News and Events
Wellies Nurseries – Health Month
11th August 2025
Throughout the months of June and July, all nurseries spent time focusing on Health Month. This involved planning lots of activities around the following topics: Keeping Fit, Healthy Eating, Mental Health and Keeping Safe. The children LOVED experiencing a range of different activities to progress their skills. Some of their favourites were; making smoothies, healthy recipes, road safety, football, sports days, self-portraits, developing their friendships, visits from police, fire, dentist, Childsmile, surgeons, radiographers and vet, Gym bunnies, baking with Chef Lisa, talking about emotions, having spa days and much more. At KingsWellies, Health Month is our favourite time of the year! We absolutely LOVE taking part in all of our different weeks and had so much fun with lots of activities going on. The children at KingsWellies had a visit from the police to talk about how we keep safe and what they do day to day. We also enjoyed our visit from Ann, from child smile, who came along to show us how to brush our teeth and why it is important to keep them clean. Each room had loads of different and exciting activities going on including learning about healthy and unhealthy foods, lots of arts and crafts, how we keep safe when crossing the road, water safety and much more. We enjoyed Gym Bunnies with Lisa and also how to make healthy treats with Chef Lisa. This included yummy flapjacks! During this month-long topic, we developed our different skills including hand eye coordination, gross & fine motor skills, following instructions and balancing skills. At West End, the month of June is our favourite time of the year due to us focusing on Health Month. This consists of participating in fun-filled activities throughout the month that correspond with Healthy Eating, Keeping Fit, Keeping Safe and Mental Health. We would like to say a massive thank you to the Police, Fire Brigade, Ambulance Service and SAS Swimming who all came to visit us. Another special thank you goes to Aberdeen Sports Village who helped us learn all about how we can keep fit. We also loved being shown around the Sports Village too. At QueensWellies we also recently celebrated Health Month. This Is one of our favourite topics as the children gain so much from all of the visitors, trips and activities that take place within the month. Throughout the month we had visits from the ambulance service, a vet, firefighters, childsmile, a radiologist and a special visit from a service dog. We also enjoyed various educational trips to the sports village, the park and our local care home. Each room participated in lots of health inspired educational experiences which also included baking with Chef Lisa and Gym Bunnies. It was great to see the children having fun and learning lots of new skills.
Stay and Play Days
11th August 2025
Grandparents stay and Play! National Grandparents Day is 6th of October. We would love to invite all grandparents / friends to come along to see their grandchildren in nursery, play along with them and see what they get up to! We kindly ask that there is a minimum of 2 grandparents / friends per child. If grandparents are unavailable, please feel free to extend the invitation to another family member. This will be held between 3pm – 4:30pm. Please see below dates for each Nursery setting: KINGSWELLIES : WellieBabies – Wednesday 8th October WellieTots – Tuesday 7th October WellieBeans – Thursday 9th October WellieJellies – Monday 6th October QUEENSWELLIES: Wellie Bumbles – Wednesday 8th October Wellie Bee’s – Tuesday 7th October WEST END WELLIES: Wellie Cubs – Tuesday 7th October Wellie Badgers – Thursday 9th October
KingsWellies, QueensWellies and West End Wellies
11th August 2025
On 28th August we will be celebrating Makaton day. We have challenged the boys and girls to learning the song “True colours” in Makaton and invited Simone’s sister Megan in to enjoy a performance and judge our Makaton skills. We have also LOVED working with all of our extra-curricular teachers; French, Moo Music, Chef Lisa, Kids Rock, Flashdance, Yoga Totts, Rugby Totts, Gym Bunnies. We are developing a HUGE number of inter-disciplinary skills every day. We are also hoping to introduce Cricket Totts and Soccer Wellies soon too! Watch this space! Please contact us if you would like to know more about booking a space with us at one of our Wellies Nurseries. Please also contact us if you would like to book into one of our extra-curricular groups. Our teachers are extremely experienced and the children love having the chance to learn lots of new skills and hobbies.
QueensWellies
11th August 2025
The last few months at Queenswellies have been extremely busy, from graduation, to trips out and about, as well as lots of fun-filled educational activities. In June we hosted our first Graduation. The boys and girls had a great time celebrating with their friends. They enjoyed dancing, party games and even their own ice cream parlour. This was a special request from our graduates. We invited the parents in too. They really enjoyed seeing their graduate receive their certificate and enjoyed a slideshow of their time at Queenswellies Nursery. We wish our little graduates the very best of luck in Primary 1. We have enjoyed lots of trips out and about to Hazelhead park, the Maritime Museum, Tesco and our local community. We even paid a visit to WEW to enjoy a lunch together, followed by some yummy ice cream from their ice cream parlour. The children loved meeting the boys and girls at WEW and can’t wait to arrange more playdates with them and KW in the future. Queenswellies also recently enjoyed using the brand-new pizza oven. Making their very own pizzas from scratch, they rolled out the dough and chose their favourite toppings to go on each pizza. All the children in the nursery sat outside together to enjoy their yummy pizzas allowing the older children to help serve up some snack to the babies. In August Queenswellies, will also be hosting their very first festival – Bee In The Park – the children have been working together with their teachers to plan a fun-filled, festival-inspired afternoon to end the Summer before starting a new term. On Friday 26th September Queenswellies will be hosting their annual MacMillian coffee morning. This will be held in our outdoor classroom where parents can enjoy a hot refreshment and some lovely home bakes made by the children and staff. Rugby Totts is also starting up at QW on 20th August. Please email admin to sign up for this exciting class.
