sophie is a natural light photographer with a studio based in Keynsham, specialising in capturing timeless images of maternity, newborn, older babies and family. For more information and how to book a photoshoot with Little Dots Photography please visit the website www.littledotsphotography.co.uk
Meryton Care Home Open Day - As some of you are aware we have recently connected with the local care home in our community - Meryton Place - They will be holding an open day on 28th June 2023 to show off the lovely home to the community serving afternoon tea, giving tours and handing out goodies. They would love you to join if you would like to see where the children come to visit
Staff news and changes
This month we have seen some changes within our nursery.
We unfortunately have waved goodbye to Nancie (Toddlers) and Honey (Baby Cottage) who are embarking on a new adventure.
We are also waving goodbye to Celeste (Toddlers) and Grace (Baby Cottage) as they head off on Maternity leave.
We are lucky enough to welcome some new faces to our team and are also waiting for a few others to join, so we will keep you updated as soon as these changes have happened
We have recently had Kaila, Kia and Elaine join our team.
Kaila - Will be taking part in an apprenticeship and has joined our Baby Cottage Team.
Elaine - Has joined our Rising 3 Team.
Kia - Will be taking part in an apprenticeship and has joined our Toddler team.
We are looking forward to seeing what fun adventures June brings us and we are hoping the sunshine is here to stay.
Love the Snapdragons Keynsham Team x
April 2023
Welcome to this month’s newsletter, where we look back on the month of April!
This month we have welcomed in parents for Easter Egg Hunts, celebrated St George’s Day and we have also seen the arrival of bluebells in our Forest Area, which hopefully means the sunshine will be on its way!
Baby Barn
Babies have been enjoying the sunshine out in the garden, making obstacle courses to get across with the help of their friends. They have also loved learning to blow bubbles themselves and pop them too. We had a brilliant Easter Egg hunt and Easter games too with some parents. As well as, getting messy using animals and cars to make marks!
Baby Cottage
This month the Baby Cottage enjoyed celebrating Easter by doing lots of sensory Easter trays with tissue paper and lots of other Easter accessories. They have also really enjoyed using nets and a paddling pool to scoop up ducks in the garden! This is something they have all absolutely loved doing.
We have spent time in our sensory room, gazing out the window at our friends and been making marks in shaving foam and getting messy too!
Toddlers
Toddlers have been rescuing the animals that were swimming in the water using the net! We also used the stop and go signs whilst riding the bikes for beep beep day!
Rising Three’s
This month we have been celebrating St George’s day, we had the story of George and dragon on our projector. After we listened to the story, and we used the props ourselves to try and recreate the story with our friends. We then tried to recreate the England flag.
We have loved bringing our messy play out into the garden mixing water and mud together to make mud paint! We then used brushes and rollers to create our muddy pictures.
Preschool
This month Preschool have been celebrating St Georges Day, the children explored the different building in England and created their own England flags.
They have also been focusing on their fine motor skills doing observational drawings of different flowers and searching in the spring weather for some flowers outside.
Parent News Reminders and Events
There are 3 Bank Holidays in May - Please can we remind parents that we no longer open during Bank Holidays so we will be closed on Monday 1st May, Monday 8th May and Monday 29th May.
The Kings Coronation - On Friday 5th May we will be planning to take part in some Coronation Activities. We are planning a little garden picnic for tea and would like to welcome the parents in to join for some activities and a light tea if they wish. If your child attends this day, then please feel free to join.
Concept Photography will be visiting us on Wednesday 3rd May and Thursday 4th May - If you would like to book an appointment if your child does not attend these sessions then please let us know in the office.
Can we please remind parents who have been borrowing books from our sharing library to return them when finished so other families can enjoy them too.
A polite reminder when approaching the drive and on our nursery grounds we have a maximum speed limit, this is to ensure the safety of our families when approaching and leaving nursery.
Preschool Graduation will be held on Saturday 22nd July at 11.30am. This will be for our School Leaver children only. We will be providing more details of the day in the upcoming months.
We have recently connected with the Local Care home in our community - Meryton Place. We will be working together to bring some of our youngest children together with some of the older people of the community. We are planning our first trip next week with some of our Rising 3 children where they will be making Coronation Crowns together to celebrate the Kings Coronation. We are hoping that children of all ages within the nursery will get a chance to visit for various occasions throughout the year. We are really excited about working together!
If you do not wish for your child to participate in any upcoming trips to the Care Home, then please can you make the office away so we can update the children’s permissions.
Sign Of The Month
Day Nursery Reviews
We love to hear feedback to the service we provide at Snapdragons and for parents to share their own personal experiences here with us, which could include settling your child into nursery, the staff that look after your children, the environments we have to offer and any special occasions you have shared with us. So, we would like to ask our parents to complete the following Day Nursery Review by following the link.
Submit a Review - Snapdragons Nursery Keynsham (daynurseries.co.uk)
Thank you in advance for your time completing this.
Love the Keynsham Team x
March 2023
We have had a busy month this month, find out what we have been up to over the month of March.
Baby Cottage
This month the cottage really enjoyed playing with a card board box, it was definitely toy of the month, they absolutely loved it! We have played lots of peek-a-boo, wore odd socks for PADS, dressed up for world book day and explored colourful messy play for Holi! The children have also really enjoyed spending more time in the garden as the sun has come out and making funny faces through the magnifying glass!
