Michelle, our Deputy in 3-5’s, entertained everyone young and old alike by dressing up in her home made duck costume and waddling around handing out food and drinks. As a staff team we pushed our culinary skills to new heights by baking and decorating our own BUB duck cakes with some interesting results. The children helped to make and decorate cup cakes which they had for tea.

During the day there were lots of fun activities such as ‘Lucky duck dip’ where the children could catch a floating duck and exchange it for a prize. We also had entertainers performing a puppet show, face painting and balloon modelling. Our under twos had fun romping around in the baby ball pond and bouncy castle.
We were very fortunate to have Sue Woodford, Company Director as our VIP guest, who pitched in to help with the baby room tea and blew out the candles on the birthday cake.

We ended the day with a little BUB birthday present for every child to take home. For the adults we had a raffle with the top prize being a free tennis lesson donated by one of our baby room parents. It was a messy noisy afternoon but most importantly it was fun and everyone went home happy.

You can see pictures from the Richford Street party by downloading this PDF.

All the staff worked so hard in setting up the nursery rooms and the whole nursery looked absolutely amazing. After all the preparations the nursery was transformed and we were all ready for the fun to begin. The children will tell you all about it:

The afternoon began with face painting, music and dancing, party games and lots and lots of bubbles. We think the staff felt very happy to capture the excitement and pleasure on all our faces and to see us having great fun.

Following on from all the activities and excitement it was time to sit down for a well deserved tea party. Oh what a tea party – Eugenie our nursery cook did us proud. We thoroughly enjoyed our sandwiches, pizza, chicken nuggets, vegetable fingers and oh so much more. Our mummies and daddies joined us and they too enjoyed their party food, it all looked very delicious. It was great fun seeing everyone having so much fun, talking eating and enjoying the atmosphere.

After tea we all gathered together in room one for a special announcement. Our Director Anne de Zoysa gave a very heartfelt speech about how bringing up baby started back in 1989 and how proud she was of all the staff that has made bringing up baby the company it is today. The mummies and daddies then raised their glasses which contained bubbles, we think they call it champagne and we all sang happy birthday. Anne and Carol, our nursery manager, then blew out the candles and cut the special birthday cake made by our lovely senior nursery practitioner Niroshani. We all clapped and cheered and made a lot of noise.

It was then disco time and more bubbles, fun and laughter.

Wow what a party – we had great fun and so did all the mummies, daddies and staff too. Thank you so much to all the staff for our lovely duck party bags. We look forward to finding out what the contents are, we are sure to find some more lovely goodies to tuck into.

Finally all the children at Kentish Town would like to say a big thank you to all the staff for making this party a very special and memorable one. We hope you will look out for all the photos soon to be displayed around the nursery to show you how much fun everyone had.

We also would like to congratulate Anne de Zoysa and all the company directors on a fantastic achievement of 20 years.

You can see pictures of the party at Kentish Town by downloading this PDF.

At three o’clock we all sat down for our tea. All the children enjoyed their yummy party food. Colin the clown joined us at tea to help sing happy birthday and play on his guitar. He also made the children balloon animals.

After tea all the children, parents and staff enjoyed a fantastic show by Colin the clown where we watched him playing many musical instruments, juggling, doing magic tricks, fire juggling and games. All the children and parents watched in amazement as Colin juggled with fire in the back garden.

After Colin the clown we all got up to have a play on all the fun games. We had hook the duck outside where the children won lots of prizes. We had a disco inside and all the children enjoyed dancing and trying to catch the bubbles. Inside we also had bouncy castles and a ball pool.

We would also like to thank all our past and present students who came in to help us celebrate. Their help and interaction was greatly appreciated.

You can see pictures of the party at Vale by downloading this PDF.

We had a beautiful picnic in the park, for which the children made biscuits and cakes, a special party tea for everyone full of goodies and treats. It was a great day, everyone had lots of fun. We had face painting and the children made bags and masks, they also decorated salt dough ducks which they had also made.
We had a raffle full of great prizes the proceeds of which will be donated to NSPCC.

It was a day full of laughter, children of all ages played together riding on bikes, running about and playing with bubbles, balloons and balls. Some of our first ever children and parents also attended our party. Parents, children and staff both past and present all celebrating together. The bringing up baby Clapham family.

You can see pictures of the party at Clapham by downloading this PDF.

As well as lots of our current children we were delighted to have had some past children and parents attend and it was great to catch up with them to find out how they all were and how the children had adapted to their new schools.

