Jojo Chuong Shortlisted for the Nursery World Awards 2022

We are delighted to share the news that our wonderful Jojo Chuong has been shortlisted in the Nursery Practitioner category at the prestigious Nursery World Awards 2022. These prestigious Nursery World Awards “shine a light on best practice” from across the sector.

“Honestly, just being nominated is enough to make me feel like a winner!”

With a little help from a friend in the Baby Pod, Jojo soaks up the news of her nomination for Nursery Practitioner at the Nursery World Awards 2022.

Jess Dunmall, Events Executive at the Nursery World Awards, says, “This is a tremendous achievement against extremely tough competition. This year we received an astounding number of entries from across the country, so being shortlisted is an incredible feat. Judges from across the early years sector spent a day of debate, discussion and deliberation to decide which of our entries for the Nursery World Awards 2022 should go through to the shortlist.”

“A tremendous achievement”

Jojo was nominated while working at Snapdragons Redland as the Unit Coordinator in the Baby Pod where her kind, supportive and knowledgeable approach drew praise from colleagues and parents. Two years ago, during the beginnings of the Covid pandemic, Jojo’s implementation of our specific under 2s policies and specialised baby room inductions, led the team to a Nursery World Award for Baby and Toddler Initiative.

Jojo’s nomination was supported by colleagues like Nicky at Snapdragons Redland, who said, “I love working with JoJo, she has such a fantastic positive energy. She clearly cares so strongly for the well being of everybody she works with, both the children and her colleagues. She champions fairness and equality so well and builds brilliant team spirit.”

Parents, too, were keen to endorse the work that Jojo does, with one commenting, “My son has grown into a happy, confident, little person who loves his time at nursery. I consider this remarkable given the pandemic and its documented impacts on babies and young children. What makes this even more special is that when I’ve spoken about Jojo to other parents at Snapdragons Redland - every single one of them has said the same. In normal times this would be commendable, but in the chaos of the past couple of years, it is the mark of someone truly exceptional.”

Jojo has now taken a step up in her career and has accepted the role of Head of Early Years Practice at Snapdragons Horfield. There she is bringing her enthusiasm, nurturing and knowledge to a new audience. On hearing of her nomination, she said, “Honestly, just being nominated is enough to make me feel like a winner!” We wonder how she feels now that she’s on a shortlist of four amazing practitioners from around the UK!

The 2022 awards ceremony takes place on Saturday 24th September 2022 at The Brewery, London and we’ll keep you posted on how Jojo does!

Snapdragons and Sunflowers - Fundraising for Ukraine

Seeds of hope

Spring planting at Snapdragons Atworth takes on a new significance as we plant our namesake Snapdragons alongside Sunflowers, Ukraine’s national flower. We’ll be planting sunflowers across the nurseries and offering packs for sale so you can share the love at home.

No one can be unmoved by the stories coming from the horrific war in Ukraine and we feel we cannot stand by and watch without trying to help in any way we can. We have decided that the best way is to support Unicef UK in its Fundraise for Ukraine appeal. Unicef helps children across the world – children caught up in wars, in disasters, in poverty and without education. At the moment, we would like to support the children of Ukraine, displaced by conflict, torn from their homes, their schools, their friends and extended families, or worse, trapped in a deteriorating war situation and unable to get away.

Compassion pours in

We launched our appeal just this week and we are so very proud of the response from our teams and our wonderful, generous parents. After just one event at Snapdragons Corsham we have already raised over £600 in donations. And Snapdragons has pledged to match all the donations received before the end of March* too!

Corsham cooks for Ukraine

So how did Corsham do it? They got baking! The children made Yabluchnyk (apple sponge) and Osyne Gnizdo (sweet buns, or “wasps’ nest buns”) and for lunch they tried Borscht (beetroot & cabbage stew) with Pampushky (garlic buns). And, as you can see, they all wore blue and yellow, the colours of Ukraine’s national flag.

What next?

Our appeal is ongoing so look out for more events from bake sales and plant sales to singing and dancing, all with a Ukrainian theme. We will approach any activities involving the children at nursery in the way that we normally celebrate other countries and cultures, through food, colours, stories and pictures. Because of the age of our children we won’t touch on any upsetting concepts or explanations of the current conflict.

How can you help?

We have set up a Justgiving page for any donations you kindly make and Snapdragons is pledging to match any contributions received before the end of March up to £5000.

We plan to continue supporting Unicef UK as one of our primary charities into the future to support their work across the world

“For Every Child in Danger”.

Rare and exciting career developments

A rare and exciting opportunity has arisen at Snapdragons for two permanent Regional Managers to join our operations team. We are looking for two passionate and dynamic personalities to provide leadership and guidance to the Nursery Managers enabling them to deliver the highest standards of care and education. One Regional Manager will over our 4 Bristol nurseries whilst another will oversee our 6 Bath and Wiltshire nurseries.

