Manager’s Report for 2024 TO 2025
September 2024 started off busy from the beginning, with lots of new little faces and lots of things planned for the year ahead.
But it wasn’t just new little faces, we welcomed two new purple ladies, with another great team member returning after Maternity leave and another going on maternity leave.
We congratulated one of our lovely deputies on achieving her BA hons degree in Integrated working with children and families and celebrated her joyous graduation on her return from her special day.
We had many visits from Pedro the music man and Heather from Dance Fusion, who joined us for some block weeks over the year to provide fun dance sessions. The children were all so excited to see her and join in the fun, and the adults too!
Our secret helper has been quite poorly over the last year, so we have been making only small changes to our environment, but we have some big changes planned now he is starting to have more good days than bad.
We welcomed some more new little faces after the October half term which was wonderful but it was due sadly due to the local college nursery closed.
In November as always, we joined in with World Nursery Rhyme week singing Twinkle Twinkle Little star, Old Macdonald, The Big Ships sails, Incy Wincy and 5 Currant Buns and had plenty of fun activities to link up with this. All the children loved this, and they can still be heard singing these songs!
We also registered for St Michaels Hospice Rudolph Run and had great fun all week running around our playground dressed as Rudolph the reindeer and we raised over £150 for this great cause. We followed this with a visit from Pedro the music man again, where we danced, sang, and played games.
In the new year we started with a bang, joining in all the new year events, and key dates in the Spring Term such as Pancake Day, World book day, Mother Day etc
We have taken part in Forest School sessions, and this continues to be a valuable part of our group, with children getting so much from this experience in all areas of their development.
Although we have attended training to update knowledge and further expand this when new initiatives and guidance come in which has been put on by a number of companies and our local council, the knock on effect of covid is still evident and recruitment and moral for this fabulous work has decreased due to the lack of support and recognition from national and local government.
However, our aim moving forward is to continue to be a fabulous place for all children and to continue to support all families within our Bright Sparks family and those surrounding us and to make sure our feelings are listened to when any new changes may occur around us!
Because as our motto states ‘A Good start can lead to Great things!’
Kate Shepherd - Bright Sparks Manager
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Bright Sparks (Broadlands Playgroup)
Report from Trustees/ Admin.
A big thank you to staff for continuing to provide high class experiences for the Early Years. It is good to see that staff continue to train and update their qualifications.
In view of the proposed increases in National Insurance and Minimum wage it will be necessary to raise certain fees, e.g. Snacks, early starts and late collection. It would also be helpful if parents could include their childs’ name when making payments as sometimes it is difficult to work out who has paid. We could possibly introduce a code word for each child which may be better for parents.
It is encouraging to note that there has been an increase in uptake which has brought in more income, and bookings for the next 12 months are almost full.
Keep up the good work.
L.M.