Baby Barn
This month the Baby Barn have enjoyed planting Sunflowers for World Down Syndrome Day, we have loved singing using props from our song bag and also took our art work outside as we explored different brushes in paint.
Toddlers
Toddlers have been exploring ways to feel texture when we went on a bear hunt! We have also been using our new resources in the garden, creating games using the tin cans and using the tubes to play peek a boo!
The Toddlers also enjoyed a visit from the Preschool Room who showcased their singing and preformed for the Toddlers.
Rising Threes
This month Rising Three’s have loved taking turns painting the umbrellas with our friends.
They have been really interested in bug hunting this month so we decided to create a bug hotel in the planter.
We have also loved gardening, planting seeds and watching them grow, we have planted radishes, cress and tomatoes.
Preschool
Preschool have been busy this month, they have been using our junk modelling boxes to create different objects we have made many rockets and binoculars. We have been taking part in science experiments using bicarbonate and lemons and vinegar. We have also been using natural material to create pictures, using different tools.
For Oral Health week we focused on teeth brushing and categorised foods we thought were good and bad for our teeth, we looked at top tips for brushing and know we must brush our teeth twice a day.
Parent News and Reminders
Easter - Please remember that we no longer open on Bank Holidays - So we will be closed on Good Friday 7th April and Easter Monday 10th April. We will be holding an Easter Egg Event, which will include an egg hunt, easter games and an Easter Bonnet Competition on the W/C 10th April. This will be held in age groups as follows;
Tuesday - Rising 3’s
Wednesday - Preschool
Thursday - Babies
Friday - Toddlers
The event will be held between the hours of 3pm - 4pm, Please can you let the office know if you would like to attend so we can monitor how many children are attending.
Please feel free to make an Easter Bonnet with your children if you would like to enter our Easter Bonnet Competition.
Concept Photography - Concept photography will be joining us on Wednesday 3rd and 4th May. This will be opportunity for photos to be taken. If your child does not attend these days then please let the office know if you would like to book in to have your photos taken.
Parents Evening - In April we will be holding Parents Evening. These will be held on Tuesday 25th April - For Preschool and Rising Three’s and Wednesday 26th April - Babies and Toddlers. Nearer the time there will be sign up sheets for you to book in with your Keyworker. Please be aware that some dates may change due to staff working days.
Can I also please remind Parents that they should be leaving the building via the Grey Door for Babies and the main door for Preschool and Toddlers. We have had a few parents who have been leaving via the back gate, please can parents refrain from using this exit as it needs to be locked securely at all times.
Can I also remind parents that the closest parking spaces to the building should be used for the parents with 2 or more children where possible. We have multiple families who are struggling during drop due to needing to park at the far end of the carpark.
Staff News
This month we would like to share some wonderful news with you.
Celeste in our Toddler Room is expecting her first Baby Boy in July.
And
Grace in our Baby Cottage is also expecting her first Baby Boy in August.
I’m sure you will join us in congratulating them on their wonderful news, and we will be keeping you updated on their last days before maternity leave.
We hope you all have a wonderful Easter!
Love the Keynsham Team x
February 2023
Welcome to this months newsletter where we look back on the month of February, sharing all the events that have been celebrated and showing you a snippet of the lovely activities we have been up too!
Baby Cottage
The Baby Cottage have enjoyed celebrating pancake day by exploring some lemon scented playdoh with raisins in, they had lemons to squeeze on top too! Some of them even tried tasting the sour fruit….I can not say anyone was a huge fan! The train tracks have been a favourite this month in the Cottage, lots of the babies have been trying to put the pieces together themselves to build the tracks. We have also been using the guttering to explore playing with it in different ways, rolling balls down it, and pushing cars down it too! We have also really enjoyed playing peek-a-boo!
Baby Barn
The Baby Barn has been very busy this month! We have been doing lots of activities and learning. We made some pretend pancakes, using play dough to celebrate pancake day. We also made some Valentines paintings. The babies have enjoyed sharing sensory experiences, with lights and bubbles. We have been enjoying music and movement by doing song bags, and lots of sing and sign. Now that the weather is slightly warming up, we have been out in the garden on the trikes in the garden! In other news, the Baby Barn has had a little change around, to promote an enabling environment which suit the children’s individual needs.
Toddlers
Toddlers have been creating heart shaped biscuits for Valentines day and pretending to make pancakes to celebrate pancake day! The toddlers also enjoyed partaking in Forest school using natural resources to create paintbrushes and using mud as paint to create masterpieces. Our Sensory room has now had a revamp too, you may have noticed that we have enhanced the environment! This room is now a Schema room, to support the children’s schematic play inviting the children play with open ended resources with lots opportunities to explore them different ways.
Rising 3’s
February has been a busy month for Rising Three’s. We celebrated many special days including Valentine’s Day by creating Welsh love spoons, eating yummy pancakes on Pancake day and learning about the importance of oral health for Children’s Mental Health Week. We have enjoyed playing with our new garden resources and created pirate bottles which included a special written note inside. Rising threes have also taken an interest in role play as we played shops, using coins to pay for different items!
