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ConnectedJubilee Staff News Spring 2018
After a busy Christmas, we weren’t expecting to be making it through the snow so close to Easter! A big thank you to those who were able to make it in safely to ensure we could remain open. Providing a service to our parents and children is of the upmost importance to us and if we can do so safely and remain open it can often be a lifeline especially to families who have parents in frontline roles. After ensuring the site was safe and accessible we managed to do so on the days when the weather was proving difficult.
We have seen some great practice from teams across all settings and we would like to show-case more of the wonderful work you have been carrying out with the children – so please don’t be shy and get in touch with our Marketing Team to tell them.
This month we have also put together some team values and goals for all sites to work to and we hope you find these helpful.
We also need your help to spread the word. We are looking for more qualified practitioners, apprentices and temporary holiday staff (as we approach the summer and will have holiday clubs and Summer School). If you know of anyone who would fit the bill for any of these roles – please do encourage them to apply. All the details can be found on our website.
We hope you all had a wonderful Easter break and we want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all your continued hard work which is greatly appreciated. We have received some lovely reviews from parents recently and we have included these in this issue – you can be proud of what you achieve.
With very best wishes,Jubilee HQ
Welcome
Dates for your Diary Bank Holidays (England & Wales) 2018
Friday 30th March: Good FridayMonday 2nd April: Easter Monday
Monday 7th May: Early May bank holidayMonday 28th May: Spring bank holiday
Monday 27th August: Summer bank holidayTuesday 25th December: Christmas DayWednesday 26th December: Boxing Day
Jubilee Jets: EASTER HOLIDAY DATES 2018 Tuesday 3rd April – Friday 6th April 2018 Monday 9th April – Friday 13th April 2018
MAY HALF-TERM DATES 2018Tuesday 29th May – Friday 1st June 2018
Jubilee Jets is open 8.00am - 6.00pm
Jubilee Cadets:
EASTER HOLIDAY DATES 2018Monday 26th – Thursday 29th March 2018 Tuesday 3rd – Friday 6th April 2018 Monday 9th – Friday 13th April 2018Monday 16th – Wednesday 18th April 2018
MAY HALF-TERM DATES 2018Tuesday 29th May – Friday 1st June 2018
Jubilee Cadets is open 8.00am - 6.00pm
Jubilee Gems & Jubilee Day Nursery:
Friday 30th March – 16th April - West Berkshire Easter Holidays (Gems)Tuesday 17th April – First day back for Jubilee Gems children
Tuesday 24th April - Badgers and Hedgehogs Parents’ Evening (JDN)Appointments can be made by parents with the team in the room from the week before.Thursday 3rd May – Woodpeckers Parents’ Evening (JDN)Appointments can be made by parents with the team in the room from the week before. Monday 28th May - 1st June – West Berkshire May half-term (Gems children) Monday 4th June – First day back (Gems children)
Friday 8th June – Sports Afternoon for Orchards and Treetops, Emeralds and Sapphires 2pm-3.30pm (JDN & Gems)For information, children who are not in Nursery on this day are also welcome to attend and participate. Please drop them in their rooms at 1.30pm
Saturday 14th July – Graduation and Family Fun Day, 11.30am-3.00pm (JDN & Gems)A special opportunity to say goodbye to all those leaving for school. All welcome to attend the Family Fun Day. We will need helpers on this day! Further information to follow. Children graduating should be taken to Treetops at 11.30am. Graduation ceremony for guests begins at 12pm with activities and picnic to follow.
Friday 20th July – Last Day of Term (Gems children)Monday 23rd July – Tuesday 4th September – Summer Holidays (Gems children)Wednesday 5th September – First day back (Gems children)
Working Together and Team Values
When we all work well together, we can all accomplish more than individuals do alone. It doesn’t always come easy. Working together requires tact, patience and a willingness to work effectively together. We think it’s important to have some common goals for Jubilee – and one thing we are all centred on is achieving the very best outcomes for the children in our care. We’ve put together some goals to ensure we can continue to create an exceptional business. Jubilee is truly unique and we should all feel proud to be a part of it. If you think there are other goals and values we are missing – come and put them on the team boards in the staff rooms. We would love to hear them!
