The Jays Day Care Nursery, Pre-School and Outdoor Learning

Welcome back to a new term at The Jays. We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and we hope the year ahead brings some sort of normality.

We have had some lovely new children and their families join us. We would like to welcome Jemima, Matthew, Poppy, Austin, James P, Hanna, Arthur, Tommy, Charles, Benjamin and Toby. We hope everyone has settled/settles well and enjoys nursery life.

We would also like to welcome some new staff. Danéll has been with us a few weeks and you may already have met her. The children love her already. We would also like to introduce Jack and Heather who you will meet over the coming weeks. We have realised that with the new regime regarding pick-up and drop off it is not quite so easy to introduce new staff. Apologies for this, we will endeavour to introduce them to you at the door once they have settled in. We feel sure they will fit in well with our lovely team of staff.

Lydia and Clare are settling into their new role of Deputy to Jacqui and Gill is happily plodding on in her role in the office.

We would like to congratulate those families who are expecting a new addition in the not too distant future. We do need to let you know that we have had an extraordinary number of bookings for all our rooms and our baby room is already heavily booked from January 2022. If you would like to book your baby in and would like days guaranteed, please do book as soon as possible. 

We are updating and reviewing things everyday and taking onboard guidance that we receive. For the time being we will be continuing with our enhanced cleaning regime and following our drop off/collection procedure. We have also had to make the decision to ask parents not to bring in food from home i.e. birthday cake. We can accept shop bought cakes in their packaging. 

Sickness and Illness

Many thanks for everyone’s understanding with our requests regarding illnesses. We appreciate you not bringing in children with coughs, colds etc. particularly during this difficult time. If they are suffering from sickness or diarrhoea our policy is that they are not to return until 48 hours after their last bout. Many thanks again for your cooperation in this matter 

Water Bottles

All Pre-school children are required to bring a water bottle with them. A sports bottle is best as the children find them easier to drink out of. This is so that they are able to access a drink whenever they want one. We prefer for these to be filled with water as we encourage a healthy diet and find this a healthier option to juice and also, other children are very quick to realise if anyone has juice and will try to drink it!

The bottle should be labelled with your child’s name. Please ensure this is taken home and washed at the end of the day. 

Many thanks to all of you who have helped raise money for our outdoor learning space. We have raised £535 so far! 

If you are not already signed up to help, please do take a look – through easyfundraising you can help us raise funds simply by doing your everyday online shopping with over 3,300 big name retailers like Amazon, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com, eBay, Boden, and M&S. 

Every time you shop, we receive a small donation to say ‘thank you’ and it’s completely free too! We want to raise as much as possible so please sign up and help us at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/jaysdaycare/

Forest School sessions are going really well. It has been fantastic to introduce the toddler children to our amazing grounds since September and they have learnt so much. The Children’s confidence, imaginations and physical skills have developed alongside their interest in and love of nature. 

Please ensure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather as we do go out come rain or shine. Ensure your child has: 



• Full Change of clothes

• Jumper/Fleece

• Long sleeved tops/t-shirts to layer up

• Coat, Wellies and woolly hat

If you are interested in your child being put on the waiting list for either Toddler (age 2-3) or Pre-School (age 3-5) Forest school sessions then please let a member of staff know. 

We do our best to check emails throughout the day, however, there are occasions when we are with the children and it has not been possible to get into the office. If anything is urgent and you haven’t had a reply, please do telephone. 

Just a little note to remind you that you are able to collect your child any time during their session. We do go for walks so if you are likely to arrive mid-afternoon and it is not your normal pick up time, it is worth letting us know so that we can make sure your child isn’t too far away. 



Also, during this difficult time, Pre-School children can be collected from the Pre-School Room playground door particularly if the lobby area is busy. 

Hazel’s new format of integrating music, art and the outdoors is working well. You can see the results of their lovely work in the lobby area and on Facebook and Tapesty.

We hope that you are all joined up to our online learning journal – Tapestry. If you are not or are having problems with this, please do let us know. Please remember that this is a two-way interactive process and we love to hear your feedback on what we share if even it is a ‘like’ so that we know you have seen it. We particularly enjoy seeing what activities and information you share from home. This helps us to build on our ‘In the moment planning’ process where we build on children’s learning through their interests. Should you wish to know more about this way of planning, please ask your child’s keyworker or other member of staff. 



We try to add photograph’s and observations onto Tapestry on a very regular basis and when we are able to capture moments that are relevant and particularly notable. Every half term, your child will also be a ‘focus child’ for a week. This enables your child’s keyworker to ensure that all areas of learning and development are covered and they will carry out more in-depth observations and assessments.

Update Forms

It is really important for us to hold up to date information on your child. We will be sending out some update forms for you to check and return within the next couple of weeks. Please look out for these and return them asap. These should have gone out last term but we held off as we were due to change systems. This will not be going ahead as the new system proved unsuitable. 



Many Thanks. 

Monday 22nd – Friday 26th February 2021 

Half term for Term Time only children. 

Monday 1st – Friday 5th March 2021

World Book Week Information to follow 

Monday 15th – Friday 19th March 2021 

Comic Relief/Red Nose Day 

Thursday 1st April 2021 

End of Term for Term Time only children. 

Friday 2nd April 2021 

Good Friday - CLOSED 

Monday 5th April 2021 

Easter Monday - CLOSED 

Monday 19th April 2021 

First day of Summer Term for Term Time only children