As I am sure you will be aware we have had our Ofsted inspection, the Nursery was inspected October 2010 and it was the turn of the Children’s Centre December 2011.
The result was fantastic as was the Nursery's, and many thanks to all of you who supported Sure Start. It was clear from your comments to the inspectors that you really appreciate having Sure Start as part of your community, and this of course makes all staff and volunteers feel GREAT! Please take the time to read the attached report as it is so nice to read all the positive comments.
The new Snippets is out, you should have received an email copy (please let us know if you didn’t get one and we can update your details) if you would like a paper copy there are plenty here at the centre for you to collect.
Danielle, will be starting to train the second group of volunteers very soon. If you are interested in volunteering at the centre please give Dan a call on 01189 375777.
Jenny, looks forward to running her Saturday sessions along with the volunteers at the Ladybird Café (please see Snippets for dates).
The ladybird café have their own slot now which is every Friday from 11am -2pm and will serve quality coffee and drinks and hot and cold snacks. The volunteers are always looking for helpers, if you are interested give us a call and we will put you in touch.
It would be great to see the Ladybird café succeed so please show your support to them. We will keep the cost of drinks down as much as possible and it is definitely cheaper than town!
Health checks are continuing at the Centre, the Health Team will continue to deliver 2 year old checks and, also from January they will run a baby weighing clinic. Just pop in if you need to discuss any thing with your friendly Health Team.
Last but by no means least, we will be asking you to fill in an annual survey questionnaire towards the end of January. This was really helpful to us last time as it meant we could deliver the services you and your families need and want. It will be email based but we will have paper copies for those who prefer, the main thing is you get to tell us what you think!
Do you need advice on housing benefits, debt issues or simply to see if you
are claiming all the benefits you
maybe entitled to? You can book a free 1 hour appointment with our qualified advisors who will be at the Sure Start Whitley Children's Centre once a month. Please contact us on 01189 375777 or email michelle.williams@reading.gov.uk for more information, dates and times.
Case Studies Please take time to have a read of these 5 uplifting stories. Five very brave families agreed to tell you how coming into contact with the Children’s Centre has helped there families. A big thank you to all families who took part .
Learn how to make a Treasure Basket
Ange has made up some lovely treasure baskets for the under 1’s to play with. They live at the Centre but she is taking them out to sessions at Whitley Wood, Hexham, and Whitley Park. If you would like to know more about how to make a treasure basket for your little treasures just ask Ange or Jenny
Hire a Story Sack
We have purchased some lovely story sacks which are packed full of things which will make the story more interactive and fun!
Please ask a member of staff if you would like to hire one for home.
What are Sure Start Children’s Centres?
Sure Start Children’s Centres bring together childcare, early education, health and family support services for families with children under 5 years old. We work with parents-to-be, parents/carers and children.
Sure Start Whitley Children’s Centre is committed to supporting families with children under 5 in the Whitley area.
Some of the services offered at Sure Start Whitley include:
Day care for children from 0 to 5 years old, we have an Ofsted registered nursery and preschool.
Support for families – we offer informal support through fun family activities, trips, benefits advice and healthy cookery classes, as well as advice on parenting and access to specialist services for families.
New Directions run our courses for adult learners including: ICT, Maths ,Literacy and English as a second language classes to improve spoken English. We provide a FREE crèche for all of the courses
Child and family health services – within our team we have a family visiting team who offer support with home safety, children’s development, potty training, and family health, speech and language support and a team of midwives to support antenatal and postnatal care.
You can read the latest jobs advertised through Job centre Plus in our Café area, our team are always available to help if you need any information going back to work.
If you have any comments, complaints, feedback or even any questions please email us and we will get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.
