Quick note to say a huge thank you to those that attended the meeting last week, I think it was very beneficial for all of us.

Summary:

• Room age will change:

Snowdrops 0-walking

Buttercups walking -2.5yrs

Pre school - 2.5yrs- 5yrs

• No chickens
• Improve transition process
• Improve communication at the end of the session, I will look into emailing daily records

I am in the process of doing next years fees hopefully they will be with you by the end of next week.

If you have any question please email on amber@avenue-nursery.co.uk

New Speed Humps

Please be aware that new speed humps are being put in on the exit road.

Christmas Bazaar

Another HUGE thank you to everyone who supported our Christmas Bazaar. We raised a fantastic £320 for new equipment.

Parking

We have had a compliant from the landlord that parents are parking outside their shed please can I ask all parents to park in our car park.

Many thanks

Reminder

Just a quick reminder about another busy week,

This Wednesday Mason Photography will be in, if you would like to bring siblings please let us know.

Saturday is our Christmas Bazaar, we have Sir George Young coming to open the garden at 12.30pm a long with a visit from another special person. We also have Smallprint who specialise in silver finger print jewellery, Jamie Oliver Home, Usbourne Books, Phoenix Cards and many other activities.

Can you help?

We would be very grateful for any donations of cakes or bottles of wine for one of our stalls.

Thank you so much to all of those that have already donated fantastic raffle prizes it is really appreciated.

We have spent the day finalising arrangements for the Christmas Bazaar on the 26th November which will coincide with the official opening of our garden.

Sir George Young will be cutting the ribbon at 12.30pm, we have lots of stalls and another very special visitor for all the children to meet. We are also hoping to release the nurseries new members. Any money raised will go towards more Community Playthings equipment www.communityplaythings.co.uk

We are looking for a Phoenix Card or similar representative please email me if you know of one.

Any help would be greatly received.

Amber

Children in Need

We are looking forward to seeing all the children dressed up this week for Children in Need. We hope to see lots of Fairies, Pirates and Peppa Pig's!

New Term

We have another exciting term ahead and lots of dates for your diaries.

We are planning a Christmas bazaar on 26th November to coincide with the official opening of our new garden.

Would you like to join 'Friend's of The Avenue' and help organise such events?

We also have Louise Mason coming in on Wednesday 23rd November to take photo's of the children. Louise specialises in Bespoke location photography-events-family portraiture. Louise's photograph's are fantastic and would make beautiful christmas presents. Please look at Louise's web site for examples of her work www.masonphotography.co.uk.

If your child does not attend on a Wednesday you are more than welcome to pop in for a photo shoot. Siblings and extended families are also welcome.

December brings more dates, we are planning christmas parties and hopefully a nativity, these dates are to be confirmed.

Can I please remind all parents that the estate roads around the nursery have a 5 mph limit, we have signs to go up and are looking into making a pedestrian walk way through the woods to the gate.

If you have any suggestions or would like to join 'Friends of The Avenue' please email me -amber@avenue-nursery.co.uk

Blood Sweat & Tyres....

All that hard work was worth it!!!

After another weekend of banging, digging and shovelling we have finished the main parts of the garden transformation. We are really pleased with how it has turned out and are confident that the children will love it!

 A huge thank you must go to Lyndsay for designing and organising everything, everyone that donated equipment, our lovely staff that volunteered (honestly) and most importantly, all you wonderful  parents (and grandparents!) that gave up your precious time to come and help us! it was very heartening to see so many of you turn up.

Thank you all again!
Amber

Just what the doctor ordered...

I'm sure this was a welcome sight, on Saturday night, for many who came to help with the nursery garden this weekend. I was left speechless (unheard of, I know) by the support we received it was an amazing turnout. Thank you for giving up your time the result of your hard work will make such a difference to lots of little faces tomorrow.

More piccies of the day and of the children enjoying their new garden coming shortly (or at least when I can type without aching!).

Caution...chickens crossing.

Just a quick reminder that the speed limit around the nursery is 5mph.

 Please drive carefully to and from nursery and be aware of the speed limits, we have had complaints about the speed of cars travelling down past Penton Lodge. Remember that visitors to the main house and the many animals that roam around the drive need to be safe.

Please note that if the limit continues to be broken, the number-plates of offending cars will be logged.

Many thanks for your co-operation.

Wellies at the ready...

Just a note to say all children are welcome along on our gardening party day. There will be plenty of planting and digging for them to do, however they do need to be supervised by parents or a responsible adult.

Remember you can come along at any point during the day; morning or afternoon, they'll be plenty to keep us going until at least 4pm.

Please bring in any 'loose parts' from the list on the newsletter at any time. We are collecting them in the large garden and then can see what we still need to get for Saturday the 15th.

P.S. If you like what you read, please click to follow the blog (top left hand corner) and leave us a comment....go on you know you want to...

You are invited to a garden party

We are holding a garden party 

on 

Saturday 15th October from 9am onwards

Now before you think...

it will be more like this...

okay, hopefully this...

We need as many hands, (big, small, young or old), as we can get to begin landscaping our outdoor space. 

