We now have a Covid-19 policy.  This will be displayed for parents to see within our foyer area and updated regularly in line with Governments latest advice.

It is fair to say that Covid-19 affects many aspects of our pre-school day and we have made some temporary changes to how we operate in order that we can protect your children and yourselves.

Changes include:

• When dropping off your children for the 9am start please use social distancing on the ramp, coming up on the left and returning down on your right.
• Could parents please enter, wearing masks, one at a time to ensure a swift but safe drop off.
• For now, James will sign you in at the foyer entrance, where your child will be greeted by their designated key worker. For children who may be upset or nervous on their first days back, it may be a good idea for them to come in last of all so that social distancing can be maintained, at all times.
• When dropping off your child, please ensure they have labelled coats, welly boots, changing bags (with spare clothes and pants or nappies, baby wipes etc) in a labelled large carrier bag and placed on the appropriate peg, marked with your child’s name.
• Once your child enters the setting our staff with assist with handwashing and from there the children are free to play.
• Please could parents/carers provide children with labelled plastic/wipeable lunchboxes and drinks bottles, in order that staff can clean them on entry and place them on our lunch trolley in the foyer. Also it is important to remember that as well as a healthy content (Ie no sugary foods or drinks) please remember that to limit the contact the staff have with the children’s food, it will be necessary to pre-open awkward packaging, slice grapes long ways to prevent choking and cut sandwiches in to bite sizes.
• When picking up your child, please follow the same guidelines to ensure social distancing, children will be brought to you by their keyworker where possible so they can share your child’s day and report back about the activities your child has taking part in during the day. Children wash their hands before being led out to meet you in the foyer and their carrier bag and contents will have been cleaned.
• The setting and its contents will be ‘fogged’ twice daily, and staff will be cleaning surfaces regularly throughout the day. Toys and resources will be regularly cleaned, and books will be used in rotation.

Children will regularly be encouraged to use our ‘snuffle station’ to keep their noses clean and wash their hands to learn about self-care.

Our creative, informative and interactive website is now up and running!  Anything you need to know about any of our services, from Little Bees to Beaufort Afterschool Club is on there and provides you with links to our social media pages, email address for each service and telephone numbers.

Our new Pre-school Email address is: enquiries@littlebeesnature.co.uk

Coming soon: our Facebook Parents Page:  Little bees Nature Preschool

And our Instagram account featuring ideas for activities and images of our garden as it develops through the year:  @little_bees_nature_preschool

Exciting new changes are afoot.  New beginnings have brought forward new ideas, keeping the best and changing and updating the way we do things to benefit our children and our setting.  Our vision is to create a nature-based preschool, placing nature at the heart of the program and using our wonderful garden space to its full potential.  This means more time spent outside, learning about the elements, animals, plants and insects as we work through the full EYFS with a nature rich curriculum.  We have teamed up with the allotments across the road and now have our very own pre-school membership where the children can visit, choose what they would like to grow, buy from the allotments shop and bring back to plant in our very own allotment area!   All planned activities will have dual goals of addressing each child’s development along-side inspiring, sustainable and environmentally friendly values.

When weather is against us, we have planned indoor nature-based activities including our new Nature Corner, where we will encourage children to bring in items of nature they may find such as acorns, fir cones or shells.

We are hoping that we will be able to grow our own produce for snacks eventually in line with our healthy eating campaign but until then we are scrapping our £15 annual snack fee in favour of a new system,  every Monday morning parents are encouraged to make a voluntary contribution of 50p towards snacks for the children for the week or donate an item of shopping such as; a bunch of bananas, a pack of rice cakes or a pack of cheese, anything topical or even better, something you have grown at home.