Welcome to September's newsletter
Dear Parents
The year is passing by at an alarming rate and as summer will be moving into autumn shortly, we hope everyone managed to have some lovely holidays this summer. We have had a very busy few months here at Millfield and we were delighted to open the new Millfield Babies on 4th August. Thank you for all the very positive feedback we have received about the new building – everyone seems to have settled in really well and the staff and children are enjoying the lovely new space they have.
As always, several new children have joined us here at Millfield in the main nursery and in Millfield Babies over the summer months and we send everyone a big welcome to Millfield. We are delighted that you have joined us and we hope you all have a lovely time!
As the autumn approaches and the mornings begin to feel quite damp, we do still like to take the children for walks in our fields behind the nursery. The grass can be quite wet at this time of year so if you would like your child to join in with the walks, please bring a pair of named wellies along for the winter months. We do have lots of spare pairs so children can always borrow a pair if necessary!
New Millfield Website
Our website has now been rebuilt along with all our new branding which has been designed by Dan Miller (our eldest son!) https://89design.uk. We hope you all like the new designs!
This is our first electronic newsletter and all newsletters will now be in this format. We will still use email as we currently do for communications. The new website has a news panel and we are planning to send you all a weekly update with what the children have been doing each week. We will give you more information once this feature will begin.
New Millfield Babies!
As previously mentioned, we are delighted that the new Millfield Babies finally opened on 4th August 2025. We originally started the whole planning process in April 2023 and we were finally given planning permission in September 2024 to build the new baby room and increase our number of places. We received final confirmation that the build could begin in early April this year after we have met a raft of conditions that the consent of planning included. The build began on 29th April and we are now adding all the finishing touches after delays with contractors etc. The new entrance gate is installed and the permanent electronic driveway gates are due to be installed any day (there has been a long delay for the company installing them to receive them). We have put in a temporary safety barrier to ensure the area is secure while we wait for the new gates to arrive which are being made in Germany! We will let you know once everything is operational and the procedure to follow. The pathway up to the decking walkway will be completed once the permanent gates have been installed.
The outdoor play area is taking shape now with the new equipment finally arriving and the little ones are enjoying spending time in their dedicated garden. Further outdoor equipment will be in place shortly.
The staff team: Millfield Babies is so lucky to have such a wonderful team of highly qualified and experienced members of staff and we have now recruited additional staff members to ensure we meet our new ratios with the increased number of places we are offering and also as lunch time support.
- Gill Laker: Baby Room Lead
- Laura Wright
- Nicky Pearson
- Gemma Robinson
- Jade Bosworth
- Shannon McLoughlin
- Debbie Laker – lunch time support
- Faye Smith – welcome to Faye who has joined the team on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday each week)
- Steph Wright – welcome to Steph who has joined the team every day from 10.30am - 4.00pm as lunch time/teatime support and supervisor
- Zoe Wright – Zoe is one of the cooks from the main nursery and is working an extra day to prepare all the babies meals
Millfield Nursery Staff
Just to let you all know that Ruby Chrimes left the Millfield staff team on 29th August 2025. This has been very sudden as Ruby only advised us a few days before that she had accepted a place at Derby University to study for her Post Graduate Certificate of Education and the course began on 1st September. We hope Ruby enjoys her training course and is then successful finding a teaching role which is something she has aspired to do. We will all miss Ruby and we wish her much success and happiness for the future.
Miss Amber Barlow has been our joint deputy since April this year. Amber was the Millfield deputy for many years before going on maternity leave. She has settled back into the role quickly as she has worked at Millfield now since May 2011 after completing her final placement with us for her level three qualification. We always prefer to have a dual deputy role and so to support Amber we are delighted to have now promoted Miss Abi Lord to this position. Abi has been at Millfield for five years now and completed her childcare training with us. She has a sound knowledge of Millfield, is an excellent practitioner and has a great rapport with the children, parents and staff team. We know everyone will be delighted that Abi is taking on this new role.
