Good Manors Day Nursery Stubbington Lodge

🌿✨ A Little Spa Experience in the Tweenies! ✨🌿

Our Tweenies have been enjoying a wonderful pretend spa experience, using their senses to explore a fun and sensory-inspired ‘matcha’ gloop with cucumber! 🥒💚

The children loved getting hands-on with the gloop, exploring its colour, texture and smell, while using their imaginations to create their very own spa experience. 🧖‍♀️🧖‍♂️

This activity provided lots of opportunities for sensory exploration, imaginative play and language development, as the children talked about what they could see, feel and smell. 👀👃🖐️

🎉🎂 Birthday Spotlight – Happy Birthday, Lone! 🎂🎉

Today we're celebrating one of our amazing team members and wishing our wonderful Lone, a very Happy Birthday! 🥳💚

✨ Meet Lone – Level 3 Early Years Practitioner ✨

Lone has worked in Early Years for 7 years – and all 7 of those years have been spent with us as part of the Stubbington Lodge family! 🌟 With her wealth of experience, warmth and passion for supporting children, Lone is such a valued member of our team.

💛 What Lone loves about childcare:
"I love helping children build their confidence, believe in themselves and feel proud of their achievements. Seeing them learn, grow and realise what they are capable of is so rewarding."

💃 But Lone's career journey began long before childcare!

Lone started her career as a dancer, travelling the world for 10 years performing on cruise ships before heading to Las Vegas! ✨ She spent 8 years there, including an unforgettable moment when she had her name in lights on the Las Vegas Strip, where she performed as a magician's assistant! 🎩✨

After her time in Las Vegas, Lone and her young family moved to Tenerife, where she continued to share her passion for performing by teaching dance and drama at a performing arts academy. 💃🎭

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Lone's proudest achievements are undoubtedly her two children.
Maddy has gone on to become a professional dancer, while Joey is an accomplished musician – two incredible achievements that Lone is rightly very proud of! 💕🎶

🌈 From travelling the world and performing under the bright lights of Las Vegas, to inspiring and supporting children through their early years, Lone has had an incredible journey. Her experience, dedication and genuine passion for helping children thrive shine through in everything she does.

💚 We are incredibly grateful to have had Lone as part of the Stubbington Lodge team for the past 7 years. Her kindness, enthusiasm and commitment to helping children grow in confidence make her such a special part of our nursery family.

🎉 Happy Birthday, Lone! 🎂 We hope you have the most wonderful day celebrating – you deserve it! 💚🎁✨

🌍💚Planet Protectors! 💚🌍

Our children became Planet Protectors! 🌱🐾

We started by talking about why it is so important to look after our planet. The children shared some wonderful thoughts and ideas, including “We can’t throw our rubbish on the floor” and “The animals might hurt themselves.” 🥰

The children then put their fine motor skills to work as they:
🦔 Peeled tape from the table to free animals from litter
🐾 Unwrapped animals encased in foil
🗑️ Used grabbers to pick up rubbish from around the room
♻️ Sorted the rubbish into our recycling box

We also explored our globe, locating the oceans and talking about the different countries around our wonderful world. 🌎

To finish, we enjoyed two lovely stories about recycling: ‘The Little Plastic Bottle’ and ‘The Little Cardboard Box’. 📚

A wonderful opportunity to develop our children’s understanding of caring for our planet, while supporting their communication, teamwork and fine motor skills. 🌱💚♻️

⭐️ Our Golden Star Rules have had a myHappymind refresh! 🧠💛

Our Tweenies have recently introduced their Golden Star Rules, focusing on three important rules to help them feel safe, happy and ready to learn:

👣 Safe Feet – (myHappymind - Meet Your Brain)
Safe choices, ready bodies and ready brains.

👂 Listening Ears – (myHappymind - Engage & Meet Your Brain)
Listening brains, ready to listen and learn.

🤲 Kind Hands – (myHappymind - Relate & Appreciate)
Kind hands and kind hearts.

As our children move into Preschool, they build on these foundations by following these top 3 and introducing 2 more Golden Star Rules:

🤝 Teamwork – (myHappymind - Relate)
We are kind teammates; we help and encourage each other.

🔇 Inside Voices – (myHappymind - Meet Your Brain)
Calm voices help our brains and help everyone to learn.

Our Preschool children have had these rules for a while, but they’ve recently had a little refresh to help us make those important myHappymind connections. 🌈

We love how these simple rules help our children understand how our choices, actions and behaviours can support both our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around us. 💛⭐️

🌟 Nursery Spaces Available from September! 🌟

We’re excited to share that we have spaces available at our early years setting from September! 🧸🌈

If you, or someone you know, is looking for a warm, nurturing and welcoming nursery environment for their little one, we’d love to hear from you. 💛

📣 Please share this post with your friends, family and anyone who may be looking for a nursery space. You never know who might be searching for the perfect place for their child!

If you’re interested or would like to find out more, please get in touch with us and we’d be happy to have a chat and discuss the spaces available and how we can support your family.

