The Oaks Day Nursery Winter Newsletter
A warm welcome to all our Oaks families as we begin a brand-new year together! 2026 is set to be full of fun and learning, with cultural celebrations, hands-on activities, and plenty of opportunities for your little ones to explore and grow. From upcoming events and staff news to exciting projects and community teachings, this edition has everything you need to stay connected and make the most of the months ahead with us.
Newsletter contents
Dates for your diary; Staff news; SEND Co-production; Reward and Recognition; Selly Oak campus; Funding; 2026 school admissions; Charity; Potty training and sustainability; Cold weather policy; Adverse weather; Car parking; Mobile phones, Safeguarding and Child Protection.
Dates for your diary
Let’s kick off the start of the year in the best way possible. Add these dates to your diary and join the nursery in helping us make 2026 one to remember, with upcoming events, celebrations and workshops for you and your little ones to enjoy together.
Staff news
Following a period of absence, David is sadly not returning to our Preschool, so the children and team there will now continue to be led by Charlotte. We will actively be recruiting during spring term, to help support with curriculum enhancements and opportunities for teaching and learning.
Ellie has recently moved to the Ladybird Team and is excited to be working with our two-threes, supporting their play and learning in readiness for Preschool. Claire has now returned from her extended period of leave; she is still in our two-threes but has moved to Bumblebees.
Faye, who many of you will know from her support as Deputy Manager whilst Kerry was on maternity leave, left us over the Christmas break to welcome her own little bundle of joy. We wish Faye and her family many congratulations and lots of love.
We’re excited that Lianne, our Forest School Leader, who originally worked at The Oaks as a Practitioner, has joined our Preschool team as a key person, as well as bringing with her the wealth of outdoor learning experiences and Forest School expertise.
As we enter our winter season at Forest School, Muddy Explorers playgroup will be closed during January and February, as the expected low temperatures mean extended sessions of play outdoors becomes less practical.
SEND Co-production Bronze Award winners
We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a Bronze Birmingham SEND Co-production Award. This win recognises that we are committed to working together with children, young people, and parents / carers in promoting their voice and participation in the co-design, co-delivery, and co-assessment of services.
We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to our next SEND coffee morning, where we will be joined by Lakhvir Sahota, who is the Participation and Co-Production Officer. During this coffee morning, you will have the chance to learn more about what Co-production means for you and how it can help others too. The next session will be held on Monday 26 January 2026, from 10am – 12 noon, at Winterbourne.
To register your interest or if you have any questions, please email Kelly Bailey at [email protected].
Recognise someone who’s made a difference
Has a member of staff made your day exceptional? Or perhaps you’d like to say a special ‘thank you’. The Reward and Recognition Scheme gives you the opportunity to nominate a team member who has demonstrated one of our core values: being Ambitious, Open, Collaborative, Innovative or Responsible.
By recognising those who go above and beyond, you help us to celebrate those individuals who make a real difference.
Selly Oak campus
Thank you for your patience and understanding whilst the necessary works are carried out to make Selly Oak campus look its best again. Demolition works to nearby Prospect Hall and the neighbouring buildings have been underway since October, and we are amazed at the progress by City Demolition.
There has been a lot of excitement, as you can imagine from the children, seeing the diggers and large machinery, and we couldn’t pass up a wonderful learning opportunity as we transformed our construction areas. Our preschool children have even had the opportunity to visit the neighbouring site ahead of Elmfield House demolition to talk to the experts about the works, their job and hear about the special tools and machinery. The children have their role play hard hats and hi-vis at the ready to complete their own site risk assessments.
Works are scheduled to continue this month with the final phase: the demolition of Elmfield Cottage and Elmfield House.
Funding
Funding forms and fee summary sheets were issued to parents during the week commencing 25 November. If you claimed Working Parents Entitlement funding during autumn term 2025, you would only need to re-sign your paperwork for the spring term section along with your fee summary sheet. Please be reminded that although we do not require you to bring children’s ID in after your first claim, we do require a recent utility bill, bank statement or council tax bill each term to ensure your home address matched our claim records.
