Dear everyone
The warmer spring days are hopefully not far away now, and we are all so ready to be spending more time in the nursery garden in some sunshine. January and February have seemed very long, wet months again and this year has probably been the wettest we can remember! There has been some particularly unpleasant viruses for everyone to contend with too which we hope the warmer weather will disperse.
We have still had lots of fun however over the last couple of months with all the lovely festivals and events we usually celebrate at this time of year – Chinese New Year provided a wonderful opportunity for the children to enjoy lots of activities and Chinese food tasting, then we have had Shrove Tuesday, World Book Day with our usual dressing up day and finally Bristish Science Week.
We have had several new children join us here at Millfield since the beginning of January and we welcome everyone. We wish you all a very happy time with us.
Chinese New Year
Everyone enjoyed the Chinese New Year celebrations this year welcoming in the Year of the Horse. The children took part in lots of craft activities and tasted chinese food.
World Book Day
World Book Day was on Thursday 7th March this year and as always, we had a dressing-up day for the staff and children. Our theme was ‘a favourite character from any nursery rhyme or children’s book’ and the children and staff arrived in some wonderful costumes. We always make this a fun competition for the children and a big well done to Maeve and Xander in the main nursery and George and Tabby in Millfield Babies. Hopefully you have all received your World Book Day book token and thank you to you all for your enthusiastic support for the day.
Late spring term topics
Our next topic for the Spring Term is ‘Transport’ followed by our festival for this half term 'Easter'. Our ongoing Growing Topic will also begin now the spring is approaching. We will continue to grow herbs, vegetables and flowers and the children really benefit from this wonderful activity. It is so beneficial for them to learn where some of our food comes from (not just the supermarket!!) and to help grow things which we can then eat. We have taken part in British Science Week this week and the staff have planned some exciting scientific activities for the children. Red Nose Day is next on Friday 20th March and we are having a 'red' dressing up day. It will be lovely to see everyone dressed in as much red as possible next Friday and if parents wish to make a donation to Comic Relief, please do so - thank you. Our first festival to begin the second half of the spring term will be Easter with Good Friday on 31st March and Easter Monday on 1st April – Millfield will be closed for these two days. In the run up to the Easter weekend, we will have an Easter Egg Hunt in the nursery gardens and an Easter Bonnet Parade for children in the main nursery and Millfield Babies – the dates are in the ‘Spring Term Events’ at the end of the newsletter. Our topics for the summer term will then be 'Animals' and People Who Help Us'.
Along with all these exciting events, we will continue to offer the children our other weekly favourite activities including Woodland Explorers, Baking, Singing, Dancing and our weekly sports session with Kat Plimmer from Urban Movement Primary: https://www.urbanmovementprimary.co.uk/.
Millfield Car Park
We are mentioning the Millfield car park yet again unfortunately. The majority of parents use the car park respectfully and responsibly however after several emails to you all recently, we are so disappointed that some parents are still parking erratically preventing other people from parking in a designated space. Taking up two or three spaces when parking badly isn't a help to other parents trying to drop off or collect their children too. The courtoisie around the gate getting in and out of the nursery main entrances is always fine however the car parking etiquette can be terrible. Also, may we remind everyone to please be courteous to other parents and have a little patience if you have to wait for a minute or two for either a space to park in or when you are trying to leave the car park. It is always busy at 8.00am particularly, however parents do drop off very quickly usually only being in the nursery buildings for a minute or two so spaces do free up rapidly. We have had a few emails from parents to say how disappointed they are at the way they have been treated by other parents when trying to park.
Car park rage, gesticulating at other parents and speeding is not acceptable behaviour. Please use the car park quickly too - several parents stay in their car on the phone which then causes a bottle neck for other parents needing a space. Courtesy, care, attention, and safety is vital for everyone using the car park - particularly the children.
We would be really grateful if everyone could respect this information - we are fortunate to have the car park with a designated entrance and exit as most nurseries only have on street parking/very limited parking which can be dangerous and difficult.
Thank you as always for your cooperation.
