News & Events

Welcome to the latest edition of our nursery newsletter. If you have any comments or suggestion on what you would like to see in future editions, please let us know.

As ever, we have had a busy few months welcoming new children and parents to the nursery and working hard to ensure we continue to provide the highest levels of care. Since our last newsletter, our most recent Ofsted report has been published and this can be found via the link on our website homepage, or on the Ofsted website directly. We were delighted to retain a rating of Good in all areas and are actively working on areas identified for improvement in our bid to reach Outstanding. Specifically, staff development continues to be a priority for us, and we have been focussing on our first aid skills, safeguarding and individual staff training needs. We also recently had our inset day which was a fantastic opportunity for our staff to refresh their knowledge.

Alongside our Ofsted inspection, we were also awarded Millie’s Mark which is given to nurseries who are going above and beyond when it comes to keeping children safe in settings.

We have implemented a new planning system throughout the nursery which focuses more on the children’s next steps and gives parents more input into the planning every month. Each month your child’s key person will identify and plan activities around each child’s next steps. They will send this out to you at the beginning of every month along with 2 sticky labels. These labels are for you to write anything your child particularly enjoys at home, any new skills they have acquired or anything you would like us to help with. Please return the labels to your child’s key person who will use these along with their own observations to ensure the activities planned are engaging and interesting. You can also send us pictures and observations of your own via Learning Book. If you have any questions about the planning, then please speak to any member of staff.

Dates for your diary

7th October – Grandparents Stay and Play/ Story Time

29th November – Parents Evening

11th December – Preschool Christmas Show

12th December – Babies Christmas Stay and Make

13th December – Toddler Christmas Singalong

18th December – Christmas Party Day

21st December – Nursery closes at 6.30pm for Christmas and reopens on 2nd January 2019 at 7.30am.

Staff News

Since our last newsletter, Katie has decided to leave Monkey Puzzle following the birth of her little boy to work in a nursery closer to home. This means that Nina is now permanently Deputy Nursery Manager and Alison has been made Toddler Room Leader on a permanent basis. Hannah has also gone on maternity leave and Steph is acting Baby Room Leader and Third in Charge at nursery.

Over the last few months we have been lucky enough to take on two new apprentices. Bernice Purves joined in March and is working towards her NVQ Level 2. Having worked briefly at an after-school club many years ago, Bernice has finally taken the first step towards being a qualified nursery practitioner. We were also lucky to have one of our parents, Rachael Cottey, decide to embark on a career in childcare and join the team in April. Both Bernice and Rachael have made a fantastic start and we look forward to supporting them in their studies over the coming year.

We have also recruited two new members of staff in our Preschool Room. Sarah Drummond joined the team in August. Sarah is qualified to level 6 and has worked in preschools locally so has plenty of experience with 3 and 4 years old. Jessica Williams also joined the Preschool team in August. Jessica is qualified to level 4 and has worked in a nursery locally before joining Monkey Puzzle.

Staff Profile

In every edition of our newsletter, we like to provide a profile of individual staff members so that you can get to know us better. This time it is the turn of Mel Barnard.

Mel joined Monkey Puzzle in May 2017 in the role of Nursery Administrator.

She has a degree in Early Years from Manchester Metropolitan University and has 20 years’ experience working with children. Most recently she was employed by Oakdean Nursery in Handforth, where she worked in the roles of room leader and nursery manager. Mel enjoys spending time with her family especially her two young children.

Policy Information

As you would expect, we have a raft of policies at nursery relating to all aspects of the nursery operations. These are available to view at nursery any time, and if you would like to see them, please let us know. We also like to provide a summary of key policies in our newsletters. Here are the main points taken from our new GDPR policy:

• It is our policy that we provide all employees and parents with a privacy notice to explain Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries ability and right to use their personal data.
• We comply in all respects with the Data Protection Legislation and any policies and procedures that may be published by Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries Ltd in respect of personal data or pursuant to the Data Protection Legislation.
• We will not by any act or omission cause Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries to be in breach of any Data Protection Legislation.
• We will not engage any third party for carrying out any processing activities in respect of the Personal Data without Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries Ltd.’s specific prior written consent;

• Maintain complete, accurate and up to date records of all data processing activities it carries out, containing such information as Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries Ltd may require from time to time;