New Baby Barn Launches at Snapdragons Keynsham

Light and space for early walkers in the Baby Barn

Neutral colours and cosy corners upstairs in the Baby Cottage

Following a successful move to the Baby Cottage for Keynsham’s babies, and due to popular demand, we’re launching the Baby Barn! An extensive revamp of the building within the walled garden has resulted in a new and exciting space we’re naming The Baby Barn. This enticing new facility offers space for early walkers and is bathed in natural light. It opens to the garden via an internal porch so that the babies in The Barn, just like those in The Cottage have easy access to outdoor play. Have a look at the video below to sample the atmosphere. We’re now looking for staff to join our talented and popular baby team, so if you or someone you know is after a career in childcare or to progress in our growing family, then head over to the careers page and let us know you want to get on board! Find out more about the jobs on offer and our fantastic employee benefits at jobs.snapdragonsnursery.com

Nursery World Awards 2020 Winners!

Nursery World Awards 2020

Working with Babies and Toddlers Award

“Very thoughtful, and shows care and respect for both babies and their parents” - judge

We are very happy and proud to have won the Nursery World Working with Babies and Toddlers Award 2020. This award was given for provision that displayed exemplary practice in working with the under twos. The judges praised Snapdragons’ approach to their baby and toddler environments which support and respect the emotional and physical needs of the very youngest, saying the provision was “Very thoughtful and shows care and respect for both babies and their parents”. Snapdragons’ specialist training for practitioners caring for the under twos is comprehensive, encompassing every aspect of a child’s experience with us, from emotional security, physical comfort and educational development. Every aspect of the environment, training and care is seen from the child’s view with empathy and compassion at its heart.

The training, policies and environmental audits that we use to ensure our under twos are and their parents are treated with respect and understanding are embedded across all of our nurseries, allowing you, the parents, the reassurance that you have made a good choice for your babies!

“In a year when the coronavirus pandemic, lockdown and restrictions have made it especially challenging for early years settings and services to support young children and their families, it is even more important to recognise the fantastic work that has been going on against all the odds.” – Nursery World

Registration fees now payable online

We have just introduced a new website payment facility for new parents registering their children at Snapdragons, that need to pay their registration fee.

Now, when a place has been confirmed at your registered nursery, you may simply go here to enter your child’s details and make the payment.

This new system only allows payment of registration fees, not your monthly invoices. We hope it will make things easier for you whilst access to the nurseries themselves is still limited.

Going for the win!

We may be in lockdown again, but we have been given some great news this week as we found out we have been shortlisted for two awards!

The Nursery World Awards have highlighted the work we do for our very youngest children, shortlisting us for the Working with Babies and Toddlers Initiative. This award reflects our approach to staff training and the environments for the very youngest in our care. From specific under 2s policies, baby room inductions which focus on interactions and communication, our specially created 360-degree environment audit which guides staff through every aspect of the children’s experience and our focus on secure transitions. We are extremely proud to have been shortlisted for this award which recognises our dedication to ensure warm, loving care by all our staff to all our children through training, support and constant reflection.

Anna Gent

In the NMT Awards Anna Gent, our Quality and Training Manager, is shortlisted for the Personality of the Year Award in recognition of her innovative and agile response to the changing needs of our children and families during lockdown. You may remember that she worked tirelessly to keep our wider Snapdragons family together and positive, producing timetables, activity ideas and videos so that parents and children could stay in touch with routines and ease the transition for children when normality resumed.

She also launched her Ask Anna service, helping parents in confidence with any questions or struggles they encountered with children’s behaviour, development and routines due to the strange new circumstances we are living in. In her staff training role she has adapted with her usual energy to developing online staff training which she would once have delivered face to face and this has been so successful that it’s a model she will continue to follow. So, congratulations to Anna for being recognised for her innovation, passion and ambition for the best outcomes for all of our Snapdragons children, families and staff.

And massive congratulations to all the teams involved in our success and good luck. The finals are coming up at the end of November and in February, so we’ll keep our fingers and toes crossed and, of course, let you know how we get on!

Cribbs Causeway to open on October 19th

After a short delay, we have now received confirmation of our registration from Ofsted, giving us the go-ahead to open our new Cribbs Causeway nursery next Monday, October 19th.

We have a selection of open days planned over the next two weeks, allowing parents to tour the setting and see the fantastic facilities available. All tours are by appointment only, so if you haven’t yet booked a tour, then you will need to do so here. Update 26/10/2020: New tour dates available for November.

We’ll have more information coming, but for now we hope that all the families waiting to start at Cribbs Causeway are excited for their children to begin! If you would like to register your child, you can complete a registration form and Trudy, the Nursery Manager, will get back to you to confirm when it is you’d be able to start.