West End Wellies
11th August 2025
Over the past few months, the children at West End Wellies have been participating in a wide range of activities such as hosting our own Ice cream parlour for our Queenswellies friends. We showed them around our playrooms and garden and then enjoyed a yummy Ice cream. We have also dined out in our very own Pizza Parlour which we absolutely LOVED.The children made homemade pizza dough and then with a little help from our janitors, we used our brand-new Pizza Oven to stone bake our pizzas. These were delicious! We are absolutely delighted to announce that West End Wellies has received their very first Green Eco Schools Award flag. The children have all worked extremely hard to achieve this and we couldn’t be prouder. We have also had a recent visit from Ann from Childsmile. Ann comes to ensure that we are following the correct policies and procedures for brushing our children’s teeth. We are happy to announce that we have received a certificate for all of the children who continue to be Star Brushers! Very well done to all! On Friday 26th September, we will be holding our annual MacMillian Coffee morning. Both our rooms will be home baking some yummy treats for you all to enjoy. This will take place in our Den which is located in the room on the right as you enter the reception area. We cannot wait to welcome our parents and friends to this very worthwhile charity event.
KingsWellies Nursery LOVED our Graduation Celebrations
11th August 2025
This year we enjoyed having Leanne from Kidz Rock to host our party before enjoying some tasty party food. After all this, we then invited the parents to come in to see all of our little graduates receive their certificates and walk the red carpet! We have also really enjoyed taking part in our summer topics! This has included learning how to keep safe in the sun with activities such as how to apply your suncream and what to wear when outside. We have loved making our own yummy ice lollies, ice cream tuff trays and homemade smoothies! All rooms have enjoyed going to Kingswells Park, exploring Prime Four and playing lots of games at the forecourt. Please remember to put in suncream and a sunhat so we can continue to enjoy the sunny weather outdoors! At KingsWellies on Friday 26th September, we are holding our annual MacMillian coffee morning! All of our rooms will be baking some yummy homemade treats for you all to enjoy. This will take place in our reception area with the children helping to serve you their wonderful bakes. All monies raised will go to this amazing charity.
What have the KingsWellies, West End Wellies and QueensWellies Gang been up to lately?
11th August 2025
We have been very busy with Graduation planning and partying, visiting Hazelhead Park and lots of local parks, Health Month, bucket fillers, stay and play days, friendships and teamwork, daily mile, visits around the community, Happy Body Healthy Me Campaign, sun safety, Eco Schools and sustainability, Forest Schools, Rights Respecting Schools Awards, planting and improving our gardens and playgrounds, sports days, picnics, pizzas, BBQs, getting ready to go to school, learning Makaton, learning all about minibeasts, farm animals, animals under the sea, our communities, learning about Space, people who help us, lots of outdoor play, road safety, reading our book bug bags and LOTS more……
Wellies Nurseries Class of 2025
10th April 2025
Here are some suggestions to help prepare your child for starting school in August 2025: - Do they recognise their own name? If not make a sign together for their room and where they hang their jacket at home so that they are used to seeing it. - If you are going to teach them to write their name, please only teach the first letter as a capital. If they learn their whole name in capitals, it then takes time for them to unlearn it. The capital / upper case letter is the “name” and the lower-case letter is the “sound”. - They will not have the same child: staff ratios as in nursery. One teacher could have up to 30 / 33 children. Encourage them to be as independent and resilient as possible, from now on. - Remember school is different from when you went, they will be unlikely to have their own desk but they will be very used to the set-up as it’s similar to Nursery. - Label EVERYTHING! - Encourage them to open their own snacks so that they are able to do it at playtime and lunchtime. - Velcro shoes are best! - Don’t share your concerns with them and don’t talk about how they are your baby and they aren’t ready! They are taking their lead from you! - Can they put on their own jacket and zip it up? If not, start encouraging them now! - Can they use the toilet independently and wash and dry their hands independently? Now is the time to work on this. - When you find out their gym days, it’s best not to put them in shirt and tie on these days. - In Scotland all P1-P3 gets a free lunch. When you get a menu, pop it somewhere in the house and let them know what the choices are each day and decide what they will have together. - P1 teachers are angels in disguise, we promise you can trust them with your baby! P1 Transition We have around 45 children who will be leaving us in July/August to go to P1. These children will come from Wellie Beans, Wellie Jellies, Wellie Bees and Wellie Badgers. 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 • 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 visitsRoad safety and stranger danger talks • Focus on Literacy, Numeracy, 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, Wellie Bees and Wellie Cubs 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 (school leavers) • Stay and Play dates for parents to join us • Learning Packs / bags and libraries available to take home • 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
10th April 2025
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 will also be asking 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 asap so that we can get these in to the diaries for you. 14/6/25 – Class of 2025 Graduation Party Stay and Play dates for June for KingsWellies: Monday 9th June – Tots Tuesday 10th June – Jellies Wednesday 11th June- Beans Thursday 12th June – Babies Queenswellies Stay and Play- 04/06/25 West End Wellies Badger Easter Egg Hunt – 23rd April West End Wellies Cubs Planting Afternoon – 24th April West End Wellies Summer Sports Day – Date to be confirmed nearer the time.
Staff Training Update
10th April 2025
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: • Funding follows the child • Understanding child development • Neglect – children and young people • Leadership at all levels • SSSC Leadership Badges – ALL SMT and Supervisors • Practical management skills and expectations • Effective Interactions • Outdoor learning • Learning through Play • Azillo Training • SVQ Training – Children and Young People • Child-led play • Curriculum for Excellence • Realising the Ambition: Being Me • Children’s Panel Training (ongoing) - Emma Melvin and Kerryn McRae. WELL DONE Ladies! • Child Protection and Safeguarding