Parent News Reminders and Events
This month we have a jam packed month as we celebrate lots of different celebrations and occasions. These include ;
⁃ World Book Day on Thursday 2nd March - please bring along your favourite book to share and if you wish dress as your favourite book character! Remember to collect your free book token from the office too!
⁃ Holi on Wednesday 8th March - please bring a white too or spare clothes that you don’t mind getting colourful as we celebrate with music, dance and lots of powder paint.
⁃ Red Nose Day Friday 17th March - feel free to wear something red as we raise money for Red Nose Day this year!
⁃ Mothers Day - Monday 20th March - we want to treat our Mummies, Grandmas, Mamas and all our wonderful women in our lives with a breakfast croissant during drop off - please let us know if you would like a morning treat and so we can ensure we have enough for all!
⁃ World Down Syndrome Day - Tuesday 21st - Thursday 23rd March - please feel free to wear your stand out socks during these days. The children will also be planting sunflowers at the start of March - Please bring a £1 so you can take home your sunflower and continue to watch it grow!
⁃ Wild Club - Wednesday 30th March - we are super lucky to have Tim and Nat our forest school leaders run a wild club at Keynsham this year - this will be a chance for you to join in with some forest school activities with your children - unfortunately this will be a limited event so will require your name to be on the list to attend. Please let us know in the office if you would like to attend and we can add your name to the list.
⁃ Easter - We will be holding our annual Easter egg hunt across the week of 10th April, more information will follow soon!
Sign Of The Month
BOOK
Books Of The Month
Three Billy Goats Gruff
Kipper
Staff News
Over the month of March we will be saying goodbye to a few faces.
Sian our admin will unfortunately be leaving us to embark on a new adventure working for the MOD.
Megan in our Baby Room is also taking on a new adventure and will be leaving childcare completely.
Emily in our Rising 3s Room will also be moving a little closer to home.
However as we say goodbye we are lucky enough to say hello and welcome some lovely new additions to our team.
Our new additions to the team are;
Kathryn has joined our Rising 3 room, she will be working Monday-Thursday morning.
Hannah who has also joined our Rising 3 room as our lunchtime assistant.
Sophie who has joined the Baby Barn team and will be working Monday - Thursday morning.
Maxine who will be joining the admin team. Maxine will working Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Please pop in and introduce yourself and be aware that authorisation may take a little while longer for you to access the building as she starts to remember and know all your faces.
Libby who will be joining the Baby Barn team and will be working Monday and Tuesday.
Love the Keynsham Team x
January 2023
Happy New Year Everyone,
This month we have welcomed everyone back to nursery after our annual Christmas closure! It’s been a busy month and we have come back with a bang, celebrating lots of different occasions such as Lunar New Year and Childrens Inventor Day, and we have also taken part in events such as Take a walk outside and the Big Garden Birdwatch.
Let’s see what each room has been up to!
Baby Barn
The Barn has had a great start to the year! Taking part in lots of fun activities, including making porridge, based on the three bears! The babies ventured outside to explore the frost and finding the ice. They have also been sticking and creating on Children’s Inventors Day. They loved filling and emptying in the sand and water. Moreover, we have done lots of painting this month and seeing what animal footprints we could make.
Baby Cottage
The cottage have loved the ball pit this month, it has been a firm favourite for a lot of the babies! We’ve had lots of smiles outside too, exploring the mud kitchen and wrapping up warm for winters walks. They have also enjoyed some of our new resources, using their creativity to export it all, in particular they have liked sitting in one of the baskets, setting it up all cosy!
Toddlers
Toddlers have been exploring ways to push the spaghetti through the holes, working on their fine motor skills. They have also been looking after the babies by feeding them and rocking them to sleep!
Rising 3’s
This month we have been exploring our brand new OHP seeing what objects we can put on it to see the shadows and colours it creates on the wall. We also celebrated inventors day this month. We used our imaginations and fine motor skills to see what we can create. We also loved playing the rain game, we had to take turns with our friends holding the umbrellas whilst we pour rain over them and sing the rain song all together.
Preschool
During inventors day we searched around the garden for loose parts to build a bridge to get across the floods and ice, we worked together and managed to get to the other side without falling in!
We have been playing lots of outside games including egg and spoon races, throwing hoops on cones working on our hand eye coordination.
Parent News, Reminders and Events
We Need You This Month!
As we start to think ahead to the spring - we want to spend some time refreshing and enhancing our outdoor environment. We have had a tough winter so some of our outdoor resources are looking a little sad and are in need of replacing. So we were wondering if you could help us with stuff you may have lying around that you may no longer need.
We are after the following
Plant pots - various of sizes,
Metal bowls and saucepans, baking trays, cake tins, metal utensils, metal jugs and teapots. (the lighter the better for these so the youngest of children can use them too.)
Offcuts of guttering, connector tubes, or materials to create opportunities of maths with water.
Large paintbrushes or rollers - For large scale mark making.
Steering wheels, go kart tyres or bike tyres.
Offcuts of wood, planks or crates
Natural loose parts which are varied, and can be used for number, size and shape.
If you think you could help us then please speak to us in the office.
We would also like to share with you one of our families heartbreaking story.
