Hello and Welcome to all new families who have joined us at the Priory.
Let’s hope you enjoy your time with us and if you need any support with anything please ask.
Please welcome Heather Stone to nursery. Heather is our new nursery cook who has many years experience in catering, especially early years. We wish her many happy years with us.
As some of you may already know we are trying to reduce the amount of plastic we use in nursery. If you have any unwanted carrier bags at home please pop one in your child’s bag and we will re-use them for wet/dirty clothes to go home. Once it is emptied put back in bag to re-use.
Over the next few months you may see your child using basic Makaton signs. This will be implemented in each room so please encourage them to sign at home.
Justine
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Children in Need – Pay £1.00 to dress up in pyjamas (Bring your own teddy to enjoy a teddy bears picnic) – Thursday, 14th November
Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Singalong (Baby Room & 2’s) – Friday, 13th December
Christmas Nativity (Pre-School) – Wednesday, 18th December
Christmas Party – 2-4pm Thursday, 19th December
Christmas Lunch – Monday, 23rd December
Nursery Close – 3pm Tuesday, 24th December
Nursery re-opens – Thursday, January 2nd
UPDATE FROM SAFFIA
As I hope you have been hearing, our focus this autumn has been on looking in depth at our commitment to environmental sustainability and what else we can do to reduce our impact. We have been looking at how we can reduce our use of single-use plastic across Bristol Childcare and have been reflecting on our use of nappy sacks and aim to stop using them. This is a two-part process:
1. We have changed the company we use for nappy disposal. We are now using Green Bottoms who incinerate nappies to create energy and we will be sent an audit for this. You can find out more on their website http:// greenbottoms.co.uk/. Our aim is to empty our nappy bins in the rooms more frequently rather than using individual nappy sacks to reduce unpleasant smells in the room!
2. We would rather not have to use nappy sacks for wet clothes when a child has been changed. We would like to ask you to keep a plastic bag in your child’s bag, or on their peg, that we can use to put wet clothes in. This can be dried and used over again. Another option is to buy a wet bag. These are bags that can be washed and are therefore suitable for dirty washable nappies as well. If you are interested in this, we have teamed up with Baba and Boo and can offer a code – BCCWB15. This will give you 15% off just the wetbags – https://www. babaandboo.com/collections/nappy-storage-bags
We are also working with Bristol Nappy Library to develop a programme to train staff about washable nappies so that they then have information that they can share with you. Our Priory babyroom team have already been trained and we will be offering a weekend pack of a range of cloth nappies that you can borrow to try out. There will also be offer codes for nappies should you wish to buy them. We can support you in using washable nappies for your child if this is what you would like to do. Please discuss with your babyroom manager if you are interested in finding out more. You can find out more about Bristol Cloth Nappy Library offers – https://www.facebook. com/BristolClothNappyLibrary/
For those who would like to find out more about the environmental impact of washable nappies versus disposable nappies, there is an excellent article at this link – https://www.babaandboo.com/blogs/news/reusable
#NurseryPractitionerDay
On Thursday 17 October we celebrated #NurseryPractitionerDay. This is a day for us all to think about the amazing work that nursery staff do through the care and love they show the children every day.
We thanked all our staff for their hard work and commitment with a few little treats.
Cascade Training
In October we welcomed Anna Ephgrave to our Cascade Training session. Anna talked to us about “planning in the moment” with children. This is our pedagogy – how we teach children. We provide a stimulating environment and resources and allow the children to explore what they are interested in at that time. Staff then support the children by responding to them with role modelling and suggestions or facilitating with extra equipment.
Anna talked to us about “level 5 involvement” from the Leuven scales – this happens when children are most engaged, usually on activities they have selected themselves, and is when most learning happens. Anna reminded us that children are learning all the time – when singing with their friends, when moving water around the mud kitchen with a ladle, when driving a toy car round and round in a circle. We adults can’t always understand a child’s purpose, but they always have one. Please talk to your child’s key person if you’d like to find out more about this approach.
RECYCLING PENS
Please join us in making another tiny difference and trying to keep all we can from landfill.
We are now collecting old pens for recycling. There is a box in each nursery. We will be taking them to Rymans in Clifton where they are being collected as part of the Terracycle scheme.
https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/the-writing-instruments-brigade-r
BABYROOM NEWS
We now have some new arrivals in our baby room, we’d like to welcome Bumble and Anna.
We had a lovely trip down to Pets at Home and looked at what fish were best suited for our tank. The children loved seeing the different types of fish there were. Every day we have been checking in on them and feeding them their food.
We have enjoyed celebrating Halloween and are looking forward to celebrating Diwali in the coming weeks and will be decorating the room with some amazing art work created by the children.
Cloth Nappy Training
During October we were lucky enough to have Sarah from Bristol Cloth Nappy Library come in to talk to us about washable nappies. She was able to show us the many different types of nappies and how to use them. We were told about the layout of each nappy, and how they benefit children, being kinder to their delicate skin.
Sarah gave us a lot of information on which nappies would be best suited for each individual child. We are going to be creating a pack, which will include information and different types of cloth nappies for parents to trial over a weekend. We are happy to support parents who choose to use cloth nappies at nursery. Please speak to Gabbie about this.
TWOS ROOM NEWS
Two’s have been loving the new core books we now have in the room. Circle times are now filled with singing, language and interaction. Each day the children will ask adults to read them their favourite stories and they join in with familiar phrases, our favourites are “The Gruffalo” and “Stick Man “.
The two’s have also loved our new core song book. The children will sit independently looking through and singing the songs with each other. It is lovely to hear that the children are also going home and singing these songs. We have a few popular ones that the children enjoy singing throughout the day which are ‘Taking home my baby bumble bee’, ‘Slippery Fish’ and ‘Alice the Camel has 10 humps’ which we all have a laugh at the end.
All staff in the Two’s room are refreshing on our Makaton skills. We will be using Makaton when signing along to these songs and more. Makaton is a very good way to help aid children with their communication and interactions with others.
TOMATO GROWING
Recently we have been growing some tomatoes in our garden. Once the tomatoes were red, we picked them and placed them into a bowl.
Once they were all picked, we took them to the kitchen so they could be cut up and added to our lunch which was Vegetable Linguine – delicious!
TRANSITION MEETING
On our transition afternoon, we invited parents in to experience a “typical day” in preschool. Staff explained the routine of the day, in the moment planning and shared some of the lovely resources the children explore and discover. We then finished the afternoon with homemade biscuits and cakes.
Macmillan Cake Sale
All three of our day nurseries took part in a Macmillan cake sale in October and raised a fantastic amount of money with Bristol Childcare topping up all three totals. We are proud to be able to donate to this wonderful charity £281.32. Cakes were both donated and made by the parents and staff members of all nurseries.
PRE SCHOOL NEWS
Some of Pre-School children have been on a trip to visit the Bristol Museum. They went on the bus and learnt all about how to keep themselves safe in the big busy world which we live in.
They explored the Museum and learnt lots of amazing facts about dinosaurs, skeletons, endangered animals and sea creatures.
The children were very well behaved throughout the trip, with their favourite thing being the bus journey…They even got to sit upstairs!!
The other children will be going on the trip very soon.
The children have been learning lots of new songs recently and have been acting these out during circle time. Lots of new language, imagination and calculation has come from these new core songs.
Some of the children’s favourite’s are: Grandma Grandma, BINGO and I had a little turtle.
Newsletter – Winter – Mornington House