Woodland House Nursery and Pre-School

It's been a very special weekend here at Woodland House as we celebrated our 15th birthday!

The ever-wonderful Linda came to host an Active Kids session and we ran a range of activities from face painting to crown making, from meeting a real life rabbit to making robots out of junk modelling.

The sun shone all day and we even managed to get the BBQ going and feed over 100+ people who came to celebrate us. It was such a special day for us all and so wonderful to share with so many families, staff (old and new) and children.

Today is National Siblings Day!

Clare, who is our Family Time Leader, organised a small circle time for some of the siblings here at Woodland House. Children from each room got together to celebrate.

The group explored their reflections and spoke about what made them similar/different to the siblings. Clare opened up conversations about the importance of family and finished by reading a special story to the group.

We are aiming to host many more family times in the future so please do send in some family obs on Famly!

We have been enhancing our woodwork skills during a session with Lucy from St Werburghs Nursery School. We were all fully engaged learning about new techniques and exploring new resources.

Today's Forest School session was one for the books... Emma taught us how to start our own fires!

We all made sure we had finished our safety checks and had our listening ears switched on. One by one, we whittled some sticks and made sparks over the fire pit. Emma watched us as we had a go independently and we even managed to cook some s'mores over the flames too.

We learnt lots about safety, listening, temperatures, materials and so much more. Forest School sessions like these are priceless and we can't wait to see what we learn next week.

We have started our New Year off with a healthy dose of curiosity, awe and wonder!

We had been hearing some very loud noises outside of nursery for a few days so Anita and Lauren took a group of our little ones over to the Secret Garden. It turns out, there were some workers helping to cut down the overgrowing trees and bushes!

One of the men was kind enough to tell us all about the machinery they used, why they were cutting things down and what happened to it all afterwards. The children were engaged, engrossed and interested to hear about how the animals will use the chopped up pieces to make new houses.

Once we had come back to nursery, Mitch went to the thank the workers and they have agreed to give us some of the big branches which they have left behind... we cannot wait to explore them next week!

• Are you a parent of a 2–3-year-old?

Flu can be a serious illness for children and we’d like to let you know that your child can now have their free flu vaccination.

This winter, it is possible that more people will catch flu compared with last winter when strict COVID-19 restrictions were in place. Vaccinating your child will help protect them from getting flu and prevent it spreading among more vulnerable family and friends.
Book an appointment with your child’s GP practice.

If you have any questions, please visit https://orlo.uk/cUUEx or call 119.

Whilst our biggest Pre-Schoolers were at Forest School, the rest of our Wise Owls took part in "Woodland Wanderers"!

Clare and Charly took a small group up to the Secret Garden and the Wise Owls' confidence was outstanding - they practiced balancing, jumping, running and even plane spotting! We are so lucky to make use of the Secret Garden and it's clear to see how our Wise Owls thrive whilst exploring their environment.

We are aiming to utilise this space much more so please keep your eyes peeled for more updates coming soon!

More good news - we have gained the Bristol Standard for another year!

The last few submissions have been unusual given how Covid has affected so much of our usual nursery experience but the team has worked tirelessly to reflect on their practice throughout this challenging time.

"The validation panel felt that this was a truly wonderful submission and you have obviously put a lot of time and effort into implementing your well thought out targets. Your statement in the
comments of staff being the most valuable resource was heart-warming to read and we could
really see that this is definitely the case for Woodland House. Your new induction process is
evidence of this. It is inspirational that you are dedicating so much time to fully inducting staff and your use of presentations and reflective diaries is something really innovative.

It was also so lovely to hear of your adventures in getting out and about after Covid and in true
reflective style you adapted how you did this. The children must love going to the beach and
forest school again and what an experience they must have had cooking their own lunch. We
particularly liked the picture of visiting the moon.

You showed great commitment to partnership with parents and strengthening home/nursery links
with the huge amount of research you did into finding the right online system. We are so pleased
it is working so well for you and that staff have more time to spend with the children and parents
can feel more connected to their child’s experience."

We will be trying out a new pathway to the Bristol Standard this year and we are very excited to continue our reflective journey.

It fills our hearts with joy to share some very special news on this very rainy Monday. It's been a long time coming but Jaryd has started his phased return to work!

Jaryd received the all clear a few weeks ago and spent some much needed time with his family before coming back to work. At the moment, he is working two mornings a week and is so happy to be back.

Everyone at Woodland House has been in touch with Jaryd during his time off but we are over the moon that he gets to spend time with the children and families again. You know Jaryd - if you see him, please feel free to say hello and get chatting!

😃🎆 International Week of Happiness at Work 🎆😃

This is how we are going to be celebrating.. how are you going to be reflecting on your mental health and happiness at work this week?

We are very lucky to work in sector so full of fun and joy already but there is always room to improve!

Today is World Su***de Prevention Day. The theme is ‘Creating Hope Through Action’ . You could potentially prevent a colleague, friend, family member from committing su***de by simply engaging in a open conversation with them. If you would like more information/ support please contact Emma, Cassie or Rebecca our mental Health First Aiders. ❤️