Dear Parents
Bank
Holiday
We
will be closed on Monday 27th May for the Bank holiday
Picnic
Thank
you to everyone who was able to attend the picnic last Saturday. It was a great
day and we even had a little bit of sun!
Pictures
of the picnic are in the entrance hall.
Father’s
week
You
can now book your slots for Father’s week – Week 10th June, Every
day there will be time slots for Dads to come
and join in activities with their children. On Friday 14th June
we will be having a Father’s day tea party from 4pm to 5pm.
Illness
We
have had several cases of Conjunctivitis in the Nursery and one case
of chicken pox in the Bluebell room
Questionnaire
feedback
Thank
you to everyone who completed our Parent Questionnaire. This has been very
interesting and here is a summary of the results:
What
are the nursery’s strengths?
Your
main points were:
·
The
staff
·
The
atmosphere
·
Communication
·
Small
class sizes
What
are the nursery’s weakness?
·
Space:
We
have tried to address space in the hallway by moving the registers into the
rooms, we are also looking at re-homing the chest of drawers if possible to
create a bit more space. Everyone loves the small groups sizes but space can be
an issue. We are always working on ideas to create the most space and be
imaginative with our storage.
·
Not
as many outings as you would like.
Outings
can be hard to organise as our ratios change to 1:2 when we go out, however as
you would like more of them we will do our best to get out and about!
·
Activities
in preschool
The
Preschool do lots of letter, number and writing activities every day but what
became clear was we weren’t very good at telling you about them! We will be
talking about how we can make sure all parents especially the preschool parents
are aware of the lovely activities that happen every day.
What
could we do to improve our services?
·
More
trips (see previous point)
·
More
verbal information about the day’s activities not just what we have eaten (see
previous point)
·
More
cooking activities. This is now part of our action plans and you will be seeing
more cooking going on!
·
Make
sure the doorbell is answered quickly. We have discussed this and will do
our best to open the front door within 30 seconds
Why
did you choose us?
Most
common points:
·
Welcoming
setting
·
Location
·
Atmosphere
·
Size
of classes
·
Recommendations
(Thank you!!!!!)
How
do you find the levels of communication?
Everyone
seems happy with the newsletters and blog.
More
information about what the children have done
Do
you feel involved in the setting?
Most
of you feel involved with Nursery life.
What
do you think about our food?
·
Alternative
to muesli and toast – we have now introduced weetabix to the breakfast menu.
·
More
varied tea menu – this is now part of the action plan.
·
Would
like to see photos of the food. This is a great idea as not many of you get to
see our food, we will be adding, creating a visual menu, to our action plan
·
Great
that it is prepared fresh on the day.
·
Good
variety
Are
the staff helpful, professional and approachable?
100%
yes – This
is great to hear as I think our staff are fantastic too!
- One
parent commented on our younger less qualified staff.
Over
the last few years a few of our staff have moved on to pastures new, but our
turnover of staff is very low compared to our industry.
Generally
Daycare is having issues with recruitment, lots of qualified staff are moving
straight from college into Nannying positions due to increased wages and whilst
we offer a competitive salary we cannot compare with Nanny wages.
We
use other methods to keep our staff, we offer a four day week, competitive
wages and we fund training. Our staff when they join us agree to train to at
least a level 3 and this is funded by the nursery. As part of this package we
ask all staff to stay with us for at least a year once they have qualified
(they have all stayed longer!!!)
When
recruiting a staff member I look for reliability, a passion for working with
children, a person I can trust.
We
have bi monthly in house training sessions and staff also attend training
outside of the setting such as autism training, quiet child, working with two’s
but I have failed to let you know this! I will include this information in the
newsletters from now on, so you are aware of staff development as well as your
child’s!!!
Do
you find the key person system useful?
76.92
%yes
19.23%
no
3.85
% other
How
do you find the financial side of the Nursery?
·
Card
payments could be easier. How can we make this easier for you? Please let me
know and I can talk to Head Office
·
Fees
High. I appreciate that fees are probably one of your biggest outgoings.
However when looking at our fee structure we always make sure that we are
offering a reasonable price compared to our competitors yet still able to pay
our staff a good salary. I had a quick look at fees today and this is a snap
shot of what I saw online.
|
|
Castle
Nursery
|
Positive
Steps
|
Caring
daycare
|
|
3-5
full day
|
£56.15
|
£61.50
|
£60-62
|
|
3-5
half day
|
£36.00
|
£37.00
|
£45.50
-£44.50 although the session are longer than ours.
|
·
Some
parents asked for a fixed monthly bill. We do offer this for all children who
are not on a term time rate or receiving Government 15 hours funding. Due
to regulations on funding we are unable to split it evenly over the term any
more.
