22 April, 2021 - Earthday

The new vegetable and flower gardens at the nursery are starting to take shape as the Spring weather kicks in. A few fatalities amongst the vegetables, but thankfully we have plenty of seeds in reserve thanks to parents and carers. The learning opportunities are boundless and any activity in the garden always raises a lot of questions from the children.

As a part of our drive to become an Eco Friendly Business we have now starting composting our food waste from Lunches/Tea's, and have assorted bins for all different types of waste.

We are a huge exponent of upcycling when it comes to our props and play items, upcycling items from Analogue Telephones and Typewriters to Suitcases and Scarves, as nearly every item makes for a great learning experience.

2020 Hindsight, Dont look back in anger, it will be over by Christmas!....Sound familiar?

One thing that the pandemic has taught us is that we must always strive to move forwards, and equally to never leave anyone behind. That is so true in early years education, but not solely, as following on from our Investors in People Award, with an even stronger focus on supporting Apprentices, we bounce in to 2021 with Beech Tree Training Excellence!

The Training Excellence Centre has been developed with our intake of Apprentices in mind to act as a support to them whilst they work towards their Level 2 & 3 Diplomas in Early Years Education. The ultimate aim of the centre is to work towards becoming recognised as the go-to resource for Apprenticeships in Early Years Education.

Lockdown Library to Help Parents & Carers

As Beech Tree Childcare continues to safely support families in these uncertain times, we realise there will be circumstances when your child/children may not be able to easily attend, so to support you and your child in these circumstances we have pulled together a Lockdown Learning Library.

The Library is a page of resources that can help you and your child fill the time with fun activities that are supported in the EYFS framework.

If you have already found resources that you think would be valuable for other parents/carers then please send over a link to me at nick@beechtreechildcare.co.uk and i will get them added for the community.

Beech Tree Childcare has been awarded a Silver Investors in People accreditation, recognising the support staff are with career development.

This is the first time Beech Tree Childcare, based in the grounds of Worthing Rugby Club in Angmering, has been through the rigorous process and owner Heather Harmer was delighted to achieve the silver level amid a global pandemic.

She said: “This process looked at, amongst many things, our leadership, management, development, values, communication, team working and continuous improvement, focusing on how our employees perceive all of these factors.

“Our survey was benchmarked against primary education and we outperformed the industry average, scoring 830 out of 900, compared to the industry average of 777.

“Silver is awarded to 20 per cent of the organisations accredited by Investors in People, who demonstrate their principles are in place, shared and implemented consistently throughout the organisation. We are also a significant way towards achieving gold, which we hope to achieve by the time we are next assessed.”