Spring is officially here! Thank you for being a part of The Elms family and for a great start to 2025. We have lots coming up to look forward to, including the unveiling of ‘Baldy’ the Birmingham Day Nurseries calf, graduations, and a teddy bears’ picnic.
Until then, we wish you and your family a very happy Easter if you’re celebrating. We hope you enjoy some quality time together in the spring sunshine and enjoy watching everything burst into bloom. Please keep an eye on your inboxes for an update about 2025 fees, which will be coming soon.
Dates for your diary; Staff news; School Offer Day; Bulls in the city; You said, we did; Funding information; Sun safety; Reusable wet bags; Wonders of Winterbourne Trail; Join our Explorers family; Accessing nursery; Using mobile phones; Car parking; Safeguarding and child protection; Our Shining Stars; Get in touch
From Easter to Father’s Day, Eid al-Adha to Pride Month, there’s plenty to celebrate over the coming months. As well as hosting themed activities to celebrate these occasions at nursery, we have lots of events and workshops planned for you and your little one to look forward to.
We wish Raj (Deer Room) all the best as she leaves for maternity leave on 17 April. We’ll miss her and can’t wait to meet the second addition to her family.
Terri (Deer Rooms) will commence the second part of her Forest School Leader training in May. Once qualified, she will join Reo, Katie and Becky as Level 3 qualified leads and help manage all Forest School sessions.
Tracey will be joining the Elms Team in the Owl room full time from 28 April and then from September moving into the Rabbit room.
We are continuing our recruitment campaign for nursery practitioners and will let you know as soon as we have any updates.
On 16 April, many parents and carers found out which primary school their child will be going to. We’d love to know where your little one is heading next; if you’d like to, you can share which school they’ll be attending via the grid on the Deer Room door.
To help children prepare for the exciting journey ahead, we will create a photo board of the schools our children are due to attend and add school uniforms to our dressing-up area (any old school uniform donations are most welcome). We will, of course, be talking to the children about their transition too.
As you’ll know, we’re raising money for Birmingham Hospice by taking part in its ‘Bulls in the City’ initiative. Along with our friends at The Maples and The Oaks, we have adopted a calf sculpture who will stay with each nursery while the rest of his herd takes to Birmingham’s streets this summer.
Parent volunteers and staff to decorate him before his big debut, using imagery and designs submitted by children from all three Birmingham Day Nurseries. A big thank you to everyone who shared artwork and donated to the cause. We’ve been inspired by your creativity and can’t wait to share his finished look with you after Easter!
A trail map showing all the Bulls in the City around Birmingham will be produced in July for any families who want to hunt the rest of his herd over the summer.
We’ll be continuing our fundraising with our annual teddy bears’ picnic and raffle. Any donations of prizes will be greatly received. We will also be giving families the chance to name our Brummie bear in May. Will your name be the winner?
Thank you to everyone who completed last year’s annual parent and carer survey.
You scored us a very high 9.33 out of 10 – and now we’ve had an opportunity to use your feedback to improve what we do. Following your comments, we have:
If your child is eligible for funding for the summer term (1 April – 31 August 2025), you should have now sent us your code and National Insurance Number. Please remember to reconfirm your code every three months to ensure you remain eligible.
For more information about the financial support available while your child’s at nursery, please visit our nursery fees webpage.
To ensure your child is protected as we welcome the warmer months, staff will apply a four-star rated, 30+ SPF sun cream to them during the nursery day. If you’d prefer us to use a specific sun cream* for your child, please supply your own (ideally four-star with an SPF of 30 or above), clearly labelled for staff to use.
We kindly ask that parents and carers thoroughly apply a layer of sun cream before your child arrives at nursery to ensure maximum coverage.
Birmingham Day Nurseries apply suncream by following the UV Index. For more information please see the Sun Safety letter we shared during the week of 24 March.
We also recommend that your child has an appropriate sunhat for nursery, which protects their head and shades their face, neck and ears (e.g., a broad-brimmed or Legionnaire-style hat).
*Sun creams containing nut-derived oils are banned to keep everyone with allergies at nursery safe. Please do not apply this to your child before they attend nursery.
Please ensure your child has a reusable bag to send dirty clothing home after nursery, not a plastic carrier bag. We have a small supply of wet bags for £7 – come and see us at the nursery office to get yours.
To celebrate the University’s anniversary, our friends at Winterbourne have identified 125 treasures – or Wonders of Winterbourne – in the house and garden.
This summer they’re launching a Wonders of Winterbourne trail to encourage visitors to explore further. It’ll be a brilliant way to get little ones out into the beauty of the garden.
If you have older children – aged 8-13 – there’s also Green Kingdom Trail around Winterbourne this Easter, celebrating the launch of Cornelia Funke’s new adventure book. Solve the botanical riddles and see where they lead … (little ones can help!)
Subscribe to our newsletter today to receive the latest Explorers news, offers, and events straight to your inbox. New to Explorers? Explorers allows every child to experience the magical world of outdoor adventure at our award-winning Forest Schools. Sessions include:
When entering and exiting the nursery, please do not allow anyone to follow you into the building, even if you know them. If another parent or carer holds the door open for you, please politely decline; each person must either fob in or press the office buzzer to be welcomed in by a member of the team. This ensures every person in the building is known to the nursery or dealt with by the office team.
Fobs are active between 7.30am – 11am and 3.30pm – 5.55pm. If you require access outside of these times, please ring the buzzer.
For our children’s safety and security, the use of mobile phones, tablets, watches, and laptops with camera technology is strictly prohibited within the nursery. Any parents or carers seen using mobile phones in the nursery’s communal areas or playrooms will be asked to put them away.
If you need to take a call or check a message, please do so in the nursery office or wait until you’ve left the premises to ensure you’re complying with our safeguarding policy.
Your child’s safety is very important to us, so please drive at a safe speed when entering, manoeuvring around, and exiting the nursery car park. If you accidentally hit another vehicle, please report the incident to the nursery office. However, please note that we do not accept any liability if a car is damaged in the car park.
Remember to park responsibly too; disabled bays should only be used by parents/carers with a Blue Badge, and the emergency bay should be kept clear. Please note that we may use the emergency bay for nursery deliveries to save taking a space away from our families.
Our car park is for the drop-off and collection of children only. We kindly request that you turn your engine off when waiting for your child to help reduce air pollution and keep our children healthy. As part of our commitment to building a more sustainable future, we’ll shortly be installing new signage to spread awareness of the dangers of air pollution.
If you are a University permit-holder, please use a designated University car park; you cannot use the nursery car park during the day. Thank you.
In the interests of safeguarding, there may be times when we must consult with other agencies about a child without a parent/carer’s prior knowledge. The nursery’s first concern is the welfare of our children, and it’s our responsibility to act and protect in line with our Child Protection Policy.
A consultation like this may result in a formal referral, which can prompt visits from police or your local authority’s safeguarding team. We understand that this would be a distressing set of circumstances, but we have a legal duty to follow the procedures set out by the Birmingham Children’s Trust.
‘Shining Stars’ is a Birmingham Day Nurseries’ recognition scheme designed to reward excellence. If you would like to recognise a staff member who has gone above and beyond, or who deserves an extra special thank you, please email us at [email protected].
Each month’s Shining Star will be displayed on the parent and carers’ information board in the entrance hall and receive a special mention in our communications.
Selina Hunt, Nursery Manager
Vicki Wall, Deputy Manager
Fleur Hunter, Deputy Manager
Ellie Bartlett-Crumpton, Nursery Administrator
If you have any general nursery enquiries, please email us at [email protected]
