News and Events
Autism Toolbox
17th April 2024
Please find attached the link to an excellent Autism Toolbox. This website is full of activities, not just related to Autism but to a range of additional support needs. We do hope that you find this information useful. https://www.autismtoolbox.co.uk/
The Prince’s Trust and Wellies Nurseries - Partnership Working
17th April 2024
The Prince's Trust helps people aged 11 to 30 to build confidence, get a job or launch a business. We are delighted to have recently begun an excellent partnership with The Prince's Trust whereby we have welcomed young people into our nurseries. This has helped THEM to grow in confidence, try new things, meet new people, learn from people who have worked their way up and build essential skills for life and work. It has helped US by providing us with future employees who are passionate about their careers in childcare and who have come in and WOWED us as employers. We are delighted to have already welcomed two new employees to Wellies Nurseries as a direct result of this excellent partnership opportunity. We also continue to work in very close partnership with Working Rite Youth Employment Charity, Winning Scotland and NESCOL. Through all of these organisations we are able to provide employment opportunities for young people throughout the North East.
P1 Transition
17th April 2024
We have around 60 children who will be leaving us in July/August to go to P1. These children will come from Wellie Beans, Wellie Jellies and Wellie Bees. We have lots planned to make this transition process as easy for them (and parents) as possible. This is a very exciting time for them and we ask all parents to be positive and enthusiastic. Activities include: • Visits to their own schools (schools to provide dates) • Visits by their new teachers to Wellies Nurseries (we have already invited them all) • Visits to Kingswells School and Playground • Practicing how to line up, get our own coats on and zip them up, change our shoes, pack our bags and eat our play piece independently • Can we write our own names? Can we recognise our names? Can we hold a pencil? • Developing our independence and resilience • Can we use the toilet independently and wash and dry our hands by ourselves? • Working with our extra-curricular teachers to develop lots of new skills • Completing our Wellies Life Skills Awards • Bus journeys and lots of community visits • Road safety and stranger danger talks • Focus on Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing • School Uniforms and changing independently for PE • Rules, Routines, Boundaries and Friendships • Looking at our school websites with our friends • Wellie Beans, Wellie Jellies and Wellie Bees spending lots of time together to discuss P1 and preparation for school • Individual Learning Journeys sent to each school before the end of term • Lots of “School” stories and “School” topic activities • Key Workers to contact each school to pass on all relevant individual information • Parent meetings with our Key Workers / Supervisors • Stay and Play dates for parents to join us • Learning Packs / bags and libraries available to take home • Digital Learning packs sent home – THANK YOU Vicki • Parents invited to visit each school (schools to provide dates) • Environmental print walks • Graduation!! We can’t wait for our Graduation committee to start planning the party of all parties! Please let us know if we have missed anything. Have you got any other ideas as to how we can make this exciting process as easy and as smooth as possible?
Parent Engagement Events
17th April 2024
We would like to invite our parents to join us for a variety of parent engagement events this term. Please also be reminded that all parents can request a meeting with your child’s Key Worker / Supervisor at ANY time. Please just contact our Admin team who will arrange this for you as a matter of priority. We have also asked all of our P1 parents whether they would like to book in a meeting prior to their child leaving to attend school. Please let us know by 12/4/24 so that we can get these scheduled in for you. 20/07/2024 – Class of 2024 Graduation Party Stay and play days – Dates as above
Staff Training Update
17th April 2024
All staff continue to work through our Collegiate and Continual Professional Development Calendars and are also able to access a great number of courses and training opportunities through digital formats. Training which is ongoing during this term includes: • Leadership at all levels • Management and Leadership – ALL Supervisors • SSSC Leadership Badges – ALL SMT and Supervisors • Gender Bias • Trauma Informed Practice – training with Aberdeenshire Council Educational Psychologist for ALL staff on 25/4/24 • Practical management skills and expectations • Outdoor learning • Learning through Play • Azillo Training • SVQ Training – Children and Young People • Child-led play • Curriculum for Excellence • My Active World • Growing My Potential • Realising the Ambition: Being Me • Children’s Panel Training (ongoing) – Kerry and Emma Melvin • Communication in Young Children • Impulse and Emotional Regulation • Child Protection and Safeguarding
Wellies Nurseries – Updated Website
17th April 2024
Please see our updated website on www.kingswelliesnursery.com You will find lots of details about our new West End Wellies Nursery, as well as videos of all of our rooms, in each Nursery. Please provide us with feedback on our website. This helps us to continue to improve. Please also LIKE and COMMENT on our Facebook posts. Staff take a great deal of time on a weekly basis to post so that you can see what your children are up to on a daily basis.
West End Wellies Nursery
17th April 2024
As you are aware, we have recently purchased a new nursery building in Mannofield, Aberdeen. This is right next door to both the Squash Club and Aberdeenshire Cricket Club. Work has commenced on our new building and we are hoping to fully open around August / September 2024. We are very excited for this new opportunity. Please contact us if you would like to know more about booking a space within West End Wellies. We will keep you updated with all progress. We have large floorbooks in both receptions showing “before” photos, plans and ideas for improvement to West End Wellies. Please give us your ideas, we want to be as creative as possible. We currently have spaces available for all ranges at KingsWellies, QueensWellies and West End Wellies. Please contact the office for additional information on 01224 741175 or admin@kingswelliesnursery.com
What will we be learning and thinking about in term 4?
