It ain’t half hot Mum - but I love it.

Toddlers at a Blackpool nursery got a taste of the East when curry went on the menu.

Youngsters at the Safehands Green Start eco nursery at Blackpool Football Stadium, Bloomfield Road,,are learning all about different foods from around the world .And when mum Shanaz Rashid ,whose 3 year old son Mustafa attends the nursery , heard about it ,she immediately volunteered to cook up a special chicken curry on site for all the children- and the staff as well!

“It was a fabulous day but very busy ”, said mother of two Shanaz, whose husband Muhammad runs the popular Al-Amirs restaurant in Talbot Road Blackpool.

”We first of all prepared a mild version made from real spices for the children and then a hotter one for the staff .In all, we served over 120 meals made in the kitchen at the nursery and the children thought it was wonderful.”

During the “Curry Club” the children all ticked into bowls of rice. naan bread ,with yoghurt dips ,vegetable sticks and side salads and even the babies in the nursery ,some as young as just seven months old ,ate the chicken curry pureed.

“All the chicken we prepared was Halal, bought with the spices from my favourite shop in Preston” said Shanaz, whose family originally came over to the UK from Rawalpindi in Pakistan.

The Curry Club event, followed a similar successful Chinese themed day during Chinese New Year and other similar food tastings are now being planned including Italian.

“We have children here whose parents come from all over the world and this is a great way of teaching the youngsters about different cultures and ways of life.” said nursery manager Kate Myers.” It’s all part of the learning process, helping the little ones learn about, smell taste, how different meals are produced, and where spices come from. We hope to make these special days part of the regular social calendar at Safehands.”

The Safehands eco nursery, which also has its own full time chef, actively promotes green issues, healthy eating and lifestyle in a fun-learning environment and is the only one of its kind in the region.

The super nursery, which caters for up to 120 children, is run by husband and wife team Gary and Stephanie Farrer, who set up the Safehands Network – one of the UK’s leading childcare providers -ten years ago.

Council Recycle Scheme is load of rubbish say nursery bosses.

An eco nursery trying to teach toddlers to “go green” says Blackpool councils recycling arrangements are RUBBISH !

Youngsters at Safehands Green Start, at Blackpool soccer stadium ,in Bloomfield Road, are taught all about environmental issues and the importance of energy conservation from a very early age.

They even have their own special garden where they grow their own herbs and vegetables for the kitchens and where food waste from the nursery goes back as compost.

But despite repeated requests to Blackpool Council environmental department, nursery bosses say that not only can they not get any recycling bins for plastic, glass, paper and cardboard, but the council have told them that even if they had the bins they would not collect them.

“Its absolute nonsense”, said Safehands manager Kate Myers.” They claim that because we are a commercial business and not a household, then all they will collect is the two big-wheeled bins we have here .If the nursery was sited in a semi detached house up the road that presumably would meet the council criteria and be ok.

“We are dedicated to teaching the next generation about green matters and the importance of recycling as much as possible and yet we have to dispose of everything in black bin bags including all our glass and plastic. We have even offered to pay for recycling bins but even if we had them the council would not empty them and we would have to take recyclable rubbish to the nearest centre ourselves.

“I just find it unbelievable that when global warming and its effects are in the news everyday we are just ensuring with this sort of attitude that the young will inherit the mistakes of our generation. Its wrong.”

The youngsters do their best to recycle items within the nursery but then they all have to be bagged and binned for collection in the commercial waste wheelie bins just outside the main Blackpool FC stadium where the super nursery is based. The giant bins are, of course ,too high for youngsters to reach anyway.

“I feel really angry” said nursery worker Joanne Livesey of Squires Gate, whose young son Ellis ,aged 15 months ,attends the Safehands nursery.” We try to recycle everything at home but we cant do anything about it at work. It’s a complete nonsense”.

Safehands, established by husband and wife team Gary and Stephanie Farrer, ten years ago is the UKs leading provider of childcare crèche and babysitting services.

Jean, who was taught to cook by her mum as a child, started work as a cook when her own children, Dominic, now 23, and Ashley, 21, were pupils at Newton Bluecoats School, Newton, near Kirkham.
“It was turkey twizzlers in those days, you didn’t like serv­ing them up  I don’t know why we couldn’t cook up healthy meals like we can now.

Thankfully, the Government has finally realised that you can serve up good wholesome food which encourages a healthy lifestyle in future. I’m a great fan of Jamie Oliver. He has made a huge difference to the school meals service by getting rubbish off the menus and promoting healthy eating. All the meals I serve here are nutritionally balanced. Parents know exactly what their child has eaten while they have been
here. I love to cook and am looking forward to using the veg the children grow - if there is any!”

