Snapdragons Shirehampton 27/02/2026 Snapdragons Shirehampton 27/02/2026

February Newsletter 2026

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is: Make math's meaningful-

We want babies to be able to put objects inside others and take them out again, and combine objects like stacking blocks and cups.
We want toddlers to be able to attempt to count objects using some numbers in sequence during play and everyday situations and begin to understand and use mathematical language such as big and little.
We want pre-school to be able to count things saying one number name for each item in order, knowing that the last number you reach when counting objects tells you how many there are in total. Use these counting skills to solve everyday problems such as "how many cups do we need?"

What have the babies been up to?

The babies have been getting active this month in the garden and mud kitchen. They have particularly enjoyed the bikes, pushing their feet on the ground to make themselves move. We have also experienced the balls this month, we have been rolling and kicking them to make them move. The mud kitchen got very muddy, we made some delicious mud pancakes for the adults to try. The babies also did some baby yoga this month. The children achieved some great positions and did a great job! The babies also got involved with pancake day making some yummy mixture and then enjoying these for snack. The pancakes were a bit hit, thank-you for cooking them for us Terri!

What have the toddlers been up to?

The toddlers have been experimenting with different textures this month to create their paintings. There seemed to be a running theme of valentines day which the children enjoyed exploring, especially the red gloop with red petals in. The toddlers have also been independent this month with their self help skills. The toddlers have been buttering their own crackers at snack time, showing their skills to their peers and adults.

What have the pre-school children been up to?

The pre-school children have been very busy in February. We have celebrated pancake day. The children had a great time mixing all of the ingredients together to make the mixture. They then enjoyed them for a yummy snack once they were cooked. They got to choose some yummy berries for the toppings. The children have also experimented this month making colour changing sensory bottles. They mixed baby oil, food colouring and water. They enjoyed choosing their colours for the bottle and then mixing it all together. The children have also completed some paintings this month using pipettes and even hard and soft spaghetti. They found it fascinating watching the marks they could create.

Events and Reminders:

Monday 2nd March: St Davids Day!
Children are welcome to wear anything red or Welsh.

Thursday 5th March: World Book Day!
Children are welcome to come to nursery in fancy dress or pyjamas and bring there favourite story to share with the team.

Friday 13th March: Mother’s Day Stay and Play
We will be holding a little Mother’s day stay and play to celebrate all of the wonderful Mum’s. An email will be sent out about this next week with more information.

Wednesday 18th March: Concept Photography
If your child does not attend on this day please speak to reception and we can let you know our available slots. For children that do attend on a Wednesday, they will have their photos taken with us in nursery.

Thursday 26th March: Parents evening 6pm-8pm.
Booking forms will be available in your child’s room on the door.

Reminders:

Polite reminder from the Accounts Team:
We have noticed that some families are not paying their invoices by the 15th of the month. Can we please remind you that invoices go out on the 1st of the month, and we do ask that these are paid by the 15th of the month.
Please can you ensure you are taking your child’s drink bottle home at the end of the day so this is sterilised and cleaned at home and a fresh drink is provided daily.
We have noticed a decrease in the amount of children allowed on our newsletter and social media. Please can we ask that you update your child’s permissions if you are happy for them to be on the newsletter or social media as a lot of the children are currently unknown on their permissions.

Staffing Update

We have some news. Maisie (in our baby team) has had a wonderful opportunity to work abroad, and has made the decision to leave us to go on this amazing adventure. Maisie’s last day with us will be Thursday 12th March. We wish her all the best.
Keana (who has been based in babies) has decided for a change, and is now going to be based in our pre-school room. Keana has already been supporting in pre-school, so is looking forward to meeting all of the parents in the next couple of weeks.

**Welcome Sam!**

Sam will be taking over as Manager at Shirehampton on Tuesday and Thursday’s.
Sam is currently the manager of Snapdragons Nursery in Cribbs Causeway, and will be overseeing the nursery whilst Jenna is on Maternity Leave from March 2026. Suzanne (current Deputy Manager) will be stepping up on Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s.

Sam is looking forward to meeting all of the children and parents over the next few weeks.

**The ABC's of Safer Sleep**

At Snapdragons Nursery, we follow the advice and guidance from The Lullaby Trust. Here is a lovely poster with some information on the lullaby trust for your guidance.

A message from Jenna

Thank-you all for your kind wishes as I am now going off on maternity leave. It has been so lovely to see your child grow and develop and meet such wonderful families. I will be returning early 2027, however hope to see some parents as I pop in to see the team and children once my baby has arrived.
Thanks, Jenna x

It has been a really fun month with lots of wonderful activities. The weather is starting to get brighter and we cannot wait for Spring to officially arrive. We are looking forward to seeing what the month of March brings for us.

Love, The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 03/02/2026 Snapdragons Shirehampton 03/02/2026

January Newsletter 2026

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:

Thrive through secure attachments- to be safe, secured and loved.
We want our babies to feel safe, knowing their key person will be there to comfort and calm them when needed.
We want our toddlers to trust that adults will support their emotions with patience and kindness.
For our preschool children, we aim to help them confidently build positive relationships with both adults and peers and begin forming friendships.

To support this, our dedicated practitioners provide love, care, kindness, and empathy, building strong bonds with their key children. They support co-regulation, helping children develop the skills they need to manage their own emotions over time. Practitioners create a safe, engaging environment with high-quality interactions, such as sunshine circles, to strengthen attachments and relationships. They also follow consistent policies to support wellbeing and behaviour and act as positive role models by demonstrating our code of kindness.

What have the babies been up to?

The babies have been exploring textures this month. They have been exploring paints, cutters, gloop and making some wonderful patterns and pictures with them. The babies have also enjoyed lots of stories this month, so we are excited to go into February for National Storytelling week to explore more books and prints in the baby room. The babies have also been physical this month outside on the bikes and inside on the soft play. They have enjoyed going through the tunnels and down the slides.

What have the toddlers been up to?

The toddlers have been busy this month in the mini kitchen. We have been fruit tasting this month, and making a big bowl of yummy fruit salad. We chopped up some pears, oranges, applies and bananas and we spoke about what fruits were our favourite. The toddlers have also been washing the cars in the water tray this month, they love the water tray and cars so why not combine them. They have also loved the slide in the big garden, they have been having a great time taking turns in climbing up the wooden beams and sliding down.

What have the pre-school children been up to?

The pre-school children have been mark making in their scrapbooks this month. We have been creating pictures of our family members, and talking about what we love about our family and our friends. We have also been looking at shapes this month, we have been identifying the shapes and then using our fine motor skills to use the scissors to cut the shapes out. This month we have also been looking at oral hygiene. We have signed up to a new government initiative called The Big Brush Club, so look out for more information regarding this soon. We have also been looking at heights this month, we have been comparing who is the tallest and smallest in the rooms.

A message from the Accounts Team:

We are receiving an increasing amount of payments via Tax Free Childcare accounts for the incorrect child or grouped together to pay for multiple children’s invoices. Please note for tax purposes we are only meant to receive TFC payments from each individual child’s TFC account, therefore if you have siblings at Snapdragon’s we would require a TFC payment from each individual child’s tax free childcare account to pay for each invoice.

If you pay via banks transfer it would also be helpful if you make individual payments for each child you have at Snapdragon’s with a payment reference of the child’s name to make it clearly identifiable when the payments come through to us. Thank-you.

**Here are some upcoming courses for North Bristol.**

Here are some comments from parents who have attended one of the parenting groups:
*Words cannot express how immensely grateful I am that I pushed myself to go. I kept at it and I’m a better mother and a better person for it.* – Nurturing Programme
*What an amazing 5 weeks it has been. This group has equipped me with so much needed information, so many topics were covered.* – Welcome to the World
*I feel more educated, confident and equipped to take the challenges I face with my child. I also have more love and compassion for myself and my child.* – The Incredible Years Programme

**Maternity Leave**

As many of you now know, Jenna (Nursery Manager) is pregnant and will be due to have her second baby in April 2026. Jenna’s last day before maternity leave will be Friday 27th February 2026. Suzanne (Deputy Manager) and Bev and Katy (Administrative Assistants) will be here to support you further, as well as the Bristol Accounts Team for any funding based queries.

*We will keep you updated with any replacement news as currently this is being advertised.*

Events and Reminders:

National Storytelling Week- 1st-9th February 2026
We will be celebrating our love for story telling in a variety of ways at nursery this week. We encourage your child to bring in their favourite story book this week, so we can read these during our small group times and story times.
Valentines Day- 14th February 2026
Chinese New Year (Year of the Fire Horse!) - 17th February 2026
Parents Evening- Thursday 26th March 2026- 6pm-8pm
We will be holding a parents evening at the nursery between 6-8pm. If you would like to book your child a slot for this, please look out for an e-mail in February as well as the signing up sheets that will be located outside of your child’s base room for you to book yourself in.
Due to the fact we only have 2 phone lines in the nursery and struggling in previous years with the increase of parents wanting a call rather than a face to face appointment, we will not be able to do phone calls to parents unless this has been discussed with management beforehand. We would also love the chance to see the parents and talk to them directly.

Reminders:

Fever reducing medication - Just a reminder that our policy states that when giving any fever reducing medication including medicines such as Calpol or ibuprofen children must wait 4 hours before attending nursery, to ensure that they are well enough to attend. If you are ever unsure, please feel free to give us a call in the morning before bringing in your child to have a discussion.

Famly App - We have now moved to the Family app where you will get updates of your child’s journey, please take a look to make sure all personal information including your pick-up password is updated. We will also send out general messages on the Famly Newsfeed such as calendar events and reminders to keep you in the loop. Take a look at the newsfeed to find out about up coming events. We will be sending our more updates this week for Famly regarding staff logging children’s nappies, food and sleep so keep an eye out.

