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.