Jean moved to the nursery from Kirkham Grammar School, where she was part-time
“I was also cleaning at Carr Hill and working as a night carer” said Jean, who lives at The Mede, Freckleton. Jean is well known in her local community as an Avon lady.

At Safehands, she cooks up meals every day for more than 90 toddlers and up to 12 adults and her menu includes Lancashire hotpot, beef casse­role, home made soups and stews, tuna pasta bake, fish cakes, and cheese and tomato wraps. Salad sticks and fruit are served four times a day with water and sugar free Juice, Traditional puddings, with cus­tard, are still a favourite and babies, from as young as four months old, are given the same tasty food as older children in puree form.

“I know youngsters are sup­posed to hate vegetables but they love them here”, said Jean. “It’s different somehow when they have grown it them­selves.”

Jean says the nursery aims to keep the children well nour­ished and happy so they can feel even more safe and secure while at the same time learning about conservation and other environmental issues in a fun way.
The pioneering nursery, which has also introduced a webcam facility for parents to keep an eye on their children up to half an hour each day. is the latest venture from Safehands, which was set up 10 years ago by Fylde couple Gary and Stephanie Farrer. Stephanie said: “These are the adults of tomorrow and learn­ing to care for the planet and Mother Earth is something we want to encourage with chil­dren and their parents and make it a very real and mean­ingful part of the life and ethos of the nursery.”

The pioneering scheme, launched at the Safehands Greenstart Nursery, in Oak Road, involves baby sign language - helping youngsters from just a few months old upwards make sense of each word they hear.

The baby signing was delivered by Wigton mother-of-five Helen Atherton on behalf of Tiny Talk, which will be staging other special classes at the nursery in the run-up to Christmas.

Nine babies joined staff at the first class, held in the nursery’s special baby room, Safehands Greenstart manager Carrie Geider, who lives in Orton, said:

“It was amazing to see the babies react and having so much fun in a learning environment. Babies realise objects have names and, although they don’t normally learn to talk until 12 to 18 months old, baby sign language bridges that gap,”. Most popular words included milk, drink, more, eat and thank-you.

The remarkable classes are part of celebrations to relaunch the nursery, formerly known as Abacus, which has now been taken over by the Blackpool based Safehands Network, one of the UK’s leading providers of childcare and nursery education facilities. The Penrith nursery, which can cater for up to 47 youngsters and is open from 8am to 6pm five days a week, is the first eco-friendly nursery in the region.

From a very early age, youngsters are taught about conservation, environ­mental and recycling issues in a fun way and have an outdoor garden and play area where they learn to grow fruit and vegetables, much of which is then served up for them by cook Helen Middleton.

The pioneering Penrith scheme has been so successful it is to be intro­duced at other Safehands nurseries, There are also plans for a sensory gar­den and a special minibus service helping to reach parents and children in the more remote rural areas of Cumbria.

A former school cook at Kirkham Grammar is helping young “eco-tots” eat healthily at Blackpool’s newest “supernursery”.

Farmers daughter Jean Rhodes, has been appointed head chef at the Safehands Greenstart childrens nursery, based at Blackpool Football Club and she is already encouraging the little ones and their parents to promote healthy eating, improve their lifestyle, reduce litter and waste and save energy where possible.

Nothing is frozen and everything is prepared from fresh ingredients at the eco- nursery - the first of its kind in the region catering for up to 136 youngsters. The children even have their own outdoor garden… just yards from the soccer pitch corner flag at Bloomfield Road where they grow their own fruit and vegetables including apples, carrots beans potatoes and herbs all to be served up for lunch or dinner by chef Jean from Kirkham.

“Its as green as you can get”, said Jean who is a firm believer in good old fashioned tasty and wholesome food. ”We even encourage the children to save food waste which we collect every day and which they then put on the compost heap for spreading on the garden.”

Meals, cooked fresh every day for over 90 toddlers and up to 12 Safehands staff, include beef casserole, home made soups and stews, tuna pasta bake, fish cakes,cheese and tomato wraps and salad sticks and fruit served four times a day with water and sugar free juice.

But hot traditional puddings, with custard are still a favourite and babies, from as young as four months old, are given the same tasty food pureed.

“I know youngsters are supposed to hate vegetables but they love them here” ,said Jean. ”It’s different somehow when they have grown it themselves”.

A keen fan of Jamie Oliver and his healthy eating campaign Jean says the nursery aims to keep the children well nourished and happy so they can feel even more safe and secure whilst at the same time learning about conservation, and other environmental issues in a fun way.

