Teddy Bear Nursery

✨✨✨OUTSTANDING✨✨✨

We are so pleased to announce that we are officially an 'Outstanding' nursery.

Thank you to everyone who spoke to the inspector to share their thoughts about us, you were all so kind.

It has always been our mission to provide a truly fully inclusive, affordable nursery to the whole community and it is an amazing feeling to know we are successful in that aim.

A huge thank you to all our parents past and present for your ongoing support and Jenny Huyton I hope we've all made you proud.

The full report can be accessed from here:

https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50220361

Thank you Christine Snee for helping to raise money for the nursery, anyone interested in buying one please message nursery, speak to a member of staff or message her directly 😊

A huge THANK YOU to Joolery for our wonderful new uniform, we love them! Anyone looking for quality workwear and a fantastic customer service please contact Jules she is lovely and you won't be disappointed.

We’re so excited to announce that we’ve now started using Famly.

With Famly, you’ll be able to access pictures, videos, and announcements via the newsfeed, or your child’s profile. At the click of a button, you can update permissions, report sickness and holidays, pay your bill, and send direct messages to us whenever you need. At the same time, there’s a bunch of admin tools and support, that will give our staff even more time to spend with your children.

You should have received a separate Welcome Email from Famly guiding you through how to set up your Famly account as a parent.

When you get the email, all you need to do is to follow these steps:

Activate your free Famly account by following the guide in the Welcome Email which you will receive shortly. Your account will already be set up for you, and all you have to do is to create your personal password.

Confirm the info on your child’s profile. The first time you log in, we highly recommend that you go to your child’s profile and confirm that the information is correct. If anything needs to be changed, you can do this yourself directly on the profile or by informing us.

Set your account preferences and notifications. You can adjust your notification preferences within your profile settings on the app.

We’re looking forward to having you join the Famly with us.

For anyone who may be interested here are details of the kids eat free/cheap deals over the half term holidays

🐰 Kids Eat Free (or for £1) Easter Half Term 2023 🐰

More restaurants & Cafes will be added during the run up to Half Term here 👉 https://moneysavingcentral.co.uk/kids-eat-free

We are back open today 😊

****WE ARE CLOSED TODAY 8th MARCH****
Due to the overnight snow along with the forecast for the next 24hours, staff getting to nursery and the conditions on the roads around nursery, we have had to make the decision to close today.

We apologise for the inconvenience and fully expect to be open tomorrow, but will confirm at 7am tomorrow morning.

Xx

Please feel free to share far and wide! 🐻

Good morning and welcome to Christmas week at Teddy Bears!!
This week is party week and every afternoon this week we will be playing party games, drinking hot chocolate’s, having Christmas story and song times and really get in the festive spirit!
Over the weekend we had a visit from Santa who has left the children a gift which we hope they all enjoy.
Merry Christmas to you all, from all the ladies at Teddy Bears 🧸 # #

HAVE YOU GOT YOUR RAFFLE TICKETS?
Grab them while you can, it’s the final few days to get them. The draw will take place on Monday 12th December 2022.
Gift vouchers up for grabs include:
Elm Tree Beauty £10 voucher
Avon Valley Adventure and Wildlife Park £30 voucher
Rudys barbershop £16 voucher
The Entertainer £15 voucher
We have been supported by lots of fabulous small businesses and can’t thank them enough for such generosity in difficult times.
GOOD LUCK

****FREE WARM BREAKFAST****

This evening we have received notice regarding the severe winter weather warning which is now in place.

Therefore when children arrive we will be offering all children a free warm breakfast of toast and/or porridge, hot chocolate or warm milk from tomorrow morning until the end of term, next Thursday.
Children staying all day will also be offered warm milk or hot chocolate and a snack each afternoon.
❄️🥣☕️

🎄🎄🎄CHRISTMAS RAFFLE🎄🎄🎄
Tickets are still available for the nursery Christmas raffle. Sadly Kimmy isn’t our star prize (we love her too much!!) but we do have lots of other prizes kindly donated by local business including gift vouchers, toys and much more.
Tickets are £1 per strip and are available at nursery or contact a member of staff to organise buying some.
Draw will be made on Monday 12th December
All proceeds will go to the children’s Christmas celebrations with anything left over helping us to buy craft supplies.

*** Early Years Practitioner Vacancy ***
A rare opportunity to join our nursery team has come up.
See details below and contact us for an application form.

