PURPLE POST February 2022

A warm welcome to the February edition of Purple Post.

We hope that everyone has had an enjoyable and productive February and you are looking forward to eventually seeing some lighter evenings in the not too distant future! Did you spot our Valentine's posts on our social media channels last month?

In this month’s edition, we have some great natural home remedy ideas from our People team and an update from our Functional Skills team plus top tips on posting your fabulous Pancake Day efforts this evening!

It’s Pancake Day today!

This evening, we will be posting our best (and worst!) pancake efforts on our own personal social media channels ….so please get involved everyone!

Here’s what we would love you to do…

• Take a picture or video of your pancakes – either in the process of being made, or the final finished product… or both!
• When posting your creation on your Instagram story, please tag the Parenta account @theparentagroup (this can be done super small in the corner of your post if you want to!)
• This means that we can share all our wonderful pancake pics and videos to our own Parenta story/posts and spread the Parenta pancake love to all our followers! 

Alternatively, if you are not on social media, please send in your fabulous pancake creation pics and we will share them across our social channels for all to admire tomorrow!

Thank you all so much – with the collective help of everyone, this will really help with growing the awareness of Parenta.

Sharing a post from a Parenta Business Page

On the subject of growing the awareness of Parenta, it’s important that we all do our very best to help in the most cost-effective way possible. With the collective help of all of you, our Parenta People, we would like to ask if everyone could share Parenta’s social media posts on your personal profiles. This is optional, however every bit of awareness we can generate for our services will help. We have created a guide to help you – read it here: How to Utilise Organic Sharing.pdf (multiscreensite.com)

National Insurance Increase:

As you all will have seen across the media, the UK Government has decided to uplift the National Insurance for all. This means that from April 2022, your NI contributions will be higher, and your NET pay will be less than what you are receiving now. For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance.

Energy Saving:

In light of the increases in energy bills, please see below a link which will explain these in more detail and some tips on what you can do. 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/02/energy-bills-set-to-rocket-for-millions-as-ofgem-confirms-new-pr/

Natural Home Remedies:

As we are in the midst of cold and flu season, here’s a few natural remedies if you are feeling a bit under the weather:

• Drink plenty of fluids – we don’t drink enough water when we are feeling unwell so make sure to keep your fluid intake up, so you don’t become dehydrated.
  
  
• Get plenty of rest – There’s no medals for battling through a cold or flu, listen to your body and what it needs. 
  
  
• Gargle warm salt water to relieve a sore throat – Make sure you don’t swallow it, because it tastes disgusting! 
  
  
• Herbal tea – There are different types of herbal tea which can help relieve symptoms of cold and flu.
  
  
• Hot honey and lemon, honey on toast, honey in tea, honey on everything! Honey is a natural antiviral and antibacterial so keep stocked up during cold and flu season. 
  
  
• Essential oils in a hot bath – Only a couple of drops of peppermint oil in a hot bath can help to decongest your sinuses. Or try lavender to help you drift off to sleep at night. 
  

The Benefits of a Lunchtime Walk:

The majority of us are at a computer all day, looking at the same four walls during our working day. Here’s a few reasons why a short walk at lunchtime can help you be more productive:

• Exercise boosts serotonin and dopamine levels which are the ‘happy’ hormones – even low intensity cardio such as walking.
  
  
• It will help you get some much-needed distance from your work - giving you the headspace you need to think about it more clearly when you get back.
  
  
• It’s an easy and enjoyable way to reduce anxiety levels and release tension – have you ever heard the phrase “walk it off”? 
  
  
• It’s a nice way to fit some you-time into an otherwise hectic day - walking for an hour gives you time to listen to that album, audiobook or podcast you’ve been meaning to get to, to practise a few minutes of mindfulness, or just to think more clearly about the work you need to do. 
  
  
• You might find something you didn’t know was there – if you walk around the area where you live, you may bump into some old friends you haven’t seen for a while, if you’re working away from home, you might stumble upon a café or shop which you didn’t know was there.
  
  
• Your dog will love it too - if you have one, that is! 
  

We are pleased to announce that the Functional Skills Introduction Course has launched! New learners and those that have not yet been assigned to a functional skills tutor will be enrolled onto the course on OneFile. We have added a column to the functional skills main tracker to indicate they have been assigned to the course. Learners should work through the course, complete the tasks and upload them to their journal.

Please can we ask that all ALSN queries go through to als@parenta.com This will enable the team to track queries and referrals. 

