April Newsletter

As we move through another busy and rewarding month at nursery, we would like to thank all of our families for your continued support and involvement in nursery life. April has been full of learning, development, teamwork and exciting opportunities for both the children and staff team.

Throughout the month, the staff team have been taking part in smaller room-based meetings to reflect on practice and refine areas they would like to continue improving within their environments. These focused discussions have created valuable opportunities for professional reflection and collaboration. Alongside this, our Room Leaders have been delivering further training on the planning process to support consistency and confidence across the nursery.

Our “30 Minute Track a Child” observations continue to develop very positively. Kerry, in her ASN Coordinator role, has been using these observations to gain a deeper understanding of children’s experiences throughout the day, helping to identify effective strategies and approaches to support individual children’s needs. A key focus has also been looking at the most effective ways to share these strategies with staff to ensure the best possible outcomes for children. These observations run alongside the Manager’s existing 30 minute tracks, which continue to be an incredibly valuable tool for capturing children across many aspects of nursery life including play, mealtimes, sleep times, transitions and interactions.

Staff supervisions continue regularly with a strong focus on wellbeing, ensuring staff feel supported and equipped to carry out their roles effectively. Supervisions also provide opportunities to encourage staff to continue developing their passion for early learning, enhancing their skills and setting themselves meaningful and challenging professional goals.

This week we are delighted to welcome parents into the nursery for our “Stay and Play” sessions. Following feedback from families, we have increased the session length to 45 minutes to allow for more time together within the nursery environment. We look forward to hearing your feedback following this adjustment and hope you all enjoy the experience.

We continue to welcome prospective families for visits around the nursery and are delighted to receive registrations for future starts, while also settling new children into the service now. It is always a pleasure getting to know new families and supporting children as they begin their nursery journey with us.

This month Kerry attended ASN training delivered through Aberdeenshire Council, further enhancing her knowledge and understanding in supporting children with additional support needs. We also welcomed an Osteopath into the nursery to support our team in meeting the needs of one of our children, which was extremely beneficial and informative for staff.

In addition, we welcomed a Teacher from the Aberdeen School for the Deaf who delivered a valuable training session for staff around supporting children with hearing loss. We are always committed to continuing professional learning and ensuring we provide the best possible support for all children within our care.

We recently carried out a full fire drill and are very proud to share that 38 children and 12 staff were safely evacuated in just 2 minutes and 45 seconds. This was an incredibly smooth procedure and a credit to the calm and organised approach of the whole staff team — very well done to everyone involved.

Our parent suggestion box continues to be a very effective way for families to share ideas and feedback. Please remember to look out for updates within our “Quick Fix” improvement book located in the front hall, where we share “You said, we did” responses and actions taken following parent suggestions.

One of the highlights of the month was welcoming Rebekah from SENsationALL, who spent time supporting Lyndsay and Kerry with strategies and advice for supporting children with ASN. This was one of the most valuable and impactful learning opportunities we have attended and we are excited to continue implementing new ideas and approaches across the nursery.

We were also delighted to welcome Sandie Ritchie Photographer into the nursery this month. The children did incredibly well during their photographs and we cannot wait for families to see the beautiful images captured.

Finally, we will sadly be saying farewell to April, our Baby Moons Room Leader, as she moves on to an exciting new opportunity. April has done an incredible job leading the Baby Moons team, particularly throughout the transition into their own dedicated unit. She has supported so many children, families and staff members with warmth, professionalism and care, and she will be greatly missed by everyone at the nursery. We would like to thank her sincerely for all of her hard work and dedication and wish her every success for the future.

At the same time, we are very pleased to welcome Ami into the Room Leader role. Ami joins us with several years of experience and we are looking forward to having her as part of the team. We are sure families will find her very approachable and supportive as she settles into the nursery.

Thank you again for your continued support and partnership with us.

Warm regards, The Nursery Team

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