The pioneering nursery, which has also introduced a webcam facility for parents to keep an eye on their children up to half an hour each day, is the latest venture from Safehands, the UK’s leading quality childcare provide set up ten years ago by Fylde couple Gary and Stephanie Farrer.

“We have adopted a green approach because we believe it’s vital we engage children in such matters from a very early age”, said Stephanie. “These are the adults of tomorrow and learning to care for the planet and Mother Earth is something we want to encourage with children and their parents and make it a very real and meaningful part of the life and ethos of the nursery.”

Safehands Greenstart, which also has a holiday club and crèche facilities, is also planning a special “drop and shop” scheme to allow parents to go late night shopping in the run up to Christmas and is shortly aiming to introduce two mini buses as part of a pick up and drop off service for parents as far away as Preston ,Fleetwood , and across the Wyre and the Fylde region.

Dressed as fruit and veg at Greenstart Nursery, Bloomfield Road are Lucy-Mae Cheatle (left) as a corn-on-the-cob and Boo Wright as a carrot.

Loads of fun was had by all in aid of Children in Need

The pioneering scheme, launched this week at the Safehands Greenstart Nursery in Oak Road, involves baby sign language –helping youngsters from just a few months old upwards make sense of each word they hear.

The baby signing was delivered by Wigton mum of five Helen Atherton on behalf of Tiny Talk who will be staging other special classes at the nursery in the run up to Christmas.

Nine babies joined staff in the first class held in the nursery’special baby room.

Safehands Greenstart manager Carrie Gelder who lives in Orton, said:” It was amazing to see the babies’ react and having so much fun in a learning environment. Babies realise objects have names and though they don’t normally learn to talk until 12 to 18 months old, baby sign language bridges that gap”. Most popular words included milk, drink, more, eat and thank you.

The remarkable classes are part of celebrations to relaunch the nursery, formerly known locally as Abacus, which has now been taken over by the Blackpool based Safehands network one of the UK’s leading providers of quality childcare and nursery education facilities. The Penrith nursery, which can cater for up to 47 youngsters and is open from 8 am to 6pm five days a week, is the first eco friendly nursery in the region.

From a very early age youngsters are taught about conservation, environmental and recycling issues in a fun way and have a huge outdoor garden and play area where they learn to grow fruit and vegetables much of which is then served up for them by cook Helen Middleton.

The pioneering Penrith scheme has been so successful it is set to be introduced at other Safehands nurseries. There are also plans for a sensory garden and a special Safehands Greenstart minibus service helping to reach parents and children in the more remote rural areas of Cumbria.

“These are exciting times and its really what local parents deserve”, said Carrie. ”We aim to provide the very best service in a safe, secure and friendly environment.”

Other events lined up at the nursery include a Children in Need fund-raiser later this month, a visit by the local traffic police on November 21st to help youngsters learn about people who help in the community, and a Xmas entertainment for all the family at the nursery on December 19th.

Anyone interested in these events or the baby sign classes should contact Carrie at Safehands Greenstart Nursery .Tel:01768 868327.

Little ones beware – Mum and Dad are going to be watching you! by logging on to a special website.
The new system is the first of its kind in Blackpool and is due to be launched next week.
And the scheme has got resounding thumbs up from Parents who will be able to keep a much closer eye on their children from the workplace or home.
Davinia Connell Squire’s two year old daughter Elise goes to the nursery while she works full-time as a medical secretary at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
Mrs Connell Squire, 28, of North Drive, Thornton, said, “I think the cameras are a brilliant idea. I’ve often thought it would be nice to watch Elise play without her knowing I’m there. Soon, I will be able to. I especially think it will be good for new Mums who are anxious about leaving their children-it is a good way to put their minds at rest.”

According to a recent survey, half of all British Mums would prefer to stay at home and look after their children if they could afford to do so. The cameras are seen as an inventive way of letting them have the best of both worlds.

Security is a high priority for the nursery as they launch the site. All live images are encrypted and access will only be available to parents using passwords.

Louisa Bamber, of Linderbreck Lane, Poulton, whose two-year-old son Harrison is also a pupil of Safehands, added: “I was a bit concerned about the idea of the children being on the internet, but the nursery has been quite reassuring about security. I think it will give new Mums some added peace of mind because it is hard when you first start leaving your child at the nursery”

Nursery bosses think the new system will be a benefit to parents.

Managing director Gary Farrer said: “Since Safehands took over the nursery about six weeks ago we have been very keen to bring it bang up to date – new technology is part of this. We’ve been very selective of the system we have chosen to ensure that security of the site is watertight. I really think Parents will feel the benefit of the system, it’s a good way to keep tabs on their children’s development. It is a very exciting time.”

Published on 11th Oct 2007, Blackpool Gazette by Lisa Ettridge