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty The Queen. Our thoughts and sympathies are with her family at this difficult time.

We are aware that the continued TV coverage may lead to questions being asked by your little ones. We know that talking about death and loss can be a very difficult conversation for us as adults.

BBC Tiny People have a very helpful article which may help you answer your child’s questions at an age appropriate level.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/talking-to-child-about-death/zmh88hv?fbclid=IwAR16OzOB8iu-uk-0hSxmK-arxw97Y55JjooRpErxfO6AgktjdPaiR3yIYio

It is less than 24hours before we re-open our doors for a new school year and we can’t wait to see you all again!
We hope you’ve all had a lovely summer and we look forward to welcoming old and new faces to our nursery family.
See you all soon
🧸

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
As we have expected since relocating to our lovely permanent home in 2015, there is now another attempt by the developer to change the use of the floors above the Social Club and Nursery from designated office space to residential dwellings.

As you can imagine we are opposed to this move as ultimately having residents living directly above us is not ideal, however there many other reasons this cannot be allowed to happen.

We are asking you to help us and our neighbours to fight this application by logging an official objection on the link below:

https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/webforms/planning/comment.html?refval=22%2F03211%2FCDCOU

Residential dwellings were deemed unsuitable during the initial planning application for the development, the office space condition was subsequently incorporated and resulted in the granting of consent for the entire site on which Mardons and the estate is based.

The offering of a community building that contained the social club and nursery along with two floors of office space, was designed to offset just some of the lost employment from the former factory site - this was officially part of a substantial Section 106 agreement and intended to benefit our community. We feel that the developer should not be allowed to alter this agreement for financial gain at the expense of that community.

Parking is one of the biggest concerns on the estate, the development has a real lack of sufficient parking, leading to congested roads and frustration from all concerned. This development intends to take 14 of the spaces that are currently used by the social club and occasionally by our parents during drop off and collection times and allocate them to the flats - these spaces are clearly defined in the parking/travel plan, and were accepted as part of the planning permission. They are specifically intended for office use during business hours and use by the social club on evenings and weekends. Reducing the available parking risks the social clubs viability, as we rent our portion of the ground floor from the social club this will impact our viability too. It will also no doubt lead to our parents being forced to park around the estate, which will escalate the parking issues for all local residents. We have always tried to ensure our parents do not upset our neighbours with their parking and keep to the designated spaces.
In addition any visitors to these flats would have no parking spaces whatsoever, there is no immediate on-road parking available to them. Any parking on the road would lead to unsafe conditions for children and parents when visiting nursery

The developer claims that despite marketing there has been no interest in the office space. We know that the office space was never marketed substantially, many people were unaware of it or how to enquire. Those that did enquire were either ignored or found the space (an empty shell that suffered from leaks for a number of years) to be in a condition that meant it was not financially viable, excessive costs would be incurred to fit it out and rental charges were generally considered unreasonable.

Those who viewed the property commented that the layout and services in the building clearly indicated that the intention was for residential use all along.

There have been interested parties and there still are, these need to be explored, there is no need for a change of use, there is a genuine lack of office space available in the area.

We would really appreciate your support on this matter. Commenting on the planning site is easy to do and takes just a few minutes, it’s a small gesture that could make a really big difference.

So today we said a final farewell to Jenny Huyton who after 42 years at nursery is hanging up her nursery hat!
Thank you to everyone who came to see her today and give her such a fantastic send off and who donated to her collection.
She has seen many changes from Westfield playgroup to St Peters Playgroup and finally as Teddy Bear Nursery.
She has nurtured, loved and cared for hundreds of children over the years and her legacy lives on in all the children she has loved.
We wish you well and a long, happy and healthy retirement.
X # # #

Thank you to everyone who braved The heat this afternoon for our school leavers presentation. We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we have enjoyed having them and how cute did they all look!!
We always feel it is the biggest honour and privilege to be asked to look after and care for someone else’s baby and we are so lucky to have spent time with all of you and your little ones!
We look forward to sharing our final day of term with everyone who’s in tomorrow, let’s have lots of fun!!
Finally, we hope you all have a fantastic summer and that some of the sunshine (if not the heat) stays!!!
We will be back on Monday 5th September.
With love and best wishes
Patrea, Jenny, Kimmy, Anthea, Lucy, Nicky, Becky & Nikita
X # # # # #

Spaces available for September, please share xx

There are so many illnesses making the rounds at the moment and it can be worrying to see your little one unwell. Follow the link for a handy booklet on what’s normal and when to call for help.