Term Time Only-
Please note, if your child is on a term time only booking pattern with us, there last day before half term will be Friday 13th February 2026. They will return to us on Monday 23rd February 2026. If your child attends with us all year around, this does not apply to them. Thank-you.

**A guide for Potty Training**

Please see the new, Government-backed guide to when and how to potty train your child.

*https://startingreception.co.uk/potty-training/#introduction*

Please remember that this is just a guide and all children’s development milestones are different. If you would like to discuss anything regarding potty training, or you have any questions, please ask a member of the team and we will do our best to advise you.

Thank-you for another great month. We have welcomed lots of new families this January and it has so lovely to hear about everyone’s festive breaks whilst we dive into another great year. As always, if you need to discuss anything, please feel free to catch a member of the team and we will do our best to support you.

Love from, The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 19/12/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 19/12/2025

December Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:

Develop a love of book and story- To be enthralled, engaged and enquiring.
Experience with music song and dance- To be joyful, exuberant and confident.

We have had a very busy December. The children and staff have got into the festive spirit and decorate our big Christmas tree with some wonderful paper chains and bauble decorations. The children have also been busy making some lovely Christmas crafts they can take home. We have also enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner cooked by our wonderful chef Terri, and the kitchen assistant Lottie, which all the children and staff enjoyed very much, it was safe to say we were all full up that day! Thank-you to those families that made it to our Christmas party, it was so lovely to see so many families and we hope you enjoyed the activities and the exciting visit from the man himself…. Father Christmas! Here are some lovely photos from the month of December.

Reminders:

If you would like to collect your child’s art work to take home, please ask a staff member as we have art folders for each of the age groups.
On Famly, you are able to update your own contacts for your children, as well as adding photos on for any people who may collect your child. Please can we ask that you check your child’s information and update your contacts/collection list, so that we have an up to date list of any people that may come and collect your child. To add a password, which we do need, please can we ask that you write this in the information section on each contact.
If you need any support with this, please ask on the desk and we will be happy to assist you. On Famly, you are also able to update your child’s permissions, so please can we ask that you do this so again we have the most up to date information.
All parents will be sent their child’s Parent Zone photos in January if your child has been at Snapdragons whilst we used this platform. This is a big task, so please bear with us whilst we do this as it may take us a little bit of time.
The nursery will reopen on Friday 2nd January 2026.

Snappies Nominations…

Why not end the year by nominating one of the staff members that you feel deserve an extra special well done or thank-you.
Please nominate them as a Snappies Superstar using the below link so that we can give them a little treat. This is available all year round, you can make as many nominations as you wish and do this as frequently as you’d like. We love to hear how wonderful our staff are so please get nominating!

Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our wonderful families we have at Snapdragons Nursery Shirehampton. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year and we look forward to seeing what 2026 brings for everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Love from, The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 28/11/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 28/11/2025

November Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:

Explore and investigate with curiosity- To be curious, fascinated and deeply involved.

What have the babies been up to?

Babies have been busy this month exploring lots of physical equipment such as the climbing frame and the bikes and tunnels in the garden. We had to wrap up extra warm as it got very cold this month, so we had to wear our hats and our warm coats. The babies have also explored some problem solving activities this month such as making marks in the play dough, putting the puzzle pieces into the correct space and looking at our wooden bead maze. The babies also cooked some yummy oat biscuits to have with some warm milk at story time in the afternoon.

What have the toddlers been up to?

The toddlers have been exploring the forest area this month. We explored leaves and mud painting and looked at the different marks we could make with the mud. We also explored the reels and ramps in the garden, and to make bigger ramps the toddlers had an idea to turn the benches upside down. They put the reels down the tamps to see how fast they could go. The children also make some salt dough to create some lovely Christmas decorations ready to go home in December!

What have the pre-school been up to?

Pre-school have been busy with their cutting skills this month creating beautiful snowflakes for our room. It has been so lovely to see them make small snips in the paper to see what they can create. We have also had a nice music session this month. We got all of the instruments out to see what noises they could make with the different instruments. Their favourite seemed to be the instruments that made the loudest noises. They have also experienced lots of painting this month, they have explored puffy paint which was very fun. They also learnt about Remembrance Day and creating some lovely poppy paintings.

Some exciting news to share…

We are thrilled to let you all know that Georgia has had her baby. A little boy called Ethan. Mum and baby are doing really well and we are so excited to meet baby Ethan and have lots of cuddles. Congratulations Georgia and John on your wonderful news, we are so happy for you|!

Let me introduce you to our new Administrative Assistant

This is Bev. Bev currently works on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Before working at Snapdragons Bev was a Receptionist/Administrator at Bristol University. Prior to this Bev was an NHS Children’s Physiotherapist.

Bev is really enjoying getting to know all of the children and families.

Let me introduce you to our new Administrative Assistant

This is Katy. Katy has had various admin roles including another nursery before starting her role at Snapdragons. Katy is a Level 3 qualified practitioner in Early Years and works in the creche at David Lloyd Gym Monday to Wednesday. Katy works at Snapdragons on Thursday and Friday.

Reminders and Events for December:

If your child attends a 9am-3pm session, please be aware that some children to attend from 8am, and may be arriving late. Please could you leave the doorway/foyer clear so they can get to the front door for their child to be collected. We will open the door at 9am for the 9am session.
We are finding that parents are no longer calling if they are going to be late, which does have a knock on effect to our staffing. Please can we ask that if you are running late, then please give us a call as soon as possible so we can ensure ratios are maintained. We have staff member that must leave at 3pm to collect their children from school, so we will need to ensure this is covered. Please also let us know if you are going to be later than 6pm to collect your child, so again we can let the staff know.
You will soon be receiving an e-mail from Snapdragons regarding our new system Famly in the next couple of weeks, as we are hoping to move over to this from January in regards to completing observations on your child. You will be required to set up an account for your child. There will be instructions on how to do this in the e-mail that will be sent to you soon.
Nativity- Friday 5th December. Invitations have gone out, please see us at the desk if you are not sure what time your child’s performance is.
Christmas Dinner Day- Wednesday 10th December
Christmas Party- Thursday 11th December. We will have exciting activities for the children to explore, as well as a visit from a special visitor in the cottage in the car park. We are anticipating this will be busy, so please ensure you wrap up warm as there might be a wait to see Father Christmas.
Children on a term time only booking will finish for Christmas on Friday 19th December 2025- children will return from Monday 5th January 2026.
We are open on Christmas Eve and will then be closed from the 25th December. We reopen on Friday January 2nd 2026 for all children on an all year round booking pattern. If you have any holidays booked Christmas week or you are not planning to bring your child in for Christmas Eve, please do let us know so we can staff the nursery accordingly.

We hope you all have a lovely festive month, we are really looking forward to seeing what we get up to!

Love from,
The Shirehampton Team

Snapdragons Shirehampton 24/10/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 24/10/2025

October Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:
Communicate with confidence- To be talkative and love language.

What have the babies been up to?

The babies have been getting into the autumn spirit this month and creating some lovely autumnal art work. The babies worked together to create some beautiful marks to make some leaves to put onto a big tree. The babies have also been exploring some autumnal tuff spot trays with lots of natural objects such as leaves and pine cones to explore the different textures.

What have the toddlers been up to?

The toddlers have been outside a lot this month! They have really seemed to enjoy the forest garden and getting very muddy with their wellies in. The children decided to make their own creations with the insides of a pumpkin and lots of other bits they could find such as leaves and feathers, and then pretended it was lots of different foods. The children have also been getting into the autumn spirit like babies and decided to create a bit autumnal tree. We spoke about all the different colours we see in autumn, the chlildren decided their favourite colour was orange for autumn. They have also been enjoying the bikes, crates and playing tag!

What have the pre-school been up to?

The pre-school children have creating some drawings of their version of a pumpkin. The children have been talking about halloween and what they must see at this time of year. The children have also been discussing all things autumnal. They took a real interest in discussing the leaves changing colour. The children have also been in the mini kitchen this month creating some delicious fruit flapjack to enjoy for their snack. They used their fine motor skills to cut up the fruit, they discussed the ingredients, and then used mathematical language to count out the ingredients. The children also have had fun with the torches this month, we have used this in an activity to find all of the autumn pictures.

Staff update and some exciting news…

We are excited to let you know that we have recruited for Lowenna’s admin role. We will have 2 new admins due to start with us. We have Beverly who will be working Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Beverly starts with us on Monday 27th October. She has lots of knowledge in the admin role, and is looking forward to meeting you all. We also have Katy starting very soon, who will be working Thursday and Friday. She is also very excited to get started and meet the children and families. Please do bear with us as we train them in everything they need to know. If you have any queries, you can direct these to Jenna or Suzanne for the time being.

**Some more exciting news…**

Jenna has found that she is expecting her second baby in April 2026. Jenna will be leaving us for maternity leave around March next year, however we will keep you updated with a leaving date. Jenna’s role is currently being advertised and we are hoping to be able to recruit for this soon.

**Regan has had her baby!**

We are delighted to share that Regan in pre-school has had her little baby girl. She is called Romie Jade. Both mum and baby are doing really well, and Regan hopes to pop in soon so we can all meet her for lots of cuddles.

Congratulations Regan and family!