If you are not sure what we are trying to achieve, please read all about it here.

However much or as little time you can dedicate would be fantastic. If you can't make it, don't worry you can still support us. Look out for the newsletter, coming out soon, with a list of bits and pieces you could have lying around that we need to enhance our garden. Subscribe to the newsletter

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible, just remember whatever we achieve will make an immediate impact to how your children learn outdoors so the more we get done the better. 

Mary, Mary, quite contrary...

...how does your garden grow? Now that we have found our feet in our new rooms, attention turns to our garden. In a setting such as ours surrounded by rolling fields and beautiful ancient trees, it seems such a shame to rely on plastic toys to play and learn with outside. Surely we can use nature to provide the fun? After all, when we go for a walk in the countryside, do our children wait patiently by our side until we find some brightly coloured park to start playing?

No they climb trees and logs. They jump in muddy puddles. They pick things up, look under them and ask how and why. They dig. So why, I keep asking myself, can't we have that?

I have spent some time on the internet looking at some truly inspirational nurseries and how they use natural resources to create exciting play opportunities. 

My particular favourites incorporate huge sand pits, running water features, places to hide and places to build. They use plants and rocks to make dinosaur lands and fairy gardens. Logs and stumps to balance and jump from, even places to build dens. 

This is a tiny oasis is in the middle of Edinburgh City centre and started off life as a slab of tarmac...lucky children...

All this and it is sustainable. The garden will only get better as time moves on and areas become established.

Still not convinced? Well would you rather have this.....

or this

  

Want to know more? Look here for some other ideas of what we want our garden to look like;

http://pinterest.com/lynds79/nursery-garden-inspiration/

All we need now is a little bit of help....

Highs and lows

What a roller-coaster couple of weeks we have had. The lows came just before we opened the new Ferns room last week as we received news that, due to the damp, we could not move in. Even worse we had to move as much of the new equipment out as possible so if anyone happened to pass the nursery a couple of Fridays ago, you would have noticed the lights on and several very tired ladies (some on their 12th hour at work) repositioning furniture late into the evening, you know know why. 

With the thought of around 20 or so children, eager to get into their new room, we ploughed on and were finally ready to open our doors on Monday. Thank you to all our parents who have waited patiently for this to happen and have been supportive when our plans have gone ary. With Ferns room now needing to be completely reconditioned and refurbished, we shall be sharing with Bluebells for a a while to come. Fingers crossed work gets under way sooner rather than later.

Along with the lows, came the highs. With Ferns and Bluebells moving out, Buttercups inherited their old room and quickly set about changing it into a messy room which now houses water, sand and creative areas. Now there is twice as much space to have lots of fun learning. 

Being new to the nursery I have enjoyed getting to know lots of excited, new faces and voices. It has been wonderful to see the room full of children exploring all our different workshops and learning to access their resources independently. We have also had fun making 'peg monsters' to help us identify where our bags and coats go.

Our focus now turns onto the garden and how to create a natural playscape for the children to learn in.

How amazing would that be?

Watch out for the new newsletter in the coming weeks updating you on our plans and asking for any 'loose parts' to support our outdoor learning. 

Sneaky Peek

Would you like to come and have a sneaky peek at our new room opening in September?

Will your child be in the preschool room in September? We'll be holding 'Meet the team' sessions in the last week of August where you can come in and check out the room and who will be teaching in it.

Not in preschool yet? Then come along anyway to see what we have been doing over the summer.

Look out for the posters in nursery advertising the dates and times.

Looking good

After agonising over every small detail for weeks, we finally ordered the furniture for the new preschool room. On a rather hot and sunny Monday afternoon, we excitedly received box upon box of goodies. Following plenty of unwrapping, fixing, hauling and ice lollies Fern's room finally started to take shape.

I have a passion for natural learning environments and wanted as much of our preschool room to reflect this. Cue lots of wood, wicker and eventually plants to create a calm atmosphere.

The space has been divided into smaller areas where children can

work without distraction and access their own resources independently.

Small world area. Any play animals gratefully received.

Cosy book corner...just needs one or two more 'homely' additions. If anyone has an old table lamp or cushions they don't need please bring them in.

Construction. Lovely wooden blocks for hours of building pleasure.

A few more tweeks and then just add children!!!

Exciting times...

Plans are well under way to get the new preschool room up and running for the start of September. Classrooms have been measured, carpets and flooring have been chosen and today Amber and I went down to Robertsbridge in East Sussex to visit the Community Playthings factory. During our visit we were able to spend time looking or rather playing with the toys, choosing furniture and even had a tour of the factory floor to see how all their products were made. With their expert help we came up with the perfect layout for our new rooms and are now excitedly waiting our order.

Working on the factory floor.

It was a fantastic day and the icing on the cake came when we were allowed to 'build' our own wooden lorry and bring it back to the nursery for our children to play with.

Some of the fabulous blocks.

The June 2011 newsletter is available now - to receive this and further newsletters please click on the link below and fill in the details..

http://eepurl.com/d_ZVv

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