Once you have your code, remember to reconfirm it every three months to ensure you remain eligible for the funding.
For more information about Early Years entitlement, eligibility and how to apply, watch the short video created for the Department of Education.
Find out about the financial support available while your child is at nursery, by visiting our nursery fees webpage.
2026 school admissions
Applications are now open for children starting school in September 2026. If you haven’t put an application in yet, please do so by 15 January 2026. School places will be confirmed on 16 April 2026, which is also when nursery begins to prepare your child for their journey into school.
Preschool has designed an information board all about starting reception, paired with some handy FAQs in their entrance hall.
From babies right through to children leaving us for school, our room intentions and expectations always have the end journey in mind. At each age and stage, we continue to teach important life skills and are proud to send children to their reception year as well-rounded learners. Check out some handy tips for you at home to help support and prepare your child to start school.
Charity of the year
Firstly, we want to begin by thanking everyone that supported Birmingham Hospice as our charity of the year during 2025, we were blown away by everyone’s generosity, and their fundraising team were so grateful of our efforts. For their Bulls in the City campaign, University of Birmingham Day Nurseries were proud to have raised over £2,500. Nursery efforts included bunny hops, bracelet making and sales, and so much more!
Since returning to the nurseries, Brumble has visited The Maples, The Elms and The Oaks, where he donned some festive accessories to say hello to the children again. We are proud to say that his design and artwork are all our own work, representing the things in our local area that the children love, as well as our city.
Our final event of the year for Birmingham Hospice was our reindeer ramble at Winterbourne, which saw over 30 children and their families walk around the gardens spreading Christmas cheer with their antlers and merry song.
This year, we will be helping Birmingham Children’s Hospital fundraise for a unique and very important Medi-cinema in their hospital. We have supported this charity over the years, fundraising for their outdoor play space development, their bereavement centre and more recently in 2024 their PICU ward. Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital is an amazing thing to have in our city, and its only with fundraising efforts that they get to make it the hospital that children need.
We hope our involvement with them throughout 2026 brings much collaboration with local cinemas and screen venues, the drama department and external educators, to create a wealth of learning opportunities for nursery children, whilst contributing to something amazing.
For more information on their hopes for a cinema, click here.
Let’s talk potty training and sustainability
In the 1970s and 80s most children (83%) were out of nappies by 18 months. Just 20 years later, the average age has risen to 3.5 years. More recently, 25% of children nationally are starting school not fully toilet trained, which is causing disruption to learning for the whole class, averaging 2.5 hours of teaching time lost every day.
To combat this, we now offer a Potty Training parent workshop. This is based on information and research put together by ERIC – the children’s bowel and bladder charity. Their research-informed program provides informative and practical advice to potty training, and it dispels some myths about readiness for potty training. If you missed our autumn workshops, don’t worry, look out for the spring dates in the new year. If you have any questions about starting potty training, please speak to your room Senior Practitioner or key person.
Currently, all room seniors have taken part in training from ERIC as part of their CPD, and the next roll out will include the whole of our under twos teams to support you and your children from the very beginning of the journey as best we can.
As part of our sustainability efforts, our next big commitment is to reduce the number of nappies used in a child’s lifetime by further educating our team, championing new research and sharing this with our nursery parents, so you can support your child and in turn, our planet.
Well Child Policy
A member of the management team must be informed immediately if a child becomes unwell while at the Nursery. A member of the management team will ensure that their parents are notified as quickly as possible. Children that are not well as per the “Well Child” definition when parents drop them off won’t be accepted, and if they fall ill whilst in our care will be expected to return to their parents as soon as possible or at least within the hour. A child that is not well as above at the point of drop off should not be accepted.