Reminders and upcoming dates for the diary:

Please do not hold the door open for any other parents. We have strict safeguarding procedures when it comes to door policy to ensure the safety of the children. Please allow someone on the desk to let each family in as we do verify all parents and family collecting the children.
Most families whose children’s had their photos taken with concept photography have had their prints back now. Please can we ask that these are back by Friday 31st October.
Fancy dress week- your child is invited to take part in wearing their favourite fancy dress outfits for the week of Halloween.
Please can we ask that all children are being sent in with waterproof clothing and wellies. Can we please ask that children do come in with alternative shoes such as trainers, as we do not allow children to wear wellies indoors as they can be unsafe. Please could all clothes be labelled, a lot of children have the same clothing and this will eliminate clothes going missing, or going home with the wrong children.
Christmas Pre-school Nativity- this will be help on Friday 5th December. We will be holding an AM and PM performance. Invitiations will be going out the week commencing 3rd November.
Christmas Dinner Day- We will be having this on Wednesday 10th December.
We will be holding our Christmas party on Thursday 11th December where a very special visitor will make an appearance to the cottage to give the children at Snapdragons a little present! More details regarding this will be released closer to the time.
Please do not forget, we are hosting our Halloween party next Thursday 30th October- from 5pm-7pm. This will be held in the car park garden, we will be providing fresh winter vegetable soup and bread for the children and families as well as a little sweet treat. Please do let us know if you are able to attend and we can add you to the list.

Best Start in Life

Nominate a star!

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. Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery

Thanks for a lovely month! It has been a really lovely autumnal month.

If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Love, The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 30/09/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 30/09/2025

September Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:
Move with Control and Coordination- To be strong, active and healthy. Make Maths Meaningful- To be motivated by mathematics in everyday life.

What have the babies been up to?

Babies have been busy this month. The have been enjoying the soft play, and learning new ways to move over and under. They have particularly enjoyed going under the tunnel and taking it in turns. They have also enjoyed posting this month, so Molly made a post box, so the babies could write their own letters and post them. They were very engaged, and spent a long time writing their letters and making their pictures. The babies also enjoyed exploring the sensory animal tray, and enjoyed exploring all of the different textures. They also ended up in the mini kitchen this month regarding some yummy fruity flapjacks to have for their snack.

What have the toddlers been up to?

The toddlers have been exploring the playdough this month. They have taken a real interest in ‘baking’ with the playdough, so decided to make some yummy cakes with the cupcake cases, rolling pins and boards. The toddlers have also been exploring the garden spaces this month. They have enoyed the bikes, scooters, climbing frame and also spraying each other with the spray bottles in the garden. They have been very busy this month!

What the pre-school been up to?

Pre-school have been very busy this month. They have been problem solving. We looked at what objects float and sink. The children found it very interesting and were using mathematical concepts such as ‘heavy’ and ‘light’. The children were also creating patterns with the coloured blocks to match what patterns the adults have created. The children did a very good job with this. The children have also taken an interest in writing their names for the self resignation board and organising numbers into the correct order. Well done pre-school!

Dates for the diary:

Parents Evening:
Tuesday 7th October 2025. This will be between 6-8pm. If you would like to book a slot, there will be sign up sheets on the door for this to see your child’s key person. A seperate e-mail has gone out regarding this with more information.

Concept Photography:
Wednesday 8th October 2025. All children who are in session will have the opportunity to have their photo taken. If you child is not in session, you will be able to book in a slot at the desk. We will send a separate email regarding this. A seperate e-mail has gone out regarding this with more information.

Spooky Halloween Party:
Thursday 30th October 2025. We will be holding our annual spooky evening in the back garden (located next to the car park). We will be making some delicious hot chocolate and enjoying some spooky activities! This will be from 5-7pm. Unfortunatly we will not be able to have the fire pit this year, but we are still very excited that it will be a lovely event for the children and our families.

Pre-school Nativity (school leavers):
This will be held on FRIDAY 5TH DECEMEBER. We will be having a morning performance and an afternoon performance. We will send invites and an e-mail with more information soon regarding which performance your child will be in. This is just for the children leaving us for school in September 2026.

Reminders:

Please can we remind you that we are a NO NUT nursery. We do have children and staff members with allergies, and we are finding children are coming in eating peanut butter products.
Hopefully most parents have receieved the funding form complete from the desk. Please can we ask that this is completed as soon as possible and brought back to the desk. Thank-you.
Now the cold weather is coming (sadly), please can we ask that you bring your child in with weather appropriate clothing such as a warm coat, wellies and in the winter months, please remember a warm hat. Please can you label all coats as quite often children do have the same and this limits clothing going missing.
Teddy Go Homes: If your child has a staff member’s teddy go home, please could we ask that you bring this back to nursery so that all children can enjoy this experience.
Half term- children who are on a Term Time Only (TTO) booking pattern will be off on the 27th- 31st October. We will see these children back in nursery on Monday 3rd November. Children who are on an All year round (AYR) booking pattern, will be able to come in like normal.
We have had a few parents start to ask about our Christmas closure. We will be closed for Christmas Day until the 1st January 2026. We will be welcoming children back into the nursery on Friday 2nd January 2025.
Medication and Illnesses: We unfortunately are beginning to see the start of coughs and colds now the cold weather is creeping in. We just wanted to remind parents about our medication policy that we have linked here for you regarding medication, fever reducing medications (calpol) and prescribed or over the counter medications. We are finding that parents are giving Calpol before coming to nursery and we are having to refuse children in until the medication has worn off (typically 4 hours). Please can we ask that you do not give medication before coming to nursery. If you child does need medication, we ask that you wait 4 hours before bringing them into nursery to ensure no other symptoms are being masked.

Please can we ask that you familiarise yourself with this policy to ensure your child is well enough to attend nursery and be comfortable in our care.

Medication Policy

Thanks for a lovely month! It has been so lovely to see so many new families and children start with us this September.

If you have any questions or queries, please do not hestiate to get in touch.

Love, The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 22/08/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 22/08/2025

August Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:
Develop self help skills- To be capable and proud of increasing independence and Make their mark- To be willing to have a go and explore.

What have the babies been up to?

The babies have been getting creative during art week this month. They have used cutterns and bubbles to create patterns on paper. The staff demonstrated this to the babies, and then they had a go, We also did some large scale body painting with the babies, it got very messy, but it was so fun, They explored the paint using their hands, feet, balls and other resources and made some great prints. The babies have also gone over to the sensory room this month and got to experience the new bubble tube and some of the new resources. We have also been on lots of trips this month around the local community and to the park, we have had a great time in the buggy bus and even saw a few parents in the village.

What have the toddlers been up to?

Toddlers have been on some walks this month. The went on an adventure around Shirehampton to see what things they got tick off their list that they saw in the community. They then ended up at the park, and had a lovely time on the trampoline, swings and the roundabout. The children were very kind to each other, and supported their peers by pushing them on the swing. The toddlers have also participated in some cooking activities this month, we have made fruit lollies and some savory cheese and broccoli muffins, they were delicious. The toddlers have also been putting their rhyme of the week of 1,2,3,4,5, once I caught a fish alive to real life and catching the fish in their water tray, as well as practicing their fine motor skills with the flour, buttons and tweezers.

What have pre-school been up to?

Pre-school had a wonderful visit from one of our lovely parents to have an afternoon session of yoga in the garden. The children had a lovely time stretching and getting into lots of different poses. Yoga in the garden is very good for the children’s mental well-being and they loved it. If you have a special talent or job occupation that you would be happy to come and share with the children, please let Jenna or Suzanne know and we can book you in for a little session. The children have also participated in art week this week, where they took part in a variety of different creative activities using lots of different resources.

Reminders:

Please can we ask that you do not allow your child/children to bring in toys from home. Comforters, blankets and dummies are of course okay. We are finding lots of children are bringing in toys, and then often not wanting to share these with their peers, causing some altercations, as well as lost toys. Unfortunatly we are not able to police all of the toys coming in, and we are getting some upset children when they do get lost.
If you are going to be late, please can we ask that you ring us within enough time to let us know. We have staff members that go home at 3pm and 6pm, and quite often they are catching buses or are being collected, and this does impact the staff members going home. We do understand things happen, and you may be late from time to time, but please ring and inform us so we can make a plan for this.
The weather can be unpredictable at times and although we would love the sun to continue shining, sometimes it can feel a bit chilly. Please can we ask that you provide your child/children with weather approrpiate clothing, and provide a hoodie/coat on the more chilly days as we only have a limited number of spares.

Thank-you! :)

Staffing Update:

Lowenna has an exciting new role within the accounts department of the company. Lowenna will be covering Liz Kane’s (Bristol Accounts Manager) maternity leave, and will sadly be leaving the Shirehampton branch in October/November as she will be travelling around the Bristol sites. You may still see her from time to time. We are very excited for Lowenna as she takes on this new role.
Sadly Amelia has decided to leave the company, as she is starting a new journey at a Bristol nursery. Amelia is currently supporting the Redland nursery, but we wish her well and hope she has a bright future.
Georgia now has her final day before she leaves us for Maternity leave to have her baby. Georgia’s final day with us will be Friday 26th September. We can’t wait for baby cuddles! :)
Carolyne is also sadly leaving us at the end of August. We wish Carolyne well on her new journey and hope she continues to pop in to see us from time to time!
Liv will be joining the pre-school team from September. Liv is currently based in toddlers as an apprentice, however she has just qualified as a level 3 practitioner, and therefore her skills and knowledge will be put to good use in the pre-school room.
Well done to Ellie in our baby team for qualifying and becoming a level 3 practitioner! :)
Jess is sadly leaving as our SENDCo as she is taking on more responsibility with our apprentices and Early Years Teachers within the company- From September Jenna will be taking over as named SENDCo, with the support of Suzanne. If you have any concerns regarding your child’s development, please come to Jenna or Suzanne to discuss these further.

Important dates for the diary for the rest of the year:

Parents Evening: Tuesday 7th October 2025
Concept Photography: Wednesday 8th October 2025
Spooks and Smores: Thursday 30th October 2025

We will be sending more information on these events closer to the time for you to book in and attend these.

As always, if there is anything you’d like to discuss, please feel free to email us or catch us at the desk.
Love, The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 29/07/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 29/07/2025

July Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:
Thrive through secure attachements and positive relationships- to be safe, secured and loved.

