New Beginnings' News

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Healthy new Year

Why I love teaching in the Early Years by J Wilkinson (Early Years curriculum lead professional)

As voted for by parents

Pregnant or have children under the age of 4? You could qualify for £4.25 per week to spend on healthy foods. From April 2021, the value of Healthy Start vouchers increases from £3.10 to £4.25. This will provide additional support for pregnant women and families on lower incomes, to purchase healthy foods. Healthy Start vouchers may be used to purchase fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried or tinned pulses, plain cow’s milk and infant formula. The scheme also allows claimants to receive free Healthy Start vitamins. You qualify for Healthy Start if you’re at least 10 weeks pregnant or you have at least one child that’s under 4 and are receiving any of the following: Child Tax Credit (only if your family’s annual income is £16,190 or less) Income Support Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance Pension Credit (which includes the child addition) Universal Credit (only if your family’s take-home pay is £408 or less per month from employment) Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Working Tax Credit run-on only. (the Working Tax Credit you receive in the 4 weeks immediately after you have stopped working for 16 hours or more/week) You will also be eligible for Healthy Start if you’re under 18 and pregnant, even if you are not claiming any benefits. For more information on the Healthy Start scheme and how to apply visit: www.healthystart.nhs.uk

All New Beginnings Staff continue to be Paediatric first aid trained !

We are pleased to share with you all that we have been shortlisted within the Day Nurseries top 20 Small Nursery Groups for the fifth year running, this award highlights the most recommended nurseries within each region of the UK. The shortlist is decided on all the reviews our nurseries have received from our families who attend therefore we would like a say a huge thank you to them as we receive some amazing feedback and comments regarding our facilities, managers, staff team, resources and much more. If you would like to visit the day nurseries page and have a look at the reviews we have received please visit www.daynurseries.co.uk. Thank you again to all our families for their continued support at New Beginnings especially during this un predictable time.

The days are getting colder and nights are drawing in a sure sign that Autumn is creeping up on us. This time of year is a perfect opportunity to get outside with your little ones and explore the vivid colours and exciting changes going on in nature. It also gives you the chance to gather an interesting, varied collection of goodies to bring home. Conkers and chestnuts, with or without their cases Twigs Fallen leaves-different sizes, shapes, colours and textures Sycamore seeds Pine cones Once you've gathered your collection from the park, walking home from nursery or a weekend trip to the forest there are a variety of activities which these items can be used for-leaf printing, conker caterpillars, counting and sorting games. However these items can also be a great source of inspiration for free play and allowing your child to use their imagination to direct their play allowing creativity and lead to an open-ended exploration. All you need to do as parents/carers is facilitate these activities. Sensory play can be another great experience for your child using these items with some extra items such as paints, cups, glue, saucepans, if your child is very young they may need extra support to start off. Autumnal small world using your collection of autumn objects as a imaginative small world combining pine cones, twigs, leaves and other items with familiar toys children will create a whole new setting for example the pine cone could be a house, a car, a dog. If you don't have access to a park or unable to get outside you can still enjoy Autumn themed activities with your child using a few autumn coloured paints, tissue paper, and glue. Let your child create what they see using these resources, a beautiful abstract autumn picture. A few ideas to keep the little ones occupied while making use of resources within our outdoor environments.

During the crisis many of our families have been through significant changes and challenges due to the unplanned and abrupt closure of our settings. The experience of not being able to attend nursery no longer seeing their key person or fellow peers this may have caused some of them to experience a loss that wasn't expected. While some children have been really excited to get back into nursery we have had some who have also needed some extra support to help them adjust back into the new normal. We have listed below what we have been doing as a nursery to support our families with their return as well as some useful tips to prepare children for their return; Talking to your child about nursery and their key people in their room, helping to re introduce the idea of nursery and remind them or the nursery they use to visit. If you are able to access our twitter and Instagram page this is a great way to show them photos of the setting they attended and any of their friends and teachers. Throughout lockdown we also were encouraging our families and staff to send in photos of what they had been up to for us to share on our twitter page. Viewing our website and showing children pictures of their class rooms. Create a count down calendar showing your child how many days they have left un till returning to nursery. Providing them with a sense of security and predictability which will support the uncertainty they have been experiencing in recent weeks. Talking to you child about how they feel returning to nursery they may show this through play or display this using their emotions through tantrums and becoming upset. By staying calm and talking to them about their feelings out loud showing that you understand and will help them deal with their feelings. We have created a comprehensive and through risk assessment and operating procedure which we are consistently reviewing and updating this is sent out to all our families and staff. This has supported them to prepare themselves and their child/ren for any changes there may be at the nursery and talk to them about these. Throughout lockdown we continued with communication and contact with all our families and before their children were due to return to us managers from each of our settings had catch up phone calls with each of them. Seeing how they have all been getting on during lockdown, anything that may have happened during lockdown which we need to be aware of and just a general catch up to see if anything has change for their child such as routine, eating habits etc. Its been great to see of all of our settings re opened and welcome back our families although some children have been a little bit unsure at first once they get into it its like they have never been away. We look forward to continuing to support and welcome our returning and new families into our New Beginnings family and giving all of our children the best learning environments and opportunities to watch them grow.

From the start of June we are pleased to have re opened all of our New Beginnings Nurseries after the coronavirus pandemic. We would like to say a huge thank you to the NHS staff and all key workers for all their hard work throughout this unprecedented time In line with government guidelines and advice we have made changes to both our indoor and outdoor environments at all of our settings to ensure we were able to open safely. We have put the children, staff and families health, safety and well being as the top of our priority when re opening our settings. We have a clear and through coronavirus risk assessment, amended polices and procedures and each site has their own operating procedure in place. We have loved welcoming back the children into our settings and thank our families and staff for adapting to the changes within our environments and the children for being superstars and taking on these changes all within their stride. We look forward to welcoming more existing and new families back and continuing on our journey of watch us grow.