17th April 2024
Over the next few weeks, we will be focusing on a variety of topics in our playrooms. These will include: • KINDNESS – Are you a bucket filler or a bucket dipper? We will be working on promoting Kindness • Writing our names and learning lots of rhyming words • Improving our outside environments • Improving our inside environments • Discussing our new nursery and what WE would like to see there • Developing our Enterprise in Education skills • Working with our amazing Extra-Curricular teachers – Gym Bunnies, Moo Music, Kids Rock, Chef Lisa, Flashdance, French, Yoga Kids, Rugby Totts. Please contact our Admin team if you would like your child to join Gym Bunnies, Flashdance, Yoga Kids or Rugby Totts. These are all AMAZING additional experiences for your children to enjoy within their nursery day • Child-led improvement groups – Our Eco Group, Kindness Group, Playground Improvement Group, Bucket Filler Group, Charities Group and Graduation Group will keep working hard to improve our nursery. • Allotment planting, wellie planting, planting our pots and hanging baskets – would any parents or grandparents be willing to come in to help us with this? • Life cycles • 2D and 3D shape – lots of junk modelling letting our imaginations run wild. Please give us your household junk! • Seasons, Summer and sun safety – please remember your sun cream! • The Scottish Daily Mile - we aim to jog, run or walk for up to 15 minutes every day! • LOTS of Reflection Time in our interest / colour groups; talking about our learning and what we would like to learn with our key workers then reflecting this is our floorbooks • Working on our floorbooks, talking tubs and thinking trees • Outdoor play – barbeques, pizza oven, mud kitchens, sensory walks, environmental print walks, visiting the nature reserves, water walls, minibeast hunts, dens, forest schools, Eco Schools, Mount Everest and lots more • Grow well choices – making healthy decisions • Makaton – we are getting good at using this sign language! Simone is an amazing teacher! • Transport and Road Safety • Reading and studying our books from our Book Bug Bags • Visits out and about in the community – using the bus • Visits from our new P1 teachers • Visits to some of our schools • Rules and routines • Getting ready for school • 3RD April – World Autism Month. We have an excellent Autism Toolbox that we will send out to all families • 10th April – National Siblings Day • 12th – Space Flight Day • 15th April – KingsWellies 9th Birthday Party! • 22nd April – Earth Day • 23rd April – St George’s day (England) • 25th April – World Penguin day • 27th April – Tell a story day • 29th April – International dance day • 30th April – International jazz day. • 30th April – National honesty day • 1st May – World Laughter day • 1st May – Mother Goose day • 7th May – Space day • 10th May – National vegetarian week • 14th May – World migratory bird day • 15th May– International day for families • 20th May – World Bee day • 21st May – KW Quality Assurance Visit from Aberdeen City Council • 23rd May – World turtle day • 24th May – Scavenger hunt day • 25th May – National tap dance day • 27th May – Stay and Play at KingsWellies, Babies and Totts, 2.30pm until 4pm • 28th May – Stay and Play at KingsWellies, Beans and Jellies, 2.30pm until 4pm • 29th May – National biscuit day • 30th May – Bike week • 31st May – No tobacco day • 1st June – World milk day • 1st June – Say something nice day • 4th June – Stay and Play at QueensWellies, Wellie Bumbles, 2.30pm until 4pm • 5th June – Stay and Play at QueensWellies, Wellies Bees, 2.30pm until 4pm • 5th June – National environment day • 6th June – QW quality assurance visit from Aberdeen City Council • 7th June – National food safety day • 8th June – Global day of parents • 8th June – World ocean day • 8th June – Graduation Photo day for our 2024 graduates • 13th June – Healthy eating week • 15th June – Nature photography day • 16th June – Father’s day • 19th June – National picnic week • 20th June – Longest day • 21st June – International day of yoga • 21st June – World giraffe day • 21st June – Make music day • 29th June – Children’s art week • 29th June – International mud day • 1st July – International joke day • 20th July – Class of 2024 Graduation party. Information has already been sent home • Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing – LOTS of exciting learning opportunities.
Children as Active Learners: Books for bereavement, loss, grief, stress, worry and separation
17th April 2024
We have lots of different books available in nursery. Please just see a member of staff if you would like to borrow any of them. We also have child lending libraries, parent lending libraries, kindness bags, bucket filler bags, literacy bags, numeracy bags, health and wellbeing bags, hamster bags and Patsy / Tony bags which can all be borrowed and used at home to further develop your child’s learning and engagement. Please just ask a member of staff who will be more than happy to help. Vicki from the Wellie Jellies room, has also recently very kindly made up a new digital resource to support those children who are transitioning to P1. This information will be sent home soon to gauge the interest of these parents. THANK YOU Vicki!
Staffing
17th April 2024
Welcome to a number of new staff who have all recently joined us as support staff and practitioners within our rooms. Staff photos can be seen up in our reception areas. We are delighted to welcome such dedicated staff to our teams. Please also see our Facebook posts where we keep you abreast of staffing changes and all that is happening on a day-to-day basis across all rooms within Wellies Nurseries. We realise that there have been lots of staff changes recently. We have had to move some staff to new rooms in order to ensure that we have a good balance of old and new staff in each room. We have considered all room moves very carefully. However, our aim is to ensure consistency as much as possible for our children, in their everyday lives. Although some children may experience changes in their Key Workers, we will ensure that this is done very sensitively and over time. Staff will keep you abreast of all changes. We are also continuing to recruit for our new West End Wellies Nursery so you will see lots of new faces over the next few months, as we train all staff ready for opening.