What have the babies been up to this month?

The babies have been exploring the garden a lot this month. We have been enjoying the lovely sunny weather, and exploring the tunnel, bridge and bikes. The babies have been exploring the forest garden as well this month. We took our musical instruments out to the forest area, sat in a circle and played our instruments to listen to the different sounds they made, whilst sat in a little circle.

What have the toddlers been up to this month?

The toddlers have been on a visit to the local nursering home this month. They hopped in the buggy bus and off they went. They read some stories with the elderly, did some puzzles and even showed them how we do sing and sign. It is lovely to spend time in our community, and the elderly really enjoy our visits. The toddlers also made some yummy fruit ice lollies this month. It was very warm, so we chopped up lots of fruit, and then the children got to decide what they wanted in their lolly. We then added the fruit to the bowl, mixed it up, and added it to the lolly moulds. We then popped them in the freezer for a delicious snack in the afternoon.

What have pre-school been up to this month?

Some of our pre-school children participated in sports day this month. We had a company called Mini Athletics come in and see us. They completed some races and games with the children, and then everyone got to stand on the podium and get their certificate. It was so much fun, even the staff got to have a turn. We will definitly do this again, the children had so much fun! The children in Elder have been making ice-cream stained glass windows, selecting their favourite colours to decorate and using different tools to cut and stick. The children who are off to school this year, also helped Karolina in the forest garden to cut their medals using the wood and saw. It has certainly been a busy and enjoyable month!

Goodbye class of 2025….

We held our annual pre-school graduation in July, and got to see our wonderful pre-school children climb proudly onto the stage to collect their certificate and medal. We have loved watching you all grow up, and we are confident you are ready to take your next steps into the world, and move on to your new adventure at school. We will miss you!

Reminders:

We have many different platforms that we use involving social media to highlight all of the wonderful things we do at nursery each month. Some parents have approached the desk to say their child is not often in the newsletter or on instagram, however we only post photos of children WITH permission on our system.
If you are unsure of your child’s permissions and want to check, or you are happy for them to go on instagram, the newsletter, or website then please do let us know and we would be happy to change your permissions on the system. You can pick and choose if you would like your child to be on one, and not the other.
Please can we remind all parents to please ring the doorbell or knock on the door and wait for the door to be opened. It may us a few seconds to open the door, so please do wait, and we will open it as soon as possible.
Please can all mobile phones be kept in your pocket when collecting your child/children. We have noticed some parents are walking around the nursery on their phones, and we will kindly ask you to put this away whilst on site for safeguarding purposes.
Just a reminder the nursery will be closed on Monday 25th August for the Bank Holiday.
We will open again on Tuesday 26th August.

Button Batteries

We have been asked to kindly pass this important information onto parents to help increase awareness and understanding about button batteries, as well as to share valuable tips on how to keep your child safe from potential risks associated with them.

Please can the QR code for more information.

Staff News:

Some of our apprentices have recently qualified and we want to celebrate their success as we are very proud of them and all of their hard work:

Laura Hill- Is now Level 3 Qualified, well done Laura!
Maisie Pickett- Is now Level 3 Qualified, well done Maisie!
Keira Drew- Is now Level 3 Qualified, well done Keira!
Amber Howie- Is now Level 3 Qualified, well done Amber!
Eleanor Holloway- Is now Level 3 Qualified, well done Eleanor!
Lucy Holloway- Is now Level 2 Qualified, well done Lucy!
Scarlett Atkinson- Is now Level 2 Qualified, well done Scarlett!
Izzy- Is now Level 3 Qualified, well done Izzy!

New Staff Alert!

We have two new staff members starting with us in the next month! We are very excited to announce we have Robyn and Daisy joining our team at Shirehampton as our new apprentices. We are very excited to introduce them to all the fun we have at nursery, and teach them all about the importance of Early Years and how they can make an impact in the children’s lives. We will be sure to introduce them when they start.

We have had a wonderful July at Snapdragons. We can’t wait to see what August brings for us!

Thanks,

The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 04/07/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 04/07/2025

June Newsletter 2025

Cattle Country Trip

In the month of June, our pre-school children who are sadly leaving us to go to school this year went on the annual summer trip to Cattle Country Adventure Park. It was a very hot day, but the children had a wonderful time on the soft play, in the big sand pit and looking at all of the wonderful animals they have. The children also enjoyed a yummy picnic lunch, as well as going on a big coach! The children were so well behaved, and the children and staff had such a wonderful time.

Father’s Day Event

In June, we celebrated our Father’s Day Event in the back garden. We had some lovely activities to explore such as building houses with playdough and the colour blocks, a sensory tray, target football practice as well as making a flag to celebrate our Dad’s. We want to thank all the Dad’s that came to celebrate this event, and hope you enjoyed the yummy treat. We hope you all had a good Father’s Day!

Reminders and Events coming up…

Pre-school Graduation (This is for children going to school this September)- Saturday 19th July. We have emailed parents regarding this, if you have not already, please do let us know if you can/cannot attend so we know if we should not be expecting you on the day. It is from 1pm-3pm. We are really excited to share this event with you, and have one last celebration before they go off to school. If you need anymore details regarding this, please let us know on the desk, or ask a member of the pre-school team.
Half Term Dates- Children who are on a Term Time Only booking pattern’s last day will be the week commencing 7th July, so if your child attends a Friday session their last day wil be Friday 11th July.

We are finding that the lending library books that are located in the Foyer are sadly not coming back and we do not have the facilities to keep filling this back up. We ask for donations for these books, and we do ask that they come back so other children can enjoy them. Please can I ask that if you have borrowed a book recently, and have not brought this back yet, please can you do so as soon as you have read it. Thank-you.

Head office have recently sent all parents the updated Medication Policy. If you have not seen this, please let us know and we can resend this to you.
The accounts team have sent an email this week regarding the new funding terms that are coming in shortly. Please can you all look at your e-mails and respond to this as soon as possible. Thank-you.
In the morning, please can all parents ensure they are ringing the doorbell from the front door and back toddler door, as these doors are not manned at all times by the baby, toddler and pre-school team. We try our hardest to get to the door as quickly as possible in the mornings, but we do have to maintain ratios in the room, and sometimes this means swapping staff members or management covering to be able to do this.

Some exciting news to share….

We are excited to announce that two of our pre-school team are expecting babies!

**Regan is having a baby!**

We are delighted to announce that Regan who works in our pre-school room is having a baby. Regan is due early September and therefore will be leaving us to go on maternity leave on the 28th July. We wish Regan all the best and can’t wait to have baby snuggles!

**Congratulations Georgia!**

We are thrilled to announce that Georgia who is our Deputy of Pre-school is also having a baby! Georgia is due in November and will be leaving us around September/October time. We are really excited for you, and again can’t wait for baby cuddles!

We are looking forward to seeing what the month of July has in store for us. Thank-you for a lovely month!

Love, The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 30/05/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 30/05/2025

May Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:
Communicate with confidence- To be talkative and love language.
Explore and Investigate with curiosity- To be curious, fascinated and deeply involved.

We have had some very exciting visits this month….

This month, we had a visit from the local community support officer and local police officer. They arrived at the nursery in their Police van and had a discussion with our pre-school children about their job roles, how they can keep themselves safe, who they need to call if they were ever in trouble. The children all shouted 9-9-9 very confidently. The babies, toddlers and pre-school all got to go outside and see the police van, have a sit in it, and listen to the sirens (it was very loud!). It was really great that they came in to do this with the children. We are hoping to have more visits from professionals to support children to undestand how they help us, and who knows, it might even spark a few career ideas for the children.

The pre-school children have also taken a trip to Penhill Care Home this month. We are hoping to make this a monthly trip with all age groups at some point. It was so lovely to participate in activities with the elderly, and have some nice conversations with them. The pre-school children even drew them some great pictures for them to display in their commual living room.

Staffing update

Molly has had a promotion!

We are really excited to share with you all that Molly has had a promotion and is now Head of Babies. We are really looking forward to working with Molly in her new role and seeing all the exciting things that are to come for the baby room.

Well done Molly, Congratulations!

Goodbye Tayla!

Unfortunately, with the good news of Molly, comes some sad news.
Tayla has decided that her time at Snapdragons Shirehampton has come to an end, and she has decided to join the Snapdragons Cribbs Causeway team as an Advanced Practitioner in their baby room. Her last day will be Friday 7th June. Eleanor will be joining the toddler team as her replacement.
Tayla has been with us since June 2017 starting as a Level 3 practitioner, before quickly becoming the Head of Babies. Tayla has seen lots of different cohorts of children come and leave to go to school, and has been lucky to have siblings from previous families come back to us! We wish her all the best with her new role at Cribbs Causeway and will be very sad to see her go!

Good Luck Tayla and thank-you for all of your hard work at Shirehampton!

Events:

Pre-school Leavers Information Evening-
We will also be holding an evening for school leavers parents to discuss school readiness and what we will be doing to support your child over the summer term ready for their adventure to school. This will be on Tuesday 3rd June 2025 at 6:15pm until 7:15pm. An email has been sent to all parents for the pre-school leavers children, so please do let us know if you can attend.

Pre-school Leavers Trip-
We are holding our annual pre-school leavers trip to Cattle Country Adventure park. An email and permission letter has gone out to parents regarding this. If you have not already sent in your permission slip, please can you do this as soon as possible so we can plan staffing, coaches and let our Head Office team know for entry to the park. This will be on Friday 20th June.

Father’s Day Event-
We will be holding a Father’s day event in our car park garden (weather permitted) on Monday 16th June 2025, this will be from 4:30pm-5:45pm. We will have a few activities set up as well as a treat for the Dad’s. Please do let us know if you can attend, so we have an idea of how many people we need to provide for.