Government Funded Hours
As always, a reminder for everyone about the Working Families Funded Hours which are available for children from 9+ months for eligible parents. The date of birth age range for our 9+ months old children to be eligible for the funded hours in the summer term is 01/04/2024 - 30/06/2025
Full information about when you will be eligible and how you can access the funded hours at Millfield is provided in an information sheet. If you would like another copy of this, please just ask and it can be emailed to you. If you aren’t eligible for the Working Families funded hours, once your child reaches the term after their third birthday, you will automatically become eligible for the Universal 15 funded hours which has been in place for many years. Everyone is eligible for this funding. Full information about all the different funded hours is available on the following website:
https://beststartinlife.gov.uk/
Parent meetings in the main nursery
We have just emailed to invite parents to make an appointment to see your child’s key person both in the main nursery. This will be the first meetings for our Spring Term catch up with everyone. We have emailed everyone who was invited to an appointment early in the autumn term last year. Once these are complete, we will then email in April to invite all parents who have joined Millfield main nursery since Christmas along with the children who have moved into the main nursery from Millfield Babies. The staff are looking forward to meeting with you all to share our developments records and give you the opportunity to see the children's wonderful Busy Bee Books.
Extra sessions
Just a reminder about extra sessions – we have a very busy Summer Term ahead and Millfield Babies and Millfield main
nursery are both fully booked on all days of the week with regular booked sessions. If anyone needs to book an additional session or to make an occasional swap session, please check with us by email or telephone – we may be able to accommodate the extra session if someone is away on holiday. Odd sessions may free up again in the main nursery from September once the older children have moved on to primary school but it is generally full until September 2027. Millfield Babies is very busy now right through to September 2027 with only very limited sessions available.
News from Millfield Babies
The new Millfield Babies has been open for over six months now and is very busy - places are extremely limited now until September 2027. The staff team are all very experienced practitioners and there is a photograph of everyone on the wall just inside the baby room entrance doors. Gill has been Baby Room lead with us for some time now but as the new Millfield Babies is so busy, we thought it would be better now as a shared role. We are delighted to let you know that Laura has agreed to take on this shared role with Gill and is now joint Baby Room lead. As always, the team have been so busy planning lots of wonderful activities for our youngest children including taking part in the festivals and events that we celebrate.
This is the current Millfield Babies staff team:
- Jill Laker (Baby Room Lead and level 3)
- Laura Wright (Baby Room Lead and level 3)
- Jade Bosworth (Level 3)
- Shannon McLaughlin (Level 3)
- Julie Hallam (Level 3)
- Lucy Smith (Level 2)
- Faye Smith (Nursery Assistant)
- Steph Wright (Nursery Assistant and lunch/teatime support)
- Debbie Laker (Nursery Assistant and lunch time support)
- Zoe Wright (Nursery cook)
As we move to the warmer spring days, the little ones will be spending more time outside and the decking area is offering a lovely opportunity for free flow. We also use our nursery fields to go for nature walks and to visit the alpacas.
Rookery Corner
Just an update about the works to resolve the drainage problem at Rookery Corner (the junction at the bottom of Tythby Road into Cropwell Butler) which has caused so many problems with repeated flooding over the last couple of years. The work is now in progress and signs have been in place giving information about a four-way traffic light system for a few weeks now. The very wet weather may have delayed the works as there are no traffic lights, but as yet we have had no further information from VIA East Midlands.
We know that there will be a complete road closure at Rookery Corner to Tythby Road for a period of two weeks sometime between the beginning of March and the middle of April. Once we have the information about the actual closure dates we will let you know straight away. Access to Millfield will need to be via the Tythby village direction for the two week period and we will email a route map once we know the closure is happening to show the route you will need to take. VIA have apologised for any inconvenience caused to us, but it is vital that the drainage work is completed so that the flooding problem is finally resolved.
Dates for your diary
Spring Term Events
• Mothering Sunday: Sunday 15th March
• Red Nose Day: Friday 20th March (‘Red’ Dressing-up Day)
• Easter Egg Hunt: Wednesday 1st April
• Easter Bonnet Parade: Thursday 2nd April
Bank Holiday Closing Dates
• Good Friday: 3rd April (Millfield closed)
• Easter Monday: 6th April (Millfield closed)
• May Day Bank Holiday: 4th May (Millfield closed)
