April Newsletter

As we move through another busy and exciting period in the nursery, we are pleased to share an update on our ongoing work, developments, and achievements across the setting.

Keeping Children Safe

We have recently completed our annual review of all risk assessments, ensuring that all areas of our nursery environment continue to be safe, secure, and suitable for both children and staff. Safety remains our highest priority, and these regular reviews help us maintain the highest standards of practice.

We are also delighted to share that we achieved an outstanding 98% in our annual safeguarding audit, reflecting the team’s strong commitment to keeping children safe.

Reflective Practice & Staff Development

Our commitment to high-quality practice continues through a range of reflective systems. We carry out 30-minute learning observations (“tracks”) weekly, allowing the manager to provide meaningful feedback, celebrate strengths, and suggest next steps to further enhance children’s learning experiences.

Alongside this, each staff member is included in monthly monitoring, supporting professional development, identifying training needs, and ensuring excellent practice is shared across the team.

Our monthly team meetings remain a valuable opportunity for discussion, reflection, and collaborative improvement, ensuring consistency and shared understanding throughout the nursery.

We also continue with 4-weekly wellbeing supervisions and 6-monthly practice-based supervision sessions, supporting staff wellbeing, professional growth, and individual goal setting.

Improvement Planning & Training

We have been busy refreshing our knowledge through ongoing training to ensure our practice remains current and effective. Ellie has also been enrolled onto Aberlour Futures to begin her SVQ journey, supporting her professional development.

Our nursery improvement plan now includes a strong focus on wellbeing, inclusion, and equality, building on our existing values. We are working towards enhancing displays and further exploring a wider range of cultural celebrations and festivals to better reflect all families within our community.

Environment & Learning Spaces

We are excited to introduce our new “loose parts” display in the front hallway. Families are warmly invited to contribute to this area by donating small, unused items from home. As the saying goes, “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure”—and we are proud to embrace this ethos at Denmore, supporting creativity and imagination through open-ended resources.

The garden area continues to develop beautifully, with staff carefully planning and enhancing the space. Progress is regularly recorded through outdoor audits, ensuring purposeful and engaging outdoor learning experiences for all children.

We were also delighted to receive positive feedback from families following our Easter garden event, where children enjoyed searching for their previously decorated eggs alongside their families. These small-group sessions allowed families to explore our outdoor environment and gain insight into the learning opportunities we provide.

Family Engagement & Feedback

Each child has now received their six-monthly formative report, and we hope families have enjoyed reading about their child’s progress and achievements.

We truly value family feedback, which continues to shape our practice. Our “Quick Fix” improvement book, displayed in the front hall, captures suggestions from our parent feedback box and highlights the changes we have made in response.

We also continue to welcome prospective families and are pleased to have recently welcomed new children and families into our nursery community.

Wider Partnerships & Visits

We have welcomed Health Visitors into the nursery, supporting them in observing children on their caseloads within a familiar environment.

We also recently received a visit from the Local Authority (Danielle), which was a very positive experience. We were proud to receive excellent feedback, which is available to view in our e-book displayed in the entrance hall.

Final Note

We are incredibly proud of the progress we continue to make as a team. Thank you to all our families for your ongoing support, feedback, and involvement in nursery life—it is greatly valued and plays a vital role in our continuous improvement.

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