A big thank you to the summer staff once again this year! Miss Keira Pearson will be returning to university to undertake a master’s in law and Miss Poppy Morley successfully passed her A Levels this summer and has accepted a position at Sheffield University to study Physical Education and School Sport. We hope the girls enjoy their further studies and we will looking forward to welcoming them back at Christmas, Easter and next summer too. Finally, we have welcomed Miss Lexi Cross (Miss Lauren's sister) and Miss Grace Litchfield (Miss Izzy's sister) to Millfield this summer to gain some work experience. Both girls are studying at college and will be spending Monday and Tuesday afternoons at Millfield to support the staff team. It will be lovely to continue seeing the girls each week and they have been very popular with the children.
Mad Hair Day!!
One of the Millfield mums (Nat) is raising money for the Little Princess Trust: https://www.littleprincesses.org.uk/.
The Little Princess Trust provides real hair wigs, free of charge, to children and young people who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment or to other conditions. The charity is also one of the largest funders of childhood cancer research in the UK. Nat grows her hair and donates it to the Little Princess Trust, this will be her 4th hair donation, and she thinks probably her final one (for those interested it takes about 4 years to reach a 16 inch+ donation). Her hair this time has seen her become a mum twice so she knows this donation will hit her the hardest thinking about those children that the charity supports now Nat has her own children.
We are keen to support Nat with this wonderful fund-raising event and so we are planning to have ‘a mad hair day’ to help raise some funds. Our mad hair day will be on Tuesday 23rd September so we would love to see as many wacky hair dos as possible! Nat is having her hair cut this time on Wednesday 24th September so it will give her a boost before she has it done! We would like to suggest a donation of £5.00 (or whatever else you would like to give) for your child to come along with a crazy hair style. If your child doesn’t attend on that day, any donations for the charity will be greatly appreciated. This is such an amazing charity for those children that are affected by childhood cancer and we applaud Nat for her continuous support of the charity over the years. Nat also has a go fund me page if anyone would like to support her further:
https://www.justgiving.com/page/natalie-corden-1?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=WA
Thanking you all as always for all your help when we raise funds for such excellent causes.
Colston Bassett School
We are now registering places for our 2026 Reception class at Colston Bassett School - we have had several parents book places already. We only have a small intake each year (around eight/ten children) so if any Millfield parents are interested in a place at the school, please ask to speak to Liz or John as soon as possible. We do like to accommodate any Millfield parents first before offering places to the wider public.
We also offer a ‘Four Plus’ option at Colston Bassett School for the Summer Term each year for children who will start school in the September. It is designed to give children the opportunity to attend the school for some weekly sessions which helps them settle quickly into school life. From April 2026, the children will be able to attend school for two morning each week increasing to two full days from after the May half term.
Topics for the Autumn Term
Our autumn topic focus will begin with Harvest Festival along with ‘All about me’. To link with the 'All About Me' focus, the staff are going to make family books for the children. This is a lovely activity and the children can share their books with the staff and each other at circle time, talking about their family members, family friends and pets. We would be very grateful if you could email some photos of your family members and pets to us on the Millfield email so that the staff can make the books - very many thanks.
From the end of October we will spend the rest of the Autumn Term focusing on ‘Festivals’ - there are so many festivals and events during the Autumn Term: Diwali, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Children in Need and finally Christmas. The staff are planning some lovely activities with the children as always and please see the link to our website calendar at the end of this newsletter for more information. We usually send emails out before each event too as a reminder. Lots of activities are being planned and our ongoing ‘Growing’ topic in the main nursery will continue throughout the winter months.
Over the summer, the children have been planting sunflowers, sweet peas, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and lots of other vegetables including pumpkins for Halloween! The children really learn so much from this wonderful activity and it is so beneficial for them to learn where some of our food comes from (not just the supermarket!!). We also find that they are more eager to try some of the vegetables for lunch and tea when they have taken part in the whole growing process!
A big thank you to Mrs Bonser who plans and takes charge of all the growing in the children's garden here at Millfield - she enthuses the children with her genuine love of gardening! We will be continuing all the other lovely activities that the children enjoy, including our ‘Woodland Explorers’ sessions in our copse in the fields and are organised by Mrs Bonser and Miss Lauren.