This family have had some devastating news of a terminal diagnosis and are asking for fundraising support to pay for her treatment to help give Camilla some extra precious time with her beautiful young family!
We know times are hard right now, but any donation would help this family immensely.
Further information can be found on the GoFund me page.
Fundraiser for Ian Clark by Sally Pitt : Please can you help Camilla and her family (gofundme.com)
The friends of the family will also be raising money through a family event, ‘Cam’s Wild Family FUNday!
which will be held on Friday 17th February at Haywards (Keynsham BS31 1SN) 3:30PM -10PM.
Entry - £5 per person - Children Free.
It will be an afternoon full of different stalls, food, live music, bouncy castle, sponsored head shave, tombola, raffle and more.
If you would like to attend then please could you let us know in the office so I can make the family aware of the numbers.
Sign of the Month for February
LOVE
Books of the Month for February
Goldilocks and the three bears.
Each Peach Pear Plum
Lots of love,
The Keynsham Team x
December 2022
I want to start this months newsletter wishing all of our families a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We will reflect over the past two months as we bring 2022 to an end, making you aware of all the wonderful things we have had happening, from Christmas Parties, Preschool Nativity, Christmas lunch and the rest of the lovely festivities which have been happening daily.
I also just wanted to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you for your continued support throughout this year.
Baby Cottage
in the Baby Cottage we have loved getting in the spirit of Christmas, helping to decorate the room, put the tree up, the Christmas party! We enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch and enjoyed creating some Festive pictures for family, along with some decorations and cards too! December has been a festive and fun month!
Baby Barn
The Baby Barn have loved getting ready for Christmas, decorating the room and doing lots of fun activities. They have loved exploring the snow and ice. The babies have taken part in some Christmas sensory trays, making reindeer food and a polar express tuff tray. We have done lots of arts and crafts, including sticking to make a snowman and painting Christmas wreaths.
Toddlers
Toddlers have had a very festive month! We have explored outside in the snow, making sure to be wrapped up warm, taking part in activities during our Christmas party and then finishing with a yummy Christmas lunch!
Rising 3’s
Rising 3’s had lots of fun at our Christmas party and even Santa came and visit us. We’ve all been very interested in play dough this month so we made Father Christmas play dough adding in some googly eyes and cotton wool for beard. We also used our imaginations and turned a really big box into Santa’s sleigh.
Preschool
Pre school have been getting the Christmas spirit doing many crafts this month, we have been creating our own Christmas tree pictures and creating pictures of Santa too and snowmen
We have been playing lots of games together in groups to work on our sharing too, we have loved dominos and the shopping trolly game too.
Of course we enjoyed the snow this month too.
Parent News, Reminders and Events.
Staff Nominations - Is there a staff member that you would like to be acknowledged for all their hard work this year or someone who you would just like to thank? At Snapdragons we run a reward scheme for our employees, nominations from parents mean stars for the staff that can go towards a range of different rewards and prizes which can include sweet treats, hampers, meal vouchers and even a trip to the spa, so if you would like to reward the staff remember to fill in the online form sharing your lovely words.
Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery
Return to Nursery - Please remember we will close the week between Christmas and New Year - We will reopen on Tuesday 3rd January 2023 to all children.
Labelling Clothes - We are finding we are coming across a range of lost property - Please can we remind parents to label all clothing for children so we can ensure that belongings are returned to the correct owner.
Preschool Parents (School Leavers) - Please remember that submissions for school applications close in January, please ensure you have completed the form through the council website.
Sign of the Month for January
Books of the Month for January
The Tiger That Came To Tea.
Poems for the very young.
Staff News
This month the team have enjoyed the Annual Snapdragons Christmas Party, the team were invited to The Marriot Hotel for dinner and dancing, it was a chance for us to celebrate the year whilst enjoying time together, Keynsham walked away with a range of prizes across the company which included runner up in Childcarer of the Year for Maisie Bailey, Leading the Way for Hannah Saunders and winning The Hagrid Award (For the Kind Hearted Person) for Nick Owen and also taking home the trophy for Preschool Room of the Year! Please find attached some photos of the night.
This month we will be saying a sad goodbye to Jade in our Preschool Room who will be starting a new adventure. I’m sure you will all join me in wishing Jade all the luck in the future. We have loved having Jade as part of our team and she will be missed by us all.
Beth in the Preschool Room left for Maternity Leave in October - She welcomed a beautiful baby boy called Leo on 13th November weighing 7lb 10oz, both Beth and Baby Leo are doing well and adjusting to baby life and loving their newborn baby bubble!
We have also Sophie who has joined our Preschool Room this month, she will be taking part in an apprenticeship with Snapdragons and will be based in our Preschool Room.
In January Roz who has previously been based in the Baby Cottage will be moving to our Preschool Room - Roz is an Early Years Teacher and would like opportunity to be with the older children. She will be greatly missed by all the babies but we can’t wait to see her adventure start in our Preschool Room next month.
We wish you all a lovely Christmas break which is full of love, happiness and memories you can treasure forever!
