Welcome to our Christmas Newsletter
Dear Parents
Christmas is almost upon us once again - the last year has passed by so quickly! Millfield and the new Millfield Babies will soon be full of tinsel and garlands and the children will be taking part in lots of creative Christmas activities! The Millfield Christmas lights will be put on from Monday 1st December. Just a very polite reminder to all parents about the outdoor decorations that will be on display – some are quite fragile and also house electrics so for health and safety purposes, please do not allow your child to touch them – very many thanks.
Now that the winter has arrived, just a reminder about bringing in a pair of wellies for your child to wear when we go outside or into the nursery fields. We are providing Millfield winter hats now as part of our all-inclusive service so there is no need to bring one along. This saves the staff time trying to locate hats! Coats and gloves are important too so that the children can still enjoy some time in the gardens and stay nice and warm - please ensure you bring these along and thank you!
Several new families have joined us here at Millfield this autumn and more children will be joining us as we move into another new year – we welcome everyone and wish them all a very happy time here at Millfield.
On behalf of ourselves and all the Millfield staff team, may we take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas time with your friends and families and we would like to wish everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year 2026!
With kindest regards to you all
Liz and John Miller
Millfield staff team
Just an update for you all about the wonderful Millfield staff team! We are delighted to welcome Mrs Julie Hallam and Miss Lucy Smith who have both joined the Millfield Babies team.
Mrs Julie Hallam joined us on Tuesday 21st October and will be working on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 8.00am – 6.00pm each week. Julie is a Level 3 practitioner with vast experience working in a Baby Room. She is joining us after working at Bingham Day Nursery for many years and since January following the closure of Bingham Day Nursery, a brief spell at Serendipities in Cotgrave.
Miss Lucy Smith joined us on Monday 3rd November and will be working Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8.00am – 6.00pm each week. Lucy is a Level 2 practitioner, again with vast experience of working in a Baby Room. Lucy was also part of the Bingham Day Nursery team and has briefly worked at Serendipities in Bingham since January.
We welcome them both and wish them a very happy time here with us all at Millfield.
Miss Gemma Robinson will be working in the main nursery from now as she needs experience with the older children as part of her Early Years Degree. Mrs Nicky Pearson is also returning to the main nursery after working with the babies for the last few months.
Finally, we welcome Miss Georgia Stocks-Hallam to Millfield. Georgia started studying at Basford Hall college for a T-Level in Childcare in September and she requires a nursery placement for her course. She will be working at Millfield every Wednesday and Thursday during term term for the duration of her two year training.
Millfield's car park and grounds
As winter is now upon us, we want to ensure that we are all prepared for the season ahead. Just for information for all the new families who have joined Millfield this year - we always endeavour to keep the main area of Millfield's car park and the nursery paths as safe as possible for all who use the premises – we do have a supply of rock salt. The remainder of the car park may remain icy in places, so please do be extra careful during periods of extremely icy weather. We always try to ensure that Millfield remains open during periods of bad weather as we are aware of the impact our closure would have on working parents. If the weather happens to turn very severe during the operational day, we may contact parents to suggest an earlier pick up so that all families and the Millfield staff team can get home safely. If parents prefer not to travel to Millfield should the weather be very bad, please just advise us accordingly so that we are aware of the numbers of children requiring lunch - thank you.
Christmas Closing Dates and Events
Please also see the calendar on the Millfield website:
https://www.millfieldnurseryschool.co.uk/parent.php#parent_calendar
- Christmas activities begin: Week commencing 1st December 2025
- Christmas Dressing-Up Day: Thursday 18th December 2025
- Christmas Lunch in the main nursery: Friday 19th December 2025
- Christmas Lunch in Millfield Babies: Monday 22nd December 2025
- Christmas Party: Tuesday 23rd December 2025 (Millfield is closed today, opening only for the party for the older children spending their last Christmas at Millfield 11.45am - 2.00pm)
- Christmas Eve: Wednesday 24th December 2025
- Christmas Day: Thursday 25th December 2025
- Boxing Day: Friday 26th December 2025
- New Year’s Day: Thursday 1st January 2026
Topics, Festivals and Events for the Spring Term
Our topics for the Spring Term are ‘Our Favourite Stories’ and ‘Transport’. Our festivals for the first half term will be Shrove Tuesday on 17th February and Chinese New Year. This also falls on Tuesday 17th February 2026 and celebrations of Chinese New Year traditionally last for two weeks starting from Chinese New Year’s Eve to the Lantern Festival or Yuan Xiao Jie or Yuanxiao Festival. This falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, two weeks after Chinese New Year and it marks the first full moon of the new lunar year and the end of the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) period. The Chinese Lantern Festival 2025 will be celebrated on 3rd March 2026. The nursery will be decorated in lots of red, gold and traditional Chinese decorations. The children will take part in lots of creative activities as we welcome in the Chinese ‘Year of the Horse’.
World Book Day is on Thursday 5th March in 2026 and we will be taking part in British Science Week again next year during week commencing 9th March. Mothering Sunday is on Sunday 15th March and then we will spend two weeks celebrating Easter at the end of March and early April.
Along with all these exciting festivals and events, we will continue to offer the children our other weekly favourite activities including Woodland Explorers, Baking, Singing, Dancing and our weekly sports session with Kat Plimmer from Urban Movement Primary.
Children in Need
A big thank you to you all once again for supporting our fund raising efforts for 'Children in Need' this year.
The children loved the pyjama day and congratulations again to Winnie's mum for winning the 'guess the number of spots on the cake' competition. We raised a wonderful total of £269.69.