Nursery Fees
We have generally reviewed our nursery fees on 1st April and 1st October each year. We have made the decision this year to change this review to once a year on 1st January and the next review will be January 2026. We have made this decision as the Government always announce their forthcoming financial plans in the Autumn Budget each year in late October or early November. We are uncertain what changes are going to be made for employers this autumn – last year’s Autumn Budget contained some drastic financial changes for businesses which took effect from 1st April this year.
Once the Autumn Budget has been announced we will then review our current fee structure and advise you all of any changes that will be made from 1st January 2026. We always try to remain as competitive as we can in the local area but as always we will have to take into account the usual rising costs of everything (heating, lighting, other electrical costs, food, living wage increases, pensions, insurances etc) to ensure business sustainability in this increasingly difficult economic climate.
All-Inclusive Service
Just a reminder for everyone and particularly for any new families to Millfield, we do offer an all-inclusive service to save parents having to remember to bring all those important basics into Millfield. Our nursery fees include all nappies, baby wipes, nappy cream, suncream, summer hats and winter hats. The suncream is a children’s high protection factor 50 such as Nivea. If your child has an allergy to suncream and/or you prefer to bring your own along, just let the staff team know and we can ensure it is labelled and kept in your child’s bag. The nappy cream provided is Sudacrem. Again, if your child has an allergy and requires a different cream, just bring your own along in your child’s bag.
Every summer and winter, we always used to end up with children losing hats or having the same one as another child and they get mixed up. Providing all the hats for the children makes everything much easier and the staff team don’t need to worry if expensive hats can’t be found. The children always love picking their hat from our hat boxes too!
EYFS Framework changes September 2025
From September 2025, the Government have made changes to improve safeguarding in the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage). One of the changes is child absences and we now need to follow up any absences in a 'timely manner' and particularly if a child is away for a prolonged period or without any notification from parents/carers. We have an attendance policy and this is on the website along with many other policies and procedures for parents:
https://millfieldnurseryschool.co.uk/discover.php#discover_policies
Children are initially signed in by tick sheet and this is completed as they arrive by staff. The formal register will be completed by 10.00am and staff will record attendance or non-attendance. We would be grateful if parents could advise us about attendance - if you have a holiday booked, your child is unwell and will not be attending or any other event that may have occurred so that your child will not be with us that day - very many thanks for your support with this. We will need to make a phone call or email you if your child hasn't arrived at Millfield and we have not been notified about absence.
Another change is that we are now ideally required to have more than two emergency contacts on our child information forms. We will have our information forms available in the nursery over the next week so please check your current emergency contacts and if you are able to add additional ones for us we would be grateful.
Finally, another change is concerning allergies and intolerances. We already work closely with parents if children have any allergies, however the new frame work wording is that we must have ongoing discussions with parents/carers to manage allergies and intolerances. If there are any changes to your child's allergies, please let us know as soon as possible and we will keep in regular contact with you to clarify if there are any changes - many thanks again.
Funded Hours
From this September, all eligible parents can now use the Working Families 30 Funded Hours each week for all children aged 9+ months to school age. Full information about eligibility and how you can access the funded hours here at Millfield is provided in our information sheet. We will be emailing an updated version of this to you all shortly. If you aren’t eligible for the Working Families funded hours, once your child reaches the term after their third birthday, you will automatically become eligible for the Universal 15 funded hours which has been in place for many years. Everyone is eligible for this funding. Full information about all the different funded hours is also available on the following website:
https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/
Photograph Morning
Just to let you all know that we are in the process of booking our annual family photograph morning here at Millfield with Dan Lambourne from Memory Box Photography https://memorybox.co.uk/. We are hoping to plan a Saturday in November again this year and it will be in our usual format, with sittings for photos of the children and/or family groups. Dan usually offers free 10 minute time slots and once we have a date confirmed, we will let you all know.
Dates for your diary
We have a fun filled autumn term ahead so please check the calendar on the website and posters will be displayer in the nursery
Calendar
And finally…
We always have an abundance of cooking apples on the trees in the front garden of the car park. It is such a shame to throw them away so please help yourselves to the fallen apples or ones on the trees if you are keen on home baking or like apple sauce!
