Our nursery director Jessica Baxter has recently completed her training as a calmer stories instructor and is looking forward to bringing these sessions to the children and families at our nurseries.

What are calmer stories? 

Calmer stories are a concept that uses basic massage strokes, a small number of yoga inspired mindful breathing techniques, mindful activities, and mantra to help children’s bodies and minds to calm and relax. We gently weave these movements and techniques into stories, rhymes, and play. Basic massage moves are carried out by parents or carers over the clothes with the children, or a child can massage another child over the clothes in a safe and consensual way. 

We aim to add the addition of calmer stories to our yoga sessions and when children may need some support to regulate their emotions. Calmer stories are a lovely way to talk through experiences with children that they may feel nervous about such as ‘going to school’, ‘moving house’ ‘a new baby’ and a lovely way to share experiences and provoke language and communication. Breathwork has been proven to help calm children and regulate their nervous systems, which can in turn help children’s focus. We will also practice mindfulness by using techniques such as relax glitter jars, bubbles and walks in the fresh air. 

We look forward to bringing these sessions into the nursery soon. 

Environmental sustainability is really important to us and we are working hard to do our own bit to help our planet. 

As a setting we promote a holistic and open-ended curriculum which explores our environment and teaches children through role modelling and sustainable practices we do at the nurseries. 

We explore nature and seasons and how our planet changes during the year.

We use natural and recycled materials in play and art

We grow our own plants and vegetables teaching children about, growing, harvesting and caring

We help children to understand about water conservation, energy efficiency and waste reduction through play-based activities and adult interactions

We encourage parents to walk to nursery where possible 

We recycle and encourage children to help with this daily

We consider our carbon footprint when purchasing materials

We shop locally where possible

We turn off equipment and lights when not in use

We compost food waste 

We make our own face cloths to reduce use of wet wipes in the setting. 

We encourage parents to bring in a mucky bag for wet/ dirty clothes so we do not use single use plastic carrier bags 

Our owner Jessica sometimes brings her Cavapoochon dog into nursery – A Cavapoochon in a cross between a toy poodle, Bichon and King Charles Cavalier. He is known as a hypoallergic dog meaning he does not malt and is therefore great for allergies. He is known as a very calm breed who is excellent with children. Humphrey also lives at home with Jessica’s 3 children. There are many benefits to having a nursery dog visit these include:

• A calming effect on children. This can be particularly helpful with children with behavioural or learning difficulties

• Encouraging expression and participation in more withdrawn children

• Fostering a sense of responsibility

• Motivating children to think and learn, as most have a high interest of natural curiosity and interest for the enjoyment of animals

• Teaching children to nurture and respect life

• Helping children build confidence in areas

Some questions you may have?

Is Humphrey safe to be around the children?

‘’Humphrey will always be under strict supervision during any contact with the children, he is fully trained and has also completed KAD training (kids and dogs) his temperament is very calm and he is use to children and being handled’’

Is he vaccinated and up to date with all his treatments?

‘’Humphrey is fully vaccinated and treated for fleas and wormed on a pet plan, he sees the vet regularly for check ups’’

Is Humphrey a therapy dog?

‘’We would like Humphrey to be trained as a therapy dog in time, therapy dogs are great for children’’

What food does Humphrey eat?

‘’Humphrey is on butternut box food, this is not a raw food diet’’

What does Humphrey do at nursery?

‘’Humphrey spends most of his time in the nursery office, but he enjoys joining the children for stories, walks and to help calm children down ‘’

Children say:

‘’I like to sing a song for him’’

‘’ he is so fluffy’’

‘’I love Humphrey, I miss him when he is not here’’

‘’I think he is really soft’’

As the nurseries have grown we have found ourselves with a bigger leadership team than ever! Our team consists of Jessica Baxter – Director, Samantha Coakley – Area Manager – Deputy managers Danielle Windmill and Jennie Webb and our second in command deputy Abbie Mitchell. Therefore, it was important to us as a company to ensure that the staff are well equipped to do the job. 