Common goals as a team:
• Achieving the best possible outcomes for children• Exceptional, high quality learning and development
opportunities both inside and out• Listening to children and giving them a strong voice• Valuing staff members and their commitment• Inclusion and diversity• Parents as first educators• Working in partnership• Play, fun and creativity• A professional and committed workforce
It’s easy for us all to display negative behaviours from time to time. It turns out there’s a common theme to all of these behaviours — it’s all about communication. Because as humans we are all complex creatures, it’s really important to check in and see how things are going. If you have anything you need to discuss – come and see your Room Senior or a member of the Senior Leadership Team.
We are here to help!
We want to celebrate success and the work colleagues do – as practitioners we all put so much effort into working with the children and we want to celebrate success. Let us know what your area has been up to – email [email protected] and let Trish and Andrea know what you have been doing, along with some photographs so that we can share all the great practice that is happening across the sites.
Our ethos and work ethic / team values:
1. Listening to each other with an open mind with-out interruption 2. Sharing knowledge, information and experience with those who can benefit 3. Taking key decisions based on reasoning not rank 4. Expressing concerns only to those responsible for dealing with them 5. A responsibility culture not a blame culture 6. Basing our work on the ‘customer’ 7. Striving for continuous improvement 8. Behaving with integrity 9. Positively challenging dishonesty or destructive behaviour 10. No ego
The strength of the team is each individual member.
The strength of each member is the team. Phil Jackson
Smaller group work and the benefits for children
As the warmer weather approaches it’s a great opportunity to get outdoors as often as possi-ble and embrace all that we hold dear as a company and give the children as many outdoor learning opportunities as possible. Children really benefit from smaller groups and staff can then repeat activities throughout the day with different groups. It gives children time to fully experience an activity and for quieter children, the time to do things at their pace when they are ready. For other children, it can provide an opportunity to extend their play and spendtime with practitioners.
Remember – it also eases pressure for you as staff members. A room of twenty split into two groups might become two small groups of 12 and 8. With pre-school children, one well-planned activity can last all day when set up in an outdoors area and approached in ‘bitesize pieces’.
Please do use all outdoor areas we have on offer – the woods, the stream, farm, paddocks and gardens are what make for a unique and happy learning experience for the children.
Safeguarding Training
Sian provided an informative training session to staff recently. Please continue to refresh your knowledge of the safeguarding policy for Jubilee. If you are unsure of anything, you must come and chat to one of the Senior Leadership Team who will be able to help you. We hope you all found the training useful. If you were unable to complete the training, we will be revisiting this again within the next six weeks. All staff are required to complete safeguarding training annually as part of the requirements within the statutory framework.
Health and Hygiene
We have a number of procedures which are essential for every member of staff to follow with regard to hygiene. Here are a few useful points to look through but please do re-familiarise themselves with practices which may be specific to your site should you be unsure. Thank you!
Meal time routines: all staff and children must wash their hands before every meal / snack time and all staff must wear aprons. Please use the green bowl with hot soapy water to clean the tables before meal times and refresh the water before cleaning the tables and chairs after meal times. After you have washed with hot soapy water you then need to wipe the surface with antibacterial spray. Please remember the floor should be washed if the meal is particularly messy and at least three times a week. Staff aprons and tabards are to be washed daily.Please ensure any face cloths used to wipe children’s faces are warm and you explain to children what is happening.
General room hygiene: please regularly wipe toys after use - particularly in the younger age groups (a good time to do this is while the children are sleeping).When noses are wiped please encourage the children to use the antibacterial foam and wipe and empty tissue bins daily.
Nappy changing: After every nappy change the whole area should be wiped using a red cloth rinsed in hot water, anti bacterial spray used afterwards and baby change roll to be used in all areas when children /babies have soiled.
Stock Levels: Please ensure that if you notice stocks are running low that a member of the Senior Leadership team is informed so that we may re-order before things run out.