We had lots of duck themed games, hook the duck, balloon modelling, face painting, quacking ducks, a bouncy castle and lucky dip.

We also videoed the parents to find out their views on the care and services we offer and about the experiences they have had at bringing up baby. Expressions to name a few were “thumbs up”, “brilliant”, “the best”, “we love it”, “fantastic”.

Jackie, our Operations Manager, unveiled our 20th anniversary plaque. She stated that after twenty years “we still hold to the ethos of home away from home”.

We had a fantastic ‘family of ducks’ cake as represents our company logo. This was baked by “Jolly Bakers” and was cut by Katya Thomas, our first child at Brentford and also Dylan, our most recent child to start at the nursery. We shouted three cheers of hip hip hooray and held up a glass of champagne and grape wine to toast the occasion.  It was an extremely great party and enjoyed by all.

You can see pictures of the party at Brentford by downloading this PDF.

We are still looking at our stories and rhymes in baby room but will also be looking at spring and Easter. We have said goodbye to some of our friends who graduated to pre-school. I’m sure they are having lots of fun and so will we when we get there but for now we’re happy right where we are.

In pre-school we had lots of fun changing our home corner into Tescos. We made shopping lists, bought food products, counted money, tasted different fruits, went to Somerfield and shopped for our baking activity.

We will also be looking at spring and Easter activities over the next few weeks.

On Friday May 8^th 2009 we will be celebrating Bringing up Baby’s 20th Birthday at nursery with a grand party in the afternoon. You are welcome to come and join us also but don’t be surprised if we ask you to quack like a duck.

Please remember that we close April 8^th and re-open April 20^th. Our quiz night will be Wednesday April 8^th so come with your thinking caps on and who knows what prize you may win.

We have had to say a very sad farewell to Tom and Jerry our pet Terrapins. Tom and Jerry were growing very quickly and needed a lot of attention that we could not provide for them. Kandie took Tom and Jerry to a pet shop where they have put them in a bigger tank, Kandie stops by to see them both regularly and tells us how happy they are.

In the over two’s room they have been focusing on gardening and Me, Myself and I. In their gardening the children have planted Daffodil bulbs for Marie Curie Cancer research they children have enjoyed watching there daffodils grow, the children have also planted carrot seeds and are patiently waiting for them to start growing.

The children have also been learning about their body parts and senses. The children have all had the opportunity to draw their own portraits in front of a mirror to put on display and are also learning about their family backgrounds.

In the under two’s room the children have been looking at animals. All the children have enjoyed many different kinds of art work on different animals whilst looking at the animals. They have done collage, block printing, string painting and sticking on all their favorite animals. They have also been looking at fruits including many cultural fruits.

Michelle our Deputy had a ‘swap day’ with Naina the deputy from Kentish Town. Both of them enjoyed their exchange and are happy to do it again. It gave them a chance to see how another setting with different layout operates and exchange ideas and give feedback.

We had a visit from a terrapin, the children really enjoyed watching him crawl around and feeding him.

The baby room have enjoyed Foot printing this month!

Pre-school have been learning about being healthy!

Older toddlers have been learning about spring

New staff:

A student has started in Baby Room, Kemi our EYPS student is also in Baby Room and they are doing really well.

We also have a lunch cover 11.30-2pm to help with feeding and lunch cover.

Pre-school have Kris working as bank staff until Corrinne goes on maternity leave and we have another student 4 days a week .

In older toddlers we have Nazia our 2^nd EYPS student

We welcome Amoon, nursery practitioner to the staff team and to the over two’s room.

Also joining the team is Stella, nursery practitioner in the under two’s room.

Both are settling into their new roles.

Please look out for their photos which will soon be displayed on the staff board.

Mother’s Day Coffee Morning

All the mummies are invited to our coffee morning on Friday 20^th May to celebrate Mothers Day. Please look out for the posters advertising the event.

Open Morning

Our next open morning for prospective parents will be held on Wednesday 25^th March 9.00-12.30. If you know of anyone who is looking for a nursery place please let them know of the date. We always welcome new visitors to the nursery.

 20^th Birthday Celebration

We are in the process of planning for Bringing up Baby’s 20^th Birthday celebrations in May and would like to ask you for help in this matter if possible.

During both nursery and staff parties we are planning to hold raffles with proceeds to go to a chosen children’s charity. We would greatly appreciate any donations that could be used as prizes for the event. If this is something that you feel you would be able to help us with please could you contact either Carol or a member of staff.

Please remember the nursery party date of Friday 8^th May and look out for further details.