Nursery visit from Kate Kniveton MP
On Thursday 9th November Nursery visit from Kate Kniveton MP the local member of parliament for Burton and Uttoxeter.
Kate had sent us a letter of congratulations for the recent awards we had won at the Nursery World Awards 2023, and we were delighted to be able to show off everything our nursery has to offer and talk about all things Early Years.
Nursery Guided Tour
We began with a tour of the nursery taking in our Urban Forest School, where Kate saw first hand how we teach children the importance of nature, and the environment. One of our rooms was taking part in an activity around our open fire, learning about fire safety, and cooking on the open fire. We have several highly qualified Forest School practitioners on site and all of our staff are qualified to our Forest School Level 1 which was something we were proud to talk about.
Afterwards we toured the inside of the nursery taking in our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) room where we introduced Tim our STEAM specialist. Kate saw firsthand how passionate we are about all areas of Early Years education and we spoke about how we have well above the national average of male practitioners in our settings (12%). Something we are very proud of.
We visited each room in turn, including our Highly Commended Pre-School, ending in our newly updated Little Bears (2-3 year old) room where Kate saw our vision for the interior of the nursery with our indoor tree, filled with sensory learning experiences. It was here she also met our nursery therapy dog Bobby.
Following our tour we retired to our staff room to spend time talking about the challenges we are currently facing in the Early years sector. We covered the affects of COVID on staff, children and families, recruitment, and the changes to childcare funding and wraparound care coming in to affect next year. Owner Abby Litting was joined by Director of Nursery Operations Louise Monange, Nursery Manager Charlotte Draycott, Deputy Manager Rachael Emery, HR Manager Shona Sweet and Marketing Manager Helen White.
After the nursery visit from Kate Kniveton MP, we received some wonderful feedback:
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with you. The children are a delight. Their enthusiasm to engage was a testament to the dedication of your passionate, professional staff.
To watch the children learn as they played was inspirational. The early years of a child’s life form the foundations of the adult, and with the support and encouragement of the staff and the imaginative programme at Beeches Park, the children are helped to travel seamlessly to the next stage of their educational journey. Beeches Park Day Nursery is certainly a very happy establishment. Well done, everyone, and keep up the great work.