Hi everyone our lovely photographer Sarah will be at Nursery on Friday 24th June to take photos of our leavers. If your leaver doesn’t attend that day you will be very welcome to bring them in for a photo between 9 and 11 o clock. Thank you. xx

As many of you will be aware there have been cases of chicken pox, hand, foot & mouth and Scarlett Fever 'doing the rounds' in the local area.
We would also like to bring to parents attention that a number of children are presenting as 'not being quite themselves' or 'feeling tired' with no other symptoms than a high temperature.
Given that the next few days have to very warm we feel it would be best to suggest that we will not be able to give Calpol at nursery as we don't want to mask what they may be experiencing so that the correct medical help can be given if needed and any child feeling under the weather or in need of Calpol should stay at home.

Any queries please do not hesitate to ask and thank you all for your understanding.

Families eligible for free school meals will be provided with supermarket vouchers to the value of £15 per child to cover the upcoming school holidays.

Read our update here 👇https://newsroom.bathnes.gov.uk/news/update-free-school-meal-vouchers-upcoming-holidays

This week in nursery is Red, White & Blue week as we celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee. We have lots of fun activities planned with the children and they will all receive a special commemorative Platinum Jubilee Medal.
So wear your red, white and blue and help us celebrate in style 👑 ❤️🤍💙👑

As shared in our newsletter last week we are building a Wishlist on Amazon for resources we need. We are very grateful for any help anyone may be able to give. We will be adding to the list as time goes by. Please take a look and share with anyone who would be interested in helping us. https://amzn.eu/acmYwxr

Check out my list on Amazon We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so w...

If you live in B&NES and have a child or young person with a Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND), have you applied for their free Rainbow Resource card yet?

The card offers discreet verification of their additional need, and many venues across the area accept this card upon admittance providing the Parent Carer with free entry.

You can find out about eligibility for the card and where the card can be used over on the SEND Local Offer site on Live Well B&NES: https://livewell.bathnes.gov.uk/special-educational-need-or-disability-send/rainbow-resource-scheme

For anyone looking for ideas for the Easter holidays……

🐣 It's nearly Easter! 🐰
Come and join us for our Easter Sunday Funday.

Rocky's Magic Parties will be entertaining from 2-4pm on Sunday 17th April - Music, Balloons and Fun! Everyone's welcome, but parents/guardians must remain on the premises to supervise and be responsible for their own children.
There will be a tasty BBQ on sale, so make an afternoon of it.

Happy International Womens Day
Here’s to all our lovely Teddy Bear Ladies past and present and to the little ones they love and care for daily.
Hearing the stories about where ‘our’ children go in life is amazing, here’s to setting many more off on their journeys # #
Ps we haven’t aged a bit ladies 🤣

***STORM EUNICE*** - CLOSURE OF NURSERY
We have been advised by BANES that all schools and Early Years settings in the area should close tomorrow due to the rare 'Red Warning' in place by the Met Office. (More information can be found at https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings #?date=2022-02-18 )
All parents with children due in tomorrow have either received a phone call, voicemail or text/messenger message.
Please stay safe and take care
We look forward to seeing you all after half term
# #

Today was a very special day at nursery as it was Nikita’s 21st Birthday!! The children loved singing happy birthday and making birthday crowns to match Nikita’s!!
Happy Birthday Nikita from everyone at Teddy Bears, have a lovely day xx

Toddler Tales
Every second and every fourth Tuesday!
FREE and no need to book.
Radstock Community Hub and Library

Good Morning & Happy New Year from everyone at Teddy Bears!!
We hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and New Year.
We are back from today for the start of the new term & we look forward to seeing you all.
Xx

Yesterday the children had a lovely time at our Christmas Party.
We would like to thank Kimmy & Danielle for all their hard work and efforts in co-ordinating the donations & raffle prizes. Special thanks to Fosseway Co-op for their donation of party food, Jojo Sparkles Children’s Parties Bristol for her fab entertainment for the children and Muffins Bakery MSN for their kind offer to pay for her. Thank you to Tesco Superstore for the kind donation of a selection box for every child and Midsomer Veterinary Centre for their donations towards the children's Christmas presents.

