On Monday 21st September our Baildon setting is holding a Pirate day

All the Baildon children are invited to dress up and have lots of fun with all the different kinds of Pirate activities , a special scrumptious Pirate menu and of course walking the plank!!!

The fun starts at 8am and will last all day until all the little pirates will be ready for their bunks!

Sarah the nursery Manager at our Baildon setting has organised a parents evening for Tuesday 22nd September

Any Baildon parents wishing to attend please see Sarah in the office to make your 10 minute appointment

The evening starts at 6.10pm – 8.20pm

We hope  to see you on the evening

We have great pleasure in welcoming Jade Pollard who is our new nursery manager at Featherbank.

Jade has worked in the childcare industry for over 16 years, enjoying various roles including Nursery Management, Regional Management for a Private Nursery Group, teaching and training in child care and health and social Care.

Having excellent  qualifications which include CACHE Level 3 diploma in Nursery Nursing, Degree in Early Childhood studies, PGCE in the Education and Training Sector(Qualified teacher learning and skills) Level 4 award in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment, Processes and Practice (QCF) , make Jade an excellent choice for our new nursery manager.

The last  10 years have been spent working for Leeds City College as a Curriculum Leader in Childcare and Health and Social Care, teaching students from 14 years – 60+ Years. Throughout Jade’s career she has acquired various qualifications and experience that will ensure all our  children at Cliffe House  receive the highest standards of care and education.

We would also like to send a big Thank You to Debby  Thackray who has been taking time from her busy role as our Area Nursery Manager to get Featherbank off to a fantastic start, Debby has ensured Jade has a great nursery to nurture and grow.

Debby Thackray who is the Cliffe House  Area Manager is celebrating this year, as she has been with the Cliffe House family for 10 years

Debby is a much valued member of our team and apart from all her 25 years experience in childcare , she also provides a kind and caring attitude to all the children as well as towards  members of staff. Training , personnel development and implementing new ideas are also Debbys  forte and things that she feels very strongly about.

Debby first met Della and Adrian 10 years ago and says she immediately knew that they shared the same passion for excellent nursery care. Since then together their goal has been to provide children with the best possible start in a safe environment where they can grow and thrive and be happy.

“Each day is different , bringing new challenges often requiring quick decisions  , it has been a privilege to work for Cliffe House and be part of its journey and I am even more excited about its future”

Here’s to the next 10 years Debby !!

We have a lot of people to Thank for their kind generosity for all the great prizes which were donated for Baildons first birthday -

The Old Glen House Pub – Ellis Briggs Cycles – Isola Nail Bar – La Cote Maison – Hollins Hall Hotel

Briggate House Interiors – Land Rover – Bradford Bulls – Design Flooring – Finesse Gift Shop – Millionhairs

Murgatroyds Fish & Chips – Nuffield Health – Bradford City Football Club – Cullingford Butchers – Westgate Bar & Grill

Bliss Hair & Tanning – Motor Marque – The Balti House – Yvette Ford – The Private Health Partnership

THANK YOU ALL  X

When Cliffe House heard about the new innovative toy designed by local artist David Veron we knew we had to have one for each of our 5 settings for the children to play and create marvelous designs with.

hu nu what u can do with u-nu?

U-nu is a brand new concept in creative construction. Devised by Yorkshire based Artist David Veron, u-nu can be as simple or as sophisticated as it’s user. Seven geometric shapes in five beautiful colours, with pieces ranging from 7.5cm to 15cm. U-nu is chunky, clunky and ever so funky! With a full set of all 35 coloured shapes available  and individual pieces available to buy as you need them, u-nu offers you complete control over your building experience. You can simply choose four or five shapes and produce a changeable sculpture for your home, or you can follow our U-nu Guru’s on Facebook and Twitter for designs and info on the pieces you will need to reproduce their imaginative, and often challenging sculptures

For more information on this new and exciting product visit their website www.u-nu.co.uk

First Steps our nursery setting in Bramhope has for numerous years sponsored a scarecrow for the annual scarecrow hunt and this year is no different

Jayne & Vida have organised the sponsor ship and will be attending the hunt which is on Saturday 27th June 9am – 1pm

Good Hunting Ladies!!

Our Baildon setting celebrates its first birthday this month and to mark the occasion we are having a birthday party for all our Baildon children and their families on Friday 10th July.

There will be a range of activities including Face painting , Music Sessions , Craft activities and a scrumptious picnic tea!

We are also holding a raffle in aid of our chosen charity LOVE HOPE TRUST which holds a special place in all our hearts

All the local businesses ( and some a little further afield) have been invited to donate prizes to our raffle  where all proceeds will go to LOVE HOPE TRUST

All gifts are gratefully received so if anyone would like to donate a prize please feel free to drop off  at our Baildon setting , more information about LOVE HOPE TRUST can be found at www.lovehope-trust.org/

Thank You

The International Design Award has been won by a postgraduate student who has created an innovative product to help children ‘learn through play’.

The ‘Many Happy Re-Turns’ is made out of corrugated cardboard and can be played with, sat on and moved in a variety of positions to allow children to use their imagination and dictate how it is played with.

The silver award winner, Elli Gkologkina, a certified architect based in Crete, is currently studying as a distance learner at Gloucestershire University on the Postgraduate Professional Studies in Children’s Play. She is also part of the Transformable Intelligent Environments Laboratory team behind the product, that has been designed to assist a ‘learning through play’ approach to early years education.

Ms Gkologkina said: “Its form was conceived to be as abstract as it could, so as to bare a number of interpretations through children’s imagination, such as animal forms (elephant, turtle, dove) and archetypical forms (house, milk box, boat). At the field-testing phase, we were happy to see children’s interest and quest for new formations.

The object creates seven ways which can be used to roll, sit on or pushed and changed by young children and adults can even use it as a chair. Some sides have black boards which can be used as a surface for learning to take place.

Cliffe House Day Nurseries are proactive in promoting learn through play techniques to enhance preschool children’s education , So well done Elli!

The Fatherhood Institute is working with London-based partners in the early  years and youth sectors to increase the recruitment of young men aged between 16 and 24 into the childcare profession. The charities aim to recruit and train 12 young men over the next two years through a new, free Young Men into Childcare programme, coordinated by the Fatherhood Institute and with training offered by City Gateway. The programme is funded by Trust for London.

Six of the young men will gain a Level 2 Childcare qualification, and at least four of them will be supported into jobs in the sector. The programme has arisen because despite decades of progress towards greater gender balance in many professions, the early years education and childcare workforce remains dominated by female staff. Latest figures show that only two per cent of early years education and childcare staff are male. “Governments have been talking about wanting to improve male representation in the early years workforce for many years now, but we’re still a long way from cracking this. Through the Young Men into Childcare programme we hope to make a difference – and, along with other pockets of good practice, help move things forward. Our young children deserve nothing less,” said Fatherhood Institute chief executive Adrienne Burgess. Men’s participation in hands-on caring for children has increased hugely over recent decades – so there are plenty of men out there with experience of looking after and nurturing the future generation.

If you’re a young man interested in working in this rewarding field, contact City Gateway by phone 020 3727 6222 or email: admissions@citygateway.org.uk

At Cliffe House Day Nurseries we are proud to have two male members of staff  based at our Burley in Wharefedale setting, James and Stephen who both joined us in 2007 work in the green and red room respectively and thoroughly enjoy their chosen career.James is an accomplished guitar player and often sits with the children playing his guitar whilst they happily sing along .