New functional skills announcements have been added to OneFile - these include a quick video on an aspect of a skill required to complete the exams. There is one for English and one for maths. Next month we hope to have a quiz to accompany the videos. 

CPD training ideas – what do YOU want to learn?

We are looking at expanding our learning and development offer across all our teams - so please help us with ideas that you would like to develop in. 

We really want our Parenta People to choose the topics to help drive our continuous development plan.

Please note that not all topics need to be work related - please complete this short survey and let us know what YOU want to learn! 

Complete the survey here!

When sending documents to the Marketing team for creating and / or branding, please ensure that the FINAL version which has been approved and signed off by all relevant parties and line managers - including those from other teams – is sent to the team. Please also ensure that the correct data with all the required fields is included as a CSV file.  This will avoid re-work and delay in returning the documents back to you.

Thank you!

Please don’t forget to use the staff intranet – it’s packed with resources to help us, our learners and our settings

A reminder that all Parenta resources to help ourselves, our learners and settings can be found here on our intranet, all in one handy place.

We publish additional industry expert advice, news articles and crafts in our free magazine and on our blog .

Here are this month’s How to Guides and documents added to the staff intranet:

Organisation Chart
Additional Learning Support Policy and Procedure
Assessment Policy and Procedure
Complaints Policy and Procedure
English Math and ICT Exemptions Enrolment Policy
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy

External Speakers and Visitors in line with the Prevent Duty Policy
Health, Safety, and Welfare Policy
Malpractice Maladministration Policy
Missing Persons Monitoring Policy and Procedures
Parenta Safeguarding Policy
Professional Development of Employees
Recognition of Prior Learning
Support the Prevention of Extremism and Radicalisation

How to manage anxiety and stress in your setting

How to access the 'Functional Skills Introduction' course - a guide for learners

H2G - The importance of a mentor and how to support your staff

Level 3 Team Leader/Supervisor

Parenta Colleague Handbook

Supply Chain management and Fee Policy 

The positive endorsements that we receive from our existing customers are not only a great way for giving praise to the individuals or teams concerned, but are used as a valuable marketing tool to attract new customers! 

Please ensure that after every positive interaction you have with a customer you ask them if they would be willing to send in a short testimonial and then follow up with the usual link https://www.parenta.com/testimonial/  

Training:

“I would like to say to the apprenticeship people, thank you to Archana Nikam for the amazing support she has given me with a young apprentice that is leaving me before finishing her course with you. Archana has been amazing. Messaging me regularly, calling me and giving me so much help and support. 

Again, a massive thank you Archana. You have been amazing. I would not have been able to get through the last few months without your help and support.”

Kay Hartburn, Nanny Kay Childminder

Software:

“Great response from Jamie and quick, helpful assistance from the IT team too, to resolve a problem that they hadn’t attempted before but after putting a few backup requests in place, they solved the issue. Credit where it is due! Thank you.”

Paula, Small Fries Day Nursery

“Rosie called within 10 minutes of me leaving a support request and then continued to provide an absolutely exceptional service level. I have booked in some training but your customer facing person today in Rosie, needs somewhat of an extra special thank you!! It is so nice to speak to such knowledgeable and helpful staff, all before 8.15am!!! Thank you”

“You are the one organisation I don’t mind contacting. You always respond really quickly. Quite often I will call you so I can speak to one of your excellent people. I get helpful and relevant advice at all times. Brilliant, Thank you”

“Request very promptly dealt with. Many thanks”

“A lovely quick and friendly response as always!”

“Always get excellent support from the service, very pleased. Thank you.”

“As always, very quick response, my query has been dealt with straight away - thank you!”

“Responded straight away and sorted my query promptly”.

“Super quick help to my problem. Thank you.”

Anonymous

Keep those high fives coming!

Thanks to all those who have been giving kudos throughout the month – please keep it going, it’s important now more than ever to give each other a deserved ‘pat on the back’. Our winner for February is Lorraine White! Congratulations Lorraine!

Don't forget you can start voting for our March employee of the month already. Keep that Kudos coming and please give recognition for all the hard work our colleagues are doing.

Goodbye to:

• Melonie Ware
• Farah Beg
  

Parenta Magazine

Our free monthly magazine is packed with news articles and advice pieces - all of which are written to help nursery managers with the efficient running of their settings and to promote the health, happiness and well-being of the children in their care. Please do read it and send the magazine link to your contacts.