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Maidstone Newsletter - December 2021

By Dawn to Dusk Maidstone • 07 Dec, 2021

6th December 2021 Dear Nursery Family, I hope this letter finds you all well and preparing for Christmas. As far as the children are concerned, they are so excited with the expectation of Father Christmas arriving on Christmas Eve. Letters written and plays are being rehearsed, as this year we are going on a Star Hunt, much excitement, it’s great to see. Christmas would not be Christmas if we were not able to carry out a Nativity Play of sorts, at the very least, songs both Carols and our favourite ones, so we are literally piecing together our very first Virtual Video of a Christmas performance. We did try to do this last year but as many of you will know we ended up closing before we had the chance to do so due to an outbreak of Covid-19. As you will all be aware the new variant is causing an increase in Covid cases and as much as we don’t necessarily get to know which variant is affecting each case, the numbers are rising. We have been very fortunate with little affect from Covid over the last year, but during the last few days, we have started to see an increase in cases. Currently we have 3 members of staff and one child isolating. The child is isolating due to a parent testing positive. We have also been notified of another case of Covid by a parent whose child hasn’t attended the nursery in the last week due to a pending operation. As from today we are now starting to feel the impact of staff needing to isolate. It is vital that we always maintain ratios in order to remain compliant and provide a safe environment for our children. I therefore am requesting your support and understanding of the need to reduce our opening hours slightly during the run up to Christmas. We will need to change our operating hours to 7.00 am to 6.00 pm instead of till 7.00 pm. As the staff are willing to work extended hours/days these shorter days will enable the Nursery to remain open and compliant! We are incredibly blessed to have the privilege of such a dedicated team of staff who are willing to make personal sacrifices especially at this time of year and we are very grateful to them. I want to thank you all, once again, for your continued support during the ongoing challenges that we all face with Covid still being ever present. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Christmas with your family and friends. Stay safe. Kind Regards, Laraine Jalili-Hodges (MD)