November 2021

16 Buckden Roundabout November 2021 Hand hygiene and cleaning was always high priority anyway with the nature of the job. We ’ ve always had cleaners in every day and a deep clean at the weekend as well as a cleaning rota among the team for toys. Clearly you can ’ t stop child to child contact in a nursery setting but we ’ re doing as much as we can in the areas we can control. We use an app called Famly to share pictures and updates with parents and carers and this has also been really useful during COVID times to keep everyone informed on our protocols and any relevant notifications that need to be shared directly to parents. The one change I ’ d say we ’ ve seen in peoples ’ childcare re- quirements is earlier collection times. We ’ re open from 7.30am to 6pm but we find a lot more parents are collecting now at 5 rather than 6, presumably due to working from home and not therefore having the commute. What plans do you have for the future? A big focus for us at the moment is raising money to have a defibrillator for each of our nursery and after school settings. We had a situation recently in one of our settings where we were told we needed a defibrillator but there wasn ’ t one close enough to help. Thankfully it ended up being a false alarm but it really brought home that we don ’ t ever want to find our- selves in that situation again. Its also a positive for all the local communities as we plan to house them outside the settings so they will be there and available should any of the general pub- lic need them. Buckden does already have three in the village, (the Lion, the dentist and the village hall), but it ’ s all about proximity with defibrillators so even getting to and from the village hall would be too far, having one on site is much more preferable. We ’ re therefore in the process of trying to raise £26K which covers the defibrillators, pads for children and adults and the training for the staff. We started our fund raising 9 weeks ago with a ‘ steps around the world challenge ’ which basically in- volved all the staff walking a combined 24,901 miles. We com- pleted that challenge last Sunday and raised £2.5K in the pro- cess. We ’ ve got a whole host of other fund raising activities planned across the group over the coming months to keep working to- wards that £26K. If anyone reading should want to donate to the cause then we have a ‘ Go Fund Me ’ link on our Facebook page. Equally I know some businesses have them for tempo- rary sites and then donate them so if anyone knows of any looking for a home, please get in touch! Is there anything else you ’ d like to say to close the interview? From my perspective (Heidi), I ’ d just like to say a massive thank you to the team here at Buckden, we ’ re incredibly proud of the nursery they have created and the fact it ’ s been recognised by Ofsted as an ‘ outstanding ’ early years leaning provider, which is no mean feat. I ’ d also like to extend that thanks to the parents too who have always been so supportive and given us their trust and free- dom to do what we do best! The nursery wouldn ’ t be what it is today without that so thank you very much!! www.buckden - day - nursery.co.uk 01480 810816 info@buckden - day - nursery.co.uk (Continued from page 13) Support Buckden Businesses The Tit Family Regular garden visitors, especially if you have feeders, these small acrobatic birds belong to the family Paridae. There are over 50 species spread across Eurasia, Africa and in North America where they are known as Chickadees, an onomato- poeic name after their call, or Titmouse, deriving from old Eng- lish and meaning small bird. A woodland bird with a varied diet, its adaptability has allowed some species to flourish in the suburban environment. There are a total of 6 tit species endemic to the UK, ranging from the Blue Tit which ranks second in the RSPB ’ s great gar- den birdwatch, to the Willow Tit which is on conservation red lists due to declining and locally extinct populations. All UK species nest in cavities in tree trunks and will happily occupy any suitable hole, hence their association with garden bird boxes. Only the Willow Tit prefers to excavate its own nesting chamber and it is perhaps this habit, alongside the loss of suit- able woodland trees, which is contributing to the species de- cline. The tit ’ s breeding strategy varies from other small birds in that rather than attempting to raise two or even three broods in a year, Tits have one large brood timed to coincide with the peak abundance of suitable food. Hence the average brood size for a Blue Tit is around 8 - 12 eggs but clutches of up to 19 have been recorded. There are two other species in the UK that go by the name of Tit but actually are not members of the Paridae family. Long - tailed Tits are closely related but not members of the same family, they do not nest in cavities but construct a very deli- cate ball - shaped nest out of spiders webs and moss. They also tend to have more broods in a year and the young, once fledged, aid in the raising of their siblings from later broods, a behaviour only found in Long - tailed Tits and Moor- hen in the UK. The other ‘ none tit ’ tit species is the Bearded Tit, also known as the Bearded Reedling. Despite its tit - like appearance this bird ’ s closest relations are the Larks. As its name suggests this bird can be found in reedbeds on swamp and lake margins. It breeds in colonies and constructs a nest woven from reed stems close to the water ’ s surface. As food sources grow scarcer towards the end of the year tits will gather together to search for seeds and insects, these flocks are known as ‘ roving tit bands ’. They can be seen in hedgerows, woodlands and gardens throughout the winter months and can be a good guide of the populations in the area as they are often a mix of species. Ted Weber