Graduation Reminder-
Pre-school Leavers- Graduation is on Saturday 19th July from 1pm-3:30pm.
A separate e-mail will be sent out regarding this, however this is a reminder.

Reminders:

-Can we remind all parents that you need to bring in a labelled sun cream, sun hat and water bottle. As we are approaching the summer months, it is getting warm and if you do not provide this, it does limit the provision the children can access due to the high UV, and ensuring we keep the children safe. If you have not done so already, please ensure this is done as a matter of urgency.

-Can we remind all parents that the session times end at 1pm, 3pm and 6pm. Please can we ask that you arrive at least 5 minutes prior to this if you would like a handover. We are finding that lots of parents are arriving at bang on these times, and wanting an indepth handover which our staff love to give, but we do have staff that finish their shift at 3pm and 6pm and therefore would like to get home to their own families. We ask that you are considerate with your handover length to ensure all parents can have a chance to discuss their child’s day.

-Extra sessions are being asked for a lot recently, and as much as we would love to be able to say yes in the moment, we do have to wait closer to the time to see if a space is avaliable. We are becoming very busy in the nursery, and quite often we are staffed for the children that we have booked in for their sessions, so therefore extra’s are not always possible. You are welcome to check on the week, or ring on the day as if any children are not in due to holiday or sickness, we may be able to offer these out. Can we also remind parents to let us know when their children are not in nursery, so we can mark them off accordingly. Thank-you for your help with this.

We have had a really enjoyable and busy month, and we look forward to seeing what next month brings for the nursery.

Love, The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 22/04/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 22/04/2025

April Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:
Be Creative (To be experimental and expressive).

What have we been up to in April?

This month has been very busy. We finally had some lovely weather, so the pre-school children headed to the park. They had a wonderful time on the swings, climbing frame and slide. Toddlers have been on a sensory walk this month. They explored soft feathers and sticky gloop. They also did some planting in the garden and had a lovely time watering their plants to help them grow. Babies have been looking at the wind chimes in the garden, and listening to the sounds that they make. They have also had some sunshine circles sessions with Suzanne, and have loved the sensory activities and bubble popping activities.

Parent Reminders and Events

Suncream and Sunhats – With the weather now becoming warmer can we please can we remind all parents to be bringing in a labelled suncream if they haven’t already that we can keep at nursery and use throughout the summer. Can we please also remind parents to bring in a labelled sunhat.

Preschool Parents - Please be aware that school allocations can be checked online from Wednesday 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.

Here is a great website for ideas to share at home to get your child ready for school:
https://www.bristolearlyyears.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Helping-children-look-forward-to-school.pdf

We will also be holding an evening for school leavers parents to discuss school readiness and what we will be doing to support your child over the summer term ready for their adventure to school. This will be on Tuesday 3rd June 2025 at 6:15pm until 7:15pm. Please do let us know if you can attend.

School Leaver Last Day - Now that we are approaching the last term - We just wanted to remind parents that our Term Time Only Funded children will finish on Friday 11th July. All other school leavers will finish by 31st August 2024. We want you to be aware that you are more than welcome to finish your children earlier for school however we require 4 weeks notice to any change in booking pattern.

Car park- Please can we ask that you park in the bays in the car park. Please can you be mindful about opening your car doors. We understand you may need space to get your child in and out of the car, however parents have informed us that we have had a few scratches and marks appearing on cars recently, and we want everyone to respect each other’s property.

Handovers- Please can we remind you that if you require a handover, please can you allow time for this and arrive before 5:50pm. We try our very best to handover everything we need to for all the children, but we have noticed parents arriving late and wanting a full handover. If you arrive after 5:50pm, we will have to limit this.

Medication and Illness policies:

If your child has been prescribed medication then they will need to have had been taking it for 24hrs before returning to nursery. You are welcome to call the nursery before bringing in your child if you are not sure and speak to Jenna or Suzanne.

Please do not leave any medication in your child’s bag, it must be handed to the office and a medication authorisation form must be filled out before you leave. Please ensure you bring the medication in a labelled perscription box/bottle.

When Calpol or any temperature reducing medicine is given to your child prior to nursery, they are not able to attend nursery until they are 4 hours clear of the medication.

A little reminder about some of the more common illnesses and the exclusion periods:

Conjunctivitis - They have to have been treated for 24hours whether this is eye drops (bacterial), or wiping with cooled boiled water (viral) and the child has to be comfortable.

Sickness and Diarrhea - 48 hours clear of the last incident.

Chicken Pox - Children can’t return to nursery until the spots have all scabbed over and are completely dry.

Hand, Foot and Mouth - Children can return once all symptoms have subsided.

Thank you for your help and understanding. If you have any questions or are unsure of anything, please do get in touch with the office.

Who is your Snappies Superstar?

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.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Jenna (jenna.schroeder@snapdragonsnursery.com or Suzanne (suzanne.atkinson@snapdragonsnursery.com, or catch Lowenna on the desk, and we will help you out as much as we can!

Love, The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 04/04/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 04/04/2025

March Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:
Move with control and coordination (To be strong, active and healthy) and Make Maths Meaningful (To be motivated by mathematics in everyday life.)

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to this month:

This month we celebrated World Book Day. At Snapdragons we provide cosy spaces for the children in the rooms to be able to look at read books together. This year, we dressed up in our warmest PJ’s or favourite book costumes and read our favourite stories with our adults and peers. Pre-school even started to write down and draw their own stories.

Reminders for April:

World Autism Awareness Day- Wednesday 2nd April 2025-
Please feel free to have a look at the display that was created to share awareness, and for any support and advice if you feel you need it. There is also some lovely books that we will be reading to the children.

Friday 18th April and Monday 21st April 2025-
We will be closed on these dates for the Good Friday and Easter Monday Bank Holidays.

St George’s Day- Wednesday 23rd April 2025-
We will be wearing red or white clothes this day to celebrate this day.

Pre-school Graduation: This is for children leaving us this year to go to school!

Pre-school Graduation this year will be on Saturday 19th July 2025.
An e-mail will be sent to parents regarding timings for the day shortly, however pop the date in your diary!

**Bristol Family Hubs**

Bristol Family Hubs provide lots of wonderful parenting groups and courses for everyone to attend. They are simple to book onto using the e-mail address or give them a call and the courses support many diferent families with lots of topics. There are some flyers below on what is on offer and when.

Thank-you all for another wonderful month! As always, if there is anything we can help with, please do get in touch.
Thanks,

The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 03/03/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 03/03/2025

February Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit (Our curriculum) is set across ten themes, each month we focus on a different area. This months teaching toolkit focus was:
Develop self help skills, for the children to be capable and proud of increasing independence and Make their mark. This encourages children to be willing to have a go and explore mark making.

What have we been up to this month?

Babies have been getting in the Valentines Day spirit and making some lovely heart pictures using the play dough cutters. They used good hand eye-coordination to dip their cutters in the paints, and put it on their paper. They are beautiful babies, well done! The babies also went for a trip to the sensory room to look at all of the colourful lights and blocks. They did some great stacking and rolling, and even had a little party with the glow sticks.

Toddlers have been practicing their gross motor skills using the bikes and scooters in the garden. The toddlers have been doing really well pedaling for themselves. We even took a trip out on our buggy bus to have a walk aroundthe village. The toddlers have also been to the children’s kitchen a lot this month. They have been practicing their mixing and stirring to make yummy foods for their snack.

Pre-school has been learning about oral health this month. We have been cleaning pictures of teeth, and discussing the importance of this. Pre-school really enjoyed this and we are keen to extend this interest by trying to find a dentist to come and speak to the pre-school children. If you know of anyone that may come in and speak to the children, please do let us know and we can get them booked into the calendar.

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. Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery.

Events for March: We have a super busy month…..

St David’s Day- 1st March 2025
Children are invitied to wear red, green or yellow on Friday 28th February to celebrate this day. Suzanne is going to be embracing her Welsh culture with the children by making some Welsh cakes.

World Book Day- Thursday 6th March 2025
We will be dressing up for the whole week (Week commencing 3rd March) in our favourite book characters. On Thursday 6th March, we are inviting children who are in session to wear their favourite pj’s, and bring in their favourite story so we can enjoy these with a warm cup of milk.

St Patrick’s Day- Monday 17th March 2025
The children are invited to wear green on this day, to celebrate this event!

Concept Photography- Wednesday 19th March 2025
We have concept photography coming into the nursery to photograph the children for you to be able to purchase if you’d like. A follow up e-mail will be sent regarding times and booking in your child for this if they are not in session.

World Down Syndrome Day- Friday 21st March
Wear your brightest, boldest, or funkiest socks for World Down Syndrome Day.

Parents Evening (for all age groups)- Tuesday 25th March 2025
A follow up e-mail will be sent regarding booking in to meet with your child’s keyperson.

Mother’s Day Tea Party- Friday 28th March
We will be holding our annual Mother’s Day tea party on Friday 28th March. We will be providing scones, cream and jam for the Mum’s and we will have some activities for you to enjoy with your children in their age group. Please could you let us know if you are coming to ensure we have enough scones to go around, as well as any dietary requirements you may have.

Thank-you all for another great month.
Love the Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 24/01/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 24/01/2025

January Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit (Our curriculum) is set across ten themes, each month we focus on a different area. This months teaching toolkit focus was:
Thrive through secure attachements and positive relationships- to be able to build secure attachements and to be safe, secure and loved.

What have the Babies been up to?

The babies have been up to lots of lovely things this month. We have explored lots of different messy sensory play including corn flour and baby oil to make Cloud Dough. The babies have also explored painting in lots of different ways such as with animals, paint brushes and even rolling the balls through the paint. The babies have loved going to the garden this month and have explored the obstacle course, bikes, mud kitchen and the bridge and tunnel.