Lots of Love
The Keynsham Team
September & October 2022
I just want to start this months newsletter with a massive thankyou to all the parents and families that attended our Spooky Sparks Party - we were blown away with the amount of you that showed up and got stuck in with all the activities on offer as well as being so understanding regarding the carpark being the fullest it’s ever been! We just want to say a massive thankyou and we hope that you all had a lovely time.
This months newsletter will be us catching you up on everything that has happened over the last two months, it’s flown by so quickly that we forgot to complete a September newsletter and we still can’t believe we are already in November!
Baby Barn
This month in the Baby Barn, we have been getting ready for halloween! We have been on a couple trips to Waitrose, venturing out of nursery - finding some diggers, cars, lorries and friendly people along the way! We got some pumpkins from the shop, carved them and painted them - ready for spooky sparks. Afterwards, we made some pumpkin pies, using the seeds from the pumpkins we bought. The babies have enjoyed observing the changes in seasons and finding leaves and concers which have fallen from the trees. The babies have loved painting, creating and exploring this month.
They also enjoyed dressing up to raise money for Down’s syndrome day, showing us their amazing outfits!
Baby Cottage
Over the past few months the Baby Cottage have been enjoying finding out about and exploring lots of activities relating to different celebrations. We celebrated Diwali by creating firework pictures and used coloured salt to create rangoli patterns. We painted bats and used cutters to create Halloween pictures. The babies also absolutely loved the pumpkins at Halloween they enjoyed; rolling them, washing them and even painting them! We also made some Halloween sensory bags and the babies explored the different textures. This month has been all about water play in the Cottage, the babies have thrived on exploring water and making big splashes! The children have enjoyed making potions, washing the babies and jumping in muddy puddles. We have been learning some new songs such as; Jumping Beans, Way Up High in the Apple Tree and The Tractor song. We have also spent lots of time outside, exploring the seasonal changes, collecting and exploring the leaves, jumping in puddles and we even went on a local walk to Waitrose to buy our pumpkins!
Rising 3’s
This month Rising Threes have enjoyed exploring how the seasons have changed by creating leaf kebabs as well as searching for different bugs in the garden. We have enjoyed Halloween activities such as pumpkin carving and making ghost pictures. Additionally, we have been exploring our musical instruments.
Preschool
This month Preschool have shown a real interest in babies and role play, which has involved bathing them and having tea parties with different items. We even made some lemonade for our dolls this week too. Also this month we have been learning about the upcoming events such as Halloween and Firework night, which involved the children creating their own fire work pictures with some coloured salt and flour and also creating our own halloween pictures drawing different faces on them.
Preschool have also spent time in the Forest Area where they have been working together to create their own dens.
Sign of the Month
Books of the Month
Whatever Next,
Goodnight Moon
Staff News
Our lovely Beth in Preschool has now started her maternity leave! We wish Beth all the luck in her new adventure of parenthood and we will keep you all posted when the new little addition has arrived!
We have also said some sad goodbyes this month to our lovely Ella (Rising 3s) who is planning to return to University to study and Milly (Preschool) who will be joining a school as a Teaching Assistant.
We will be saying Hello this month to a few new faces, which include Hannah who will be joining the Housekeeper team and Ali and Sansanee as our Lunchtime Assistants. Ali will be based in our toddler room and Sansanee in our Baby Cottage.
We also have Sophie rejoining us next month. Some of you will previously know Sophie from working in the old Butterfly room - Sophie has taken a break away from childcare but has decided it’s time for her to make a return she will be joining us but will now be working within our Toddler Room. Please say hello if you pass these new faces.
Reminders and Updates
Clothing
With the weather getting wet and colder - can we please remind parents to bring suitable outdoor clothing which includes winter hats and wellies where you can! The children access the garden in all weathers so making sure they are warm and dry is super important to us!
With all clothing please remember to ensure this is all labelled correctly.
School leavers 2023.
If your child is due to start school in September 2023, I just wanted to remind you that you should complete school applications by 15th January. If you need any further support or guidance with this then please do not hesitate to ask and we will be happy to help.
Extra sessions
Unfortunately for the next two months we will be unable to accommodate any additional sessions, as our staff continue to take their remaining annual leave for the year and with lots of events coming up it can be a busy couple of months. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause but we will hopefully be able to accommodate more in the New Year.
Illnesses
As the weather gets colder, it normally means the bugs and winter colds start to spread. Can we please remind our parents about our Illness and Medication policy which can be found at
https://www.snapdragonsnursery.com/illness
This includes a list of Illnesses with different exclusion periods.
As always we just ask that children are well in themselves when attending nursery.
Books
Are you about to do a Pre Christmas Clear out? We are on the hunt for some books to join our sharing library and some baby books to add to our collection within the rooms. If you would like to donate any to us then please hand them in to reception so we can find them a nice new home.
Upcoming Events
Children in Need
On Friday 18th November we will be raising money for Children in need - we are also going to be having a pyjamas/cosy day to celebrate so please remember to bring your children in their Pyjamas and any donation small or little will be going to a great case.
Across the week from Wednesday 16th - Friday 18th November we will also be holding a Bake sale - so bring in your change when you come to collect and you will be able to pick up a sweet treat! Any cake/bake donations for this would be great appreciated we just ask that you disclose the ingredients list.