Important Health & Safety Info
A reminder to everyone that you need to have a travel cup with a screw top lid (for additional safety). A reminder to staff that chil-dren at Jubilee Day Nursery should not accompany you to the staff room. Any staff who are on a site where there are stairs – please ensure you wear slippers or some form of grips on soles. Socks and stairs are slippy!
Lone Working Policy
We have introduced a lone working policy for staff which everyone should take note of. Copies of this will be available in all rooms and across all sites alongside being in our policy folders.
• Good communication ensures that all staff are aware of each others’ intentions and whereabouts. Staff should always inform team members where they will be on the site.
• When lone working, staff will always carry a phone. If they are within the building they can use internal phones and if going into the gardens then they can take one of the ‘woods’ mobile phones.
• When outside and working alone, staff members will ensure that they take a ‘Go Bag’ with them that has all essentials in it that they will need.
• Management are supernumerary and are always available and within the nursery and will therefore carry out regular checks on lone workers.
• Staff must hold a full and relevant ‘Level Three’ qualification to • work alone and correct ratios must be maintained at all times.
• Staff are aware that the safety and wellbeing of the children is paramount and consequently must use their initiative when attending to minor occurrences.
• Before entering the area that the practitioner will be taking the children to a visual risk assessment is to be carried out.
Medicine Administration Policy
Please find attached the most recent version of the medicine administration policy which all staff should take note of and should be adhered to at all times.
New arrivals and old friends return
Jubilee Day Nursery
We are very much looking forward to welcoming back Tash in April, Amy in May and Emily in June as they return from maternity leave.
We are also very pleased to be welcoming Jo to the JDN team very soon. Jo is arriving from a large Pre-school in Reading to work as a practitioner in Treetops.
Jubilee Gems
We give our very best wishes to Bethany who is soon to embark upon her maternity leave. We hope you have a little time to rest before your new arrival enters the world Bethany and we can’t wait to see you for a visit!
The Gems Team are very pleased to be welcoming Emma to Little Sparkles and Rachel who starts with us after Easter in Pre-school. It’s great to have you on board!
Welcome!
Felicity has joined us in Hedgehogs, we hope you are settling in well and we wish to welcome you to the team.
Anniversary Milestones
A number of our staff have reached some key milestones since our last issue. Congratulations to you all – we are delighted to have so many of the team who have grown with the company!
Congratulations to Lesley and Sian on being with Jubilee for 15 years. Thank you for everything that you have done and continue to do as you steer the ship!
Congratulations to Sam Ross and Jamie-Lee Bailey who have been with the company for ten years – we are so very grateful to you both for all your hard work.
Fabulous Phonics
Jess in Treetops at Jubilee Day Nursery has put together a couple of fabulous videos to help parents of pre-school children as they get to grips with the early steps to reading. These are great for practitioners to watch and learn from too – so do take a look:
https://youtu.be/_pjQOT0RPIg https://youtu.be/HmL4QLbMNkA
World Book Day
Thank you to everyone for making so much effort for World Book Day – we loved all the staff costumes and the work you’d put into them. It was a real treat for the children to see you all!
Introducing the Archway Team
There are lots of staff at Jubilee and not all of you will know the wonderful team who work for Jubilee HQ at Archway House (on the A4). If you have any administrative questions that can’t be answered by your Senior Leadership Team at the Nursery one of our team at Archway will almost certainly be able to help. You can contact them on 0118 971 3840.
Gillian is our Accounts & Payroll Manager:
“If you have any queries regarding holidays, salary / pay-roll, sickness absence, maternity leave or salary – I’d be delighted to help you. You can contact me on the num-ber above or by email: [email protected]”
Vicky is our Admin Officer:
“I deal with all the new applications, admin at the nurseries and registers. I am jack of all trades! If you need info on day sheets, administrative info or I can help with resources, you can speak to me. I go to both nurseries first thing in the morning so you can catch me there or by emailing [email protected] “
Josie is our HR & Admin Manager:
“If you need assistance with childcare invoicing, Perkbox enquiries, contracts or staff files, I’m the woman who can help! If a parent needs help with their invoicing etc and a manager is not available, you can always redirect them to me on the number above. You can email me at @[email protected] “
Trish and Andrea are our Marketing and PR gurus!
