Mulberry Bush Nursery, Walshaw - Newsletter August 2010
Staff training
The Pre-school staff from all three of our nurseries recently attended further training on ‘Letters and Sounds’. This course allowed all the staff to further their knowledge and share good practice. The course was led by Sue Routledge from Bury Early Years, who has been tasked with rolling out the national scheme in all the nurseries in the Bury area.
20th Anniversary at Tottington
Our Tottington nursery is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary in September. The nursery was opened in September 1990 by Sue and John Robinson and has been managed from day one by Avril Healy. We plan to mark the occasion with a week of celebrations!
Dancing lessons
Natalie Bennett, Head of Older Toddlers has taught dance to children at ‘Dance Studio 1’ in Whitefield for the last ten years. We have now asked Natalie to introduce dancing to our Preschool children at each of our nurseries and Preschool staff have recently been trained by Natalie and dancing lessons will be rolled out in the next few weeks.
Children’s photographer
The photographer will be in nursery to take photographs of individual children on Tuesday 28th September and Wednesday 29th September. If your child does not normally attend on a Tuesday or Wednesday, please speak to your child’s Head of Unit to confirm arrangements.
Teddy Bear’s Picnic/Sports Day
All units will be having a teddy bears’ picnic and mini sports day in August. Notices will be displayed in the units with the details, sports day week commencing 23rd August and teddy bears’ picnic week 6th September.
Charity Event 2010
Our annual charity event was another huge success. Tottington Nursery School, Mulberry Bush Nursery, Whitefield and Mulberry Bush Nursery, Walshaw raised a massive combined total of £5466.02!!! Thank you very much for all your generous donations.
This year we plan to split the money between The Good Life Orphanage and The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity.
The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity supports projects which aim to make life a little easier for young patients and their families, particularly when they have long or frequent stays in hospital.
The Good Life Charity was set up by a couple who live in Bury and have built and continue to maintain an orphanage in Mombasa, Kenya. We have set up an ongoing link with the orphanage so we can see exactly how the money is helping. We plan to continue our relationship with the orphanage in the years to come.
Details and photos of the orphanage can be seen on our charity noticeboard in the hallway of the nursery, but a lot more information is available on the charity’s website which is www.thegoodlifeorphanage.com.
We are inviting the Bury Times to come in to take a photograph of the cheque presentation in the next couple of weeks.
Bottle feeding
The parents of young babies that are bottlefed have recently been given a letter explaining our revised bottle feeding policy. It explains the reasons why we have now taken the decision to provide readymade feeds in a carton. At the bottom of this letter is a tear off slip where you can inform us of the type of formula that you use. We will not charge any extra for providing these feeds.
Email
We would like to start to use email to send out newsletters, reminders of important dates and any other relevant information from the nursery. You will soon be asked to complete a slip where you can list any email addresses that you would like us to use. Your email addresses will not be passed on to any marketing companies and will be kept confidential to the nursery.
Pre-school leavers
Many of our pre-school children are leaving us to start primary school. We wish them well and hope they will continue to enjoy their early years education and make new friends along the way.
Thank you to the parents who have completed the ‘leavers’ questionnaires’. We agree with the sentiment that many of you have expressed that our staff are our best asset. The questionnaires completed with the children have also been very nice to read so many thanks.
If you know which date your child will be leaving the nursery this summer, please let Stacey or Sarah know as soon as possible. This will allow them to amend your direct
debit and to take into account your two-week advance payment. It also allows us to keep those on the waiting list informed of a possible start date.
Transfer of units
Many children transfer units at this time of year. They have several tasters in their new unit and the vast majority of children settle in immediately.
A member of staff from your child’s current unit will go with them on these taster sessions to help reassure them in the new unit. If you have any worries or concerns about your child moving units, please speak to staff or pop into the office.
Vacancies
As you know, we are lucky that the nursery enjoys a very good reputation and as a result there are very few (if any) places available in the nursery. If you would like change your child’s days of attendance or would like a place for your child’s younger sibling please ask Stacey or Sarah for an enrolment form as soon as possible
Reminders
Please do not allow your children to bring coins into nursery in their pockets as this can be a choking hazard.
If you use childcare vouchers to pay towards nursery fees could we remind you that we need to receive vouchers by the 10th of the month for them to be credited for that month’s fees.
Song of the month
It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring, he went to bed and he bumped his head and he couldn't get up in the morning.
Rain rain go away, come again another day!