What have the Toddlers been up to?

Our toddlers turned into little bakers this month. We had some lovely new resources for our children’s kitchen and the toddlers could not wait to test out the chef hats. The toddlers made banana flapjack. We had to carefully measure the oats, mash the bananas and mix it all together. It was a lovely little afternoon snack. We have also explored all of the outdoor environments. The toddlers have enjoyed the bikes, the slide and the hula hoops this month. We also explored lots of messy play this month. We used the sponges to make marks ad used the blocks and ‘cement’ to become builders.

What have Pre-school been up to?

Pre-school started off this January, getting our their scrap books and drawing the lovely things they got this year for Christmas. The scrap books are a lovely way to collate the children’s pictures, idea’s and drawings so we can see the progression from the start of their pre-school journey, until they leave us to go to school. The pre-schoolers have come back from the Christmas break with a fascination for letters and all things maths! We have extended this interest, by setting up activities such as weighing with the scales and using the terms ‘heavy and light’ as well as looking at different letters in our names, and colourful shapes. We have also spent some time exploring our imgainations by building roads and villages with the blocks and ramps. We may have some mini architects on our hands.

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. Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery.

The Bristol Family Hubs have sent us some flyers for some training and support programmes for parents and carers that are free! There are contact details on the flyer if you would like to book yourself onto any training courses. Some of the courses are run online and some are face to face over the next couple of months!

Events for February:

National Storytelling week- 1st-9th February 2025.
Monday 3rd Feburary- Friday 7th February- please feel free to bring in your child’s favourite story, so we can share these at circle time in the different age groups.

Children’s Mental Health Week- 3rd-9th February 2025.
We will be looking at mindful activities this week for the children and promoting positive mental health.

Thanks for a great month!
Love, The Shirehampton Team x

Snapdragons Shirehampton 03/01/2025 Snapdragons Shirehampton 03/01/2025

Welcome Back!

Happy New Year to all of our lovely children and families. We hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and a well deserved break.
We would like to thank-you for all of the cards, gifts and sweet treats you provided our team in December. It was very thoughtful and appreciated.

Please see some lovely photo’s from the month of December…

Reminders:

-Please can we remind all parents that we are a no smoking/vaping site, this does include the car park.

-Please can we remind you to keep your phones in your pocket whilst you are in the rooms with the children/ walking around the nursery to collect your child.

-Parents are not allowed in children’s bathrooms at any time- there are signs on the door. We understand some children’s belongings are in the bathrooms, so please ask a staff member to retrieve anything you may need. This is part of our Safeguarding procedures.

-If you know your child is not going to be in nursery session, please can you let the nursery know so that we could offer additional sessions to other families who may need it. You can do this by e-mail or phone call in the morning.

-Please can you provide your child/children with a warm coat/puddle suit, warm hat, gloves and scarf. It is now very cold, and we do go outside in all weathers.
-If children wear wellies to nursery, please can you bring some indoor shoes (trainers, slippers, etc) as the children tend to take them off as it’s uncomfortable for long periods of time.

-Please provide adequate time in the afternoon and evenings to have a handover with the adults in the room. Please ensure the staff know you have your child if you do not have time for a handover so we can sign them out accordingly.

-Please park in a bay in the car park, and do not block any other cars in. If there are no spaces in the car park, please find alternative parking on local side streets.

Snappies Nominations…

If you think that any of our staff deserve an extra special well done or thank you, please nominate them as a Snappies Superstar using the below link so that we can give them a little treat. This is available all year round, you can make as many nominations as you wish and do this as frequently as you’d like. We love to hear how wonderful our staff are so please get nominating!

Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery

We hope you have a wonderful 2025, and can’t wait to share more on our newsletters of what we get up to throughout the months of 2025.
If you have any questions, please feel free to direct these to myself, Suzanne or Lowenna where we will do our best to help you.

Snapdragons Shirehampton 02/12/2024 Snapdragons Shirehampton 02/12/2024

December Newsletter 2024

What have Babies been up to?

Babies have been role playing baking this month, and explored a tuff spot tray of lots of different tasty foods. From this, the babies made some real delicious banana oat biscuits to have for snack with some warm milk, they were delicious.

What have Toddlers been up to?

Toddlers have been busy practicing their cutting skills this month. We got the practice scissors out and some paper to make some snips using our fine motor skills. We also created some beautiful pictures using lots of different colours of paint and resources to mark make. The toddlers also loved the forest garden this month, we have been using the watering can to make mud pies and water the leaves. We also enjoyed playing a game of hide and seek in the garden too!

What have Pre-school been up to?

Pre-school school leavers have been busy this month practicing and perfoming their nativity. The pre-school children have done a wonderful job singing all the lovely songs from ‘Ralph the Reindeer’. In pre-school this month, we have also been enjoying the snow in the garden- we made patterns with our footprints, and threw some snowballs at the adults! We made our own snow from this in the messy room, which was super fun! We have also been using our fine motor skills to draw lovely pictures, as well as letters from our names.

Snappies Nominations…

If you think that any of our staff deserve an extra special well done or thank you, please nominate them as a Snappies Superstar using the below link so that we can give them a little treat. This is available all year round, you can make as many nominations as you wish and do this as frequently as you’d like. We love to hear how wonderful our staff are so please get nominating!

Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery

Parent Reminders:

Please can we ask that you do not park opposite the front door in the passing bay- please use the car park where possible. Please also park in a bay when using the car park. It makes pulling in and out of the car park difficult for parents. Please ensure you do not block cars in when using the car park.
If you are not going to be in nursery, please do let us know at the office so we can book your child off accordingly. We may be able to offer extra sessions to other children if we have space. You are able to let us know at the desk, or please pop us an e-mail.
If you have more than one child with us in different age groups, please can we ask that you factor this in when collecting your child with regards to a handover and leave yourself enough time to be able to talk
to your child’s keyperson.
When picking up your child, please leave yourself enough time for a handover. We get busy between 5pm and 6pm, so you may have to wait a few minutes for a handover. During the busier times, we may have to limit the handover to a few minutes. We have found lots of our parents are wanting to stay and talk and as much as we do like that, we do have to ensure ratios are maintained and everyone gets a fair handover.
When getting a handover, please ensure you are watching your child- we have had children come close to the front door, and our main concern, is your child’s safety.

Illnesses

We have seen a rise in illness recently, and parents have recently been sent an e-mail from the Head Office team regarding RSV. We have linked our Medication Policy and Health, Hygiene and Illness Policy for your records.

Snapdragons Website- Illnesses

Dates for December…

Christmas Jumpers- Please feel free to wear Christmas jumpers all month and bring the festive cheer!

Christmas Dinner Day- Wednesday 11th December 2024
Our wonderful Chef and Kitchen assistant will be cooking up a delicious Christmas dinner for the children to enjoy, we will also be creating Christmas hats for the children to wear.

Christmas Party- Friday 20th December 2024
Our Snapdragons Grotto will be open from 4:30pm-5:45pm for parents to take their child/children to see Father Christmas. We will have a Christmas gift for children who are currently attending Snapdragons.
We are anticipating this will be busy, so we will have a festive treat, soft drinks, music and Christmas activities in your child’s room to enjoy.
If you cannot make it, please don’t worry- Father Christmas will be walking around the nursery from 3:30pm to spread some Christmas cheer to all of the children.

Christmas Closure-
We close the nursery at 6pm on Tuesday 24th December 2024, we will reopen the nursery on Thursday 2nd January 2025.
If you have a Term Time Only booking pattern, the children will return on Monday 6th January 2025.
We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and we look forward to seeing you when we return.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us here at Snapdragons Nursery Shirehampton.

Snapdragons Shirehampton 01/11/2024 Snapdragons Shirehampton 01/11/2024

November Newsletter

Thank-you to all the families that came to our Spooks and S’mores Evening….

We hope you all had a wonderful evening at the Spooks and S’mores event. It is one of our favourite events of the year, so we are so happy you are able to join us. Please see some lovely photos of the event.

What have babies been up to in October?

Babies learn through sensory exploration. This month we have been to the sensory room to look at all of the different coloured blocks, balls and sensory mats. The babies have loved stacking the coloured blocks, rolling the balls and recognising the different colours. We have also been exploring mirrored and wooden objects this month, which most of the times get stacked up and knocked down. It’s been a great month for mark making this month as well, our babies love getting their hands on the chunky chalks and crayons to create their own beautiful masterpieces.

What have the Toddlers been up to in October?

Toddlers have been exploring the Forest Garden this month. We have been looking for bugs around the garden, exploring the conkers and rolling them down the tubes and collecting leaves off the ground for our nature pictures which involved lots of glue. Our theme from our Teaching Toolkit is ‘Develop a love for books and stories’ so the toddlers have been doing just that. We have enjoyed looking through lots of different books and choosing our favourite to read at group time. We have also been decorating our pumpkins this month and getting the nursery ready for Halloween.

What have the Pre-School been up to in October?

This month in Pre-school we have been looking at all things Halloween! The pre-school children have been using their scrap books to draw their own representation of a pumpkin. We also painted some autumnal leave. It was well-being week in October, so we looked at lots of different ways to improve our well-being. The children made a friendship potion, and discussed all the different ways we can be kind to each other. The childen also had an artist called Felicity come and see them. We created yellow and green pictures to create ‘The Hive’ which is proudly displayed in our foyer.

Dates for the Diary…

Concept Photography- Wednesday 6th November.
If your child does not attend a Wednesday, please feel free to speak to Jenna, Suzanne or Lowenna and we can book you an appointment in the morning. If your child is already in session on a Wednesday they will automatically have their photo taken.