Christmas Parties
We will be holding our annual room Christmas parties on Tuesday 6th December this year. They will be from 3.30pm - 5pm. This will be chance for you to come and join in with some Christmas activities within the room along with enjoying a little mince pie.
Nativity
The rehearsals for Nativity are in full swing now and the Preschool team have started to hand out invitations for this event! This will be held on Tuesday 13th December. There will be two shows! Please can you make us aware if you are struggling to find a costume for this and we can see if we can get a costume sorted before the big day, as well as letting us know how many parents will be attending.
End of the year
Our Christmas break is fast approaching the last day of the year for us is Friday 23rd December and we will reopen on Tuesday 3rd January 2023.
For our Term time only children the last session they will attend will be Friday 16th December 2022.
Concept Photograph
The proofs have now been returned and you will be able to collect them from your child’s room - just a polite remind that we ask all proof sheets to be returned to the office by Monday 14th November, even if you don’t wish to purchase them this time.
August 2022
I would like to start this newsletter welcoming our new families who have joined us over the Summer, we have had lots of successful settling in sessions as they start their Snapdragons Adventure and we are so happy to have more families join our Snapdragons Family. We have also unfortunately said a final goodbye to our school leavers who are now embarking on their new journey to school. We wish you all the best for your new journey.
This month the Baby Barn has been taking part in a variety of activities and experiences to further learning and enhance curiosity. The babies have loved messy play activities with paint, shaving foam and play dough. We have enjoyed spending lots of time outdoors, exploring the environment and the natural resources around us. The babies have engaged in lots of reading over the month and we have provided opportunities for reading in small groups. The Baby Barn has been doing sing and sign each day this month, helping children to learn some Makaton signs and be able to communicate through signs. The babies have loved listening to the songs and they have been joining in with many actions, while dancing along. Moreover, the Baby Barn has been slightly rearranged, creating new spaces to explore and engage, providing children with more access to the resources.
The Baby Cottage have really enjoyed getting stuck in outside, making marks in the fences and chalkboard with chalk, and exploring how things move by rolling items down the guttering tubes. They have also really enjoyed messy play inside, lots of painting, making marks with their hands and the paint brushes, we even used balloons to paint! We have had lots of balloons and bubbles this month due to this being something that babies have really engaged with, we have been singing the Turtle song when we blow bubbles and they like to join in with the actions!
Toddlers have been enjoying our new matching games naming all the objects and colours they can find! We have also been taking care of our babies by washing them and getting them dressed. We spoke about the importance of keeping clean!
Rising 3’s have enjoyed Forest School with Tim this month, the children cut the wood with the saw to make little plates, they then found mint and rubbed it against the plates to make the plates green and smell nice. They also practised drilling a hole through the middle of the wood to make a holder for paint brushes, knives and forks and pens and pencils.
Preschool have said a final goodbye this month to their school leavers, so they have been holding lots of parties and celebrations on the children’s final days. They have also welcomed more children from the Rising 3’s room this month and they have been busy exploring the new rooms around them. The children have also taken part in exploring shapes using them for drawing around to see the shapes we have made as well as threading shapes too. They have been also using their physical skills to ride the scooters too!
Books of the month
Handa’s Surprise
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Gingerbread Man
Makaton Sign of the Month
This months Sign of the Month is Book.
Staff News
Our lovely Ella in the Baby Barn has been successful in the promotion of Head of Baby Barn, she will be taking over from Sophie who is now overseeing the two baby units.
We have also welcomed Sam to our team this month. Sam has joined us as the SEND Lead here at Keynsham. She will be working alongside the staff to ensure that all children are fully supported during their time here. Sam is also available to talk if any parents have any concerns around their child’s development and will be happy to work alongside and support each child individually.
Upcoming Events
We would like to make you aware of some of our upcoming events over the next couple of months at Keynsham.
Parents Evening
In October we will be holding Parents Evening. We are planning to hold Parents Evening on Tuesday 4th October (Preschool and Rising 3’s) and Wednesday 5th October (Babies and Toddlers). We will shortly be releasing the slots for you to book in a time with your keyworker to discuss your child. Please check with your keyworker to confirm the set day.
Spooks and Smores
On Wednesday 26th October we will be holding our Spooks and Smore’s event. This is an opportunity for our families to join us at the end of the day for a little Spooky Party. The event will be held from 4:30pm - 6pm. I will be releasing more details on this event next month. So look out for more details then.
Dress Up for Down Syndrome
On Friday 21st October we will be dressing up for Down Syndrome to help celebrate Down Syndrome awareness month. We would like to raise money for this so we are asking if a donation of £1 can be given if you can to go towards the charity PADS (Positive About Down Syndrome)
Concept Photography
Concept Photography will be returning to Keynsham on Tuesday 1st November and Wednesday 2nd November. This is a chance for all children to have their photos taken which you can choose to purchase after. The timing of this photo shoot also mean they can be purchased for some Christmas presents too.
July 2022
Wow what a warm month July has been! It has been a month filled with sunshine and some final goodbyes!
We started the month embracing the warm weather, where the children spent lots of time outside participating in water play, slip and slides and trying to keep themselves as cool as possible during those hot few days.
Babies exploring the new climbing frame.
The Baby Barn had a new delivery this month which has provided the children with lots of challenge and opportunity to climb. It’s been a real hit with the babies as they continue to develop their physical development skills further.