A ‘Well Child’ is…
- not reliant on temperature relief medication
- well enough to participate in all areas of Nursery activities
- achild with their normal appetite, who is happy and sociable
- a child who does not require a greater staff ratio
- a child who has their normal bowel functions
Children with mild, respiratory symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, or slight cough, who are otherwise well, can continue to attend nursery.
Exclusion from nursery is sometimes necessary to reduce the transmission of illness or because the nursery cannot adequately meet the needs of the child. We follow the guidance given to us by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) health protection in education and childcare settings and to safeguard the physical wellbeing of our staff.
Pain Relief/Calpol
Where babies are teething or there is a medical need, parents can provide pain relief which can be administered for up to 48 hours at the discretion of the management team. However non-prescribed medication must not to be left in your child’s bag, but handed to a member of staff from your child’s room and a medication form should be filled out.
Cold weather policy
The nursery exercises an all-weather policy, and all children will be accessing the outdoor area, including the Forest School. It is an important part of our daily curriculum and key to children remaining healthy, so it is not possible for parents/carers to request their children to remain indoors.
Of course, our practitioners and teams review their routines for winter season and reduce the amount of time children are outside for each period. The extra layers they need to keep warm take a little longer to put on, so the time adjustment tends to happen quite naturally. We see the process of getting dressed and undressed for outdoor play as a real leaning experience for all ages, practicing those independent skills, exploring new textures and temperatures, and recognising when they feel hot or cold.
During the winter, please ensure children have the correct appropriate clothing for exploring the outdoors: an extra jumper or hoodie, a hat, scarf and gloves, wellington boots, and an all-in-one suit or waterproof trousers. Ideally for the winter season, outdoor trousers and puddle suits need to be lined to add an extra layer. Sometimes, these items can be found in our nursery swap shop rail in the entrance hall, so please do have a browse and donate your child’s old clothes too.
Adverse weather
If you need to collect your child early or the nursery has to close due to adverse weather conditions, we’ll let you know via text message, Parent Zone and, where possible, on University platforms. Therefore, please ensure we have your correct, up-to-date contact details.
Car parking
Your child(ren)’s safety is very important to us, so please drive at a safe speed when entering, manoeuvring around, and exiting the nursery car park. At times you may need to wait for other vehicles to manoeuvre in or out of spaces, please be patient during this time.
Should you accidentally hit another vehicle, please report the incident to the nursery office. However, please note that the nursery does not accept any liability if a car is damaged in the car park.
The nursery car park is for drop-off and collection only. If you are a University car park permit holder, you must use a designated University car park and cannot use the nursery car park for the duration of the day. Please turn off engines if you are waiting at drop off/collection times, as air pollution is important to us and every small gesture helps.
Please note: The speed limit on our car park is 10mph.
Please only use the disabled parking bay if you have an appropriate blue badge parking permit, this is allocated for children and parents who require the space. Please adhere to all signage and do not drive through the no-entry signs. Thanks for your cooperation.
Mobile phones
For the safety and security of our children, the use of mobile phones, tablets and laptops with camera technology are strictly prohibited within the nursery. If you need to take a call or check a message, please do so in the nursery office or wait until you have left the premises to ensure you’re complying with our safeguarding policy.
Safeguarding and child protection
In the interests of safeguarding children, there may be occasions when the nursery must consult with other agencies, without a parent’s prior knowledge. The nursery’s first concern is the welfare of the child, 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 the police or the local authority safeguarding team. We understand this can be a very distressing set of circumstances, but we have a legal duty to follow the procedures set out by the Birmingham Children’s Trust.
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/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 will ensure every person in the building is known to the nursery or dealt with by the office team.
Contact details for the team
Rebecca Slater, Nursery Manager
Emily Grainger, Assistant Nursery Manager
Kerry Eyre, Deputy Manager
Laura Allchin, Deputy Manager
Sarah Githugu, Nursery Administrator
Nursery email
For any billing or change of usage enquiries, please contact Sarah.