Nursery Fees
Following on from our September newsletter, we have reviewed our fees for the coming calendar year - the budget was delayed by a month to the end of November and so the impact of any changes will become clear in the coming weeks.
From 1st January 2026, our fee structure will be as follows:
- Main nursery full day: £80.00
- Millfield Babies full day: £85.00
- Half day in the main Nursery only: £50.00
- Full Time daily rate in Main Nursery: £75.00
- Full Time daily rate in Millfield Babies: £80.00
As expected, another large Minimum Wage increase was announced from 1st April 2026 which means that once again our current staffing costs are going to increase significantly along with rapidly rising costs from all of our suppliers, food costs, cleaning costs, energy costs, pension contributions and all insurances. The rate for the funded hours received from the Local Authority does not meet our current hourly rates for 3 and 4 year olds children. A fee increase therefore is our only option as due to the nature of our business. We cannot reduce our staff team which lots of other businesses can do as we have Government set legal child/adult ratios to meet - we are sure you will all understand.
We will always try to remain as competitive as we can in the local area and keep our fees lower than many other provisions – as always, we will try to keep our increases as realistic as we can. Many thanks.
Flooding
We have already had a couple of periods of heavy rain this autumn and as the winter progresses we are bound to see flooding everywhere in the area again. Sadly, the drainage problem at Rookery corner (at the Cropwell Butler end of Tythby Road) has still not been rectified. Funding from central Government for a flood prevention scheme in the village had originally been approved and initial work did begin in February this year to install a new drainage system. This was to be from the junction, along Rookery Farm and continuing across private land to a balancing pond. Work then suddenly stopped and from messages received form the Parish Council, it appears the plans have been abandoned once again. Severn Trent Water Authority visited Rookery Corner again on 19th November and according to the Cropwell Butler Flood Wardens it was a complete waste of time as they had been sent out to clear the blockage in the drains and report back.They looked at the other complaints over the last 5 years, lifted the man hole lid and said that’s all we can do!
So.... should we be experiencing heavy rain, we will continue to monitor the flooding situation at Rookery corner and in the centre of Cropwell Butler if this occurs again and let you all know if there are any problems emerging. We still belong to the village flood action WhatsApp group so do receive notifications of potential flooding and any plans they are making for road closures etc. If we are aware of any potential road closures, we will notify you all as soon as we can and suggest alternative routes to Millfield.
Colston Bassett School
We are registering places now for our September 2026 Reception intake. Places are now becoming limited, so if you are interested in a potential place at Colston Bassett School, please speak to Liz as soon as you can and we can arrange a visit for you.
https://www.colstonbassettschool.com/
Funded Hours
As always, a reminder for everyone about the Working Families Funded Hours which are available for children from 9+ months for eligible parents. Full information about when you will be eligible and how you can access the funded hours here at Millfield is provided in an information sheet. If you would like a further copy of this, please just ask and it can be emailed to you. 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 is also available on the following website:
https://www.beststartinlife.gov.uk/
Illness Policy
As we move into the winter months, unfortunately we are already seeing more childhood ailments returning so we are
giving a reminder of our policy:
Respiratory infections are common in children and young people, particularly during the winter months. Children with
mild symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, or mild cough, who are otherwise well, can continue to attend nursery.
Children who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and where possible avoid contact with other
people. They can return to nursery when they no longer have a high temperature and they are well enough.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of coughs and colds. RSV infections usually get better by
themselves, but can sometimes be serious for babies and older adults. RSV infections are very common and almost
all children get them at least once before they’re 2 years old. They’re not usually serious, but some babies and adults have
a higher risk of getting seriously ill. See the NHS link below for full information: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/respiratory-syncytial-virus-rsv/
Other childhood ailments – there are many different ailments that young children can suffer from. See the NHS link below for more information:
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/
https://www.nhs.uk/symptoms/rashes-babies-and-children/
Finally, just a reminder and for your information if you have joined Millfield recently, we do follow a strict policy as advised by the NHS with regard to exclusions for vomiting and diarrhoea bugs. These bugs spread rapidly and because of
this, we do ask that children are kept at home for 48 hours (two days) after the last time they were either sick or had
the diarrhoea. We appreciate that this does seem a long time, however due to the nature of how young children play
together with lots of close contact with each other and staff, we do need to ensure that everyone at Millfield remains fit and healthy including the whole staff team so that we can remain open at all times. Thank you for your co-operation.
Safeguarding
Some changes were made to safeguarding in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in September this year. These are all detailed in our safeguarding policy which can be seen on our website with the following link:
https://millfieldnurseryschool.co.uk/discover.php#discover_policies
Just reminder for everyone about the use of smart phones and other devices when on the nursery premises.
We have to consider the safety and security of all the children and as always in response to ongoing child protection failures reported in the media. When children start at Millfield, we always ask for parental consent for photographs
to be taken for use in the nursery (i.e. for the child’s Busy Bee book and for use in the nursery such as displays). We also ask permission for photographs to be used on our website. Not all parents give consent for their child’s photographs to be used because of the instant access smartphones, iPads, smart watches etc all give to social media and the internet.
Therefore may we politely request that everyone’s preferences are respected and ask parents to refrain from using mobile
devices in the nursery building – any urgent phone calls can be made outside if necessary. Please avoid taking photographs of your child in the nursery building or through the windows as inevitably, other children will be in the pictures and parents may not have given their consent for images to be shared. We hope you understand and appreciate this request.