The Baby Cottage have loved exploring the books and stories this month, rushing over to read them and seeking them out lots on their own too.
Sharing a cuddle and story with our friends.
Dragonflies have been spending lots of time in the garden in the sunshine, working on their climbing, balancing and sliding!
Butterflies have been holding lots of tea parties, ensuring all our teddies get opportunity to have a lovely cup of refreshing tea.
We have ended the month with our Preschool Graduation, saying goodbye to our oldest of children who are about to embark on the new adventure of school in September. The afternoon was filled with a final ceremony and a chance for the children to have a final play with everyone together, before finishing with a yummy BBQ and even a visit from the Ice Cream Lady too! We want to wish all our Preschool children all the luck in their new adventure! We have loved getting to know your individual personalities and you will all be greatly missed! We are so excited for you in your new adventure… you will all be amazing!
Books Of The Month for August
Hairy McClary
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Makaton Sign of the Month
Reminders and requests
Could we please send a polite reminder to parents that if you are not planning to send your child to nursery due to illness or last minute holiday plans, or even if you just fancied a day at home in the sunshine, that you either drop the nursery a call or email to make us aware as soon as possible.
We also run a reward scheme for our practitioners. If you feel a member of staff has been amazing and you want them to be recognised for this, then you can nominate them via this link.
Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery
The staff are rewarded via stars which they can then spend towards a variety of different treats, ranging from sweet treats, vouchers and even days out.
We are currently in the process of updating our environments alongside The Curiosity Approach. If any parents or carers have any old pots, pans, utensils or any other items which children would be able to use in the setting to explore and use their imagination, then that would be greatly appreciated.
Staff News
This month we would like to introduce you to Royce, our new Social Media and Marketing Assistant!
Hi, My name is Royce.
I am the new Social Media & Marketing Assistant for Snapdragons. I will be spending time at all of the nurseries capturing magical moments and, permissions allowing, sharing them on our media platforms for parents and guardians to see. So don’t be alarmed if your children ask you if you saw the man with the camera in the nursery garden, it’s just me.
To see these moments, please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or head over to our website for even more!
If you would like to make amendments to your children’s permissions, we just ask that you drop us an email so we have written confirmation and we can get this changed for you.
Next month we unfortunately will wave goodbye to Jodie (Dragonflies) who has been successful in the promotion to Head of Toddlers in our Cribbs Causeway Nursery! We are so pleased for Jodie and wish her all the luck in her future role, and the team and children will miss her greatly.
Next month we will be adding some new additions to our team, so we will keep you updated when these staff have started so you are aware of the new staff within the rooms and you can also say hello to these new faces.
We hope the sunny weather continues for the month of August and we are able to spend lots more time in the sunshine!
June 2022
Warleigh Lodge Farm.
What a busy month June was, it absolutely flew by for us at Snapdragons Keynsham.
We started the month celebrating the Queens Platinum Jubilee - It was so lovely to be able to host a successful garden party and we would like to thank all the parents that joined us to celebrate this special occasion! The children and staff absolutely loved it and we hope you all did too!
Posting letters to the Queen.
We have also celebrated Father’s Day and treated our Fathers and Grandfathers to a bacon roll and sent home some special gifts for all! We hope you all enjoyed them and thankyou for everything you continue to do for us.
Preschool have been focusing on School Readiness over the past couple of weeks making sure the children are ready for the upcoming transition.
The school leavers were also treated to a lovely trip to Warleigh Lodge Farm! This is the first time the trip has been able to happen in over the past 2 years, so it was super special to experience this with the children again, and we hope it’s that start of many more trips to come!
Books of the Month
The Books of the Month for July are;
The Gruffalo
Where the wild things are
Dear Zoo
Makaton Sign of the Month
Upcoming Events and Reminders
Funding
Please can we remind parents with children who are going to school who attend term time only that their last day with us will be Friday 15th July. Children attending all year round, their last day will be Wednesday 31st August. Funding is not applicable during the month of August for all children going to school, so if you wish to give notice, please can we ask for 4 weeks to end your child’s space with us. Please email the accounts team if you have any further questions regarding funding, as they are more than happy to help with any queries.
Term Time Only Non Funded-
A reminder for the Term Time Only children that the last day before summer will be Friday 22nd July 2022
If you have any queries on your child’s last day before the summer then please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to help you!
Upcoming events
Preschool Graduation - For the children who will be going to school in September we will be celebrating the Preschool Graduation on Saturday 30th July from 1pm - 3pm, the afternoon will consist of a BBQ, the Graduation Ceremony and a chance for children to play together before they head off to school. Please can we ask all Preschool Parents to let us know who will be attending as soon as possible.
Staff News
We have unfortunately said Goodbye to the lovely Gemma this month, who has now started her new job based at the Bath and Wiltshire sites! She is going to be greatly missed by all!
Kira has been promoted from Baby Unit Co-Ordinator to Head of Early Years Practice and Deputy Manager.
Sophie Reed - Head of Baby Barn - Has also been successful in the promotion to Baby Unit Co-ordinator and will be taking over from
Kira, and will now help to over see the two baby rooms. We will keep you updated on who will be taking over from Sophie as Head of the Baby Barn as soon as we have any more news.