“You will often see us at each setting and many of you will already know us. We produce all our printed publications, websites, social media pages, external advertising, publicity, parent and staff communications. We love to shout about how fantastic Jubilee is (and we have very loud voices!), so if you have ideas about publicity, want to ask us questions about newsletters or websites, have some inspiring ideas for use on Pinterest or Facebook or would like to contribute to our newsletters – please come and find us! We love to hear from you and incorporate your ideas into all that we do. You can also email us at [email protected]”
Jubilee Day Nursery website has now launched into action! The website is complimented by our new branding. There are 2 new portals one for parents and the other for staff! Staff can now access their shifts online (they will still be on the board in the office, online is just an additonal way!) read through our policies, research into leading practitoners and much more...
The Marketing Team are very excited about launching Jubilee Gems and the Jubilee Jets new websites very soon and prospectuses will follow for the nurseries.
All children have now been put live, which means that all parents are now able to log on to view their child’s journal. It’s great to see all of your lovely observations; we have had some great comments and feedback from the parents too!
Key points to remember:-
• Your key children must have a new next step. Every child must have at least one observation per week which links to the next step which you have set for them. The Next Steps are the most important observations; this is what helps the child to move forward with their development in the chosen area.
• There have been some amazing group observations recently. When writing a group observation it must be written generally about all children who are taking part in the activity and nothing that personally links to one child. E.g If one child says something specific you should make a separate observation because other children may be then linked to areas of learning which are not relevant to them.
• Please remember to make the observation as detailed as possible.
• Remember to use the characteristics of effective learning; they are just as important as the 7 areas of learning.
• When referring to a member of staff in an observation please ensure that we use the word practitioner and not carer.
If you feel you would like any further help with Tapestry, please contact either Sam or Sian at, [email protected], they will be more than happy to help.
Pretty Muddy – we need your support!
The Jubilee Crew need your help! On Sunday 3rd June in Windsor some of the ladies are taking part in Pretty Muddy. Please donate to this wonderful charity and if you would like to participate or come along on the day and cheer us on that would be great. Thank you for your support!
To donate go to https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/team/the-jubilee-crew
Rave Reviews!Here are just a few of the latest reviews we have received recently. Keep up the great work everyone!
Jubilee Gems:
‘My child loves this place and literally smiles from ear to ear when he arrives each day. He has come on leaps and bounds! Best nursery ever!’
Jubilee Day Nursery:
“My son has attended Jubilee Day Nursery for 18 months and I can’t recommend it highly enough. He settled quickly when he joined and has loved every element of Nursery life. Jubilee’s daily activities and a big emphasis on getting the children outside and engaging with their natural surroundings suit our active 2.5 years old down to the ground. The team are caring and provide him with a home from home. I couldn’t ask for more. Full marks Jubilee.”
Jubilee Cadets:
‘My little man went for 2 days this week and loved it! Has told me he would like to go again today instead of our day out to the beach with his bf! Have told him will book days for the next hols, very happy and smiley! Great place, great staff and great fun! Thank u all x’
Jubilee Jets:
‘Amazing space for the children to enjoy. My two love the activities, have made new friends and can’t stop chatting about the great day they’ve had!’
Jubilee HQ! Archway HousePadworth BerkshireRG7 5HR Telephone: 0118 971 3840 Email: [email protected]
Our duty to safeguard and protect your child / children is of the greatest importance to us. As parents and carers, there are ways you can help. Please ALWAYS sign your child / children in / out of nursery and ensure that gates / doors are locked shut behind you. For the welfare of all children in our care, please do not be afraid to challenge anyone you do not know, or recognise. If you are questioned by another parent, please do not be offended! Should you see or hear anything which causes you concern, please speak to a member of management.
Need some inspiration?
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/JubileeNursery/https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Jubilee_gems/
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