Nursery News

Club Doncaster Xmas Visit

Club Doncaster (Doncaster Rovers, Doncaster Belles and the Dons) visited the children in DRI on Tuesday 17th December. They brought gifts to hand out, signed football tops and posed for photographs with the children.

Additions

One of our babies enjoying the sunshine playing in the nursery garden.We have recently added the sandpit and slide. The babies love digging in the sand and listening to the wind chimes!
Welcome back Nadia and her new baby
We are very proud of our new book/literacy corner in nursery and have recently consulted the mum's about choosing some new books for the babies.

1st Birthday

We celebrated one of our babies 1st birthday recently. She had a little party with all the pupils and staff and had some lovely presents including a 'baby Annabel' doll, which she loves.

Reading

One of our plans this year is to develop a little reading corner to encourage young mums to read with their babies. Also as part of that we are encouraging the mums to sign up to the Dolly Parton reading scheme in order to get a new book each month

Parenting Sessions

Young mums to be have been accessing parenting sessions within our nursery delivered by nursery staff and Ricky Hurley (teenage pregnancy midwife. They have been learning how to bath a baby and make up a bottle feed. They have also visited DRI to see the maternity ward and had a session on breast feeding. The sessions will also go towards accreditation via the unit award scheme.

New Nursery

We have had to move into a much smaller area this year because we had to give up our space for a larger nursery. However, staff have ensured that we have kept the nursery with a homely feel by emulating the old nursery within our new space. We think it's very cosy.

Feeding Options

Ricky Hurley (teenage pregnancy midwife) came in to the nursery to talk to the young mums to be about the feeding options for their baby. She talked about the benefits of breast feeding. There are now three young mums to be who are considering this option.

Legacy Church Donations

We were very grateful to receive donations of 6 cots, 6 mattresses and 6 sterilisers from the Legacy church in Doncaster. They also donated 3 lovely Christmas hampers

Shoebox Appeal

Julie, our nursery nurse, organized a 'Shoebox appeal' and encouraged the young mums and other pupils to collect luxury groceries to give to our elderly residents in the community. They distributed the goods in the week leading up to Christmas and the local elderly residents were very grateful.

Parenting

Young mums to be have parenting sessions at Maple to help prepare them for when their babies are born. These sessions give them practical hands on experience of things like bathing and changing a nappy. This photograph shows two of our pupils in one of their practical parenting sessions with Julie, our Nursery Nurse. Both girls were able to practice their skills after the session. New mums are also able to take part in parenting sessions on topics such as the importance of early literacy, reading with babies as well as weaning and the importance of play.

Music

The babies have been enjoying a musical session with Tom. Tom played guitar to songs such as 'Row your Boat' and 'The Morning Song' and the babies all joined in with their instruments

Outdoor Space

We are currently improving our outdoor space and below are some pictures to show how it's coming along. The decorated CDs were made by the children at the hospital school and the Mulberry pupils made some bird seed balls for the birds to feed on.

Living Eggs

We had some eggs on Monday from the 'Living Eggs' company and today the chicks started to hatch. The babies were delighted with them and our oldest baby kept saying 'Chick Chick'

Birthday

Last week we celebrated one of our babies 1st birthday. They had a birthday cake and a present to open. The babies wore hats and had birthday party food.

Outdoor Area

Spring is finally here and the babies are enjoying playing outside in the mild weather. We are currently developing our outdoor area and will soon be purchasing more equipment which the young mums will have a say in.

The young mums help to improve the outdoor play area by planting flowers