Level 2 and 3 qualified staff 

Part time and full time.  Working between 7.30am - 6pm
Position available subject to references and DBS check.

Great training and progression opportunities, 50% childcare discount plus a pension scheme.

We are exciting to announce that this Gingerbread house, made and decorated by some of the pre-school children, has come 1st in the competition organised by Perkers of Witney! 

It was great to see so many children come to nursery dressed in their pyjama's and onsie's last Friday.

Thank you to our wonderful staff for donating all the cakes!

Thank you to all the parents and carers who kindly donated to Children In Need.

We raised a whooping £115.44!

Click here to view our lates newsletter Link

Thank you to all the Grandparents that joined us for Grandparents Day on Monday.

The children enjoyed showing them their rooms and our lovely garden before afternoon tea was served!

Please see our Facebook page for the photographs!

Newsletter October 2018

Dear Parents

The children at Stepping Stones have been making the most of the glorious weather we’ve been having lately, but I’m sure the cold and rain will be upon us soon, so if your child doesn’t have wellies and waterproofs (named), please bring them in soon.

We had a wonderful Grandparents’ Day yesterday with twenty two Grandmas and Granddads joining us for a delicious afternoon tea of sandwiches, scones and cakes! Thanks to all who joined us, especially those who came from a long way away e.g. the Forest of Dean and Portsmouth! I think judging by the look on the children’s faces, it was worth it.

Hannah is enjoying being back in the pre-school and is doing a wonderful job. She, Addie and Lindsay (Ladybird room) are planning to have parents’ evenings on 12^th and 13^th November between 6.00p.m. and 7.00p.m. Appointment lists will be available on the notice board in the main hall way nearer to the time, but if you would like to arrange a different day or time, please contact Jane or Bernadette in the office.

Following our Ofsted inspection in May we have been asked to follow up any absences therefore can we please ask that you send an email or phone in should your child not be coming into nursery for whatever reason.

Other notable dates:

Wednesday 31^st October - Halloween party, 4.00-5.00p.m, for pre-school and Ladybird room. Please dress up if you would like to. We will be enjoying a special Halloween tea with crafts and games. If your child doesn’t attend on a Wednesday you can either bring them along at 4.00 and stay with them or book them in for the afternoon.

Monday 5^th November - The children will be making colourful firework and bonfire pictures to celebrate fireworks night.

Week commencing 5^th November - Nursery Rhyme week! We’ll be posting a list of nursery rhymes that the children will be learning off by heart, maybe some of the more unusual ones for the older children. Please feel free to help your children practise them at home and even post videos on Tapestry. We’ll do the same.

Week commencing 5^th November – The children will be painting and making Poppies during the week, ready for Remembrance Day on Sunday 11^th November, making sensitive references to their significance.

Wednesday 7^th November – We will be celebrating Diwali by making candle holders and paper lanterns.

Friday 16^th November Children in Need – We will be fundraising for this worthwhile charity by asking the children to come to nursery in their pyjamas or onsie and donating £1 for the privilege. We will be baking cakes and selling them during the day for when parents/carers pick up children. Cake donations would be very much appreciated!

Thanks for reading!

Jane Kelly

We will be celebrating Grand Parents day on Monday 8 October 2018.

All children are invited to bring their grand parents along for afternoon tea at 4pm.

Please let Bernadette in the office know numbers and names.

Newsletter September 2018

Dear Parents

Welcome to a new term at Stepping Stones. There’s lots going on with all rooms learning about autumn and enjoying activities based on an ’All about me’ theme.

Some news about staff- the nursery continues to be managed by Jane Kelly with Lindsay Turner as deputy. Lindsay is also room leader of the 2-3 or Ladybird room.

Sian Hanley has returned three days a week to our baby unit, which continues to be led by Louise Kelly.

Helen and Addie remain in the 3-5 or Bumble Bee room with Linda and Jasmine helping out where needed.

Hannah Partridge will be returning from maternity leave in the week commencing 24^th September and will be working three days a week.

Sarah has sadly left us for a change in career. We wish her well.

Ellie Smart has joined us for her work placement from college. She will be here for two weeks and then every Monday until half-term.

Notices from the rooms:-

Ladybirds

Please make sure your child has a wetsuit, wellies and a drink bottle- all named please. Please check daily diaries, communication books and notice board to see if your child needs more nappies or wipes. If your child is potty training, make sure you supply plenty of spare clothes.

Bumble Bees

A reminder to parents not to bring toys that don’t fit in your child’s drawer, as they are more likely to get lost.

Please remember to bring named wellies, coats and waterproofs so that the children can enjoy the garden whatever the weather.

On a more general note, we have places available in all rooms, but our baby unit is very quiet at the moment as most of the children have moved to another room. Please tell all your friends and relatives what a lovely nursery Stepping Stones is and let them know that we have a special offer. Anyone whose baby starts here in September or October will have the first month half price! Please pass it on.

Thanks for reading

Jane Kelly

We are delighted to welcome back Sian!

Sian originally joined us back in 2008, taking maternity leave in 2015 when she had her daughter.