You will be required to oversee all nurseries in your area, comprising around 200 members of staff and around 700 children daily. Access to a car and flexibility are key. You will need to travel between the sites and be available for open and closing times if required. The role is 40 hours per week across 5 days.

You will need to have a sound understanding of the EYFS and the Welfare Requirements. You will need experience of managing a large Nursery team and have excellent communication skills. You will need to hold a clean UK driving licence and will be required to obtain an enhanced DBS.

Your key responsibilities will be:

• to positively promote and uphold Snapdragons mission and values

• to successfully induct all new managers via mentoring, coaching and delivery of relevant training

• to performance manage the nursery managers; supporting them in achieving the highest standards of care and education, celebrating success and highlighting improvements

• to offer hands on support, advice and direction to achieve the highest quality environments

• to assist with managing occupancy and recruitment

• to oversee supervisions, performance reviews and associated investigative procedures

• to support with the development and delivery of company initiatives

• to invest in the wellbeing of staff at your designated nurseries

• to actively promote equality and diversity practices

• to have a love for customer service and be a positive ambassador for Snapdragons

• to produce reports for the operations, quality and training and compliance managers

• to keep up to date of current childcare sector issues, deliver and share best practice

• any other duties deemed reasonable within your role

We are looking for applications from high energy individuals who are highly motivated, creative and who have a ‘can do’ attitude. You will be organised and able to structure your workload effectively. You will protect our brand and help us to maintain our vision of being the provider of choice. You will be a clear communicator and have the confidence to influence and steer your teams. You will understand what a positive culture looks like and how to achieve this. You will be able to build trust and empathy within your teams. You will be reflective, inspirational and a team player.

If you, or someone you know, fits the brief head on over to our careers page and apply now at jobs.snapdragonsnursery.com/

We look forward to meeting you!

Respecting our Rights, Respecting our Earth

We’re very happy to share the great news that we have been awarded the Bronze Award on our journey to become a Rights Respecting Nursery. The Rights Respecting Award is a UNICEF programme that puts children’s rights at the heart of the whole nursery. You’ll be hearing lots more about what this means, how children’s rights thread through our culture and ethos and how it affects every aspect of our care. This means that, whilst the award is for our four Bristol nurseries for now, we’ll be rolling it out across the group and the principles are embedded in our policies. The award will help our children continue to be confident, caring, responsible young people both at nursery and in the wider community.

Children at Redland discussing their rights using visual prompts

UNICEF’s Jilly Hillier said, “I’m very excited to be working with four Snapdragons Nurseries in Bristol on their journey to become UNICEF UK Rights Respecting nurseries. They have achieved the Bronze stage of the award which means they have an action plan in place and are working together to embed a child rights approach in their settings. What a lovely positive start for children and staff!’

 This couldn’t have happened at a more appropriate time as we marked Earth Day 2021 this week. Children’s rights encompass every aspect of their lives and it is our duty as adults and leaders to ensure that they are upheld. Take a look at this to see how Articles 6, 12 and 24 tie in with Earth Day and the environmental issues that face our children’s generation:

So the planting, growing, eating well and recycling that are ever present at nursery, have taken on even more significance, including at Snapdragons Weston, where the children planted fruit trees and other edibles:

Planting fruit trees at Weston

We also talk to children about recycling and how how our actions and choices affect the environment. This amazing scenario at Snapdragons Redland gave pre-school a tangible experience of how they can help to save the world from a plastic web:

The world is entangled in a web of plastic … it needs pre-school to rescue it!

This is such an exciting time and we are so proud to be one of the few nurseries to embrace RRS. Let us know if you’re interested in being a parent ambassador for Rights Respecting, or want to know more!

Spring Celebrations!

Spring has sprung at Snapdragons and it’s been a joy to bask in the blossom on the trees, the longer days and the first feelings of warmth from the sunshine, albeit alternating with flurries of snow! This time of year is a favourite time at the nurseries because we love a bit of celebrating and with Holi and Easter coming together in the same week, there were plenty of excuses to have some fun. Take the Holi celebrations at Grosvenor where the traditional, exuberant and joyful festival of colour is always celebrated to the max …

Meanwhile, at Cribbs Causeway the children were let loose with spray bottles and paint brushes to squirt and flick colours onto white fabric to make a Holi artwork with a nod to Jackson Pollock, they celebrated by dancing with coloured ribbons in pre-school and all the children baked Indian pastries for their pudding. Yum!

And everywhere, Easter bunnies popped up to lay egg hunts and read stories or lead the children in Easter bonnet parades. Corsham held a charity bunny hop for Dorothy House and everywhere children baked hot cross buns, made hats and had fun in the Easter sunshine.

We hope you all had very happy spring celebrations of your own and thank you to our wonderful teams for being, as ever, inventive, energetic, creative and always up for fun!