We have also welcomed a few new faces to the team;
Grace in the Baby Cottage
Honey in the Baby Cottage,
Leila in the Baby Cottage
We want to take this time to wish all our Term Time Only families a lovely Summer and we can’t wait to hear all about it in September.
May 2022
Babies popping bubbles
May has been a busy month… we can’t believe it is nearly over! The weather is still a bit hit and miss at the moment, so please continue to send children in coats, as well as hats, suncream etc; Please can we remind parents to label all items as children often have the same belongings.
Thank you to all our families over the last few weeks regarding mine and Hannah’s promotions within the company. We are looking forward to our new roles and will continue to keep you all updated, including when we appoint someone for Hannah’s current role.
Thank you so much to all the parents that came in for our easter egg hunt last month. It was so lovely having you back into nursery for events!
On Tuesday 31st May we will be having a street style party in the garden from 3pm onwards, with activities and picnic food. This is open for children who attend this session and we would love parents to join us if possible! We would love to see the children dressed in Royal attire on this day.
We will be celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee all next week, with a range of different activities taking place. We are open on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd June for the bank holidays, so please just drop us an email if your child won’t be attending these sessions.
Washing babies outside
fun on the swing
Books of the month
May- Little Red Riding Hood, Mr Grumpy’s Outing and Spot
June- Jack and the Beanstalk, Jasper’s Beanstalk and That’s Not My…
Signs of the month
Toddler yoga
Baby sensory bags
Father’s Day is approaching on the 19th June. On Monday 20th June on drop off in the morning, the kitchen will be serving bacon rolls between 8am-9am for Dad’s dropping off their children.
Pre-school mark making
Observational drawings
Pre-school parents
That time is nearly upon us now with Children moving to school. During Term 6 children will start having settling sessions at their new schools, and we have already started to have some teachers in to visit.
Please let Pre-school know if you haven’t already said which school your child will be going to so we can start to prepare our transition documents and liasie with the schools.
Funding reminder
Please can we remind parents going to school with Children who attend term time only that their last day with us will be Friday 15th July. Children attending all year round, their last day will be Wednesday 31st August. Funding is not applicable during the month of August for all children going to school, so if you wish to give notice, please can we ask for 4 weeks to end your child’s space with us. Please email the accounts team if you have any further questions regarding funding as they are more than happy to help with any queries.
Warleigh Lodge Farm Trip
Our annual Warleigh Lodge Farm trip for our school leaver children is back this year! After having to postpone this for the last few years due to covid, we are so excited it is taking place again. We will be going on Monday 13th and Wednesday 15th June in the mornings. We will be organising the children into two groups depending on their sessions, so will be in contact with more details of slots etc; We will be getting to the farm via coach. Snapdragons will be paying for the trip, however we will be asking for £10 per child to contribute to the cost of the coach. This will be added to children’s invoices who attend.
Graduation Day
Our Graduation for the School Leaver children will be held on Saturday 30th July from 1pm. More details to follow nearer the time.
April 2022
Dragonflies- Easter bonnets
Wow what a busy month we have had! We have been so busy celebrating lots of events in the last month and have been raising lots of money for different charities too!
Can we please ask, now the weather (hopefully!) begins to turn warmer, that children are coming in with sunscreen and sun hats. If the sunscreen can remain here that is ideal incase it is forgotten. Please label all items if possible!
I did mention before regarding parking, but please try and refrain from parking near the babies entrance and by the pre-school window. We have some families with two young children attending and I have said they can park here to make drop off smoother for them.
We raised over £50 for World Down syndrome Day by wearing mismatched socks!
We loved exploring with colour powder paint for Holi festival
Books of the month
April- The three little pigs, Elmer, Rosie’s walk
May-Little red riding hood, Spot
Signs of the month
April signs of the month
Wearing yellow and blue for our Ukraine day
Making potato pancakes
Observational sunflower pictures
Thank you to everyone who has donated money to our charities this month. All of the Snapdragons sites have been fundraising for the Unicef appeal to Ukraine. In total we have managed to raise over £8000 so far for this cause!
Pyjama Day for Comic Relief in Butterflies
Pre-school Parents
Parents with children going to school in September, please be aware school places should be released this month. Please can you let your child’s key person know where they will be going. This will assist us with starting transition documents and liasing with schools.
Also please can we remind parents going to school that Children who attend term time only, their last day with us will be Friday 15th July. Children attending all year round, their last day will be Wednesday 31st August. Funding is not applicable during the month of August for children going to school, so if you wish to give notice please can we ask for 4 weeks to end your child’s space with us. Please email the accounts team if you have any further questions regarding funding as they are more than happy to help with any queries.
Graduation Day
Our Graduation for our School Leaver children will be held on Saturday 30th July from 1pm. More details to follow nearer the time.
Easter
Thank you to everyone who came to our Easter egg hunts this week! It was so nice to welcome parents back into nursery to join in with our activities! Hopefully more to follow soon!
If you would like to leave a review about the nursery it is always appreciated! Please go to:
https://www.daynurseries.co.uk/submitreview
Have a lovely Easter Break everyone, love Snapdragons Keynsham