February Newsletter

Many thanks for your understanding and co-operation during the disruption due to the snow….hopefully it is all behind us now!

Fees: We need to inform your that our fees will increase with effect from 1 April 2019.  The full day rate will be £58.80.  The hourly rate will be £5.74 and the quality premium which is payable when children are in receipt of three year old nursery education grant funding will be £1.58 per funded hour.  This increase is due to the fact that we have yet again for the 4th consecutive year received no increase in the rate of Nursery Grant Funding for your children, in fact it has been reduced.  Our costs, especially living wage and the government’s pension percentage increase from April, leave us no choice.  Invoices are currently sent out termly and your next invoice which will be sent via email to you in March will reflect the increase in fees from April onwards. We would be grateful if you and your family and friends could sign this online petition. Petition: Increase early years funding in line with minimum pay rises it can be found at petition.parliament.uk

Illnesses:  Recently, there have been cases of chicken pox, conjunctivitis and high temperature viruses.  Government guidelines state that certain viruses are excludable until children have recovered. Viruses can be extremely contagious which means that children have been poorly, despite our usual deep cleaning and disinfecting of resources on a daily basis.  We would ask that you think very carefully before sending your child into nursery if you have any thoughts at all that they may be unwell.  Our policy states that children will not be accepted into nursery if they have had diarrhoea / sickness / high temperature within the last 24 hours.  If you feel your child is unwell enough to give them paracetamol / ibuprofen, then they should be kept at home until they are well enough to not require any pain relief medication.  We will only administer paracetamol in cases of high temperature (should a child spike a temperature at nursery), extreme pain or discomfort. A copy of our policy regarding this is on our website.  Please also remember never to leave any medication in your child’s spare clothing bag.

Attendance: If you are going to be on holiday or not attending nursery for any reason, please can you let us know via text / email / phone call in advance? We have to track all absences in line with Stockport’s Safeguarding Policy and are required to contact you should you not turn up on your nursery day.

Confirmation of days for next academic year: Please return the slip below ideally by Friday 15th February to confirm that the days we have allocated to you from September 2019 onwards are correct, if you need to discuss this over the weekend, then by Monday 18th February.  Once we have your place confirmed by yourselves, we can then start offering places to parents of those children on our waiting list, which is currently oversubscribed.  A huge Thank You to everyone who has recommended our nursery to other parents, it is also lovely to see so many of you returning with your second, third and sometimes more children!

Wellies: It can be wet and muddy in our outdoor area, please check that you have sent in NAMED wellies for your child to use at Nursery, if you have had a pair here for a while it is a good idea to check that they still fit. We are happy to either keep them here or return them to you each day, just let us know.

Baby News: Our lovely Kelly Bainbridge will be leaving us on 8th March to start her new very full-time job as a Mummy! Kelly is the kind of nursery practitioner that we all aspire to be, she has brought so much expertise, joy, commitment and fun to our nursery, she will be truly missed. Kelly has reassured us that she will be popping in from time to time to visit her ‘Fledglings Family.’

Any questions? Please get in touch by telephone, text or email.

Julie, Jane and team