Our Approach to leadership 

We take a LOVE-based leadership approach. This is not about pink hearts and cuddles. But about understanding that our teams are individuals who have lives outside of the workplace, it is important that we get to know all of our staff personally, just as it is important that we know our children. Our approach is to check in with our staff, look after their wellbeing and mental health, be flexible and build mutual respect. We find this method means our staff are happy therefore they work better. 

Hygge in the Early years – An extraordinary leader – Our deputy managers are currently taking part in this accreditation. This covers motivating teams, high-quality vision, leading with confidence and courage and making an impact.

Time to take a break for ourselves…… As you will appreciate looking after little people all day is a demanding but rewarding job. The staff are busy from the very minute they start their days, therefore as leaders, it is important, that we encourage our teams to take a break, do something mindful and have a moment to ourselves. Our staff take part in regular yoga sessions with Rose Glow yoga, we also recently enjoyed a paddle boarding session with LB Avon paddleboarders. We believe taking these moments makes us work better as a team and even better at our jobs. 

Starting in September 2021 a new Early Years Statutory framework applies to all nurseries this is known as the Early Years Foundation Stage Reforms and it has been written by the Department of Education.

Parents can find the new framework here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974907/EYFS_framework_-_March_2021.pdf

 The changes are aimed to improve outcomes for all children but particularly the language and literacy outcomes for disadvantaged children and to reduce educator’s workload so we can be more present with your children.

 At the learning Tree we are starting to get ready for these changes. Sam our area manager is an Early Years Qualified Teacher so will be taking a lead on this and ensuring everything is ready to be put in place over the coming weeks. We have designed our own curricular goals as part of this process these will be uploaded to our nursery website shortly and your parent handbooks will be refreshed to reflect them.

 There is a big emphasis in the reforms about children learning in rich environments and through play which as you know we are already big believers of! We will be continuing to plan in the moment with your child and we will continue to use tapestry to document your child’s learning through observations.

 Some other useful links you may wish to take a look at are:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-early-years-foundation-stage-eyfs-framework/changes-to-the-early-years-foundation-stage-eyfs-framework

June 2021

 How we use Emotion coaching in our nurseries.

Jennie Webb our Chilcompton Deputy Manager and 2-year-old room leader talks to us about Emotion Coaching after she recently attended a course on it with Somerset County council.

What is Emotion Coaching?  

“Emotion Coaching is about helping children and young people to understand the different emotions they experience, why they occur and how to handle them” It entails validating children’s emotions, setting limits where appropriate and problem-solving with the child to develop more effective behavioural strategies. Emotion coaching techniques instil the tools that will aid children’s ability to self-regulate their emotions and behaviour. It enables practitioners to create an ethos of positive learning behaviour and to have the confidence to de-escalate situations when behaviour is challenging. Emotion coaching provides a value-added dimension to behaviour management strategies and creates opportunities for longer-term solutions to children’s wellbeing and resilience.

Emotion Coaching builds awareness of brain development in the Early Years. It teaches us skills to empathise and use an Emotion Coaching approach to support young children's emotional well-being and behaviour.  

When using the emotion coaching technique in our settings we:

·       Help children to regulate, improve and take ownership of their behaviour 

·       Help children to calm down and better understand their emotions 

·       Help practitioners to be more sensitive to children’s needs 

·       Help create more consistent responses to children’s behaviour 

·       Help practitioners to feel more ‘in control’ during incidents 

·       Help promote positive relationships 

We aim to do this throughout our daily practice in the nursery. With our interactions with both the children and the adults around us.  As adults we are learning that by “putting the lid back on” our own emotions this helps us regulate how we feel before we approach a reactive emotional situation, this enables the child to be calm and relaxed and begin to regulate their emotions. Through emotion coaching the children will learn that all emotions are ok, and there are no such things as wrong or bad feelings, we are just learning to name them and put them in a place where they belong.

We will be doing this with stories, songs, games, puppets the list is endless. As a nursery we have just purchased ‘My First Emotion box’ which has puppets, stories and emotions that the children can physical feel. This box is also available for parents to borrow. If you would like any more information on emotion coaching please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Jennie our Emotion Coach lead.

Somerset is also holding a free Emotion coaching Parents and Carers webinar in October Please see the attached.

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