We look forward to hearing from you! 💕

🌟 Ready to Shine with myHappymind! 🧠✨

As part of our myHappymind School Readiness Programme – Ready to Shine, our children have been taking part in a variety of fun activities to help develop the skills and confidence they need as they get ready for their next big adventure! 🎒🌈

One of our activities was creating a Gratitude Picnic Blanket 🧺💛. The children drew pictures of the people they are grateful for, giving us lots of lovely opportunities to talk about the special people in our lives and why we appreciate them.

We’ve also been busy making our very own Kindness Crowns 👑💖, encouraging the children to think about what kindness means and the different ways we can show kindness to others.

We’re loving seeing the children Ready to Shine as they grow in confidence, kindness and resilience! ⭐️✨

🎉🎂 Birthday Spotlight – Happy Birthday, Shakira! 🎂🎉

Today we're celebrating not only one of our amazing team members, but also her birthday! Join us in wishing our wonderful Deputy Manager, Shakira, a very Happy Birthday! 🥳💚

✨ Meet our Deputy Manager and SENCO – Shakira ✨

Shakira has been part of the Good Manors family for just over 10 years. She first joined us as an apprentice and, through her dedication, passion and hard work, has progressed all the way to Deputy Manager. Throughout her journey, she has gained experience with all age groups and has previously led both our Baby Room and Preschool Room as Room Leader.

🌟 Shakira holds her Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification and is also our nursery SENCO, with a Level 3 qualification in Special Educational Needs Coordination, helping to ensure every child receives the support they need to thrive.

💛 "I love supporting and caring for children as they grow through their early years. Watching them reach new milestones and grow into confident little individuals is so rewarding. I also love building strong relationships with families and working together to give every child the very best start in life."

🌈 Outside of work, Shakira lives with her fiancé, Elliot, and their much-loved cats, Mumble and Honey 🍯. They are also excitedly preparing to welcome their beautiful baby girl in November – another little member of the Stubbington Lodge family! 💕👶

📚 When she isn't at nursery, Shakira enjoys getting lost in a good book and has recently made the switch to a Kindle, which she's been loving!

✨ We are incredibly grateful for everything Shakira has contributed over the past decade. Her kindness, knowledge and unwavering commitment to our children, families and team make her such a valued part of Stubbington Lodge.

🎉 Happy Birthday, Shakira! We hope you have the most wonderful day celebrating – you deserve it! 💚🎂🎁

🎉🎂 Birthday Spotlight – Happy Birthday, Louisa! 🎂🎉

Today we're celebrating one of our wonderful team members on her special day! Join us in wishing our fantastic Nursery Chef, Louisa, a very Happy Birthday! 🥳💚

✨ Meet our Nursery Chef – Louisa ✨

Louisa has been part of the Good Manors family for 4 months. Although this is her first role in a nursery setting, she brings a wealth of experience with her, holding a BTEC Higher National Diploma in Catering and having worked in and out of professional kitchens for many years.

💛 "I love listening to the children's happy, engaging minds and feeding them lovely meals."

🍎 Louisa takes great pride in preparing nutritious, delicious meals for our children every day and enjoys making mealtimes a happy and positive part of their nursery experience.

🏕️ Outside of work, Louisa loves practising yoga and heading off on camping adventures with her dog, Alfie. She has travelled to many different countries, including some solo trips, where she has enjoyed experiencing different cultures and meeting people from all walks of life.

🧁 A fun fact about Louisa is that she loves baking cakes and brownies and is always looking for her next delicious bake!

✨ We're so happy to have Louisa as part of our nursery family, keeping our children well-fed with tasty, nutritious meals every day.

🎉 Happy Birthday, Louisa! We hope you have a fantastic day celebrating! 💚🎂🎁

🎓✨ Preschool Graduation 2026 ✨🎓

On Saturday, we celebrated a very special milestone with our Preschool Graduation Party! It was a wonderful day filled with smiles, laughter, excitement and a few happy tears as we came together to celebrate our amazing children.

Our Preschool children did an incredible job performing their graduation songs and proudly showing everyone just how much they have learned during their time with us. Watching their confidence shine was a truly special moment for everyone.🌟

A huge thank you to all of our families for joining us on this special occasion and for choosing us to be part of your child's early years journey. It has been a privilege to watch each and every one of them grow, learn and flourish.💗

To our wonderful children – thank you for filling our days with laughter, joy and unforgettable moments. We are so proud of everything you have achieved and know you are ready to begin your next adventure at school.

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to our incredible preschool team for all of their hard work in preparing the graduation celebration and for their dedication in helping every child become happy, confident and school ready. 🟠🚂

We wish all of our graduates the very best as they begin this exciting new chapter. We know you will all go on to do amazing things! 🌟🎉💙

If you're planning to use funded childcare from September for the autumn term, this is a quick reminder that you'll need to submit your valid funding code to us by Friday 31st July.

* New parents to The Old Station Nursery Group and existing parents claiming funding for the first time should:
1. Apply to receive your funding code: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0x6Vcx0
2. Submit your code to us by 31st July: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0x6SWz0

* Parents currently receiving nursery funding for a child already in attendance at The Old Station Nursery Group need to reconfirm their eligibility status by logging in to your GOV account at UK Childcare Service: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0x6T3S0