Welcome to our winter 2017 Childcare & Christmas special. With the deadline looming for choosing primary schools, we thought it might be useful to shine a light on childcare. We have also spent some time thinking about what makes a relaxing festive season, and what to do (if anything) when Nursery Nativity nerves hit. Plus read our enlightening interview with Mimi, a local childminder with over 25 years of experience, to pick her brains on parenthood, play and dealing with tantrums! So, snuggle up, grab a cuppa and enjoy some festive and education related food for thought.
Jenny Sansom - Branch News
2
Goodbyes
As we come to the close of another busy year, the branch has had to say goodbye to a few of our wonderful volunteers. The first is Karen (our outgoing Treasurer) who behind the scenes has been looking after our finances for over 4 years. Many of you will know Katie, who has run NCTeenies and produced our Newsletter for the past 2 years, and who has been a friendly face welcoming many a mum to our pre-school Monday morning group. She is moving to Dorset to begin a new life with her young family by the sea! Finally, Rach (our enthusiastic Branch Coordinator who took on the role in the Spring), for personal reasons has very sadly had to step back for a while. Thank you so much for all your hardwork Karen, Katie and Rach – you will all be dearly missed by the whole team.
Welcomes
Which leads me on to welcoming our new Branch Coordinator, Tania Bogren. You can read more about Tania in our ‘meet the branch’ article but we are very grateful to her for accepting the challenge of leading the branch into 2018 and beyond. Also we welcome a new Treasurer, Lenka. And finally new volunteers Debs and Philippa are going to help revamp our web pages and social media. Debs is also the organiser of local ‘MUSH’ meet-ups and has set up her own Facebook group with details of the next monthly gathering for all local mums to get together and socialise. Such a great idea!
Save our Sale!
We listened to your views on the Nearly New Sale and we agree that it does bring enormous value to the branch and the local community. However, our search for a team to help Helen (our Nearly New Sale coordinator) organise the next sale continues. We haven’t been able to put on a sale this year which is a huge disappointment to us. There is a commitment of a few hours per week in the run up to the sales, but with only two sales maximum per year you’ll have earned a good rest after each sale. We need people to book the venue, create, print and distribute the promotional material, use social media to plug the event, liaise with sellers throughout the registration process and organise the volunteers for the actual sale day itself. It is just far too much for one or even two people, so until we have recruited a handful of you, your cupboards of old clothes and toys may just have to remain full! Do get in touch if you can help.
Newsletter creative help required
With Katie’s departure we need to recruit some more volunteers to help produce this online publication. We try to do four editions per year, one per season. We require someone to help us create the online newsletter using our publishing software Joomag. Only a laptop and basic computer knowledge is needed. If this interests you then please do get in touch. Contributions in the form of articles (e.g. birth stories, hints and tips for new parents) would also be massively helpful.
Party time!
It’s party season here at the Staines, Ashford & Egham NCT so do dig your Christmas jumpers out. Our Christmas parties for Bumps and Babes (Friday 22nd December, 10-11.30am) and NCTeenies (Monday 18th December, 9.45-11.30am) take place respectively at Staines Congregational Church Youth Hall. At NCTeenies tickets go on sale shortly (£4 per family) and there will be the opportunity to meet Santa and receive a gift, enjoy a bring-and-share lunch and play party games. Bumps and Babes will be having a baby sensory session during its Christmas party.
We are also hosting a Mums (Mums-to-be & Dads!) night out on Tuesday 19th December at The Slug and Lettuce in Staines. Do pop along from 8pm, meet the branch volunteers and other local parents for a well-deserved night out.
NCT Cheeky Monkey’s
Tea Party
On Saturday 6th June 2015, the Staines, Ashford & Egham Branch hosted a Cheeky Monkey’s Tea Party which raised an incredible £470.81 for the NCT. We are so grateful to all the local families who supported us and we were lucky with a dry but breezy summer’s day where local parents brought their little ones and enjoyed a picnic, a bouncy castle, arts and crafts activities and a ride on the steam train (see photo!).
Commercial Park, in Staines, where the party took place was really busy. Many parents also helped us through baking cakes to sell, donating gifts and buying tickets for our raffle. A massive thank you must go to Sam Fowler who coordinated the organisation of the day and also the Staines Society of Model Engineers who donated all of their takings for the day to the Branch. Fingers crossed, with enough volunteers, we can replicate this fantastic day during 2016!
NCTeenies
A sad farewell was said in July to Michelle Nicklette who has run NCTeenies at Staines Congregational quam velit ac ligula. Mauris quam dolor, cursus at porta et, luctus eget purus. Nunc tempor luctus interdum. Duis libero leo, consequat ut accumsan eu, viverra et erat. Nunc rhoncus tellus in ipsum molestie et gravida tortor dignis-sim. Donec nec lorem et tellus mollis lobortis. Integer sed dolor ut leo.
6
Quisque auctor, lacus
Curabitur in enim augue. Curabitur vel tincidunt odio. Integer volutpat tempus nunc, sed molestie velit pellentesque
eu. Praesent dapibus enim turpis, at la-cinia purus. Fusce dictum fringilla justo ut pellentesque. Vivamus eu urna dolor, id ultrices odio. Fusce sit amet sem
nibh. Phasellus rhoncus imperdiet .
Katie and family at last year's NCTeenies Xmas Party