Parental Questionnaire feedback                                      

Thank you to everybody who filled in a questionnaire. We have found them to be very helpful in identifying areas of improvements, but it is also rewarding to read positive feedback. We are so pleased to hear that you find our staff welcoming, friendly and helpful and that you describe the learning environment as safe, fun, with quality play resources where your children are cared for in a stimulating and attentive atmosphere. Your children are learning through play continuously and you have found them to be gaining confidence; the majority of you all would like your children to gain social skills too for when they start school which they are doing daily.

The parts that you thought we did particularly well were the extra activities that we provide such as the dancing, tiny trumpets, football training, French, allotments, walks to the park, supermarket, Ace centre, travel agents and the library just to name a few. We are so proud of our outdoor play area and you have all noticed this too. All the children are getting out more than once a day to play and go on numerous educational walks daily also. If I can just mention again, wellies, a warm coat with gloves and hats are a must have in nursery at this time of year clearly labelled with their name on for all the play we are going to be doing outside this winter! Brrrrr! You also mentioned that you like the messy play we provide, the ICT unit, the newly refurbished sound and light room and the fish tanks we have around nursery. The finger print system that we have in place is a like too. Yet again Pauline’s cooking has been praised, the woman is amazing! Although, a couple of parents mentioned that their children are hungry at home time, I have spoken to the units and they assure me that they always have enough food to serve out seconds and sometimes thirds. We have noted that the children who sleep through lunch time should have extra on their plate for when they wake up as seconds may have gone by then! As a nursery we have spent a lot of time analysing our food menus, it is already on a four week rota and has a variation of meat, cheese and pasta meals. We always take on board any suggestions for ideas but we have found that we have got the balance right for a vast majority of the parents at the moment. If you would like copies of our 4 week menus please pop up to the office and see me.

One of the areas you would like to see improved within our nursery are more comments to be put on the slips for what activities the children had participated in during the day. This is something we are continuously reflecting on in nursery… we know that we do all these fabulous things we just need to celebrate them more with you! If any of you would like to take your child’s file home or collect any pictures out of the picture box please feel free too. If anyone wants to speak to their child’s key worker before parents evening about their development then please make an appointment at a time which is convenient for the both of you. You are always welcome to speak to us J

At our peak times such as 1.00 and 4.00 o’clock our hand over times can be busy especially at 4.00 o’ clock at the moment in pre-school as we have found that we have a lot of children leaving at these times. We have assessed the situation lately and have approx 3 members of staff handing over. If you are waiting please bear with us as we don’t want to rush people’s handovers. I will be monitoring slips and hand over’s to see if there is any progress over the next couples of weeks.

I am really glad that some of you brought up the topic of gates and parking to my attention again. This is an ongoing issue we have. I have put new notices on the gates to make all parents and grandparents aware that we must keep all the gates shut at all times.  I would really appreciate it if we could all work together when safe guarding our children from danger. As a parent myself I too find it difficult getting into nursery safely when parents park right outside the top gate. We have recently been going out to people who are in the cars to ask them to move it away from the gate. Please can we spread the word to other people that drop off and pick up your children about parking as I know that they don’t always get to see our newsletters?

Staff changes

As you are all probably aware, we have now a term time nursery and a holiday club running alongside our full term nursery. This has made positions for staff to move next door from January 2012 and has made positions available for staff to fulfil here. So, Clare Ryan who is the deputy team leader in pre-school will be running the term time nursery and going to support her in this will be Nikki from toddlers who will be her deputy. They are both very excited about their new roles within the nursery. This leaves an opening in toddlers for a deputy team leader which has been given to Amanda. Laura Allison who is our Early Year Professional will be taking on the deputy team leader role in Pre-school she has had this role before and so I know she is more than capable. New staff will be joining their team who have applied for nursery practitioners from outside of the nursery setting.

If you are interested in a place in our term time nursery from January 2012 please come and see us in the office. Thank you again for all your continuous support in helping in make our nursery what it is today.

Louise, Lisa, Rej & the Team x