Rememberance Day- Monday 11th November.
We will be making a Poppy Wreath and walking it to the Memorial in Shirehampton.

Road Safety Week- 17th- 23rd November.
We will doing lots of activities to discuss Road Safety as well as going on some local trips and walks.

Children in Need 2024- Friday 15th November.
Children can wear their PJ’s in support for this event. We will put the QR code to donate on all of the nursery doors, so please feel free to donate if you can.

World Children’s Day- Wednesday 20th November.
We will be wearing Blue to show our support for Children’s Rights.

Pre-school Leavers Nativity- Ralph the Reindeer- Wednesday 27th November
If you have not already, please do let us know if you are able to come and if you would like to pay £5 for the digitial copy of your child’s performance.

World Children’s Day 2024- Wednesday 20th November

World Children’s Day is a global day of action for children, by children, marking the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). On this day, UNICEF advocates and raises awareness to protect and fulfill the rights of every child, without discrimination.
For this day we will be wearing Blue to show support for Children’s Rights- so please feel free to donate from the QR code below and dress your child in blue to show support.

Medication and Illnesses:

We unfortunately have seen a rise in illnesses now the cold weather is creeping in. We just wanted to remind parents about our medication policy that we have linked here for you regarding medication, fever reducing medications and prescribed or over the counter medications. Please can we ask that you familiarise yourself with this policy to ensure your child is well enough to attend nursery and be comfortable in our care.

Medication Policy

Snapdragons Shirehampton 07/10/2024 Snapdragons Shirehampton 07/10/2024

October Newsletter 2024

We have a new senior team…

We have had some changes at Snapdragons Nursery Shirehampton in the last couple of months. We have said good-bye to Jessica as the Deputy Manager and Head of Early Years Practice, as she is taking on a new role in the company as an Early Years Mentor. You may still see her around Shirehampton from time to time, as she is still supporting Shirehampton with the SENDCo role. If you have any concerns or worries about your child’s development, please feel free to speak to Jenna or Suzanne and we can pass this onto Jessica, or you are welcome to e-mail Jessica on jessica.lennox-gordon@snapdragonsnursery.com.

Suzanne, who you may have known as the Head of Toddlers, is now stepping up as the Deputy Manager/Head of Early Years Practice. Suzanne is keen to get into the role and continue supporting our wonderful team and environments. We also have a new toddler room leader called Millie. Millie has come from a nursery down South as she had relocated to Bristol. Millie is very excited to get to know all of the children and families as she starts her journey with us at Snapdragons. Karolina, who has been with us for 7 years, is now stepping up as the Head of Pre-school. Karolina is currently completing her Forest School qualification, so is keen to embed this in our pre-school room, and then offer this to the baby and toddler age groups. We also have Georgia, who was successful in becoming our Deputy of Pre-school.

Saying good-bye to….

We sadly say good-bye to Olivia (Liv) later this month as she leaves us to join a nursery closer to home! Liv has been with us for 7 years, and has worked in our baby room all of this time completing her apprenticeship and then becoming the Deputy of Babies. We wish her all the best with her future.

Dates for the Diary…

Mental Health Week- Thursday 10th October- Please feel free to wear Yellow or Green to raise awareness.
Babies Parents Evening- 22nd October 2024- 6pm-8pm
Pre-school Parents Evening- 22nd October 2024- 6pm-8pm
Toddlers Parents Evening- 23rd October 2024- 6pm-8pm
October Half Term- 28th October- 1st November
Spooky Week- 28th October- 1st November- we will be doing lots of Halloween activities this week, so please feel free to dress up the whole week!
Tuesday 29th October- Spooky S’mores- Feel free to come and enjoy a delicious S’more and hot chocolate by the camp fire in the garden! This is open to all children and families. If you have a specific dietary requirement please do let us know so we can cater for this.
Halloween- 31st October.

It’s getting cold…

Please can we ask that parents are providing warmer clothes for your child/children. The weather is getting colder, and we aim to get outside in all weathers. We do use the forest garden as well as the garden areas, so we would advise you provide a puddle suit where possible to avoid clothes getting very muddy. Please can you also provide some wellies, a waterproof coat and a hat in the cooler months. Please can you label all clothing to avoid items getting lost as some children do have the same clothing.

We would love to get you in….

We would love to get the parents into the nursery more for lots of different reasons. If you have a secret talent such as a musician, or you have a wonderful skill you’d like to share then please let us know. The children love when the parents come into the nursery. Equally if you have an occupation that you’d like to discuss such as Nurse, Doctor, Dentist, Police Officer, Paramedic, Artist, Teacher, Vet- again, please let us know. The children have shown a real interest in what they would like to be when they grow up. We have heard lots of interesting professions, so please do let Jenna or Suzanne know if you can come into the nursery and we will book you into the calendar when you are available.

Lending Library…

Our lending library is looking a bit empty at the moment. If you have any books at home you’d like to donate, we would really appreciate this. Ideally books from the baby age range, to the pre-school age range would be amazing, so we have a real variety of books. Thank-you very much.

If you have anything you’d like to discuss further, please do not hesitate to get in contact with Jenna Schroeder (Nursery Manager) on jenna.schroeder@snapdragonsnursery.com or Suzanne Atkinson (Deputy Manager/Head of Early Years Practice) on suzanne.atkinson@snapdragonsnursery.com.

Thank-you all for your continued support.

Snapdragons Shirehampton 26/07/2024 Snapdragons Shirehampton 26/07/2024

July Newsletter

What have we been up to this month?

Babies

With the sun making its way to the baby garden, it was a great opportunity to bring out the paddling pool for the babies. They loved splashing each other in the pool and dipping their toes. They also had some water play inside and used colours and scents to make the water look and smells amazing.

Babies had a disco earlier this month with glow tubes and a disco light. They enjoyed jumping on the light spots and trying to make them disappear as well as having the giant glow tubes which they could shake to the music.

Babies prepared for the Euro finals by creating some lovely crafts and had some football related activities like playdough in the England colours. They wore their favourite football shirt and had a mini photoshoot with the football.

Toddlers

Toddlers had fun mark making this month. They used cars driven through paint to drive along the roads on their paper. The roundabouts were a little bit tricky, but the toddlers managed the maneuverer.

When the toddlers aren’t using their sleep room, the room becomes a sensory room in which children can take some time to relax and have some peaceful play. The toddlers explored the sensory lights and had the chance to use the new light source fibre optic tails equipment.

As always, the toddlers have enjoyed their garden time and loved being able to play in the sun and not need their wellies and coats. In the shade, they found a little bit of space and took the parachute out for some fun in the sun.

Pre-School

Pre-school have had a fantastic month this month. At the beginning of the month, we took a trip to Cattle Country with our school leavers. The children had so much fun seeing all the different farm animals but the best bit of the day for most children was the soft play.

Everything pirate was one of the themes of the week this month. The children made some pirate hats as well as their own treasure chests. They decorated these with buttons, feathers and all sorted of shiny materials. They then had a treasure hunt using the maps they had made.

As we come to the end of our school leavers time with us, we celebrated with a class of 2024 graduation. We wish all our school leavers the best of luck at school, you are all ready for your next big adventure. Thank you to all the families that came along and celebrated with us, it was lovely to see you all outside of usual nursery day.

Reminders:

Session start and end times -

A polite reminder that our nursery sessions run from 8am-6pm. These are the times that our wonderful team start and finish for the day. We are seeing an increasing number of parents arriving before 8am, making it tricky for some of our staff to make their way into the car park and building, ready to set up for the day.

We are also seeing an increase in parents picking up at 6pm. If you require a detailed handover of your child’s day, we do ask that you collect before 6pm to allow the team time to chat to you before they finish at 6pm.

The above also applies to 9am-3pm sessions as well. Some of our staff start at 9am and so please make sure you leave room for them to be able to enter the building. Some 8am children will also arrive around 9am and so please leave room for them to be able to make their way to the front door to be collected. As the weather is dry at the moment, we ask that you make yourself known at the door and then kindly wait outside for one of the team members to come down to collect your child. Of course, if it is raining you can wait in the foyer, just be mindful of the 9am staff and 8am children still to come in.

Mobile phones –

A polite reminder to not use your mobile phone while in the building. We have noticed an increasing number of parents taking calls while in the building. All staff put their phones in the office while on site and so we kindly ask parents to respect this by putting their phones away while in the building.

Dates for the diary:

Summer Olympics and Paralympics (Friay 26th July-Sunday 11th August)

Summer Bank Holiday (Monday 26th August)

Snapdragons Shirehampton 25/06/2024 Snapdragons Shirehampton 25/06/2024

June Newsletter

What have we been up to this month?

Babies

For Soccer Aid this year the babies went out into the veg patch garden to kick and chase after the footballs, they also tried to score some goals! They had lots of fun with their friends and loved kicking the balls around.

Babies were busy making their Father’s Day cards this month, they put a lot of love and effort into their cards and a few squiggles as well.

The babies took another trip out to the veg patch garden but this time they helped water the plants in between play time.

The babies had a lovely sandy time with their sand pit. They used vehicles, spades and other items to create marks in the sand.

Toddlers

Toddlers had a rainbow gloop activity and used tweezers to pick coloured matchsticks from the gloop.

They made some shortbread biscuits with their friends and helped to pour, mix, roll and use the cookie cutters to make the circles.

The Rainbow fish was one of the books of the week this month and so toddlers decorated their own fish using glue and tissue paper, creating some beautiful scales.

For Soccer Aid this year, toddlers took part in a penalty shootout. Everyone enjoyed taking it in turns to score a goal and especially loved being able to dress in their football kit.

Pre-School

Pre-school set up an ice cream station this month using play dough as their ice cream and paper confetti as the sprinkles, they looked good enough to eat.

The children were very helpful and set up a car wash in the car park. The cars were very clean as the children each took responsibility for a part of each car.