Sian left us earlier in the year to work for another nursery but after 5 months decided Stepping Stones was the place for her!

She will be primarily working in the baby unit but may be seen in the other rooms when required.

Her days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday throughout the year.

We will be having a picnic for the children leaving us who will be starting school in September.

This will be held at the nursery on Friday 13 July at 3.30pm.

Children who do not attend this session are welcome to come along and join in provided a parent/carer stays with them.

We will be holding our annual sports day for pre-school children on Friday 29 June 2018 at 2pm.

This will be held on the field behind the nursery.

Children who do not attend this session are welcome to come and join in provided a parent/carer stays with them.

We have lots of fun activities planned every day and children are encouraged to join in, however if a child does not want to join in an activity there are always lots of other things to do! As well as planned activities we have a wide range of art and craft materials, quiet places for book reading, puzzles like Sudoku and word searches etc. All these resources are accessible at any time.

We are also lucky enough to have a large garden area complete with a nature garden and bug hotel and the children are able to play in these whenever they want! In fact we encourage outdoor play as much as possible (so you can expect a few muddy patches on clothing – especially if they play in our large, well equipped mud kitchen!) All activities are weather dependent BUT we don’t let rain spoil the enjoyment of our garden so please bring appropriate clothing! J 

Prices available from the office and session times are flexible between 7.30am and 6pm.

For further details call or email us – Office 01993 708822 / steppingstones5@btconnect.com

Thursday 26^th July – Welcome games and a trip to the park.

Friday 27^th July Junk modelling and baking biscuits

Monday 30th July- Crayon paintings and butterfly cakes

Tuesday 31^st July –Nature craft and bubble painting

Wednesday 1^st August – Toast making and parachute games

Thursday 2^nd August –Sports in the park and magic marbling

Friday 3^rd August – Print painting and lolly making

Monday 6th August – Make, decorate & float paper boats and make rice crispie cakes

Tuesday 7th August – Sports/races and Pitta pizzas

Wednesday 8th August - Nature walk and crafting

Thursday 9th August – Races/sports and gingerbread men

Friday 10th August –Paste painting and scrapers, banana sprinkle cakes

Monday 13th August – Paper weaving and cheesy bread rolls

Tuesday 14^th August –Weaving (continued) and lolly making

Wednesday 15th August – Nature walk and a bug hunt

Thursday 16th August –Chalk painting and playground games

Friday 17th August –Hopscotch/skittles and biscuit making

Monday 20th August – Natural art and crafts and lolly making         

Tuesday 21st August – General paper skills crafts and peanut butter bears

Wednesday 22nd August –Printing and playground games

Thursday 23rd August – Wax crayon painting and cheese straws

Friday 24th August– Make and play with your own skittles and races in the park

Monday 27th August –Bank holiday

Tuesday 28th August – Papier mache and flapjacks

Wednesday 29th August – Nature walk and natural art

Thursday 30th August – Parachute games and making banana sprinkles

Friday 31st August – Crumpled paper printing and general art and crafts

Monday 3^rd September- Weaving and paper folding (flowers and bracelets) and biscuit making

We are pleased to advise that our Ofsted report from 14 May 2018 has now been published.

You can view the report by clicking on this Link

We are delighted to announce that following our Ofsted Inspection on 14 May 2018 we have been awarded GOOD!

The full report will be published in the next few days.

Thank you for those who have supported us over the last 5 months.

Welcome back to Lindsay and Keely.!

BABY UNIT - Caterpillars.

Louise is the room leader in the baby unit and is supported by Kayleigh and Samm.

Louise, Kayleigh and Samm (who is here on a Tuesday morning) are core staff for this room. 

Due to Louise and Kayleigh working school hours Jane and James takes care of the baby unit at both ends of the day with support of our other staff.

2-3 ROOM - Ladybirds.

Lindsay is the room leader in the 2-3 room and is supported by Keely, Linda, Sarah and Debbie.

Lindsay and Keely are core staff for this room.

PRE-SCHOOL - Bumble Bees.

Helen is the room leader in the pre-school room and is supported by Addie, Sarah, Linda and Debbie.

Helen and Addie are core staff for this room.

When not working all day Kayleigh, Keely and Debbie cover the lunch time period..

We do our best to keep the same staff in the same rooms for continuity however; at times we do have to move staff to other rooms to ensure the correct ratios and qualification levels are maintained..

Now that the weather is improving, fingers crossed, can we please ask that you bring in a sun hat and sun cream, both clearly named, for your child.

Please let the staff who you hand over your child to know if sun cream has already been applied before arriving at Nursery.

It would be very helpful if all children arrive with sun cream on :)

We have kindly been given some frogspawn for the children to watch develop into frogs which are located in the Pre-School - feel free to have a look when you are in there! The children have work sheets that show the different stages of development.

We were lucky enough to have a visit from Thames Valley Police who came and let the children see their police car and police buggy (the only one in Oxfordshire). The children were allowed to sound the siren and the officers talked to the children about being kind and helpful. We had dressing up and pictures to colour in and the children had a great time!

