Good morning! Today is the start of another week in lock down, but it is also one week closer to the end of it! The weather has been kind to us and we have been able to top up our sunshine vitamin- Vitamin D!   Vitamin D is important – it boosts our immune systems and helps our bodies absorb calcium, which strengthens our bones. It is also thought to help us fight depression.  All are great reasons to get outside in the garden, or for a walk and enjoy the sunshine!

Caroline found this interesting post on 3 Stages of Pandemic Response- it shows how we cope with it initially, in Survival mode, then begin to get to grips with it in Acceptance mode and then finally begin to see the positives of the situation in Growth.  This really helped me to think about it more rationally and made me realise my initial panic and worries were completely natural.  I still have the odd day where I’m surviving, but acceptance and growth are now attainable.  Thank you for this Caroline, and all the intense, behind the scenes work you are doing for us! 

As a staff team, we are very aware of the stresses that lockdown brings.  We want to support our nursery community as best we can, and also support each other.  We have been doing a lot of reading for professional development and our staff focus has been on Well Being- an essential in our job and the bed rock of being able to learn effectively, adapt to new situations and cope.  We apply this to ourselves too and have been keeping in touch with each other and supporting our colleagues through our staff What’s App group. We communicate daily on this and share ideas.  We also share some crazy stuff which gives us all something to laugh about!  We share our family news and post photos!  It really keeps our team spirit alive.  Julie and Angela have just got new kittens and they are so adorable. Seeing videos of these gorgeous wee creatures makes our day!

We have also also been having Zoom meetings.  These are great and it’s so good to see everyone! It’s also introduced us to the technology which we can use in future to hold virtual staff meetings- we have always struggled with these in the past, because we work different days and shifts. We might have to ditch the alcoholic beverages though! 🤔

Caroline, Lynn and myself would like to publicly thank all our fabulous staff team for the way they are helping support our nursery community, and each other, during a really tough time. We are really lucky to work with such creative, talented and caring people and can’t thank them enough for all the things they are doing- from working at Clober with our keyworkers’ children, to overcoming the horror of seeing themselves on video to bring our children stories and activities to try at home, to supporting each other on our darker days and providing each other with fun, laughter and love every single day! They are truly exceptional and they make our nursery a great place for our wee people, but also the best place to work, bar none!  A HUGE THANK YOU to each and every one!