The pre-schoolers had a special visit this month from Colin the caterpillar, but he needed some help putting himself back together. Luckily, the pre-schoolers were there to help put him back together again and in the right order.

Carrying on the caterpillar theme, pre-school learnt about the life cycle of a butterfly and with the help of their book ‘the hungry caterpillar’, they managed to put all the stages of the life cycle into the correct order.

The children have loved learning about the caterpillars and watching them as they emerged as beautiful butterflies. They were very excited to release them and see them fly away (eventually).

Reminder:

A reminder to please bring in a hat and suncream for your child and make sure these are labelled. If you are unsure how much suncream your child has at nursery then please check with someone in your child’s room.

Date for the diary:

School Leavers Cattle Country Trip (Tuesday 9th July)

Pre-School Graduation (Saturday 20th July)

February Newsletter 2026

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is: Make math's meaningful-

We want babies to be able to put objects inside others and take them out again, and combine objects like stacking blocks and cups.

We want toddlers to be able to attempt to count objects using some numbers in sequence during play and everyday situations and begin to understand and use mathematical language such as big and little.

We want pre-school to be able to count things saying one number name for each item in order, knowing that the last number you reach when counting objects tells you how many there are in total. Use these counting skills to solve everyday problems such as "how many cups do we need?"

What have the babies been up to?

What have the toddlers been up to?

What have the pre-school children been up to?

Events and Reminders:

Monday 2nd March: St Davids Day!Children are welcome to wear anything red or Welsh.

Thursday 5th March: World Book Day! Children are welcome to come to nursery in fancy dress or pyjamas and bring there favourite story to share with the team.

Friday 13th March: Mother’s Day Stay and PlayWe will be holding a little Mother’s day stay and play to celebrate all of the wonderful Mum’s. An email will be sent out about this next week with more information.

Wednesday 18th March: Concept Photography If your child does not attend on this day please speak to reception and we can let you know our available slots. For children that do attend on a Wednesday, they will have their photos taken with us in nursery.

Thursday 26th March: Parents evening 6pm-8pm. Booking forms will be available in your child’s room on the door.

Reminders:

Staffing Update

We have some news. Maisie (in our baby team) has had a wonderful opportunity to work abroad, and has made the decision to leave us to go on this amazing adventure. Maisie’s last day with us will be Thursday 12th March. We wish her all the best.

Keana (who has been based in babies) has decided for a change, and is now going to be based in our pre-school room. Keana has already been supporting in pre-school, so is looking forward to meeting all of the parents in the next couple of weeks.

Welcome Sam!

The ABC's of Safer Sleep

At Snapdragons Nursery, we follow the advice and guidance from The Lullaby Trust. Here is a lovely poster with some information on the lullaby trust for your guidance.

A message from Jenna

It has been a really fun month with lots of wonderful activities. The weather is starting to get brighter and we cannot wait for Spring to officially arrive. We are looking forward to seeing what the month of March brings for us.

Love, The Shirehampton Team x

January Newsletter 2026

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:

What have the babies been up to?

What have the toddlers been up to?

What have the pre-school children been up to?

A message from the Accounts Team:

If you pay via banks transfer it would also be helpful if you make individual payments for each child you have at Snapdragon’s with a payment reference of the child’s name to make it clearly identifiable when the payments come through to us. Thank-you.

Here are some upcoming courses for North Bristol.

Here are some comments from parents who have attended one of the parenting groups:

Words cannot express how immensely grateful I am that I pushed myself to go. I kept at it and I’m a better mother and a better person for it. – Nurturing Programme

What an amazing 5 weeks it has been. This group has equipped me with so much needed information, so many topics were covered. – Welcome to the World

I feel more educated, confident and equipped to take the challenges I face with my child. I also have more love and compassion for myself and my child. – The Incredible Years Programme

Maternity Leave

Events and Reminders:

National Storytelling Week- 1st-9th February 2026We will be celebrating our love for story telling in a variety of ways at nursery this week. We encourage your child to bring in their favourite story book this week, so we can read these during our small group times and story times.

Valentines Day- 14th February 2026

Chinese New Year (Year of the Fire Horse!) - 17th February 2026

Reminders:

Term Time Only- Please note, if your child is on a term time only booking pattern with us, there last day before half term will be Friday 13th February 2026. They will return to us on Monday 23rd February 2026. If your child attends with us all year around, this does not apply to them. Thank-you.

A guide for Potty Training

Please see the new, Government-backed guide to when and how to potty train your child. https://startingreception.co.uk/potty-training/#introduction

Please remember that this is just a guide and all children’s development milestones are different. If you would like to discuss anything regarding potty training, or you have any questions, please ask a member of the team and we will do our best to advise you.

Love from, The Shirehampton Team x

December Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:

Develop a love of book and story- To be enthralled, engaged and enquiring. Experience with music song and dance- To be joyful, exuberant and confident.

Reminders:

If you would like to collect your child’s art work to take home, please ask a staff member as we have art folders for each of the age groups.

All parents will be sent their child’s Parent Zone photos in January if your child has been at Snapdragons whilst we used this platform. This is a big task, so please bear with us whilst we do this as it may take us a little bit of time.

The nursery will reopen on Friday 2nd January 2026.

Snappies Nominations…

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our wonderful families we have at Snapdragons Nursery Shirehampton. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year and we look forward to seeing what 2026 brings for everyone! Merry Christmas!Love from, The Shirehampton Team x

November Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:

Explore and investigate with curiosity- To be curious, fascinated and deeply involved.

What have the babies been up to?

What have the toddlers been up to?

What have the pre-school been up to?

Some exciting news to share…

We are thrilled to let you all know that Georgia has had her baby. A little boy called Ethan. Mum and baby are doing really well and we are so excited to meet baby Ethan and have lots of cuddles. Congratulations Georgia and John on your wonderful news, we are so happy for you|!

Let me introduce you to our new Administrative Assistant

This is Bev. Bev currently works on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Before working at Snapdragons Bev was a Receptionist/Administrator at Bristol University. Prior to this Bev was an NHS Children’s Physiotherapist.Bev is really enjoying getting to know all of the children and families.

Let me introduce you to our new Administrative Assistant

This is Katy. Katy has had various admin roles including another nursery before starting her role at Snapdragons. Katy is a Level 3 qualified practitioner in Early Years and works in the creche at David Lloyd Gym Monday to Wednesday. Katy works at Snapdragons on Thursday and Friday.

Reminders and Events for December:

If your child attends a 9am-3pm session, please be aware that some children to attend from 8am, and may be arriving late. Please could you leave the doorway/foyer clear so they can get to the front door for their child to be collected. We will open the door at 9am for the 9am session.

Nativity- Friday 5th December. Invitations have gone out, please see us at the desk if you are not sure what time your child’s performance is.

Christmas Dinner Day- Wednesday 10th December

Christmas Party- Thursday 11th December. We will have exciting activities for the children to explore, as well as a visit from a special visitor in the cottage in the car park. We are anticipating this will be busy, so please ensure you wrap up warm as there might be a wait to see Father Christmas.

Children on a term time only booking will finish for Christmas on Friday 19th December 2025- children will return from Monday 5th January 2026.

We hope you all have a lovely festive month, we are really looking forward to seeing what we get up to! Love from,The Shirehampton Team

October Newsletter 2025

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is: Communicate with confidence- To be talkative and love language.

What have the babies been up to?

What have the toddlers been up to?

What have the pre-school been up to?

Monday 2nd March: St Davids Day!
Children are welcome to wear anything red or Welsh.

Thursday 5th March: World Book Day!
Children are welcome to come to nursery in fancy dress or pyjamas and bring there favourite story to share with the team.

Friday 13th March: Mother’s Day Stay and Play
We will be holding a little Mother’s day stay and play to celebrate all of the wonderful Mum’s. An email will be sent out about this next week with more information.

Wednesday 18th March: Concept Photography
If your child does not attend on this day please speak to reception and we can let you know our available slots. For children that do attend on a Wednesday, they will have their photos taken with us in nursery.

Thursday 26th March: Parents evening 6pm-8pm.
Booking forms will be available in your child’s room on the door.

National Storytelling Week- 1st-9th February 2026
We will be celebrating our love for story telling in a variety of ways at nursery this week. We encourage your child to bring in their favourite story book this week, so we can read these during our small group times and story times.

Term Time Only-
Please note, if your child is on a term time only booking pattern with us, there last day before half term will be Friday 13th February 2026. They will return to us on Monday 23rd February 2026. If your child attends with us all year around, this does not apply to them. Thank-you.

Please see the new, Government-backed guide to when and how to potty train your child.

https://startingreception.co.uk/potty-training/#introduction

Develop a love of book and story- To be enthralled, engaged and enquiring.
Experience with music song and dance- To be joyful, exuberant and confident.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our wonderful families we have at Snapdragons Nursery Shirehampton. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year and we look forward to seeing what 2026 brings for everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Love from, The Shirehampton Team x

This is Bev. Bev currently works on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Before working at Snapdragons Bev was a Receptionist/Administrator at Bristol University. Prior to this Bev was an NHS Children’s Physiotherapist.

Bev is really enjoying getting to know all of the children and families.

We hope you all have a lovely festive month, we are really looking forward to seeing what we get up to!

Love from,
The Shirehampton Team

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:
Communicate with confidence- To be talkative and love language.

We are delighted to share that Regan in pre-school has had her little baby girl. She is called Romie Jade. Both mum and baby are doing really well, and Regan hopes to pop in soon so we can all meet her for lots of cuddles.

Congratulations Regan and family!

Our teaching toolkit theme of the month is:
Move with Control and Coordination- To be strong, active and healthy. Make Maths Meaningful- To be motivated by mathematics in everyday life.