The raffle raised £327.00 for the nursery so a huge thank you to everyone who supported us. Congratulations to our winners (a full list is posted on our front door) please help support the local businesses who have generously helped us.
Thank you all so much......
Boden, Farrington’s Farm Shop, Café & Farm Park, Dan's ice creams, Avon Valley Adventure and Wildlife Park, Palette & Pasture, Begin2Swim, Sugar Rush Confectionery Midsomer Norton, Norton Sports and Camping, Rudys Barbershop MSN, The Treasure Trove, Crayons from Sky, Arty Farty Baking Buddies, Huggenkiss BakeryThe entertainer toy shop MSN

****REMINDERS****
Any outstanding Sponsorship money for our Treasure Hunt last week should be handed in by the end this week (Friday 3rd December).
Raffle tickets are still available £1 a strip, draw will be made Monday 13th December. We have some fantastic prizes up for grabs. See member of staff on the door for tickets or send raffle money in a sealed envelope and we will send tickets home.
All money raised will go towards the children's Christmas presents and any money left over will help us by craft supplies for next year.
Thank you to everyone for your continued support

This week in nursery we have been sharing the poem Poppies and the children have made poppy pictures for rememberance week.
Today all the children took part in the National 2 minutes silence, we are so proud of them all!

Poppies, Poppies
Red and Bright
Remind us of the people who fight
To make our world so safe today
So we can work and live and play

Hi 👋
We hope you have all had a fantastic summer holidays and we are looking forward to welcoming families old and new on Monday!

Over the summer holidays we have had a revamp and we will be operating as one whole group from next week. Please take a look at the pictures below and share with your little one so they know what fun they can have with us!

The following procedures will be in place for drop off and collection.

Drop off:
*When dropping off we ask that parents enter into the cloakroom and place their child’s bag on the peg then bring your child to the inner door where a member of staff will take them from you.
*Coats will be kept in the main room for easy access so don’t worry about taking them off.
*Please can we ask that there are no more than 2 adults in the cloakroom at any one time.
*At this time we will continue to operate a staff only policy in the main room as we have found over the past year that the children all settle quicker, we will continue to monitor this and review regularly.

Collection:

*At collection the process will be the same parents will be let in to the cloakroom and children will be brought to the inner door by a member of staff.

* we will aim to have all the children’s bits and bobs on their pegs for the end of the day to help try and make collection as smooth as possible, please ensure everything they bring to nursery is named.

General Procedures:

* please understand that we will continue to operate a no toys from home policy, anything that is brought into nursery will be placed on the child’s peg in the cloakroom until the end of the day.

* we continue to ask that children are not given paracetamol or ibuprofen before nursery as this can mask a high temperature, we are currently unable to give paracetamol or ibuprofen during the day. Any child who develops a temperature during day will need to be collected.

We look forward to seeing you all very soon and we send our love and best wishes to all our past children heading off to school next week whether it’s reception or year 13, good luck to you all.

Take care
The Teddy Bear Ladies
X # # # # #

Good evening and Happy Summer Holidays to everyone.
We would just like to say a couple of things before we sign off for the summer!!
Firstly, thank you so, so much to everyone for all your lovely, cards, gifts and comments. They are truly appreciated and mean more to us than you will know. We always feel it is the biggest honour and privilege to be asked to look after and care for someone else’s baby and we are so lucky to have spent time with all of you and your little ones!
Secondly, it has been a VERY strange year! As we closed last July, it was in the hope that September would bring us some ‘normality’……a year on and we really do hope this September will be better!!
We would like to thank all the children, parents and their families for your understanding and care over the last year. You have all been nothing other than supportive with everything we have done and we thank you. Because of your huge effort to protect us and the nursery as a whole we are writing this today able to say we did not have to close or reduce sessions once and we know how rare that is!
Finally, we hope you all have a fantastic summer and that some of the sunshine (if not the heat) stays!!!
We will be back on Monday 6th September but keep you’re eyes peeled for sneaks peaks into our revamp for September!
With love and best wishes
Patrea, Jenny, Kimmy, Anthea, Lucy, Nicky, Becky & Nikita
X # # # # #

Please find below details of an update sent out through capture this afternoon.
Any queries or questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Xx

** NURSERY PHOTO'S**
Our regular nursery photographer Sarah will be back next week to capture pictures of the children.
Sarah will be in on Tuesday and Friday, if your child(ren) do not normally attend on those days you are welcome to drop-in and have their pictures taken, just let Patrea or Jenny know so we can add you to the days lists.