Dear Parents/Carers
Spring is here and Easter is almost upon us with Good Friday on 3rd April 2015 and Easter Monday on the 6th April 2015. It’s also the start of British Summer Time on Sunday, 29th March 2015 so don’t forget to put your clocks forward one hour. Let’s all hope the sun shines!
I am writing to you on behalf of all the Management Team to update you on new initiatives the Nursery is currently undertaking, but to also keep you informed regarding staffing across both our settings.
As some of you from Nursery 1 will have already noticed, Mandy Smith (Deputy Manager) has now left the Nursery. Mandy’s decision to leave was based purely on her personal family needs, and we would like to wish her all the best for the future.
We have taken on new members of staff across both settings, with a new member commencing at Nursery 1 in September who holds fully qualified teacher status. This gives the Nursery a total of three fully qualified teachers, as well as two Early Years Professional teachers, with several members of staff also holding degrees.
Staff are continuing to access training both online and face-to-face in order to improve their continued professional development which in turn provides improved care for our children. Several members of the Management Team are currently working towards a Level 3 in safer recruitment with our Local Authority. We have also implemented new protocols to place additional security levels in place with respect to employing new staff and this will help to keep our children safe and secure whilst at Nursery. Sharon Walton, Manager and Early Year’s Professional is also providing in-house communication training sessions to staff across both the settings. This will support our staff to better understand how children develop their communication and language skills, and also identify any children who may require additional support.
Nursery 1 is currently applying for an intial Quality Mark through Bolton Council. If successful the Quality Mark will provide an additional excellent indicator as to the service, quality and care Eagley School House Nurseries provides to our children and their parents.
Eagley School House Nursery 2 has just had a visit from Bolton’s Local Authority Environmental Health Officer and we are delighted to advise that during their inspection our kitchen was awarded a score of 5 on the food hygiene rating system, 0 representing the lowest score and 5 the highest award! However, not to be complacement the Nursery is also in the process of applying for an additional Food Quality award and we will keep you informed of the outcome. Eagley School House Nursery 2 has just revamped it’s parent room which now provides an excellent private meeting area should parents/carers wish to discuss any concerns they may have, or if they just want to pop in for a chat and a coffee!
The Nursery is always striving to improve partnerships and to this end we have visited a number of local primary schools in the area in order to help facilitate the transitional process of children moving from our Nursery to their new big school! Once such link has resulted in the provision of a Forest School being made available to our children. We are also in the process of inviting local primary school to join Eagley School House Nursery to collaborate with our moderation systems which will also improve the transitional process for our children moving on to their new school.
We are happy to report that our new website is now up and running and you can take a look at it using the following web address: dev.eshn.co.uk We are sure you will agree it’s much improved on the original website! We are hoping to put our newsletters along with other pieces of news directly onto the website for you to read in an effort to save on paper and ink, this will of course help the environment! However a few printed copies of the newletter will still be available at the Nursery.
We are also anxious to receive continuous parent/carer feedback and to this end we have developed an evaluation sheet for completion when new parents pop in to take a look around the Nursery. As you are already aware we also have evaluation sheets for you to complete providing us with your views and feedback which we can then take on board to improve our service. If you haven’t completed a feedback sheet please ask a member of staff to provide you with one. We would however, sincerely like to thank every parent/carer who has already taken time out to provide us with this important feedback!
With your help the Nursery has been very busy fundraising! The children have had lots of fun taking part in red nose day and we have also raised over £300 for a little boy to go abroad to receive vital medical attention. The Management team also recently attended a Gala Evening Dinner at the Last Drop Village Hotel where funds were raised to help improve a local park!
Well that’s it for this month! Just to say that all the staff and Management Team would like to thank you for your continued support, and we do hope you enjoy your Easter break!
With kind regards
JULIE ROBINSON, BA (Hons) PGCE, EYP, PROPRIETOR,
EAGLEY SCHOOL HOUSE NURSERIES