·
One
parent asked why French lessons were charged when Ellie and Custard Music and
Sports Stars were complimentary. This is a good question. When looking at extra
activities we wanted to offer something extra to families who attend Mondays
and Fridays as they are charged for bank holidays. Now we have met our budgets
for Extra activities so if we want to do anything additional such as French we
have to ask parents to pay for it.
What
are your thoughts on events, special occasions?
·
You
really like our events, we had a great suggestion that we could have activities
to get the parents talking and socialising at events.
·
Would
like more trips out.
Would
you prefer a time slot on parents evening or are you happy with our current
system?
Most
parents were happy with the drop in system but we will look at what we can do
to make sure that everyone gets to talk to their child’s key person.
Would
you use electronic systems such as facebook or online day books?
Very
mixed response with this question!
Other
suggestions/ comments
Escalator
on the hill! – Love this idea and we are thinking of starting an online
petition!
PTA
– parent link. – we have run a PTA before called parent link but it was
difficult to get parents together as we appreciate you are busy people so now
we use these emails and things like the Questionnaire to make sure your
opinions/ideas are used.
Staff
questionnaire feedback
I am
sure you are all pleased to know that staff are happy in their jobs and are
enjoying the various training courses that they are attending.
Actions/
What happens next?
These
actions will all be included in our action plan for 2013/2014:
·
Look
at space
·
See
if we can do more trips
·
More
verbal information about the day’s activities not just what we have eaten
·
More
cooking activities
·
Make
sure the doorbell is answered quickly.
·
Alternative
to muesli and toast
·
More
varied tea menu
·
Create
a visual menu
·
Continue
with staff training but add to newsletter/blog
·
Introduce
fee for life?
·
Card
payments could be easier
·
Look
at allocating time better on parents evening
·
Redecorate
the staff room
Thank you so much for your honest feedback, as
you can see it is vital for us as it is one of the main tools of our continuing
self evaluation to make sure we offer the best we can for children, their
families and our team. If you have any comments and questions please let me
know.
Policies
of the week
We
will be displaying a different policy every week in the hallway and on our
blog: http://castlenursery-southhill.blogspot.co.uk
(you may have to cut and paste this link).
If
you would like to see this or any of our policies please ask Caroline.
Our
Policy this week is: well child policy.
This
week’s activities
Each
key person will be responsible for designing an activity based on their key children’s
needs; however, all children who are in on that day will have the opportunity
to access the activity too.
If
the key person is on holiday or off, another staff member will be able to lead
the activity in their place so that the children do not miss out.
For
more information on the Early Years Foundation stage, the guidance we use to
support our planning and practice, visit:
Buttercups
Tuesday
– Nilem’s group will be exploring playdough
Wednesday
– Emma’s group are learning about the world as they play in water
Thursday
– Charlotte’s group is developing their vocabulary as they name objects in the
garden.
Friday
– Magda is supporting the children as they dig the soil outside.
Charlotte
is off Friday, Emma is off Thursday, Magda is off Wednesday, Nilem is off all
week and Leanne is in all week
Bluebells
Tuesday
– Josie’s group will be rolling cars in the garden
Wednesday
– Donna’s group is using sign language to communicate
Thursday
– Donna’s group are reading stories together
Friday
– Josie’s group are practising counting as they play different number games.
Donna
is off Tuesday, Josie is off Wednesday, Sophie is off Thursday and Rose is in
all week.
Sunflowers
The
topic for May and June is “Europe”. If you have anything at home that links to
this topic please can we have it for our interest table? Please make sure any
items brought in are labelled. Books of the fortnight
are:
27th
May – 3rd June – Emeka’s Gift – Ifeoma Onyefulu
10th – 17th June – Home by Kate Petty
Tuesday – Jess’s group are getting physical as they go through an
obstacle course
Wednesday - Jess’s group will be talking about jobs and different
types of work
Thursday – Alison is supporting the children to link sounds to
letters
Friday – Chloe’s group is looking at shapes as they play shape
games.
Jess is off Friday, Chloe is off Wednesday and Alison is off all
week.
Have a great long weekend
Caroline and the South Hill Team
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