Happy Diwali! We are celebrating the Festival of Light with the children today :-)

We are decorating henna hands, having a light show, colouring in flags and pictures and talking about the holiday and the country.

Mandy our chef has also prepared (all homemade!) an Indian feast including samosas, poppadums', dips and an Indian dessert :-)

Steve our photographer will be at Stepping Stones to take the children's pictures on Wednesday 8th November and prints will be available shortly after - ready for Christmas!

Well done to all the children and staff this morning - James surprised everyone with a fire alarm drill and we are pleased to say we were all safe and sound at the fire assembly point in just over 2 minutes!

Dear parents and carers

Remember it’s the Bumblebee sports day this Wednesday 21st June and you’re more than welcome to come along and watch!

It will be at 2pm in the fields directly behind the nursery. As it is going to be hot this week we’ll keep it short and I hope everyone is ok with that!

Look forward to seeing you there and as always if you are going to take your child home afterwards and they should be at nursery please let a member of staff know!

Many thanks

James.

We had a fire drill this morning and are very pleased to report that we evacuated all 47 children in just over 1 minute :-) Well done to all the staff and children!

We are pleased to say that after our Food Standards Agency annual inspection last week we have once again retained our 5 Star food hygiene rating.

Many thanks to all those who donated for our Comic Relief cake sale and 'guess the weight' competition - we managed to raise £40.86 for many a good cause :-)

We will be celebrating St David's Day - we shall show children where Wales is in relation to where we are, talk about the country and do lots of activities relating to St. David and Wales. Hannah Smith in our Ladybird room has also been learning a song in Welsh to sing to the children!

We are celebrating all that is literal on World Book Day and we invite all children to dress as their favourite literary character.

We love promoting literacy in the early years (hence our lending library in the foyer for children to use) and to celebrate we will be giving all our children book tokens so they can choose a book to keep and cherish.

We look forward to seeing your costumes! :-)

We are having parent's evening on Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th February in our Ladybirds and Bumblebees rooms. This is a great opportunity to discuss your child's progress and the next steps we are working on. You will be able to book 10 minutes slots between 6pm and 8pm.

We have been celebrating the Year of the Rooster with various arts, group times and a Chinese meal. The children have taken home some wonderful creations!

A lot of parents and carers are not aware that strapping your child in the car seat whilst wearing their winter coats could be very dangerous - this link helps explain why ===> http://www.goodeggcarsafety.com/blog/winter-coats-and-car-seats-the-winter-facts-every-parent-needs-to-know.html

We had a great day yesterday celebrating all things festive - the Ladybirds sang for their parents and the Bumblebees performed perfectly in their Nativity play. Lots of raffle prizes were won, Christmas crafts made and mince pies consumed! We even had a couple of special visitors in their magical grotto giving presents to all the children!

Thank you to all the children, staff and families for making it such a wonderful afternoon!

Happy St. Andrew's Day :-) As well as being the patron saint of Scotland he is also the patron saint of Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople,San Andres Island, Colombia and Saint Andrew, Barbados!

It's Children in Need day tomorrow at Stepping Stones and if you want to come all 'spotty' you are more than welcome! We are having a cake sale throughout the day so please help yourselves and donate as much as you can to this worthy cause :-)

We are very pleased to announce that our Ofsted inspection in October resulted in a grading of GOOD in all areas.

The staff have worked very hard in the last year and we'd like to thank our families for their continued support :-)

We are now aiming for Outstanding at our next inspection!

A copy of the report can be found here.

Hannah, Ruby and the rest of the Bumblebees decided not to just throw away the pumpkin innards but instead made a delicious sponge cake with them! The children really enjoyed helping to weigh out and mix the ingredients :-)

Steve our photographer will be at Stepping Stones to take the children's pictures on November 16th between 9am and 4pm. The prints will be available to order online shortly afterwards so well in time for those extra Christmas presents!

We had a fire drill this morning and we are extremely pleased to inform you ALL children and staff were evacuated safely in just over 1 minute! Well done to all the staff and children - we are very proud of our efficient fire procedure :-)

Huge congratulations to both our Hannah's for gaining their Level 3 Childcare qualifications and to Holly for gaining her Level 2! We are just waiting for the official certificates for both Hannah's :-)

A big "welcome back!" to all the children who are returning from their summer hols and to all the new starters "welcome to Stepping Stones!" :-)
We also hope the children who left in the summer and have started school are settling in ok - we miss you!

Our Holiday Club children have had great fun making a den - they even made a junk model x-box to go in it! We've lots more activities planned throughout the summer hols including cooking on the fire pit, clay pot making and nature crafting :-)

Our Holiday Club children toasted their own tea tonight on our fire pit - we had a great time, it was just like camping! We've lots more activities like this throughout the summer too!

Hannah and Ruby put on a great leavers party this week! We had face-painting, a photo-booth, party games and lots of party food. A great time was had by children, staff and parents alike. We shall miss all of the children who start a new phase in their life and families too, some of whom we have known for many years. We are proud to have been a part of their early development x

We are on Facebook, giving regular updates direct to your phone or tablet such as diary dates, special events, things we have done during the day etc. - please 'like' us!