Its Autumn!

Good afternoon everyone ,

we are continuing to enjoy the lovely autumnal sunshine and making the most of it . The children have been outdoors today , planting some winter flowers in pots and watching the bubbles streaming from the bubble machine , as well as looking at the leaves falling (and helping to tidy them up!) - thanks to you all for bringing outdoor gear for the children - it makes a great difference to their enjoyment when they are suitably dressed!

We have some new faces with us this week at Craigton - Hailey and Vincent are 2nd year nursing students who have been with the sunflowers , and Catharine is in the  schoolhouse on work experience from Cults Academy . We are always happy to offer placements to students and hope that they find their time with us enjoyable as well as informative . We also have Rachel with us on Wednesdays in the buttercups until mid November- this is also work experience with Banchory Academy .

Alas there have also been some unwanted visitors - the return of the winter tummy bug has come early this year , and  there has also been a confirmed  case of  hand, foot and mouth . Please note that we have a 48 hour exclusion policy for tummy bugs - children cannot return to nursery until 48 hours after the last symptoms . In all cases , we follow the guidance given to schools and nurseries from the NHS .  Information sheets are on display in the schoolhouse for hand foot and mouth. As we are heading towards the winter illnesses period , please ensure that all your phone numbers are up to date so we can  contact you quickly if we need to. If we do call you , please pick up your child as soon as possible - we do understand that it can be very frustrating when you're working to get that call , but we need to try to keep the spread of  infections/virus as low as possible to ensure the health of all the children , their families(who may be elderly or pregnant) and the staff.  Please also remember  to call us if your child will not attend nursery through illness or for any other reason.  Thank you for your co-operation.

All the children have been enjoying our  new PajamaDrama sessions with Dini on Tuesday afternoons -  and I rather think that the staff have too! Catherine , our french specialist , has been very impressed with the progress made in her Wednesday afternoon sessions , and will be accelerating the programme as the sunflowers are learning so quickly- mais bien sur!......et grands  felicitations to Catherine and her husband who are expecting a baby early next year :-) We do love that sort of news at Craigton!

A quick reminder to please persuade the children to leave their toys/precious objects at home, unless asked to bring them in for show and tell . These invariably are  lost/broken/borrowed and this can cause great distress - thank you .

The Christmas cards designed by the children are back and you should all have them  now - Please return any orders as soon as possible - we need to get these sent off by the end of next week to ensure delivery on time.

The sunflowers thoroughly enjoyed their recent railway adventure- we'd like to thank the lovely people at the Deeside Railway , who laid on a special train just for us , and ensured that the sunflowers had a fun, informative and exciting day ! Please have a look at the pictures of this trip at the entrance to the sunflowers room .

That's all for now - more soon !